No longer will students have the opportunity to backpack across East Asia with Buddhist monks or conduct their own anthropological study in a remote village at the foothills of the Himalayas. The latest in economic belt-tightening at Pepperdine International Programs has closed the Spring Semester in Thailand program for at least the next two years.
At the beginning of the spring semester Seaver College Dean Rick Marrs informed division heads that they need to cut 5 percent of their operating budget for fiscal years 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 totaling a 5 percent budget cut across Seaver.
On Friday Jan. 30 International Programs notified the seven students who were planning to attend the Thailand program next year.
Dean of International Programs Charles Hall said he decided to close the Thailand program to save him from making “even deeper cuts in our main programs.”
Closing the Thailand program will comprise a significant chunk of the five percent budget cut in International Programs’ $10 million operating budget according to Hall. The remaining budget cuts will predominately come in ways he said students will not likely observe – such as saving money on electricity and office supplies or postponing personnel development funds. The Thailand program where Pepperdine has no building or faculty was the obvious program to cut from an economic standpoint according to Hall. The spring-semester Thailand program is Pepperdine’s only international program run completely by an outside party and the university has invested the least in it in comparison to other international programs.
“I do understand why our program is the one to be cancelled wrote Dr. Mike Leming, program director and a long-time friend of Hall. If I were the dean and faced with a similar situation I would make the same decision. Dr. Hall is a man of integrity and honesty. He is doing his best by Pepperdine and its international programs.”
Still Hall said the decision to close the program was troubling. Many including Hall said that of all the international programs the Thailand program provided the most challenging and one-of-a-kind opportunities for students to immerse themselves in a foreign culture.
Several other Christian universities participate in the program which allowed Pepperdine to send a maximum of 10 students per year.
For approximately two months students in the Thailand program live with families in Chiang Mai where they also intern and attend a local university. After spring break students spend the month of April living in huts in a Karen tribal village where they individually complete anthropological research. Over the course of the 16 weeks most students become advanced speakers in Thai and participate in Christian service opportunities.
“Our program offers much that no other program offers wrote Leming. [The program] focuses on total cultural immersion and not ‘a cultural bubble for Western students.’ … [Students] receive a life-changing international experience designed for intellectual social personal and spiritual transformation.”
The Thailand program is especially close to the heart of Malika Rice International Program’s director of Admissions and Student Affairs.
On her first trip outside of the United States Rice attended the Thailand program in 2001 as a junior at California Lutheran. She credits the program as one of the most transformative experiences in her life.
“I wouldn’t work in International Programs if it weren’t for the Thailand program Rice said. God worked so powerfully for me through this international experience … I’m putting my life into it encouraging students to have the same opportunity.”
Rice called each of the seven students on Friday to personally inform them about the cancellation of the program and their options. To substitute for the Thailand program International Programs is offering each student a spot in the Shanghai program next spring. Rice is assisting students as they remake their plans for the next year.
“We’re going to work individually with each of those students not only to make sure that each student gets into a program but that they find the right one Rice said.
Students also have the opportunity to study at the Thailand program independently of Pepperdine. However, to attend, students will need to withdraw from Pepperdine for the semester, during which they will lose financial aid. Students must also determine if they can transfer units back to Pepperdine.
Despite their disappointment, by and large, the students who were planning to go to Thailand have expressed understanding about the program’s cancellation, several noting the caring support of Rice.
One particularly optimistic student said that the closure of the program, for her, may even turn out for the best.
It was kind of shocking at first because I never even thought that the economic stuff would extend that far said freshman Hannah Blithe, who is considering going to Shanghai or studying independently in Thailand. But Malika started talking about other things students were doing and it really opened up my options … The whole thing has really kind of turned out into a good thing.”
Nevertheless some Thailand alumni worry that with the cancellation of the program Pepperdine will no longer provide an opportunity for students who wish to stretch themselves beyond their comfort zones.
“I legitimately felt like Pepperdine lived up to its international program image when I was in Thailand and now they’re taking that away said junior Alex Cox, who studied in Thailand in the spring of 2008 after spending the fall in Lausanne. I did not legitimately feel that way about Switzerland. It [is Pepperdine’s] loss and the students who were going to go.”
Hall shares Cox’s concern.
He brought the Thailand program to Pepperdine three years ago because Pepperdine needed a program that immersed students in a completely foreign culture.
“The thing that was missing from our repertoire of programs was this program that would really really stretch a student … that was amazingly different.”
During the Thailand program’s absence Hall said he will continue to search for unique summer programs perhaps in Africa or St. Petersburg Russia.
“As long as I’m Dean we’re always going to try to find these type of programs that really really immerse students in culture and stretch them he said.
Hall stressed that he is not permanently cancelling the Thailand program, and he hopes to bring it back in 2012.