With study abroad participation increasing nationwide, MSU continues to provide leadership by offering a wide variety of affordable study abroad programs. In 1995, President M. Peter McPherson challenged the university to meet the diverse educational needs and interests of students through a variety of study abroad programming options and to see that all programs abroad provide opportunities for students to engage in the society and culture of the host country. Over the past three years, colleges and departments across campus, in cooperation with the Office of Study Abroad, have increased MSU program offerings by 60 percent, from 80 programs in 1995-96 to 129 scheduled for 1999-00. Semester-length or longer programs increased 150 percent (from 18 to 46), and short-term programs grew by 37 percent (from 57 to 78). Further, MSU study abroad programs take place in close to 50 countries on six continents.

Students are responding to the variety of affordable programs available to them by signing up for study abroad in ever-increasing numbers. Participation in study abroad rose by 85 percent from 1995-96 to 1998-99. Each year more students enjoy the benefits study abroad affords. In addition to facilitating their academic development and intellectual growth, study abroad contributes to students' professional development, accelerates their personal growth, and develops their skills for communicating, working with, and relating to culturally different others and in a global environment. Given these benefits, more than 100 program faculty leaders from academic units across the university and the Office of Study Abroad are committed to making study abroad a normal and integrated part of the educational experience at MSU.

The university continues to expand the variety of locations and topics of its traditional forte—the short-term (ten weeks or shorter), faculty-led program. Typically offered during summer session, these are programs in which groups of students travel and study with MSU faculty members who offer MSU course work in English at international locations. Representative examples of the more than 20 recently added short-term offerings are integrated marine resources management in Anguilla; opera on the lake in Bregenz, Austria; modern art in Paris, France; veterinary medicine in León and Guanajuato, Mexico; behavioral ecology of African mammals in Kenya; and "In Search of a New Democracy" in Ukraine.

Eleven more semester programs will be initiated in 1999-00. They are multidisciplinary studies in Los Baños, Philippines; multidisciplinary studies in Durban, South Africa; Scandinavian management perspective in Oslo, Norway; media and communication studies in Monterrey, Mexico; semester in the Caribbean; Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Exchange in China; Central European studies in Olomouc, Czech Republic; English studies in Aarhus, Denmark; chemistry and engineering in Stockholm, Sweden; business studies in Rouen, France; and multidisciplinary studies in San José, Costa Rica.

One of the greatest challenges, shared by most institutions with broad curricula, is to develop programs that meet the needs of students outside the traditional liberal arts fields. As is obvious from scanning the above-mentioned programs, MSU continues to expand its offerings to meet the study abroad needs of its increasingly global constituency and is experiencing considerable success.

Visit the Office of Study Abroad Web site at http://studyabroad.msu.edu.

—Debra Peterson