On October 13th, St. Lawrence University released the decision to cancel all off-campus programs for the Spring semester of 2021. According to the Associate Dean of the Center for International and Intercultural Studies Marina Llorente, this decision is made to ensure that students’ safety remains the top priority.

Since March, the Student Safe Travel Committee has been meeting weekly to consider information from the State Department, the Oversea Security Advisory Council, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), while monitoring the geopolitical affairs, public health infrastructure in destination countries, and transportation risks. “We looked at program by program, creating a matrix to weigh different kinds of aspects for the 30 programs that we offer, and sadly concluded that it was too big of a risk to send our students away,” Llorente says. “We were waiting until the last minute to see if anything changes, but instead of changing for the better, it changed for the worse.” 

However, some students felt that CIIS did not give an accurate representation of the likelihood of study abroad programs cancellation or what would happen if it was cancelled. One student voices their opinion: “I was very skeptical that any study abroad would be possible since the beginning of the summer and was expecting the cancellation much earlier,” they said. “The only reason that I held on was that CIIS kept going on like everything was normal and didn’t really ask us to consider the possibility of cancelling until it had already happened. I felt like they were gambling with our education as they made the choice to risk our in person position on the off chance that COVID-19 magically got better and Study abroad was possible; this important choice affects our personal college trajectory and it should have been up to the students.”

Llorente agrees that this is heart-breaking news to faculty, staff, and especially students. However, the CIIS Office picked themselves up and is now planning for the future. “It is very important that every student at St. Lawrence has the chance to have at least one off-campus experience,” Llorente says. “So, CIIS is offering 8 courses with off-campus travel components in Summer 2021 and are planning to offer as many programs as we can for the Fall 2021 and Spring 2022. Not to mention, we will continue to offer off-campus courses in the Summer of 2022 for students who won’t be able to participate during the academic year.” For Llorente, this setback should not mark the end of their international and intercultural pursuit.

Associate Dean for Academic Advising Programs Elun Gabriel agrees with Llorente. With the waitlist of Spring on-campus growing outstandingly with over 400 students on the waitlist and around 40 spots available, Gabriel, while wishing students the best of luck, wants to remind students that Spring remote and Summer on-campus are also equally rewarding. “While students have good reasons to not want to do the Summer semester, it is not meant to be a punishment or a negative thing,” he says. “This semester was specifically designed with sophomores and juniors in mind. We offer New York City and Kenya off-campus programs or 8 on-campus programs with short travel components, internships at the sustainability site, research methods in many departments among other popular courses. For the Spring leading up to your summer semester, you can plan your research project, take classes in Community College to transfer back to SLU to catch up, or to work in longer and more in-depth internships.”

As for Spring remote, Gabriel suggested that students can now find out whether their online classes are asynchronous or synchronous in the APR2 course description. This is to allow students to make choices in corresponding with their geographical locations or their preferences. Plus, he suggests that professors and classmates are always available for students if they need help with materials or if they need someone to talk to.

Both the Academic Advising and the CIIS are working to ensure that the students’ experience at SLU remains valuable. Nonetheless, students need to play a part in making this happen. Llorente hopes that students will continue to keep a positive outlook and explore the possibilities offered to them. Additionally, Gabriel suggests that students should not feel personally rejected if they did not get the semester they wanted. “I just want to say that it is not the case,” Gabriel said. “If a student didn’t get the semester that they wanted, they should reach out and talk to their mentors about how they can make their placement work. The support is there for them to grasp, and if they take a deep breath and sit down to plan out their path, often more than not they will realize that it can and will work.”

If students wish to be on campus for Spring 2021, they must complete the following short survey indicating their rationale for Spring on-campus placement by midnight EDT on Thursday, October 22nd. After students finish sending in their rationales for why they should stay On-campus for the Spring, the Semester Placement Committee will review them and immediately allocate the available 40 to 50 spaces to students. From now until December, they will continue to contact and offer students an on-campus spot if spaces open up. 

CIIS is offering New York City and Kenya off-campus programs and the application deadline is November 2. The application deadline for the 8 summer courses with travel components is December 14.