It was embarrassing enough when an Eckerd College trip overseas last winter celebrating the glory of Europe culminated in a group of students sampling too much of the local vintage, insulting the residents and keeping hotel guests awake with drunken revelry.
After another student on an Eckerd overseas excursion to study human rights and diplomacy decided to settle a political disagreement with his fists less than six months later, the college had had enough.
As students begin shipping out for their semesters abroad this week, reform is in the air. Like many other colleges across the nation, Eckerd, a small liberal arts college in St. Petersburg on Florida’s Gulf Coast, is taking aim at what it calls the boorish behavior that occasionally makes the “ugly American” stereotype a reality.
While students were scrambling for visas this summer, Eckerd was revamping its paperwork, tacking on a contract in which students sign a pledge “to behave in a mature, responsible manner.” If they don’t, they face sanctions or fines or can even lose the right to return to campus.
Fears of terrorism notwithstanding, more American students are expected to study abroad this year than ever, fueling campus-based hopes of a generation with a global perspective. But the more popular excursions have become, the more colleges also have begun to worry about the misadventures of students overseas.
With at least 160,000 students overseas each year–more than twice as many as a decade ago–many college officials argue that they are exporting drunkenness, misconduct and other trouble to an unprecedented degree, prompting an overhaul of policies and practices.
“I had two students in Asia who decided that they would drop beer bottles on passing cars,” said Joseph Brockington, associate provost for international programs at Kalamazoo College in Michigan.
He added: “We are hearing from our associates overseas, `We’re tired of this. We’re not going to do this anymore. Don’t send us your troublemakers.”‘
Whereas students once immersed themselves in a foreign culture, often studying the language and society for years before going, today’s excursions often are quick group tours.
“We’re very clearly starting to get into the kinds of students who, a few years ago, wouldn’t have considered going abroad at all,” said James Buschman, senior associate director for international programs at Syracuse University in New York.
