In an attempt to close an $800,000 gap in the operating budget for study abroad programs, the Advisory Committee to Study Abroad discussed various selection criteria for the study abroad application process at its third meeting Feb. 11 including grade-point average, cocurricular activities and whether students have any previous judicial sanctions.In addition, the Office of Study Abroad is "reviewing some options for students to apply directly to some of our overseas partners rather than going through a third-party program provider, but there is no decision on this at the moment," Assistant Dean of Academic Services and Director of Study Abroad J. Scott Van Der Meid wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. He also wrote that Study Abroad is evaluating whether there are other programs that can be added to the approved program list that would allow the maximum number of students to study abroad "within the designated study abroad budget."

The committee drafted three proposed selection criteria for study abroad. According to the criteria posted on the committee's myBrandeis Web site, "Primary preference will first be given to students who demonstrate a strong academic interest in selecting their study abroad site. Those for whom study abroad links to a major and who have also completed advanced language study will have the strongest preference for study abroad. GPA and participating in co-curricular activities will also be a factor." The second criterion gives preference to students who wish to study abroad for a minor, and the third gives preference to students "who can demonstrate a compelling academic reason for study abroad," which is "demonstrated through language study and coursework in the region."

"The real question the committee is trying to get at is . how can the committee find out if study abroad actually fits into a student's educational plan," Prof. James Mandrell (ROMS) said.

"I think it's really important that the people who are going abroad have a reason to go," Hanna Rosenthal-Fuller '09, a student member of the committee, said. "If you just had one class in a certain area that got you excited, that's a reason enough to go."

Regarding cocurricular activities, Van Der Meid explained in an e-mail to the Justice, "While someone might not have course work in a particular region of the world, their involvement with a group like STAND might show some connectivity and initiative towards their desired study abroad program." However, he wrote, "Just the number of clubs and activities in and of themselves would not be grounds for approval. Quality over quantity is the idea."

About 42 percent of the sophomore class submitted preliminary applications indicating an interest in studying abroad next year, Van Der Meid wrote in a March 2 e-mail to the Justice. "We have already had some [decline] in the number that applied for fall, some withdrawing, others changing to spring. We don't expect the final number to be as high since the [decline] for spring students who showed interest this February might be higher than usual given the time between now and [October]," he wrote.

About 45 percent of the current junior class studied abroad this year but the percentages of students studying abroad are similar because that class is larger than the sophomore class, Dean of Financial Services Peter Giumette said.

Another point of discussion at the meeting was how students' judicial sanctions should be taken into consideration in the study abroad selection process. Currently, only students on active probation are ineligible to apply to study abroad. According to the meeting's minutes, Assistant Dean of Student Life Maggie Balch "suggested various ways to interview a student with a questionable application, such as asking them to be able to explain how they can use their judicial sanctions to learn lessons, promote positive behavior and change, be good ambassadors etc."

Whether students who have social or academic issues should be allowed to go abroad or not, they'll be "representing Brandeis University and also the [United States] in a foreign country," Mandrell said in an interview with the Justice. He did not advocate approving applications of students with any history of conduct problems at the meeting.

The current policy requires study abroad applicants to grant the study abroad application committee the right to review their judicial files. At the meeting, Van Der Meid suggested that the program follow a similar model used by other schools in which faculty or a committee would "read only more 'questionable applications' such as students with judicial records," according to the minutes.

Van Der Meid also suggested instituting a criteria system similar to the one used at Bates College, which ranks students' study abroad program preferences. The minutes state that "For example, Brandeis could chose [sic] to give preference to full year programs with language immersion above programs in English-speaking programs.