This village of 3,000 lies in a remote region of western Illinois so poorly served by roads that its legislators once dubbed it ”Forgottonia” and threatened to secede from the state. Yet Elena Rafajlovska left the art academy in her Yugoslavian hometown of 600,000 to study at an American college here.
Elena, 18, and her brother, Dejan, 20, a dentistry student, came to attend classes at Carthage International College, which distributes booklets overseas that boast ”University Degree Programs in the United States.”
But upon arriving a few weeks ago, the Yugoslavian students found that there were no classes in sculpture or dentistry at Carthage International College.
In fact, CIC itself offers no classes or university degree programs.
”It is not exactly what I expected, so my brother and I are probably moving after the second semester to Chicago,” said a disappointed Elena.
The 52 students from Spain, Brazil, Yugoslavia, Korea and other nations-there are no students from the U.S.-pay about $12,000 a year to attend two-year-old Carthage International College, which has a stately campus, a student body, even its own CIC T-shirts, but no classes, no faculty and no official recognition.
This is the phantom college of Forgottonia. Or at least a college-in-the- making rather than a college in fact.
”I was surprised that the buildings on campus are mostly empty,” said Elena. ”There is no noise here. I want noise.”
The foreign students, who were enrolled by recruiters abroad, do attend accredited classes, but they are taught by faculty members from the Carthage extension of Carl Sandburg Community College, which is based in Galesburg about 80 miles away. In fact, the students receive credit hours from Sandburg, not CIC.
The CIC students do live in CIC dormitories, however, and they do take part in CIC social and sports activities-although the biggest trophy in the school`s display case is the 1992 ”Best Sportsmanship” trophy from the Nauvoo Wine and Cheese Festival Mud Volleyball Tournament.
Just what then is Carthage International College?
Right now, it is a business that offers ”a perceived college environment,” while the Galesburg community college handles the nuts and bolts academics, said CIC`s founder William P. Kuntzelman, 63, whose interest in helping foreign students acquire a U.S. education inspired him to establish this unique school.
Kuntzelman, a former suburban Chicago high school counselor, said that until it grows up and becomes a real college, his fledgling institution is more properly ”Carthage International Company.”
”Carl Sandburg teaches the classes and we do the other things,” he offered. ”We are like an educational brokerage, but if that sounds negative don`t use it, I have enough problems with negative perceptions.”
Kuntzelman had hoped to have an accredited two-year program in place this year, and a four-year program established in a few more years, but his global recruitment has encountered a world of problems, he said.
”We made projections and we obviously made mistakes, but the Gulf War tied up transportation and international travel for a long time and interest fell off because of threats of terrorism,” he said.
It seems that as the world churns, so does enrollment at CIC. About 20 students-15 from Yugoslavia-who had been expected did not show up for classes this year because of turmoil in their corners of the world, he said. And when Spain devalued its currency, the fledgling college suffered an $8,000 loss on tuition funds still in Spanish banks.
”You don`t think of those world events affecting a small institution in Carthage, Illinois, but they do,” he said.
In the first year, there were only 30 students at CIC. In the second, there were 50. Kuntzelman is hopeful that by end of this school year there will be 90. ”That`s fewer than we`d hoped,” he said. ”We think that 100 to 115 full-time students would help us break even.”
Although CIC has a campus, there are not yet sufficient funds to hire a faculty and thus obtain official operating approval from the Illinois Board of Higher Education, he said.
And so, CIC is not a phantom school, but it is bare bones.
Kuntzelman, who has a dorm room on campus and a home in west suburban St. Charles about 250 miles away, serves as CIC`s ”campus director, business manager, dean of students, director of development, director of curriculum and on and on.”
His toughest job is explaining what his young college has to offer rather than what it lacks, he said.
”It is hard to market and hard to explain, but starting a college is not something you do in a week. It is probably a 10-year process,” he said.
”Come back in a few years and we`ll be just a normal little old college nestled in a rural area 10 miles from the Mississippi River.”
On the level
CIC is not a scam, its founder assured. It is just a new college struggling to establish itself. ”For us to say we don`t have operating authority makes it sound like we have the plague,” he said. ”We are unique but we are not illegal.”
Officials with IBHE seem to agree that CIC is strange but lawful, and merely suffering growing pains common to upstart private colleges with more dreams than dollars.
