Centre-in-Strasbourg, 2009-2010

The Centre-in-Strasbourg program is located in Strasbourg, France, just across the Rhine River from Germany, four hours by train from Paris, and about an hour north of Switzerland. Strasbourg, with a metropolitan population of 400,000, has been called “the crossroads of Europe” because of its location at Europe’s center. Its famed Gothic cathedral, begun in 1176 C.E., sits on this island-city’s highest spot—the same spot on which sat a Roman fort when Julius Caesar was in the area during his Germanic campaigns of the first century B.C.E. Strasbourg’s political importance grows each year with the increasing importance of the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, and the Court of Human Rights that are located there. Students interested in this program will be particularly interested in the latest two Strasbourg “Travel Journals” on the Centre website, written by Mark Mallman ’07 and Rebecca Bush ’06.

Eligibility
Any rising sophomore, junior, or senior who has not yet participated in a residential, long-term study-abroad program may apply. Centre accepts 22-24 students each term who qualify on the basis of academic seriousness, social maturity, and faculty recommendations. The selection committee retains the right not to select students who have had run-ins with the Student Life Office for their campus behavior. The committee’s list is vetted by the Dean of Student Life and the Associate Dean before students are notified.
While this is not a language immersion program, the selection committee typically gives preference to students who have studied French or German. Students selected for the fall term who have never studied French take beginning French while in Strasbourg; students selected for the spring term who have never studied French must take French 110 for a grade during the preceding fall term.

Centre Director for 2009-2010
Next year’s Strasbourg program will be directed by Dr. Ken Keffer, Stodghill Professor of French and German, who has had extensive experience traveling and living abroad. Dr. Keffer was the founding director of the program in 1991-92 and has directed it on three different occasions. Two of his academic interests are Montaigne and the aesthetics of Kant, and he has a wide knowledge of French and German language and culture.

Living Arrangements in Strasbourg
Home-stays with French or German-speaking families are the norm for those with advanced language skills and those who want to improve their fluency rapidly. Students in home-stays typically have dinner two or three times a week with their home-stay families. Centre also rents three apartments, all conveniently located in the downtown area within a fifteen-minute walk of the Centre office and classroom. These apartments are fully furnished and include linens, a television, a kitchen with cooking utensils and dishes, a washing machine, and a telephone. Because these apartments are in regular apartment buildings among French families and not in a college dormitory, Strasbourg students must be super responsible about noise: no loud music or even loud talking in the evenings. The same common-sense fire-safety rules about no candles or smoking or Halogen lamps that apply on campus apply in these apartments. During the apartment orientation session with the Coordinator and Director, all students must sign a statement about keeping the apartment neat and clean and appropriate apartment behavior. Any student breaking this signed agreement will be dismissed from the apartment and be personally responsible for finding and paying for housing himself or herself.

Food Money and Eating
Students studying abroad are charged for the regular Centre board plan. They are then given food money at regular intervals while abroad and learn to shop in the markets and prepare their meals, usually as a group, in their apartment kitchens. In the past, students have become experts at finding inexpensive, fresh ingredients and preparing simple, healthy, and delicious fare. To prepare for the program, you should practice making a few recipes before you leave. Centre will pay for occasional group meals, for a two-night/three-day excursion to Paris, and for an art and architecture trip in the region that all students take.

Classroom Facilities in Strasbourg
The Centre classroom area is located at the very center of town, just off the main square, Place Kleber. It includes a classroom that looks out on the Strasbourg cathedral, a study and lunch room, a computer room with a small library, the coordinator’s office, and a storeroom. The noiseless, eco-friendly electric tram stops directly in front of the building.

Courses Offered during 2009-2010
All students will be assigned a French course at the appropriate level and English 235, Conversations on European Literature taught by Prof. Keffer. A course on masterpieces of European prose fiction from the Renaissance to the 20th century including Erasmus, Cervantes, Goethe, Tolstoy, Proust and Solzhenitsyn (from the Northon Anthology of World Masterpieces, 5th Edition, 1987). (This course may be cross-listed with German for students having German language skills.)

