“I do not think we should have Harvard campuses abroad,” Lewis writes in an e-mail. “The point of going abroad is to live with students of another country, not with other Harvard students,” he says.
There’s No Place Like Harvard
Some Harvard administrators worry that structural problems with the actual study-out-of-residence program are not all that is holding students back from studying abroad.
“There is a pervasive sense among students that it’s very hard to study abroad,” Pedersen says. “In some ways the reputation for difficulty deters students before they can even investigate [the options open to them.]”
Outreach is one way to combat this problem. OCS Study-Out-of-Residence Advisor J. Jane Pavese says that OCS has been and will continue to make outreach a central focus of their efforts to encourage Harvard students to study abroad. OCS currently organizes meetings with department heads, groups of concentrators, and an international study and volunteer fair.
Even if restrictions on study abroad were relaxed, many feel that Harvard students still might not be inclined to take advantage of study abroad opportunities.
Grimmelmann says that during the course of putting together his report, he found that many students feel the cost of missing a semester at Harvard is just not worth it.
“People are afraid to leave their houses, their friends, their extra-curricular activities,” Grimmelmann says. “There is a great residential community here.”
Grimmelmann says one student said to him, “We don’t even leave Harvard to go into Boston—why would we study abroad?”
After the Attacks
Administrators say that improving and expanding opportunities for study abroad is an awkward project in the post-Sept. 11 world.
“We are certainly counseling students about health and safety,” Pavese says.
But, Pavese says, Americans are at a point where they know they must have intercultural skills.
Wolcowitz says he thinks the current state of international affairs may prevent mean that Harvard’s study abroad numbers will not skyrocket right away, regardless of any changes Harvard may make. But he does not think that this is a reason to postpone the discussion.
“I would not be surprised if students—and more especially their parents—are reluctant to study away from here,” Wolcowitz says.
“But regardless of what happens immediately, we should be reviewing our procedures and our general stance towards study abroad—given the unfortunate circumstances of this fall, it’s on all minds about how important it is for Americans to gain an appreciation for understanding another culture.”
—David H. Gellis contributed to the reporting of this story.
—Staff writer Kate L. Rakoczy can be reached at rakoczy@fas.harvard.edu.