Editor's Note: This is the second of two articles exploring the cost structure of off-campus study programs at Dartmouth. Today's story examines cost-of-living charges.
Growing accustomed to plush accommodations that include linen service and a private bathroom, Jordyne Wu '03 may find more than the academic aspects of Oxford University's Keble College difficult to give up.
For Elizabeth Tatkow '03, however, housing arrangements at the University of Copenhagen during Fall term involved a markedly different situation -- residing with rodents and another unwanted guest: a 33-year-old Danish man who had rented half of his apartment to her through Copenhagen's international office.
Both took part in Dartmouth-run exchange programs, but consistency in the out-of-classroom conditions they and other students experienced while abroad is rare.
Such disparities do not constitute the only aspect of Dartmouth's off-campus program funding policies that some students question. Even though Wu and Tatkow faced enormous differences in living arrangement qualities, they were made to pay roughly the same amount in room charges for their trips.
While arranging exchange housing is usually the responsibility of the host institution, students returning to Hanover from distant locales argue that discrepancies similar to that of Wu and Tatkow are not unusual among Dartmouth's off-campus programs. Some of these students also note that room and board costs on their trips lack any hint of correlation with cheaper foreign rates.
Administrators at the Off-Campus Programs Office, however, strongly dispute this notion. They say the additional amenities -- such as travel and programming funds -- make Dartmouth's costs incomparable to local prices.
But for many students, the matter of how much they pay for room, board and discretionary costs is very much an open debate.
Off-Campus Programs director Peter Armstrong said there are no major differences between what students on study-abroad and those that are in residence pay.
"On balance, the room and board costs for most programs is comparable to what students pay in Hanover," he said.
Many students doubt that food and housing prices in poor nations can be so similar to room and board charges in programs in Europe.
The Spanish language study abroad in Puebla, Mexico, for example, charges only $275 less for room and board than the LSA in Barcelona, Spain, where the cost-of-living is much closer to the United States.
Safety issues in less affluent locations also factor into room and board cost calculations, according to Director of Budget and Fiscal Affairs Kate Soule. Soule is responsible for periodically inspecting students' living conditions abroad and ensuring that they meet safety standards.
"The costs of students' room and board are directly related to the costs of the program on which they're going," Soule said.
Armstrong also dismissed rumors that students who participate in programs in poorer countries subsidize programs in more expensive ones, emphasizing that individual room and board costs do indeed account for cost-of-living differences.
But such expenses for this spring's FSP to Morocco, an impoverished country by any economic measures, are $1,645 for room and board -- just $555 less than equivalent expenses for this term's French LSA in the much costlier city of Lyon, France.
Associate Dean of the Faculty Len-ore Grenoble shared Armstrong's reasoning.
"There's no direct feeding of one program to another," she said.
To develop a budget, directors of LSAs and FSPs work with Armstrong and their department chairs to calculate specific trip budgets by estimating the costs of leasing classroom facilities, paying for organized activities and financing directors' accommodations, he said. Participants' room and board rates are also determined in this process.
Students are also responsible for their own round-trip transportation expenses.
The amount of travel opportunities sponsored and paid for by Dartmouth is also contested by LSA and FSP participants.
Directors of such programs are allotted various amounts of money -- again depending on the specific program, Armstrong said -- to spend on recreational and cultural excursions, but some program participants are unsure of how that money is spent.
Tara Maller '03 noted that on last spring's Government FSP to Washington, D.C., organized trips paid for by the College to places outside Washington were virtually non-existent.
"There was a trip to a baseball game, but that was it," Maller said. "That was from the social budget."
As a result, Maller said she and her fellow participants became dissatisfied with what the trip's program director's use of discretionary funds.
"The overall consensus of the group was that the professor wasn't providing us with services," she said.
Other programs featured a much more regular schedule of trips paid for by the College.
Participants on the English FSP to the Caribbean island of Trinidad Fall term were treated to "a good smattering of field trips," according to Adam Kuhlman '03.
"We'd see a lot of cultural events about once a week," Kuhlman said, including a Hindu festival and an excursion to a neighboring island. "For the most part, it was to make sure we saw everything Trinidad had to offer."
Kuhlman added that students periodically faced water shortages and lived in non-air-conditioned dormitories at the University of the West Indies, but that such conditions in a Caribbean nation were expected.
"The facilities aren't quite what Dartmouth's are, but we always felt safe and clean," he said.
