A new foreign study program in Hyderabad, India, which was expected to begin in Winter 2010, will not be offered until at least Winter 2011 because adequate funding has yet to be secured, according to Lindsay Whaley, associate dean for international and interdisciplinary programs. The program is sponsored by the women's and gender studies and Asian and Middle Eastern studies departments.
The College does not know exactly how much money it needs to start the India FSP, Whaley said, because costs and currency exchange rates are always changing. WGST chair Ivy Schweitzer said the FSP itself is not particularly expensive, but implementing a new program has additional costs, such as the expense of sending representatives to the host country to arrange logistics.
There is not necessarily "a direct line" between the possibility of securing funding and the current economic crisis, Whaley explained.
"In a season of budget cutting, it is challenging to find resources for new initiatives," Whaley said. "But beyond that, we haven't even finished the budgeting process for the next couple of years, so it is premature to see what effect it will have on us running the program in 2011."
The College is exploring whether it could transfer resources from an under-enrolled off-campus program to the India FSP, Schweitzer said, but she added that she did not know what that other program could be.
"Institutions have a very long life and move at the speed of glaciers, so we're just excited it's been approved," Schweitzer said. The College approved the FSP last year.
Whaley said it is not unusual for the College to reevaluate the allocation of its resources devoted to foreign study.
"That's something we always consider when we have perpetually under-enrolled programs," he said. "But at this point no one has said, 'Maybe we should cancel one program in order to fund the India FSP.'"
Pushing the program back, which has frustrated both students and faculty, gives organizers more time to prepare and expand relevant class offerings on campus in Hanover, Schweitzer said.
For example, Pavitra Sundar, a visiting Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow, is teaching two courses this year on Indian media.
"We were disappointed because it's a very timely program," Schweitzer said. "It's unique because it's a collaboration between two departments and it anchors [women's and gender studies] in a transnational feminist outlook... But [the delay] gives us a little bit more time to develop classes that will give students more of an extensive background."
Dartmouth has fewer South Asian programs than many of its peer institutions, so an FSP to India would be a step in the right direction, Syam Palakurthy '09 said. Palakurthy helped research potential locations for the FSP.
"I just want to make sure that next year, with a new [College] president, this will still be a visible issue," Palakurthy said.
Dartmouth professors and administrators will travel to Hyderabad next fall to begin organizing aspects of the program, including housing and the involvement of faculty from the University of Hyderabad, Schweitzer said. The classes offered will include Gender and the Modern Media in India, Contemporary Social Movements in India and a seminar taught by the Dartmouth professor on the FSP, according to the WGS Fall 2008 newsletter.
It is too early to predict how the College's announced $40-million budget cut will affect off-campus programs as a whole, Whaley said. The $40 million represents a five-percent cut across the board. A formal budget should be ready by February, in time for the Board of Trustees meeting, College officials have said.
The engineering exchange program with Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, offered for the first time this year, was not affected by funding issues, according to Whaley, as exchange programs are easier to organize than FSPs. The College is also considering a possible exchange program in Korea.
"My sense is that there's a lot of eagerness for [the India] FSP," Whaley said. "When it became clear that we would not run it in 2010, I'm sure there was some disappointment, but you can't offer what you can't pay for."
