Less typical destinations may soon be options for Syracuse University students looking to study abroad.

SU Abroad hopes to open two new centers – one in Kampala, Uganda and another in Santiago, Chile. The Kampala site is slated to become available to graduate students this fall, and the Santiago center will most likely open in spring 2008.

The potential addition of two SU Abroad centers reflects both a growing interest in studying abroad and an effort by SU Abroad to provide gateways to different parts of the world.

One year ago, SU Abroad opened its sixth center in Beijing to provide students with a non-traditional, non-European study abroad experience. Now, SU Abroad is trying to expand its reach beyond Europe again.

‘The schools and colleges very much felt that as a major university we should represent, in our overseas commitments, the entire globe,’ said Sue Shane, director of programs at SU Abroad. ‘We have been Euro-centric, as have most universities who started around when we started in 1959.’

The opening of two new centers in non-European countries represents the desire of those at SU Abroad to become less Euro-centric in the study abroad opportunities offered by the unit. Four of SU Abroad’s six centers currently in operation are located in Europe.

A greater interest in unique study abroad sites is developing among students looking to spend a semester in a foreign country. Specifically, interest in Latin America has grown steadily in the past few years.

Open Doors 2006, an annual report published by the International Institute of Education reported growing interest in Argentina, Brazil and Chile. Chile now ranks 16th among the most popular study abroad destinations in the world with 2,939 foreign students studying there – a 12 percent increase from 2005. Those numbers will likely grow in the near future, as schools such as SU continue to foster relationships in places like Latin America.

‘It’s not that students haven’t been able to go to Latin American destinations before,’ said SU Abroad Communications Manager Daeya Malboeuf. ‘We didn’t have a center up specifically because it was kind of based on interest, but the interest is growing so much.’

These two centers are by no means SU Abroad’s first foray into Latin America or Africa. During the ’60s and ’70s, SU Abroad experimented with centers in Guatemala, Columbia and Mexico – none of which lasted more than five years. In 1993, SU Abroad opened a center in Harare, Zimbabwe. That center was forced to close in 2001 because of political turmoil in the country. The spike in student demand for study abroad opportunities has led SU Abroad to revisit many of these same areas.

Despite the growing interest in non-European sites, the popularity of centers in Latin America, Africa and other similar locations still lags far behind that of Western-European based centers. While SU Abroad’s center in Florence regularly attracts close to 350 students a semester, the newer Beijing center hosted just nine students this spring.

SU Abroad still realizes the need to grow and meet the developing needs of Syracuse students. Thirty-nine percent of Syracuse students now travel abroad at some point during their four-year college education – growth that naturally facilitates the need for more diverse locations, Malboeuf said.

‘I don’t know that I’d call it a shift away from Europe as much as an overall increase in the amount of students that are going abroad in general,’ she said. ‘There are just so many more students going.’

With the increase in demand also comes the need to provide study abroad opportunities for a more diverse student population. Shane said she hopes the two new centers will play a part in accomplishing that task. She emphasized that, while there is certainly an increased awareness of the global community, the more diverse nature of today’s students at Syracuse is a big reason why the new centers are so important.

‘Our demographics are such that we want to be able to support the people who are going to universities,’ Shane said. ‘We know that Hispanic populations are growing by leaps and bounds and that these other areas of the globe of course have an intrinsic interest unto themselves.’

Building these centers is an attempt to accommodate the needs of these students and provide a different perspective for students who travel abroad. Danielle Christensen, an undecided freshman who plans to study abroad at some point, said she thought SU Abroad’s diversification measure was good for the program.

‘It’s important. You don’t want to get one view of the world when you travel,’ said Christensen, who is taking Spanish classes and would like to travel to Madrid, though a site in Chile would also interest her.

Sophomore Kathryn Wakeman said she has no plans to travel abroad, but thought the diversification of SU Abroad is an important indicator of students’ awareness of a more global community.

‘I don’t even look at it as representative of the student population. I look at it more as a wider representation of the world,’ said Wakeman, a television, radio and film major. ‘It’s not the same as going to Europe where things area very westernized. I think that’s important.’

Though approval for the two centers is still pending, it appears both centers are on the fast track to becoming a reality. The SU Abroad Academic Counsel, a body of deans and deans’ delegates from each of SU’s 10 schools, voted unanimously on Feb. 14 to approve the Santiago site. The center now awaits approval first from Vice Chancellor Eric Spina, and then from Chancellor Nancy Cantor and the Board of Trustees. The Kampala center will undergo a similar process sometime in mid-March, Shane said.

‘It’s not quite official, but we don’t see any reason why they won’t give everything the thumbs up,’ she said. ‘I personally expect it, but I don’t know. If I were a chancellor, I would say yes.’

Both sites will be fully integrated into two universities in their respective locations. The University of Chile will host the Santiago program, while Makerere University will be home to the Kampala site. The semester in Chile is actually a two-part trip. Students will spend the first few weeks of the semester in Cuenca, Ecuador before traveling south to Santiago for the remainder of the term.

Both sites, if approved, will be the products of three-and-a-half years of hard work and lobbying. Susan Wadley, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, has worked closely with the SU Abroad department during the past several years, also serving as an active member of the academic counsel that advises SU Abroad.

Wadley has worked to ensure SU Abroad continues to diversify. She played a role in supporting the development of both new centers, as well as SU Abroad’s Beijing center.

‘We constantly get requests from students for sites we don’t offer,’ she said. ‘It’s my job as associate dean of the Arts and Sciences program to create a program that serves the interests of all of our students.’

The selection process began with a thorough investigation of potential sites in both Africa and Latin America. The University of Chile in Santiago was chosen over four other possible sites in South America, Wadley said, while Makerere University in Kampala beat out two other locations in East Africa. Both SU Abroad centers will be embedded into the universities at the two respective sites.

Syracuse students will live and study in buildings owned by the universities. This new model for SU Abroad centers differs from those in older sites like London and Florence, where the center is isolated and actually owned by SU.

‘It’s better because we don’t have the infrastructure we have to replicate,’ Shane said.

There is little doubt that leasing space at these sites holds financial benefits for the SU Abroad program, said SU Abroad Business Manager Anne Dallalah. Leasing rather than buying space provides SU Abroad with more security and financial freedom.

‘When you’re leasing space, it’s not as big a job for you and your risk isn’t as high,’ Dallalah said. ‘When you buy property, you’re taking a risk.’

The new center design strategy will foster close ties with each respective university and allow students to interact with the university community. This includes the exchange of students and faculty in what Shane called a partnership. It is a design that has proven successful at SU Abroad centers in Hong Kong and Beijing.

Shane, director of programs, said the potential opening of the two centers is not the end of the program’s efforts to open new gateways to areas of the world. Shane even mentioned the possibility of a new site in the Caribbean, potentially by fall 2008. For now, those working at SU Abroad are confident the pending approval of these two programs is a step in the right direction.

‘We just keep trying to be truly global, and we’re still Euro-centric,’ Communications Manager Malboeuf said. ‘We want to make sure our students have every possible opportunity around the globe.’

Published on February 25, 2007 at 12:00 pm