What a difference five years has made in bringing UC Davis students closer to the world. In October 1994, when Dennis Dutschke was appointed director of the campus Education Abroad Program, a wide gulf existed between his ambitious plans and the actual possibilities for more students to be exposed to foreign languages and cultures. Now Dutschke and a group of campus folks interested in expanding the student foreign-study experience have the solution: a short-term language and culture vehicle that offers classes to fit around student schedules, whether it is for only a quarter, part of the summer or, eventually, for even shorter periods such as winter break. In addition, the shorter stints promise to carry a smaller price tag for what can be an add-on to the cost of a UC Davis undergraduate education. Currently, one major program officially serves UC Davis students wanting to go abroad: Education Abroad Program, which has high academic standards and offers semester and yearlong programs. An average of only 230 students a year, or little more than 1 percent of the undergraduate student body, participate. Dutschke believes that by shortening the study-abroad schedule, decreasing the cost, allowing students with lower than a 3.5 grade-point average to participate and not insisting on language proficiency before they go abroad, the percentage of those studying abroad can be boosted by tenfold in five years. In addition to the short language programs, through the steady persistence of its humanities faculty, the College of Letters and Science has created a new minor, called global and international studies, which includes a humanities as well as a social-science track and requires study abroad. Both the new minor and the short language and culture programs were created, in part, to help science and engineering students find time in their undergraduate career to go abroad and learn about the outside world, Dutschke reports. "In the past, enrichment has been something good for a few people -- the academic and economic elite. I want it for the masses," Dutschke says. Science and engineering students have very structured majors with many requirements, including full-year science sequences. In addition, while studying in some countries through Education Abroad can cost less than going to school at UC Davis, a year in more expensive countries such as Japan and Israel can cost $3,000 to $5,000 more. Participants also must have a 3.5 grade-point average. As a result, the majority of students who have gone abroad have been white women in language majors, Dutschke said. "With this new structure, we have the potential to customize to fit the needs and desires of both the faculty and students involved," Dutschke says. "If a faculty member wants to go to Japan and take students, he or she will have a structure to offer them language and culture studies." Several advantages According to Georges Van Den Abbeele, last year's chair of the Task Force on Short Term Language and Culture Programs, chair of the Department of French and Italian, and director of the Humanities Institute, the new vehicle offers several advantages: o By making study-abroad experience more broadly available, the short courses are expected to situate the campus "with a truly global framework"; o These courses would allow students at varying levels of language proficiency to profit from the limited stay abroad -- for some the short course could be a preparation for the longer, yearlong Education Abroad Experience; o Rather than being limited by the 10 languages regularly offered on campuses, students could be exposed to other languages, such as Arabic, Korean, Vietnamese and Native American languages; o The new program would help manage enrollments in the more popular language courses on campus and give motivated students an opportunity to accelerate to higher levels of instruction; o The programs would be taught on location at accredited language institutes and universities for foreigners while retaining student credit hours for the UC Davis campus; o Plans are in the works to link the short language programs with Summer Sessions, UC Research Expeditions, the English-as-a-second-language program, the Internship and Career Center, UC Extension and other campus agencies that forward the general aims of globalization; o The shorter time periods will make going abroad affordable for the majority of undergraduates, "and, with a little administration help, within reach of all our students"; o A financial gain is expected for the campus as these students will earn student credit hours for their time abroad while the campus is expected to experience a significant reduction in the use of facilities, staff and resources; and o Faculty and staff members will also be eligible to take advantage of the short language and culture courses. Van Den Abbeele and Dutschke worked out the plan with JoAnn Cannon, professor of French and Italian and former dean; Cecilia Colombi, associate professor of Spanish and classics, and current chair of the task force; Annie King, professor of animal science and associate dean for undergraduate academic programs in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; Fred Wood, lecturer in chemistry and associate dean for undergraduate education in the College of Letters and Science; and Donna Watkins Olsson, associate director for program planning and budget operations. Programs begin in spring 2001 Colombi and Dutschke will launch the first short courses in spring quarter 2001. Colombi will accompany about 30 students to the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo in Mendoza, Argentina, her native country. Dutschke will travel with a similar number of students to the Universia per Stranieri in Perugia, Italy. The two groups will take 20 hours per week of intensive language education in the morning, earning 14 to 19 units of credit for a foreign language, plus an upper-division course in the afternoon taught by their UC Davis instructor that will likely fulfill a campus General Education requirement. The 19-20 units will be issued as direct credit from UC Davis, which will bypass previous problems UC Davis students have had obtaining credit for coursework completed through study abroad. Future possibilities for incorporating the short-language vehicle into study abroad include a proposal by environmental horticulturalist Truman Young to take a class to Kenya to study flora and fauna of that country, Dutschke reports. The class would be affiliated with a local Kenyan university to receive language and cultural studies. In addition, Dutschke has been talking with Native American department faculty members about leading language and culture programs in Mexico with the possible inclusion of language and culture in a Native American language. Plans are in the works for an eight-week summer program in Panama at the former U.S. military base, which is being converted into an educational/technology center. UC Davis is applying to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a grant to establish a summer program there, according to Patrick Brown, associate professor of pomology and director of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Science's International Programs. Under the grant, UC Davis would head a four-university consortium that includes Cornell University, Texas A&M University and Iowa State University. Aimed at students interested in tropical agriculture, the program would offer the intensive language courses as well as an integrated agricultural/environmental science course. Field trips and home stays with Panamanian students would be included in the package. Four faculty members and between 10 and 20 students from UC Davis would participate. Short-course idea supported Both financial and moral support is forthcoming for broadening the study abroad program, says Colombi, who just returned from Argentina, where she was setting up arrangements for the spring 2001 pilot class. In fact, both Peter Dale, the former vice provost for undergraduate studies, and Patricia Turner, the current vice provost, are big fans of the idea. "This is an attractive, innovative program, and I am hopeful that the campus is prepared to move forward on this initiative," Dale said. Dutschke, who has checked off almost everything on that to-do list made five years ago, reports that he has gone through a philosophical transformation while helping create the short-course programs. "I used to think the only worthwhile study-abroad program was a year-round program," says the former director of the Padua Education Abroad Program. Then he took 24 UC Davis students for a quarter to Perugia in the spring of 1997 and was amazed at the students' ability to master the learning curve. "When you have a short period of time, you make the best of it. Both the students who had language background and those who didn't made dramatic improvements -- many without any background caught up within a month to those who had had one or two quarters of language." Dutschke concludes that the shorter courses will make sense to the university community as it envisions new ways of delivering education in the next decade. "With our pace of life when everything goes so fast, three months is going to seem like a long time," he says.