Professors Set Up Nicaraguan School

Two Harvard professors are helping devise the curriculum for a newly established summer school in Nicaragua where American college students will study Spanish and perform volunteer work in the community.

Thomas Professor of Divinity Harvey G. Cox Jr. and Professor of Education Noel F. McGinn, are two of the three directors of the Nuevo Instituto of Centro Americas, located in Estali, a small city near Nicaragua's border with Honduras.

The new school is designed to "help North Americans understand Spanish and understand what is happening in Nicaragua," McGinn said yesterday.

In addition to four-hour intensive Spanish classes five mornings a week, the thirty students for each five-week term will live with Nicaraguan families and will participate in seminars on Nicaraguan history in the afternoon.

Cox, who will conduct a seminar on Latin American theology at the school for one week in July, said yesterday. "One thing we need desperately is more mutual understanding, to provide an opportunity for people to see first-hand what is happening in the country."

The Reagan Administration's antagonistic policy toward the Latin American nation "to self-defeating and really offensive," he added.

"We still have a chance to build a very solid basis of mutual understanding with Nicaragua, but I don't think it's going to happen if we continue to try to undermine the government and the economy," Cox added.

Nicaragua has been torn by strife ever since Sandinista guerrillas overthrew the U.S. backed government of Anastasio Somoza three years ago. The United State, has tried to undermine the leftist government by providing covert aid to rebels fighting the Sandinistas.

This aid has been attacked by Congressional Democrats, and it may now be in question after yesterday's vote by the House Intelligence Committee to cut it off.

Beverly Treumann, one of the school's founders and a participant in the Nicaraguan government's 1980 literacy campaign, said yesterday that the country is much less ravaged than the American press indicates.

"A lot of Americans have visited Nicaragua since the Sandinistas overthrew Somoza, and what they have experienced in visiting the country is very different from their expectations," Treumann said.

Still Openings

The first term of the school is fully enrolled, said Treumann, but she added that there are still about 15 openings for the second term. Tuition is $6.50 per term.

While similar language and culture programs operate in Mexico, Guatemala, and Costa Rica, Treumann said that those schools are "designed for the purpose of making a profit," and don't immerse students in local life as fully as will the Nuevo Instituto.

Northern Nicaragua, where Estali is located, is a safe place for students because it is not an area that is affected by any fighting, Treumann said.

But a State Department official, who asked not to be identified, said yesterday, "I'd feel about as comfortable studying Spanish there as in eastern El Salvador. There really are many much safer places to study the language."

Three language teachers, including two Dartmouth graduates, are now in the country to train eight Nicaraguans to teach Spanish in the school

Treumann said that the Nicaraguan government is "very excited" about the project, and, along with the national teachers' association, it is helping set up the school