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Dominican Republic program postponed, students protest A heated debate has been stirred concerning an off-campus program in the Dominican Republic. A semester in the Dominican Republic was “put on the back burner,” according to the Director of Off-Campus Programs Frank Roberts. The trip, which many students thought would be effective this fall, was postponed until an undisclosed date. Many students are angry because while the Dominican Republic trip was not approved, semesters in China and Ghana were. “I was ecstatic they [were proposing] a language program in Latin America,” stated sophomore Kate Schramm, who is majoring in Spanish. “I felt like it was guaranteed to go through.” Sophomore Erin Horeni, who is a Spanish minor and heard about the trip from her professor, was also frustrated with the situation. “I was annoyed because I was thinking of going,” she said. Off-campus programs, which send over 600 students to some 31 countries within the school year, recently set goals for the future. The Five Year Plan, 1997-2002, which was recently approved, states ACalvin College has set as one of its goals the establishment of semester programs in Africa and Asia by the year 2000.@ The original goal for the next few years was to organize programs in Ghana and Beijing, China. Roberts, who has been at Calvin for 30 years, stated that the Dominican Republic was not part of a five-year plan approved by the board. Many advocates of the Dominican Republic trip complained that more student interest existed than with the program in China. Roberts stressed that student interest is important, but so is a balance in the countries selected for off-campus programs. “The school is trying to get a balance between semesters in North America, South America, Asia, Europe and Africa.” Schramm disagrees. “I don’t doubt that the other programs have high integrity,” she said. “If educational needs point to certain places, the administration should address them. I believe that the Dominican Republic trip was needed.” The idea to send students to the Dominican Republic originated in the Spanish department. The trip, which was voted on by a committee (with two student representatives), was not approved for this year. Roberts added that the Dominican Republic trip has not been completely disregarded. “I’ve been working on the Dominican Republic [trip] for when we need it – but not this year,” he said. “The Spanish department is the only department to have a semester program of its own ... why do they want two? No other department has that.” The fact that the semester in the Dominican Republic was postponed has made many students angry nonetheless. A petition, signed by over 77 students, was initiated by Schramm. “I started the petition to show student support and help things along,” she said. Roberts, who was “annoyed” by the petition, said that students were misinformed. “I think there is some paranoia,” stated Roberts. “The Dominican Republic trip was not pushed aside in favor of other projects. Nothing secret is going on -- we just want a balance.” The petitions, according to Roberts, were “obviously distributed in class.” Though Spanish Department Chairman Edward Miller denied that the petitions were passed out by professors in class, Spanish professor Kora Vander Kooi stated that “the petitions were given to us by a student to be passed around in class.” Horeni, who did not sign the petition, thinks that Spanish professors may have spoken of the trip too soon. “It was frustrating because they made it sound like it was going to happen and it didn’t,” she said. Roberts called students the “innocent victims” of the situation, stating that he guessed Spanish professors told their classes about the trip before it had even been approved. Miller stated that professors just took an informal poll of their classes at the beginning of the year to see if there was even an interest in the trip. “I assume that [students] are upset because they expected a trip in the fall,” said Miller. One of the problems could have been communication between the Spanish Department and Off-Campus Programs. Roberts stated that he “expressed his unhappiness” and Miller admitted that they “needed to communicate” and were currently in the process. Schramm thinks that besides miscommunication, the approval process is also a problem. “Overall, I’m not mad – I’m annoyed that the approval process is so slow,” she said. The trip has not, however, been completely disregarded. Roberts wrote a vision statement, which stated that “though not mentioned in ‘The Five Year Plan, 1997-2002,’ it is the goal of the Off-Campus Programs Office and the Spanish Department to establish a new semester Spanish language program in the Dominican Republic no later than the fall of 2000.” “The question [concerning the trip] is not if, but when,” stated Roberts. “I don’t know how I would’ve done both trips anyway; planning these [trips] takes so much time.” Schramm has not let this affect her view of the off-campus program as a whole. “Besides some trouble, I think that the program overall is great,” she said. |
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