But professor, you just don't understand

Some Louisiana State faculty and staff are upset that only about 1 percent of students at the Ole War Skule bother to study abroad. Well, then.

The Advocate in Baton Rouge, home of the world's best meeting coverers, has the story:

Only about 1 percent of students in Baton Rouge colleges study abroad — a statistic that is troubling to administrators, faculty and students alike.

The problem is particularly concerning for LSU because its regional and national peers are moving much further ahead, LSU officials said. The issue reached the point that the LSU Faculty Senate unanimously approved a resolution this week to strongly push for more “internationalization.”

Patricia O’Neill, an LSU music professor who has traveled the world in operas, co-authored the resolution and placed most of the blame on the college.

“We’re really, really behind our peers whom we claim we want to be on the same level with,” O’Neill said, faulting the lack of organization at LSU. “The right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing.”

Faculty Senate President Kevin Cope agreed: “It’s an unworkable, unmanageable impenetrable system” with no clear leadership.

Harald Leder, interim director of LSU academic programs abroad, said his department is lacking in resources — with a small, self-generated budget and a five-person staff — to serve nearly 27,000 students.

But much of the reason only about 450 students participate annually is the attitude of Louisiana students, Leder said.

“I think it’s Louisiana culture,” said Leder, who was once an international student from Germany. “They feel right at home here and don’t feel a reason to go away.”

O’Neill agreed, arguing that international experience is becoming imperative in the shrinking global world.

“Some of the attitudes of our finest students are really quite provincial,” she said.

Leder said money is another obvious factor because the average study abroad trip costs about $7,000. Simply put, many students cannot afford it, he said, especially with the weak dollar in Europe.

Still, LSU does offer study abroad in a number of locations, such as China, Argentina, Tanzania, Mexico, India, England, Italy, France and, the most popular, Ireland.

Schools such as the University of Arkansas have goals for 25 percent of their students to study abroad, Leder said, but Arkansas has a lot of money from Wal-Mart and the Walton family that LSU does not have.

“We are at about 1 percent, so that’s a pretty big gap,” Leder said.

Adam Hensgens, an LSU senior from Crowley majoring in international studies, said he wanted to participate in a new study abroad program to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to better learn Arabic.

The program was advertised to those in his major, but the study abroad office was not familiar with it, he said.

“The interest from students I think is picking up,” Hensgens said. “But it’s the institution’s inability to handle it.”

APART FROM NEEDING to come up with thousands and thousands of bucks to study in Europe or wherever -- and we all know that most college students, and their parents, are just rolling in that kind of dough -- there's another factor peculiar to the Gret Stet that the LSU faculty doesn't take into account.

Louisiana, by contemporary American standards, IS abroad. Likewise, America -- by contemporary and historical Louisiana standards -- can't get much more foreign.

Why go to South America if you're an LSU student? You're already there. And you can drink the water.

Why go to France when you can go to Breaux Bridge, dance quaint folk dances, buvez du bier et du vin, et riez des touristes américain?

I REMEMBER well my days as an LSU undergrad. When we wanted to go abroad, we went to places like Miami, where we ordered supper at HoJo's from our Spanish-speaking Cuban waiter by pointing at the pictures on the menu.

We also experienced the exotic culture of the United States by journeying to the land of les américains -- to places like Knoxville, Chicago and Milwaukee. And believe me, Milwaukee was utterly foreign to a Louisiana boy on his first trip north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

On the other hand, I gained a deep appreciation of Polish sausage, sauerkraut and Old Style beer. Now, that was good eatin'. And drinkin'.

And I also learned that when college kids from Eau Claire do send-ups of Doug and Bob Mackenzie's The Great White North, they're NOT acting.

Did I mention the joys of Old Style, which we couldn't get in Baton Rouge back then?

I found my experiences abroad served me well when I took a break from college to do a self-directed work study at the North Platte, Neb., Telegraph in early 1983. This extended stay abroad ended in August 1983 when I married the newspaper's American wire editor and returned to LSU with my foreign bride to complete my last 27 credit hours.

And I credit my wholly informal study abroad while an LSU student for my ability to adjust, since 1988, to living abroad here in Omaha, Neb., USA. I am able to converse with the locals in their language, as well as appreciate the local cuisine and understand their democratic form of government.

IN SHORT, I just don't understand why the LSU Faculty Senate has its knickers in a twist. There are plenty of opportunities there for students to experience exotic cultures abroad. All they need do is drive a day or so in any direction.

The trips are easily made, usually not overly expensive and -- if one observes the locals and their folkways carefully -- one can be fairly well prepared to integrate successfully should one choose to emigrate to the United States.