Jairdin Engen | Assistant News Editor
Every year Buena Vista University students take the month of January off for a break from regular semesters. This period is named J-term and allows students the ability to take a class on campus that may differ from the usual curriculum or perhaps complete an internship off-campus. Another popular option is the ability to take a for-credit, faculty-led trip. Faculty and staff encourage students to take advantage of these trips, hoping that they will learn more than can be taught in a classroom.
This year, however, a surprising number of J-term trips have been canceled. Of the nine trips that were originally proposed, four of them have been cut due to lack of enrollment. According to Associate Dean of Faculty Dr. Peter Steinfeld, a trip needs to have eight people going in order to stay available. Students whose trips are cancelled have the option to either sign up for another trip, or to refund their deposit.
“We’ve been trying and trying and trying to try to get students to consider travel,” Steinfeld said. “There are few things that are better suited for students to understand something about the way the world works.”
Steinfeld believes cost plays an important role when students are making the decision to travel.
“These are expensive trips. We have loans students can take out to make it doable, but it’s still a large investment of money that students will eventually have to repay,” Steinfeld said.
The university tries to lower the cost of trips as much as possible. BVU actually pays the cost for the faculty members traveling so that the students don’t have to.
Steinfeld also suggested that lower enrollment could be a factor. The current junior and senior classes are smaller than in previous years, and upperclass students are often more likely to travel. A large percentage of BVU’s current students is made up of the current freshman class.
Professor of Digital Media Dr. Bruce Ellingson and Associate Professor of Art David Boelter were planning the trip to New York City and Washington D.C. The trip would have started in New York City with a cultural tour, visiting Broadway musicals and plays, art, and musical centers. In D.C. students would have visited the Washington Mall and met with a few congressmen. The trip was unable to make the cut, however, when it only had five people sign up.
Ellingson agrees that cost, economy, and enrollment are contributing factors to the lack of participation. He reflected that when the same trip went 10 years ago the cost was similar, but they had 23 people sign up.
“There could be other reasons…maybe people want to go to exotic places they’ve never been before, like the Panama Canal for example. Or maybe they want to travel abroad,” Ellingson said.
Steinfeld noted that possible ideas for increasing the number of students going on trips include increasing the number of informational meetings to keep students interested, raising students’ awareness of the loans that are available for travel, offering supporting scholarships to students who travel, and even advertising through other forms of media.
“If I were going to do this again, I’d set up a table outside the Cent Room to advertise the New York-Washington trip, and I’d give people I-Love-NYC T-shirts or something,” Ellingson said. “There has to be something that captures the imagination better than what we did.”
The January 2014 trips that did “make” and will be going are European Art & Culture, Storytelling with Walt Disney by Land and Sea, Voluntourism–Cruise through the Panama Canal, Holocaust Studies Travel Course, and International Experience Salamanca, Spain. There is also one travel course planned for spring to Ireland that is still accepting enrollment.