To prepare for Strasbourg 2009-10, there will be three required meetings this spring and some assigned pre-program reading. Check Professor Keffer’s website http://web.centre.edu/keffer/videos for updates and more information on courses.

In addition to a French and the English 235 courses, you will select two of the following three courses:

a. Art History 370: North European Art from the Early Christian Period to the Renaissance. A study of the paintings, mosaics, stained glass, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, early Christian basilicas, Romanesque churches, and Gothic cathedrals. Includes visits to churches and museums in Strasbourg, Alsace, Germany, and Switzerland. No prerequisites. Taught by Prof. Kate Sowley.

b. Environmental Studies 251: Art of Walking. An inquiry into the experience of walking in Europe. In addition to classroom study, this course includes a dozen long walks in the city of Strasbourg, the Vosges Mountains, and the Black Forest nearby. Aristotle’s writings on the natural world (Physics, Parts of Animals, On the Heavens) together with the digressive Essays of the first French anthropologist, Michel de Montaigne, provide key literary-philosophical grounding for a course emphasizing the interplay of ecological and artistic issues; students keep a Walking Journal. In English, no prerequisites; taught by Prof. Ken Keffer

c. Government 461: The Construction of Europe. This course capitalizes on Strasbourg’s location at the geographical center of Europe and as the home of the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, and the Court of Human Rights. The course emphasizes issues of human rights and includes trips to various Strasbourg institutions. No prerequisites; taught by Prof. Pierre Nuss.

Internet, Laptops, & Cyber-cafes
Constant communication with everyone in the world is less available in Strasbourg than it is in Danville. Indeed, if you want to spend huge hunks of time Facebooking and Skyping and avoiding the environment and people around you, you should not apply for this program; you can do those things in Danville and save the slot for students more interested in being immersed in Strasbourg, France, and Europe. There is a computer with an internet connection in the classroom computer room that you may use to make personal travel arrangements and send and receive email on a limited basis—and a wireless system that usually works in the classroom area. Although you may turn in all work hand-written, if you own a laptop, you should definitely take it.
In Strasbourg as in all major European cities, there are now many cyber-cafes where, for a small fee, you may make your personal travel arrangements and send and receive email. Some students find it useful to get a Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail account in addition to their Centre account, which is accessible off campus through https://exchange.centre.edu/exchange.

Accessing Netlibrary:
Any Centre student studying abroad should be able to access the articles in any of the databases we subscribe to if they go through the library home page. However, Netlibrary, from whom we get most of our e-books, requires students to set up an account WHILE THEY ARE ON CAMPUS, before it will let them access any of its electronic books off-campus. Setting up the account is a very simple process and the library staff can assist students in doing so.

Grades / Independent Studies
Mid-term warning grades of D or U are issued after the seventh week of the regular term, just as in Danville. All Strasbourg courses count in the GPA, just as in Danville. The Pass-Unsatisfactory option is not available in any Centre study-abroad program. Only students whose schedules require that they take a particular course not offered in Strasbourg in order to graduate on time have the possibility of arranging an independent study with a professor in Danville.

Apartment Contract and Upkeep
You are required to sign an apartment contract during the Coordinator’s and Director’s apartment orientation and to keep your apartment clean and in good order throughout the entire term. The Director and Coordinator have the right to inspect your apartment at any time, and the right to dismiss you from the apartment if you do not live up to the signed agreement. The day after the mid-term break, the Director will make a mid-course apartment inspection to determine things that need to be repaired or purchased. . On the last evening of your stay, they will conduct a penultimate inspection and assess all apartment members equally the money needed to replace broken items and/or pay for professional cleaning. The last inspection occurs the day after you leave; this is to make certain you’ve stripped the linens from your beds, totally cleaned out your refrigerator, not left wet towels to mildew, taken out all of the trash, etc.

