Study Away Committee
Annual Report, 2007-2008
Committee Members:
John Beckford (Dean of the Faculty)
Elizabeth Bradley (student)
Erik Ching, History, (Chair)
Christopher Hutton, Music
Tom Kazee (Provost and Executive Vice President)
Kailash Khandke (Asst. Dean for Study Away and International Education)
Lisa Knight, Religion
Brent Nelsen, Political Science
Cheryl Patterson, Business
David Solomon (student)
Wade Worthen, Biology
At the time of writing this report one year ago, the Study Away Committee (StAC) had been recently formed, but many issues were looming on the horizon for Fall term with the calendar and curriculum change and the need to establish a new administrative infrastructure for study away. Additionally, StAC was awaiting the appointment of the new Assistant Dean of International Education and Study Away. With the arrival of Fall term, the committee launched into its many pressing issues. The committee met eight times between September 2007 and May 2008. The main issues addressed by the committee included, but were not limited to writing and gaining faculty approving of the committee’s operating policy, designing mechanisms for reviewing and approving study away programs--both for the regular semester and May X—designing policy for the awarding of credits to faculty for leading study away programs. Based on the committee’s conversations, the office of the Asst. Dean for Intl. Ed. and Study Away (Kailash Khandke) drafted the forms and guidelines for study away programs that program directors will use to submit programs for review to the committee, both regular semester programs as well as May Experience Study Away. It was agreed that owing to time constraints, study away programs for the 2008-2009 semester programs would not require review and approval under the committee’s new regulations, but that the May X courses for May 2009 would require committee review, as would all Furman faculty led travel-study programs for 2009-2010. In regard to May X programs, the committee worked closely with Lynne Schackelford and the Implementation Task Force (ITF) to help define May X study away programs and to set a time table for review of those programs. As we come to the close of the present academic year, the committee is on the verge of reviewing the first proposals for May X courses in 2009.
Respectfully Submitted,
Erik Ching