The Off-Campus Studies Office (OCSO) has informed only 10 students that they may not study away in the semester of their choosing, leaving about 22 more juniors on campus in the fall than in the spring.
As previously reported, this imbalance will have a considerable impact on residential space at the College, according to Director of Residential Life Kim Pacelli.
"Housing is just so popular, and we're just so tight for space that when we have a hiccup of even 10, 15 students, it definitely has an effect," Pacelli said.
About 288 members of the Class of 2008 are studying abroad in the 2006-2007 academic year?approximately 133 in the fall and 155 in the spring.
Of the students who applied to study in a foreign country, the majority wanted to go abroad in the spring. The OCSO, in an effort to have an approximately equal numbers of students abroad both semesters, looked through all the applications of those seeking to study away in the spring. They zeroed in on a number of the applications.
"We went to this group of 20 plus people," said Stephen Hall, the director of OCSO, "and said, 'As far as we can see, you could, with some adjustments, go away in the fall.' And, of course, most of them got back to us and said, 'No I can't and these are the reasons why.' So the OCS committee...looked at those appeals from students and about half of them, we said, 'OK, fair enough, you can go away in the spring.'"
For the others, about 10 of them, the OCSO had to "insist, it's the fall or nothing," according to Hall. This left some students quite unhappy. Most, however?the great majority of students applying to study abroad?are going to the destination of their choice in the semester they chose.
"I've had no problems with the Off-Campus Studies Office," said Zach Parker '08, who is studying in Australia next spring. "All my interactions with them have gone really smoothly."
Hall acknowledges that not everyone who applied to study abroad is pleased with the OCSO.
"Yes, we've got some dissatisfied people and that's hard," Hall said, "but the numbers are not as bad as they might be."
One of those dissatisfied students is Courtney Camps '08. She applied to study in Rome in the spring so she could take elementary Italian before she arrived in Italy, but she was told that she had to go in the fall. According to Camps, she was encouraged to go in the fall to India, China, or Barcelona instead. She decided not to study abroad at all.
"I understand that they like to have equal numbers here, but at the same time, you're giving up part of the allure of Bowdoin?that it's so easy to study abroad. I think people should be able to go where they want to go, when they want to go," Camps noted.
Amherst College agrees. Students at Amherst can study when and where they please, according to the Amherst web site.
"We have no policy" regarding students studying abroad in a specific semester, Amherst College Study Abroad Advisor Bill Hoffa said in a telephone interview.
"We hope for equal numbers in fall and spring. We seldom achieve equal numbers, but we have no policy. Most years we have 10 to 20 percent, at least, more students [away] in the spring than in the fall," he said.
Of Amherst students studying abroad this academic year, the number of students going abroad in the fall and spring is about equal.
"Our aim is to try to balance the numbers?sometimes we do, sometimes we don't," Hoffa added.
Swarthmore College is another institution that has an open policy about when students study abroad. According to its Office of Foreign Study web site, a Swarthmore student "may study abroad during the spring semester of the sophomore year, either of the junior year semesters, and?with the approval of your major department?during the Fall semester of your senior year."
The OCSO defended its policy as reasonable and prudent.
"It comes down to housing," Hall said. "The College has long been concerned about the balance of the students on campus."
For the 1996-1997 academic year, 209 students studied away in the spring, while only 108 studied away in the fall. As a result of this gross imbalance, the OCSO added language to the catalogue that stipulated that "approval of individual requests may also be affected by the College's concern to maintain a balance between the number of students away during the fall and spring terms."
There are other considerations besides housing though, Hall mentioned.
"However much housing you have, there are certain financial efficiencies about having an equal number of students on campus at any one time. To keep the students' fee at a reasonable level [currently $1,000], it seems to make sense not to waste [students'] money by having dead space on campus."
Another reason Hall cited for keeping the numbers even was the presence of juniors on campus. Juniors generally "play an active role in student leadership. If there are hardly any around, it leaves this sort of void," he said.