The 11 Dartmouth students who were evacuated almost two weeks ago from the Language Study Abroad program in Cholula, Mexico, following the swine flu outbreak, returned to campus on Monday. The students, who are living in four previously unoccupied triples in Richardson Hall, will complete their LSA courses at Dartmouth.
All study abroad programs for the Summer term are continuing on schedule, according to associate Dean of the Faculty for international and interdisciplinary studies Lindsay Whaley. The 2010 Mexico LSA programs will also proceed as planned.
The students, after completing their on-campus coursework, will receive three course credits for the term. Many of the students had expressed worries about losing credit, Francine A'Ness, the Spanish professor who led the LSA, said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
"Students were less concerned about swine flu than they were about whether or not they would still get their three credits for the term," A'Ness said. "All along, losing credit was the worry."
After they were evacuated from Mexico on April 29, the students continued their coursework at their homes in the United States. A'Ness worked with College officials to devise a curriculum for the students once they returned to campus.
"We recognized that it was a special situation," Whaley said. "We needed to develop for [the students] a specialized curriculum so that they could continue whata they had started in Mexico and facilitate the best possible experience."
A'Ness will continue to teach the Spanish literature course she had taught in Cholula.
Fritz Glockner Corte, a visiting professor at Dartmouth from the Universidad de las Americas Puebla, will teach the students' history class. Corte has previously taught the class to students participating in the Dartmouth LSA in Cholula.
The students' grammar class will be taught by the LSA professor via video conference, A'Ness said.
In past years, students on the Mexico LSA have completed a video project based on primary research and interviews with Mexican residents, but this year's group will likely rely on photographs and video chat interviews, A'Ness said.
The students will be required to uphold the LSA pledge to speak only Spanish among themselves, but will be allowed to speak English to other people on campus.
The students who had been studying in Mexico said they had mixed feelings about the College's decision to evacuate them.
"At the time, I was sad that I was leaving Mexico," Louise Vanden Bosch '11 said. "But at the same time, I was happy to be getting away from the swine flu because at the time we thought it was a lot more than it actually turned out to be."
Anna Sonstegard '11 said that some of her fellow students on the LSA and their parents were concerned that the students would be unable to get adequate health care in Mexico if they became sick.
College officials decided to evacuate the students because the Universidad de las Americas was closed indefinitely, Whaley said. The students spent a week quarantined in their homes in the United States before returning to Dartmouth. Dick's House nurses checked in with the students daily via telephone during the quarantine period, students said.
None of the students exhibited symptoms of swine flu.
"Initially, my mom talked to the nurse and was kind of worried about everything," Sonstegard said. "I wore the mask in my house for the first day, but after that I was completely healthy, so there was no reason to take those further precautions."
