The Russian department and the Environmental Studies program are attempting to move the site of their joint Foreign Studies Program in Russia from Moscow to Novosibirsk.
The proposal to switch the FSP's location was discussed yesterday by the Committee on Off-Campus Activities, according to Russian Department Chair Richard Sheldon.
Environmental Studies Professor Andrew Friedland, the chair of the committee, said the committee has made a decision about the proposed switch, but declined to comment on it.
The program will remain in Moscow this spring.
Under the switch, the joint FSP would move to Novosibirsk, the largest city in Siberia. There students would live, eat and study at Novosibirsk University, according to a bulletin sent out by the Environmental Studies program.
The departments want to move the FSP primarily because Novosibirsk is closer to Lake Baikal, said Russian Professor Barry Scherr, who would accompany students on the FSP.
Scherr said Lake Baikal is a primary study site that is a three-day train ride from Moscow but only an hour from Novosibirsk.
The new FSP would include a week-long trip to Lake Baikal, a trip to St. Petersburg or Moscow and weekend trips to the Altai Mountains.
"It is a remarkable place -- the largest and oldest fresh water lake in the world that, in fact, contains over 20 percent of the earth's fresh water as well as 12,000 species including the only fresh-water seals in the world," Sheldon said.
Sheldon said students on the FSP would study Lake Baikal and its environmental problems that have resulted from industrial plants built on its shore in the 1950s.
The university at Novosibirsk "has the strongest academic programs anywhere west of the Ural Mountains," Scherr said.
Students would take eight weeks of classes at the university. Scherr said the program would give students credit for Russian three as well as two Environmental Studies courses, one of which would be a lecture-style course on the environmental problems of Russia, while the other would be a seminar with independent projects.
"A lot of this program depends upon on how many students show interest," Sheldon said. "There was a lot of student interest this fall, especially from Environmental Studies students."
Sheldon said that so far 15 students have expressed an interest in participating in the program.
The program would have almost the same prerequisites as the previous FSP based in Moscow.
