University parts from NYU-Paris

Students looking to go abroad to Paris this Fall will find that their options are more limited than in years past.

Duke is no longer approving New York University's study abroad program in Paris. Now, the only program approved for Duke students will be the University's own Duke in France/EDUCO program, named for Emory, Duke and Cornell universities, who co-host the program.

"For a variety of reasons, it was determined that the Duke in France program provided Duke students with the best opportunity for an immersion study abroad experience," Margaret Riley, associate dean and director of Study Abroad, wrote in an e-mail.

But several students from both the Duke and NYU programs said they were surprised to hear that a popular study abroad is no longer being offered at Duke.

Junior Charlie DePietro, who participated in Duke in France this past Fall, said that last semester, many students criticized the program's limited accomodations.

"We gave pretty negative feedback about the EDUCO program, and the fact that they're only doing the EDUCO program now seems a little out of touch," he said.

Junior Caryn Schorr, who also recently returned from the Duke in France program, agreed that although she enjoyed Paris, the program had many weaknesses.

"Paris was amazing; the city was fabulous," she said. "However, I thought the program itself was not particularly well-run. Different people had different problems of varying sizes and degrees, and generally these problems were not handled particularly well."

Duke in France, like all Duke study abroad programs, requires students' grades to transfer back to the University, whereas classes taken through the NYU program in no way affect students' grade point averages. Riley said past Duke students have admitted to choosing the NYU program over Duke's program because the academics were less challenging.

But some students who attended the NYU program this past Fall said they were enthusiastic about the academic offerings, finding the courses and professors intellectually stimulating.

Those in the Office of Study Abroad said they also recognize that many students selected the NYU program because it offers the opportunity to live with other Duke students in apartments. The Duke in France program, on the other hand, requires a homestay.

The homestay best serves students as it ensures daily situations in which students converse in French with their families, said Michele Longino, president of the Duke in France program and chair of Duke's romance studies department.

"We have worked very hard to build up a collection of what we consider to be very friendly families who are genuinely interested in and sensitive to students' needs," she said.

Longino said the problem with living in apartments with other Duke students in Paris is that English becomes the only language spoken there.

"It is very easy to build a little cocoon of English in your apartment where you can go days and days without having to speak French, which kind of defeats the purpose," she added.

Although the Office of Study Abroad staff considers the homestay to be one of the program's strongest aspects, not all students agree. Some said they would have appreciated greater flexibility in housing from the Duke program, similar to the options offered in the NYU study abroad.

DePietro noted that in the end, his homestay was a valuable experience, but he would not describe it as the most positive component of Duke's program.

"People had very different experiences with their homestays," he said. "One of my friends had a great family. If she goes back to Paris she will definitely visit and stay with them. However, my family wasn't as warm. It was more of a financial investment for them to house a student than a cultural experience.

The Office of Study Abroad is making improvements to various aspects of the program. Although in the past the Duke in France program has required a more advanced level of French, the program is now changing to allow students who only have an intermediate-level understanding of the language to attend. Now, students will only need to have completed French 1 and 2 at Duke before arriving in Paris.

As with all non-approved programs, students will still be able to petition for the NYU study abroad, as long as they have an academic justification for attending that program over Duke's.

"Our stressing that our Duke students who are going to study in Paris are best served by our program does not exclude their being able to study with other programs by petition," Longino said. "For example, if the reason they were going to France was not solely to improve their French but to work on their already advanced cinema production skills and sophisticated film theory background, and no such course of study were to be offered at EDUCO or any of our partnered universities, they might rightly seek to study with another program more focused and appropriate to this highly specific area of research. That would be a case in which a student might try to get permission through the Office of Study Abroad based on the content of what they need to study."