Earlier this week, The Hurricane reported that the Department of International Studies had been officially terminated, less than two years after the closure of the School of International Studies. Details have now surfaced at various informative meetings throughout the week, both appeasing and infuriating students.
Dr. James Wyche, vice provost and dean of the College of Arts & Sciences [A&S], made the final decision with the support of President Shalala.
“The only thing that is final is that I can no longer support the Department of International Studies,” Wyche said.
Word of the closure spread to international studies [INS] majors essentially through word of mouth and student emails – only three students were officially notified by administration of the closure.
Adele Bagley, Sebastian Gonzalez and Andrea Echavarria were called in to speak with INS administration.
“They told us it’s a ‘substandard’ program. . . it was ‘unthinkable’ how much money it would take to make this a viable program,” Bagley said.
Currently there is no listserv to contact all of the INS majors, but flyers and emails through an improvised list were distributed announcing the decision.
An informal meeting outside the Ferr