”The critical thing is for people to understand what they are buying and for the college to present itself accurately in their advertising,” said Kathleen Kelly, deputy director of the IBHE.
Kuntzelman and his college have a few minor problems in the accuracy in advertising department, he acknowledged.
There have been complaints that recruiters for CIC who sign up students abroad sometimes embellish on the nature of the college and the community.
Kuntzelman agreed that slick English language brochures distributed abroad could be misleading in touting CIC`s ”university degree programs.”
”But in Spain, if we called them `college degree programs` it would be translated as a high school program,” he said.
In spite of the new college`s unusual operation and its isolated location, the majority of its students-many of them from affluent families and urban backgrounds-seem to have adjusted.
Different view of U.S.
The farm town offers a true-life picture of small-town Middle America in definite counterpoint to their Hollywood-inspired perception that Americans live only in the fast lane, several said.
”It`s very quiet, but I like it. You can study better here,” said Gustavo Delgado, 18, of Madrid, Spain, who plans to stay two years at CIC and then move up a notch-to Geneva, Switzerland, to study hotel management.
Although CIC is not yet an accredited institution of higher learning, it does serve its students well, claimed John L. Timmons, residence hall coordinator.
”I think of (CIC) as a soft introduction to the American culture and a very positive force,” he said, noting that many students prefer to hone their English language skills here before moving to a larger school or back to their home countries, where even a short term in the U.S. looks good on resumes.
The campus has dormitory space for 500 students, and a student population of that size would be welcomed not only by CIC officials but the host town too.
Since Kuntzelman and his investors purchased the 100-year-old, 20-acre campus in Carthage three years ago, it has undergone a metamorphosis from a white elephant to a rather curious beast.
The campus was originally established before the turn of the century as Carthage College, but that school relocated to Kenosha, Wis., in the early 1960s. In 1965, it became Robert Morris College, a two-year business school, that operated here until financial problems forced it to leave in 1989.
The college`s 14 buildings sat empty for more than a year until Kuntzelman`s group purchased it for a bargain price of $450,000.
Dream come true
CIC arose from a dream long-held by Kuntzelman, who is the former director of guidance at Larkin and St. Edward high schools in Elgin. An avid traveler, he is also founder of a non-profit high school foreign exchange program, the Center for Cultural Interchange.
Begun in 1984 with seven students, his exchange program this year has 400 foreign students, most of them from Spain, placed in U.S. high schools. It operates from a world headquarters in the basement of Kuntzelman`s St. Charles home. An office in Madrid is run by his 41-year-old son, Jim.
Kuntzelman said participants in his high school foreign exchange program often lamented that it was difficult for them to continue their education here, so he came up with the idea of an American college geared to foreigners. There are more than 400,000 foreign students enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities this fall, according to the National Association for Foreign Student Affairs in Washington D.C. But Kuntzelman felt more would come if there was a college that catered exclusively to foreign students.
The opportunity to buy an entire college campus for the price of a mid- size Gold Coast condo brought Kuntzelman`s dream closer to reality, he said.
”My home in St. Charles is worth half that, so that`s why it was worth a gamble,” he said, noting that the former owners left the campus nearly fully- furnished-everything from computers to dorm beds remained.
”It was like they had a fire drill, got up, walked out and never came back,” he said. ”We`ve had to buy a few basketballs and things like that, but we`ve only bought $80 in drinking glasses in two years.”
The school`s remote location contributed to the low price, but Kuntzelman saw it as an asset in marketing to European parents concerned about crime in America, he said.
”We advertise that small rural towns are much safer and mothers around the world agree with that,” Kuntzelman said.
Warm reception
Having lost its two previous campus tenants, the host community has worked to welcome its international students. Stores put up welcome signs in Spanish at the start of the school year and many residents volunteer to be host families for students, inviting them for meals and outings.
In a town with five taverns and eight churches, the students also manage to entertain themselves with worldly sophistication, townspeople said.
”They seem to have more disposable income than our domestic students,” said Jerry Bartel, president of the Marine Trust Bank in Carthage. ”It is nothing for them to go to Chicago for the weekend. They go to a lot of Bulls games.”
Carthage International College itself may be unique, but its students share attributes common to all collegians, residents said.
”We have a lot of problems with fake ID`s,” said John Laffey, owner of the Wood Inn Tavern in downtown Carthage. ”They say you can`t fake a passport, but we know differently around here.”