No Overnight Guests in Apartments
Because of liability issues, no overnight guests may stay in the Centre apartments, even for a single night. No exceptions can be granted to this rule. Infraction of this rule will result in your immediate dismissal from the program with none of your semester’s tuition returned. The Director will be happy to provide you with a list of Strasbourg hostels and hotels of all price ranges for any guests who may visit.

Travel Dates; Optional Weekend Travel
FALL students should book their tickets to fly out on Wednesday evening, September 2nd, 2009, and meet Prof. Keffer in the Frankfurt, Germany airport on Thursday morning. (All flights to Europe arrive the following morning.) A chartered bus will then whisk you down the Rhine valley to Strasbourg, where you will get settled into your apartment or homestay. The first eleven days of the program are devoted to orienting you to living in another culture and to learning about Strasbourg—as well as Alsace, France, Germany, and the European Community. You will have time to practice the French you will need to get around and get a head start on one or more of your courses. The regular class schedule begins on Monday, September 14th, and follows a weekly class schedule of Monday-Thursday through Thursday, December 10th. Centre will arrange and pay for an excursion to Paris at the appropriate point during the term. Students who choose to buy a 10-day Eurailpass Youth Flexi may activate it after 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 24th, allowing them the option of traveling in small groups during seven weekends plus the ten-day fall break from October 16th – 25th. During your time away from Strasbourg, you must let the director know ahead of time where you will be in case of an emergency. Students will remain in the Strasbourg area before September 24th and after November 22rd, when the 60-day optional travel period concludes. There will be a Thanksgiving-in-France celebration at the end of November. The final examination period is Friday-Sunday, December 11th-13th; the final apartment inspection is the evening of Sunday, December 13th; and a chartered bus will take you back to the Frankfurt, Germany airport in time to catch flights back on Monday, December 14th, 2009.

SPRING students should book their tickets to fly out on Wednesday evening, February 3rd, 2010, and meet Prof. Keffer in the Frankfurt, Germany airport on Thursday morning. (All flights to Europe arrive the following morning.) A chartered bus will then whisk you down the Rhine valley to Strasbourg, where you will get settled into your apartment or homestay. The first eleven days of the program are devoted to orienting you to living in another culture and to learning about Strasbourg—as well as Alsace, France, Germany, and the European Community. You will have time to practice the French you will need to get around and get a head start on one or more of your courses. The regular class schedule begins on Monday, February 15th, and continues on a Monday-Thursday schedule through Thursday, May 13th. Centre will arrange and pay for an excursion to Paris at the appropriate point during the term.
Students who have bought a 60-day Eurailpass Youth Flexi may activate it after 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 4th, allowing them the option of traveling in small groups during seven weekends plus the ten-day spring break from March 19th-28th. During your time away from Strasbourg, you must let the director know ahead of time where you will be in case of an emergency. Students will remain in the Strasbourg area before March 4th and after May 2nd, when the 60-day optional travel period concludes.
The final examination period is Friday-Sunday, May 14th-16th, the final apartment inspection is the evening of Sunday, May 16th; and a chartered bus will take you back to the Frankfurt, Germany airport in time to catch flights back on Monday, May 17th, 2010. ***DISREGARD EARLIER START/STOP DATES; THESE ARE NEW!!!***

Pre-Registration / Convocation Credits
While in Strasbourg, you pre-register for future courses via email with your regular advisor. You will automatically receive six convocation credits for your time abroad.

Eurail Tickets
Information on Eurail tickets, which may only be purchased in the U.S. before you leave, is available at http://www.euro-rail.org. Participants in this program are not allowed to an unlimited Eurail pass; our experience has shown that this is disruptive to the program’s schedule and goals. If you wish, you may purchase a “EurailpassYouth Flexi,” which allows you ten days of travel within any 60-day period. In November 2008 the cost for this 10-day Flexipass was about $550. Recent Strasbourg students have felt that a 10-day train pass is sufficient and gives them flexibility to travel to further-away destinations via inexpensive air travel.

