A faculty committee will consider a recommendation to eliminate the College exchange program to Budapest University of Arts and Social Sciences in Hungary.
The program, which sends students to the university to study government, economics and history, is not sponsored by a single department like most of the College's Foreign Study Programs, and administrators say that without the support of one department, the exchange program has suffered.
The primary problem with the program is "that there is no departmental home for it," said George Wolford, the dean of faculty of the social sciences.
A group of professors, including Economics Professor Lee Baldwin met with Dean of Faculty James Wright last year and recommended ending the Budapest program.
"We decided that it wasn't viable from our end. It had to have the support of a department, but that never happened," Baldwin said.
"I am very disappointed that no department has picked this program up because it has been a good program," he said. Seventeen students are currently in Budapest on the exchange.
After the review of the program today, the faculty committee of department chairs will make the final decision about on the program.
According to Nelson Kasfir, the chair of the government department, a lack of faculty interest is the main reason for the recommendation to end the program.
"My understanding is that Dartmouth is going to stop being part of the program because there's no one to take over, so there's not going to be much of a program left," Kasfir said.
Each foreign study program requires that the sponsoring department assign a faculty member to oversee the program and consult with students for an entire year.
"We're not doing anyone any favors by sending all our faculty overseas," Kasfir said.
Baldwin said that if the program is to continue, it must have a faculty member who is a specialist in Eastern Europe.
He said low student interest has also been a factor in the program's reevaluation, although students who participate in the exchange love the program.
"Collectively and personally, students say it's been their most valuable experience at Dartmouth," Baldwin said.
Baldwin said he anticipates the application numbers to drop with the introduction of the geography department's new foreign study program to Prague during the winter or spring of this year.
Wolford said faculty members view the Prague and Budapest programs as "having the same style," and say the geography FSP should provide an alternative for students interested in Eastern Europe.
The Budapest program, which was started in 1985, is not considered an official College Foreign Study Program, and students who complete the program do not receive College credit for the exchange. Instead, they receive transfer credit that do not figure into their grade point averages.
Because the program is not run by a single department, it has been organized by two or three professors from the government, economics and history departments.
Although the College will no longer sponsor the exchange, Baldwin suggested that any student who is interested will still be able to study at the Budapest University of Economics and Science for a term.
News Editor Steve Hoffman in Budapest contributed to this article.
