Off-Campus Study Plans Increasing in Number

One interesting facet of Dartmouth's mouth'schanging curriculum is the development of off-campus educational opportunities. A relatively small number of students can work away from Hanover as Public Affairs Interns or as participants in Urban Studies and Foreign Study plans, but a far larger number of their contemporaries benefit from the shared insights of their experiences upon return.

In the Foreign Study Plan this year, 29 students went abroad for the summer and fall for French study, 15 for Spanish, 11 for German, and seven for Russian. The students gained a full term's credit (three Dartmouth courses) for a program that included university study, family living, and individual observation. They are expected to return to campus with papers on political, social or aesthetic subjects, written in the language under study, as well as with improved fluency in the language.

The nine undergraduates in the Urban Studies program are now spending the Spring Term in settlement houses in Boston's South End with the intent of analyzing urban renewal as seen by the people who will be most affected by such projects. They have weekly seminar sessions and, like the Foreign Study students, receive term credit and are expected to write about their experiences as well as contribute to the community in which they live.

Most of the 15 to 20 Public Service Interns work at their government or government-related jobs (usually as an assistant to some public official) in the summer months, but for some the work-study program carries through the fall term.