Freeze cripples Study Abroad

A significant increase in applications and a university-wide hiring freeze has meant long lines and frustration for students applying to study abroad this semester.

The study abroad office currently employs only three full-time staffers, four part-time peer advisers and supplemental help from the academic advising center to manage more than 500 study abroad applications per year.
“It’s been very challenging,”Director of Study Abroad Mark Beirn said. “We have a very small office considering that we run a number of programs in-house and we have 15 to 20 exchange programs.”

The Study Abroad Office has only three full-time staff members: Beirn, who runs the office, monitors students currently studying abroad and works with study abroad sites and two advisers who handle the majority of applications.

Beirn said that though this semester has been difficult, the fall semester was even more trying. Approximately 200 students applied to study abroad, but both full-time adviser positions were vacant and could not be filled because of a university wide hiring freeze. Beirn brought in part-time help from the academic advising center, but the situation was untenable.

“We were in a huge bind in the fall,” said James MacLaren, Dean of Newcomb-Tulane College. “But we were able to persuade President [Scott] Cowen that there was just no way to meet with students if there wasn’t any staff.“

With Cowen’s permission Beirn hired two full-time advisers at the end of last year. The office has also adjusted by continuing to bring in academic advisers and by heavily using peer advisers.

“My peer adviser was really awesome,” sophomore Sally Burroughs said. “Whenever I e-mailed her she always answered my questions. She was the one who really guided me through the process.“

Burroughs said her interactions with full-time advisers were less positive. She said it was “miserable”getting answers about her public-health program in South Africa, even though she began the application process last October.

“I didn’t have issues having to wait for things,”Burroughs said. “But I think they could have been more straight-forward with answering questions.“

Senior Allison Staub said that the office was well versed in more popular programs in Europe and South America, but less familiar with programs in Asia and Africa that only attracted a handful of students.

“The application process was very stressful,” she said. “I felt like I was completely on my own. They didn’t have any answers and I really felt like I was left hanging.”

She also said that if was very difficult to contact the department via e-mail.

“I’m sure they get an enormous volume of e-mail,” she said. “They really could have used a person who was always on top of the office’s e-mail.”

Beirn said that the office will not be able to hire another staff member until the the hiring freeze ends.  And the two new advisers are still learning the subtleties of Tulane-specific policies and procedures.

“It takes an entire academic cycle, a full year, to be completely familiar with all the programs,” Berin said.

The hiring freeze also has long-term implications for the office. Beirn had been working on a small pilot program that sent seven freshman and sophomores abroad and was looking to open new programs in Germany and France, but said he is now concerned about the office’s workload.

“We have to be careful that our office is not stretched too thin,”Beirn said. “We will have to be more selective and judicious in looking at new programs.“

The continued hiring freeze means that the office will continue to be overworked in the future while applications are expected to increase again next year. Both Beirn and MacLaren advised students to apply early to study abroad, especially if they have significant questions or concerns and to talk with the Dean’s Office or the study abroad office if they are having issues.

“If a student waits until the deadline, he or she can expect to wait [in line],”MacLaren said. “But if students are very frustrated, we need to hear about it.”