 "Photo: Emily Hyndman photo")
Rumors have been circulating that the semester-long study abroad program in London has been canceled.
Students speculated the program was ending due to poor attendance. In reality, Gonzaga’s English department has expressed some concern about the quality of the classes offered in England.
“London is not canceled,” Director of Study Abroad Wanda Reynolds said. “The program is still available to Gonzaga students. The administration has the power to shift things, but at this point they don’t seem to be concerned. There are still pending changes in the AVP chair. The new person may take a different stand.
“There are two students there now, and those students wouldn’t be impacted by the English departments decisions,” Reynolds said.
The London program started in 1972. American Heritage Association (AHA) used to provide for the program, but the association doesn’t anymore, forcing Gonzaga to act independently. Gonzaga now uses a program called Independent Liberal Arts Colleges Abroad (ILACA).
“ILACA still uses the London program, which is still part of AHA. The difference is we don’t have any input into the program design, whereas before we could send faculty and have input in the design of the program,” Reynolds said.
Junior Stephanie Brooks is double majoring in journalism and english. She recently returned from studying abroad in London through the AHA program last semester, and says the program still provides valuable aspects of her education, despite having a strenuous academic burden.
“Although the coursework might not have been the most rigorous, being able to go to museums, art galleries and historical monuments any day of the week made up for any shortcomings of the program, in my opinion,” she said.
Brooks also refutes that she was getting a second-rate education through the program.
“Even though the professors might not have had their PhDs in [a subject], they were still very knowledgeable about their subject,” Brooks said. “For example, my Shakespeare professor had not only studied Shakespeare’s plays, but had also been an actress in many of them, which I feel makes her as qualified as any professor at GU.”
If going to London for a semester is not an option, Gonzaga is offering two distinct English courses over the summer: Literary London and Spirituality & the Arts of England. Gonzaga English Professor Dr. Beth Cooley will be teaching in Literary London.
Literary London is a five-week program with 37 and a half hours of class time. Two, six-credit English courses will be offered this summer: Twentieth Century British Literature: The Bloomsbury Group and Studies in Post-Colonial Literature: Multicultural London. Both will be taught by Dr. Jessica Maucione.
Students will stay in the Institution for the International Education of Students residence hall in the Chelsea Neighborhood. Sixteen Gonzaga students are going this summer and will stay with other international students.
The program costs $4,750, which includes housing, tuition, oyster card (for the subway), some meals, weekly Wednesday excursions and a couple of Friday excursions.
“Every Wednesday we will have a required excursion, from walking tours through the city to a boat tour on the Thames,” Cooley said.
Other possibilities include trips to Cambridge or Salisbury.
“Our plan is to stay in London, the dorms are paid for, why pay for the expense when there is so much to do in London? There is just a lot to see,” Cooley said.
Cooley says that the goal of the trip is to provide a comprehensive view of London, not the one a typical tourist would get.
“For our trip, while we will appreciate and include some of the tradition England study abroad things like Stratford, we are really interested in showing students the contemporary London,” Cooley said. “We will respectfully visit neighborhoods that are predominantly immigrant areas. We want to let students know that it’s not just Shakespeare and Tennyson and that there is a very contemporary literary scene.”
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