Following the dismissal of the study abroad coordinator for the School of Engineering and Applied Science in November, Dean Feniosky Peña-Mora says the school’s global programs are in transition.
Regine Lambrech had been the director of global initiatives and education at SEAS, a title which has been eliminated. SEAS said that Lambrech’s responsibilities were transferred to SEAS administrator Jack McGourty, whose title is now senior associate dean of corporate, government and global engagement.
Studying abroad is notoriously more difficult for SEAS students because they have more required classes than students in Columbia College and each course a student intends to take abroad must first be approved by the University.
Ben Malec, SEAS ’12, who worked with Lambrech for his work-study job, said she had already increased the number of SEAS students studying abroad from an average of three in past semesters to eight this semester, and had helped dozens of students fill out applications and met with more than 100 more to discuss studying abroad.
“Lots of her students had no clue what happened until Jack McGourty sent out an email saying he was taking over,” Malec said in an email.
Lambrech declined to comment.
According to Peña-Mora, the change is part of a reorganization that will help more SEAS students travel to other countries by shifting the focus to travel during the summer and over winter break. He said the current system—12 SEAS students out of about 1,400 are studying abroad this academic year—is not working.
“Looking at the economics of the situation, we cannot have only a service that we only benefit 12 students. … That is not the best kind of arrangement you can have,” Peña-Mora said.
Many SEAS students said that Lambrech was a great asset to the study abroad program and alleviated some of the uncertainties in finding the right program.
“Dr. Lambrech knew a lot about programs in most schools,” Luis E. Peña, SEAS ’13, said. “She helped me out by pointing out important details and deadlines.”
Nidhi Shah, SEAS ’12 and a study abroad student at University College London last spring, said Lambrech “helped me through the process” of applying for the program.
“For engineering classes, that [credits] have to be cleared with the respective department advisers,” Rebecca Frauzem, SEAS ’12, said.
Peña-Mora said that because it is so difficult to study abroad during the school year, SEAS is working on two programs that will allow students to spend time abroad during breaks.
The first is an initiative to give students summer internships. Peña-Mora said that on a trip to Europe and Asia from which he returned on Thursday, he obtained commitments from multiple alumni to hire summer interns from SEAS.
“By doing a summer internship abroad, they are able to gain an industrial experience and at the same time also an international global experience,” Peña-Mora said.
Peña-Mora dubbed the second initiative—which, he cautioned, is still in need of funding—the “Global Exploration.” Students would spend a week between Jan. 2 and the start of the spring semester traveling abroad with a SEAS faculty or staff member and meeting industry leaders. He said this option would enable many students to go abroad because it would be “the least investment that we would require from our students.”
But McGourty noted that SEAS will continue to encourage students to go abroad. He said in an email that administrators “fully anticipate an increase in the number of students going abroad” next semester.
“As before, we are working with both students and departments to ensure that proper curricular decisions are made so students fulfill all technical and nontechnical requirements for graduation,” McGourty said.
Another SEAS student, who asked not to be identified, called Lambrech’s firing “shocking.”
“It basically said they don’t want SEAS students studying abroad,” the student said. “I hope students applying to SEAS know this before they choose to attend an institution that makes studying abroad just about impossible.”
But Peña-Mora said he believes students may have gotten the wrong message from Lambrech’s dismissal, noting that he decided to reorganize in order to meet his goal of sending every student abroad.
“I said, ‘This is not really helping everybody in the school,’” he said. “And we need to have every student be able to experience globally what is available.”
Additional reporting by Sammy Roth
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