{"id":1334,"date":"2014-10-02T19:00:57","date_gmt":"2014-10-02T23:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/?p=1334"},"modified":"2014-10-02T19:00:57","modified_gmt":"2014-10-02T23:00:57","slug":"centre-announces-new-study-abroad-centre-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2014\/10\/02\/centre-announces-new-study-abroad-centre-in-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"Centre Announces New Study Abroad: Centre-in-Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

By GRAY WHITSETT –\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>OPINIONS SECTION EDITOR<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Centre College has long been a standard bearer in learning across the globe. As their website proudly states, Centre is \u201ca national leader in international education.\u201d Indeed, with an impressive 85 percent of students having studied abroad, the liberal arts college has a right to be proud of its abroad department.<\/p>\n

Now with an already distinguished record the institution continues to broaden its horizons: in the 2015-2016 academic year, Centre-in-Gaza will be available for students interested in pursuing the hardest semester of study they\u2019ve ever experienced, with the distinct possibility of death.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not afraid to push the envelope,\u201d Director of International Education and turtleneck sympathizer Milton Reigelman said. \u201cWe practically invited the Civil War to campus \u2013 you think we\u2019re afraid of Israeli-Palestinian extremists?\u201d<\/p>\n

Heading the program is Drs. Matthew Pierce and Dina Badie, both with academic experience in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I\u2019ve never been to Gaza specifically,\u201d Dr. Pierce said, \u201cI feel confident my time in Iran will be useful.\u201d<\/p>\n

When pressed about the safety of the program, both were unconcerned.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be prepared and ready,\u201d Dr. Badie said. \u201cWe\u2019re expecting causalities to be extremely low.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program will be offered as a full semester study, as well as a three week winter term called CentreTerm, and will instruct students in the areas of Palestinian politics, economics, and religion. In addition, the curriculum offered will feature a special course entitled \u201cPAL 110: Introduction to Political Marginalization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reception among the students has generally been positive, with several having already committed to the trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s great,\u201d president of the Student Senate and study-abroad-aholic Logan Pauley said. \u201cSure, France is great, and Japan is fun, but anyone can go there. I\u2019m looking for something a little more intense and deliberately unsafe.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, not everyone was as receptive.<\/p>\n

Indiana Jones Professor of Religion and Archaeology Thomas McCollough voiced serious concerns about the emerging program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are only so many resources to go around in an area that small,\u201d Dr. McCollough said.<\/p>\n

A longtime leader of Centre\u2019s winter course in Sepphoris, Israel since 1985, Dr. McCollough has worked hard to secure his students\u2019 position in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Israel program has history in this area,\u201d he continued. \u201cIf Drs. Pierce and Badie want to continue with Gaza, that\u2019s fine, but they\u2019ll have to do it under our watch. We\u2019ve come way too far just to have some newcomers take what\u2019s rightfully ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Dr. Pierce had a different understanding.<\/p>\n

\u201cCentre-in-Gaza is actually a much older program,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe were there decades ago. We just want to revive a great program that\u2019s existed long before\u00a0Dr. McCollough\u2019s trip was established.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Badie also chimed in.<\/p>\n

\u201cMatt and I\u2019s predecessors built a terrific study abroad opportunity. I\u2019m not going to say we were doing things perfectly, but we were getting along. Then the Israel Centreterm class set up shop and ran us out. We\u2019ve been working ever since to nurture it back to its former glory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apparently, there have been tensions\u00a0existing between the two groups for some time. But Drs. Pierce and Badie\u2019s story, while enlightening, seemed too simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I didn\u2019t have much say in choosing Israel,\u201d Dr. McCollough retorted. \u201cCentre had been pressuring the faculty to get involved in the area for a long time due to its rich academic resources. Someone had to step up. So I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

When pressed on the issue, Dr. McCollough revealed other information.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never wanted to wind up stuck in Israel, but the administration had my hands tied. You have to understand that the Religion Department was under significant pressure at the time \u2013 we needed something to make us legitimate. Before you knew it, I was getting all sorts of funding from Centre, so much funding that I could easily stamp out any other program in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is true that the Israel trip attracts a wide following and has influenced many students in their perceptions of the people and circumstances in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did what I had to do with what was given to me,\u201d Dr. McCollough concluded.<\/p>\n

It seemed then that any simplistic understanding of Centre\u2019s study abroad programs fell far short of what was happening on the ground. However, in all the heated debate, some offered possible solutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been in favor of a single-program solution,\u201d Paul L. Cantrell Professor of Religion and College Chaplain Rick Axtell said. \u201cImagine if the two programs were able to pool their resources, both in Israel and Gaza, and back home, at Centre College. As it stands, Drs. Pierce and Badie aren\u2019t even getting a seat at faculty meetings. That\u2019s something that just won\u2019t work long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of what others think, the Centre-in-Gaza officials are moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited, the college is excited, the students are excited \u2013 this is an exciting time,\u201d Dr. Pierce said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to do what we need to do to have the program we want. And that\u2019s final.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: The previous article is from the CentOnion series, a satirical publication focused on parodying various subjects unique to Centre College\u2019s campus.<\/strong><\/em>
\nAs such, all content within this article is purely fictional and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Cento or Centre College.<\/strong><\/em>
\nIn addition all quotations used in this article are purely fictional and do not necessarily reflect the views of the individuals quoted.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By GRAY WHITSETT –\u00a0OPINIONS SECTION EDITOR Centre College has long been a standard bearer in learning across the globe. As their website proudly states, Centre is \u201ca national leader in international education.\u201d Indeed, with an impressive 85 percent of students having studied abroad, the liberal arts college has a right to be proud of its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,10],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-1334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-leisure","category-centonion","category-opinions","tag-centonion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}