Study Abroad Medical Insurance
Students studying abroad through any Centre program receive travel and accident insurance at no additional cost. Centre’s Study Abroad Insurance, while provided through EIIA (Educational & Institutional Insurance Administrators), is administered through AIG Assist. Every student studying abroad with Centre College receives an AIG Assist contact and information card as well as a passport sticker. Each has the Centre insurance policy number, which is the only information needed to receive services. The categories of coverage provided are: accident and sickness ($100,000 limit with a $250 deductible); emergency medical evacuation and emergency family travel ($100,000 limit); accidental death and disability ($200,000 limit); and repatriation of remains ($100,000 limit). For specific questions, please contact the International Programs office at 859.238.5285 or lisa.nesmith@centre.edu.

Counseling and Support Services
The kind of counseling and support services available on campus are not available abroad. Because any significant life transition can exacerbate and complicate already existing mental health issues, students who are currently on psychotropic medication and/or have been in mental health counseling are encouraged to consider participating in the three-week Early Summer Strasbourg program or one of the CentreTerm programs abroad. In addition, those students are urged to meet with a Centre Student Assistance Program counselor prior to their leaving to develop a support plan for their time abroad.

Application Procedure
Pick up the application and two faculty recommendation forms at one of the three study-abroad information meetings or from the cabinet in the Davidson Room in Carnegie. Hand out your faculty recommendations at the very beginning of CentreTerm in early January to allow your recommenders plenty of time. Then hand-deliver your completed application to the Study-Abroad office in Carnegie (do not use campus mail) by 4:00 p.m. on Monday, February 9th. You will be notified of your status by e-mail on February 23rd. Because competition for slots in Strasbourg is sometimes strong, students are encouraged to take the essays they write as part of their applications especially seriously.

Program Cost
The cost (tuition & fees, room, board) for the Strasbourg program is the same as for study in Danville, except for a $350 surcharge that helps to cover some of the additional costs of housing in France. A $100 book charge covers all books you will need in Strasbourg, where students sometimes share copies of books and articles. In addition, students pay for their own airfare and make their own reservations to the Frankfurt airport, where the Director will meet them with a chartered bus. Recently, students have been able to find round-trip air tickets for about $850; the strengthening dollar and weakening oil prices may lower this cost. Some have found www.studentuniverse.com and www.statravel.com helpful in this quest. Most students say they spend about twice as much on personal expenses as they spend in Danville. All financial aid arrangements (both merit and need-based) remain in effect. Students with remaining loan eligibility are eligible to borrow additional money for these additional educational expenses. Remember that you may be able to save some money by canceling your automobile insurance while abroad, since you may not drive a car or other motorized vehicle while on a Centre abroad program.

$350 Deposit by Monday, March 2nd
In order to hold your slot, you must pay the nonrefundable $350 deposit plus the $100 book charge (or $450) at the Cashier’s Office in Boles Hall by noon on Monday, March 2rd. Nota bene: If you later decide to withdraw from the Centre-in-Strasbourg program, the $350 non-refundable deposit is, as its name implies, not refundable.

Obtaining a Passport; Obtaining a Visa
If you do not currently have a passport that will remain valid for at least one month after your return, you should begin the process of obtaining one as soon as you are selected, since it can sometimes take six or more weeks. You can now do this at the Danville post office at the bottom of Main Street. The main reason those without passports must begin the process immediately upon being selected is that you need to have a passport in hand in order to obtain the required French visa from the French Consulate in Chicago. The International Office will help you do this with specific directions for filling out the various forms and by delivering your passports and all the paperwork to the Consulate, as is required. (At the time this is being published—November 2008—, the Consulate is allowing Centre to be an exception to the new rule that every person must show up individually in Chicago.) The approximately $80 cost of obtaining the required short-stay visa will be added to your semester bill.