Study Abroad Office Makes Move Into The Yard

The Office of International Programs (OIP)—created to help Harvard students identify study abroad opportunities—took up residence yesterday on the third floor of Wadsworth House, where it will remain until moving permanently into a University Hall office next semester.

The move to the Yard comes after jurisdiction over Harvard’s Study Abroad Office, now the OIP, was transferred from the Office of Career Services (OCS) to the dean of undergraduate education this summer. This change—Geisenger Professor of History William C. Kirby’s first major decision as dean of the Faculty—was intended to ease students’ efforts to go abroad.

Harvard’s study abroad program had previously been part of its International Experience Program, which also helped students find work and internship opportunities abroad.

OCS will still employ most of the International Experience Program’s original staff members, who will retain many of their old responsibilities.

The OIP, however, will cater primarily to students seeking academic programs abroad, according to Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education Jeffrey Wolcowitz.

“It will not only be for academic study for credit, though that will be its primary focus,” Wolcowitz said. “It has a coordinating function for various programs that different departments, concentrations and areas of study use.”

Wolcowitz added that the two offices—the OIP and the International Experience Program—will continue to communicate with each other, as there will be “some overlap” in their functions.

The OIP will use the Wadsworth House facility only for the current semester. The original plan, according to Wolcowitz, had been for the OIP to move directly into University Hall, but problems arose coordinating that move. The OIP will now transfer to University Hall at the beginning of the spring semester. No new programs will move into OCS.

“This facility, being in the Yard, is a terrific facility for the students because it’s so central and convenient,” said Acting OIP Director Jane Pavese. The space had been used previously by the Harvard Alumni Association, which moved to a new Mt. Auburn Street location several months ago.