By STEVE JENSE
The Self-Study recommends that the Study Abroad Program be put in a category with all other off-campus programs due to the similar nature of the programs.
The six off-campus programs — Cooperative Education and Internships, the Jerusalem Center, the Nauvoo Study Program, Study Abroad, International Internships and the Washington Seminar — are currently housed in distinct locations on campus.
Study Abroad Director Rodney B. Boynton disagrees with the Self-Study. He feels that separate housing for these programs is important and that combining them into one office would cause problems.
“I believe that the consolidating of these programs needs to be studied more completely.” Boynton said. “On the surface there seem to be similar administrative activities but I believe that there are many issues that each of these programs confronts that would be weakened if we were removed from our current location and put in a location that is not available for easy access to the students.”
Boynton said two issues from the Self-Study specifically concern the Study Abroad Program. The first issue is whether the number of campus employees for the six off-campus programs should be cut from 11.5 to 7.5 full-time employees.
“They suggested that combining these offices would be a better way to create a greater efficiency in managing these programs,” Boynton said, “but many students are participating in off-campus programs each year and it is highly likely that an office of off-campus programs would have to be adequately staffed to meet their needs.”
The second issue concerns political science students who do internships in Washington, D.C.
“Why should they move the political science program out of the Washington Seminar when it fits right there?” he said.
In regards to the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies, the Self-Study said, “The role and scope of the David M. Kennedy Center is diffuse, wide-ranging, and in many cases, confusing. … In summary, the Kennedy Center is involved in far too many disparate activities.”
Recommended changes for the center include changing the role of the Kennedy Center to focus on sponsoring and facilitating international research; cancelling the center’s publication Culturgrams; transferring services provided to international students from the Kennedy Center to Student Life; making the Kennedy Center become an administrative unit with the College of Family, Home and Social Sciences; and cutting the number of full-time employees from 14 to 6.5.
