To the Editor:
As a recent participant on the Budapest Foreign Study Program, I think it necessary that the Dartmouth community realize the significance of the discontinuance of this FSP.
Social science majors are deprived of an incredible opportunity to experience Hungary and the rest of East-Central Europe, but the real loss is back in Hanover. The glaring truth of the matter is that Dartmouth does not have a faculty member in the economics, government, or history departments who is an expert in this geographic area. Given the College's increased awareness and sensitivity to special interest studies in a number of departments, I find it somewhat embarrassing that an Ivy League institution of our alleged caliber cannot afford to provide among the three departments just one expert on this significant region of the world. Currently experiencing intensive economic and political transition, East-Central Europe is a hotbed of change. The fact that Dartmouth lacks the resources to educate us about this area is unacceptable. How many students can list the national groups in the Balkans, trace their religious and political histories and clearly explain why these factors are resulting in the mass genocide that is occurring there today? Before going on this FSP I did not know the first thing about the troubles in the former Yugoslavia. My point is not to berate readers for not being informed on the Balkans, it is simply to point out the need for faculty in areas like East-Central Europe within the social science departments. The termination of the Budapest FSP is not a sign of good things to come.
ANDRAS PETERY '95
