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Off-campus program history

Throughout its history, ACM has coordinated a wide variety of off-campus study programs.  In addition to the current ACM program offerings, here's a full historical listing of all ACM programs.

International programs

  • Arabic Studies (Cairo, Egypt), 1970-71.  Students interested in the history, culture and contemporary events of Egypt and the Middle East attended the American University in Cairo. Fall semester included courses specifically designed for the program (including an interdisciplinary core course in modern Arabic studies taught by the director of the Center for Arabic Studies), and students were encouraged to stay for the full academic year to continue with elective courses.
  • Botswana: University Immersion in Southern Africa (Gaborone, Botswana), Spring 2008-Present.  Spring semester program.  Affiliated with the University of Botswana.  Originally founded as the Zimbabwe program, moved temporarily to Tanzania, then moved to Botswana in 2008.  The program was called Culture and Society in Africa through 2009.
  • Brazil: Semester Exchange Programs (Juiz de Fora and Brasília, Brazil), Fall 2010-Present.  Fall and spring semesters.  Affiliated with the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (UFJF) and the Universidade de Brasília (UnB).  The original UFJF spring semester exchange program was coordinated by Colorado College starting in 2001, until ACM took over coordination of the  program in Fall 2010, offering the program in both fall and spring semesters.  An additional Environmental Studies exchange, which includes both UFJF and UnB, is funded by U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE).
  • Central European Studies (Olomouc, Czech Republic), Fall 1992-Fall 2006. ACM/GLCA, fall semester program, called the Czech Program through Fall 1996.
  • Chinese Studies (Hong Kong), Fall 1975-Spring 1999.  ACM/GLCA, year-long or either semester.  In 1979-81, the program included a seven-week home stay in Taipei, Taiwan.  Study in the People's Republic of China, in cooperation with CIEE, was started in 1982.
  • Costa Rica: Field Research in the Environment, Social Sciences, and Humanities (San José  and field sites, Costa Rica), Fall 1964-Present. Spring semester program. The program was operated both fall and spring until the fall Costa Rica program was established in Fall 1974. The program was called the Central American Field Studies Program until 1970, the Costa Rican Development Studies Program until 1977, and the Tropical Field Research program until 2009.  Originally, students spent six months or a year in Costa Rica and the resident staff conducted a continuing research program to which research projects of faculty members and students were related.  There were plans, not realized, to have faculty members and students from Central American universities equal in number to those from ACM colleges participate in the program.  The program received support from the National Science Foundation.
  • Costa Rica: Language, Society, & the Environment (San José, Costa Rica), Fall 1974-Present.  Fall semester program.  The program was called Studies in Latin American Culture and Society through 2009.
  • Cuttington College (Liberia), 1963-71. A program for ACM faculty and recent graduates at Cuttington College in Suacoco, Liberia. The college, operated by the Protestant Episcopal Church, was the only example of a liberal arts college in the American pattern in Africa south of the Sahara. The student body of 250 (about one-third of Liberia's higher education enrollment) was drawn from about a dozen African countries.  The faculty exchange began in summer 1963.  In summer 1964, five graduates of ACM colleges were selected for two-year terms as teaching and administrative assistants at the college.  An important part of the program was library development, including the establishment of the first microfilming facility in Liberia.  When Milwaukee-Downer College merged with Lawrence, Milwaukee-Downer donated 46,000 volumes (duplicates of what Lawrence had) to the Cuttington library.  The program was supported by grants from the Ford Foundation.
  • Florence: Arts, Humanities, & Culture (Florence, Italy), Fall 1974-Present.  Fall semester program.  The program was called the Florence Program through 2009.
  • India: Culture, Traditions, & Globalization (Pune, India), 1969-Present.  Year-long program (March-December) through 2000; then changed to fall semester program (July-December). The program was first based at Deccan College, moved to University of Poona in 1974, to the Western Regional Language Centre in 1987, and to Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth in 1991.  ACM's first contact in India was through the Undergraduate-Year-in-India program.  A pilot program was funded by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation and administered by the University of Wisconsin in 1962-63.  Two ACM students and three UW students went to New Delhi to study and work for Indian social service agencies on assignments arranged through the Delhi School of Social Work.  The program was funded for another two years, and nine students from ACM colleges and eight UW students participated.  The program was called India Studies until 2009.
  • India: Service Learning & Cultural Immersion (Pune and Melghat region, India), Summer 2010-Present.  Summer program.  The program was established by a grant from the MacArthur Foundation.
  • Japan Study (Tokyo, Japan), 1970-Present.  GLCA/ACM, year-long, fall, or spring semester program.  The program, based at Waseda University, was called East Asian Studies in Japan until it was merged with a GLCA program in 1975-76.
  • London & Florence: Arts in Context (London, UK and Florence, Italy), Fall 1971-Present.  Spring semester program, which operated both fall and spring until the Florence program was established in Fall 1974. Called Arts of London and Florence through Spring 1993.
  • Mexico: Service Learning & Language Immersion (Mexico City, Mexico), Summer 2010-Present.  Summer program.  The program was established by a grant from the MacArthur Foundation.
  • Nation Building in Africa  (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania), Spring 2002-Spring 2007.  Spring semester program.  Moved to Botswana in Spring 2008.
  • Russia (Krasnodar, Russia), Fall 1987-Fall 2005. ACM/GLCA, fall semester program.  Affiliated with Kuban State University.  The program was called the Semester in the Soviet Union through Fall 1991.
  • Tanzania: Ecology & Human Origins (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania), Fall 1998-Present.  Fall semester program.  Affiliated with the University of Dar es Salaam.  The program was called Human Evolution and Ecology through 2009.
  • University of Singapore Exchange (Singapore), 1967-69.  Academic year (May through January) of study in Singapore.
  • Yugoslavia (Zagreb, Yugoslavia), Fall 1980-Fall 1990. Fall semester program.  Closed due to conditions in Yugoslavia.
  • Zimbabwe (Harare, Zimbabwe), Spring 1991-Spring 2001.  Spring semester program, with optional May term.  Affiliated with University of Zimbabwe.  Due to conditions in Zimbabwe, the program was suspended and moved to Tanzania as the Nation Building in Africa program.

Domestic Programs

  • Argonne Semester (Argonne National Laboratory, near Chicago, IL), Fall 1960-Fall 1977.  Students spent six months at the Atomic Energy Commission's Argonne National Laboratory: a semester doing a combination of seminars and research, followed by two months as full-time research assistants. The program operated both spring and fall semesters until 1975, when it dropped the spring semester. The program received initial support from the Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Foundation and subsequent support from the National Science Foundation.  This program was supplanted by the GLCA/ACM Oak Ridge Science Semester.
  • Chicago Program: Arts, Entrepreneurship, & Urban Studies (Chicago, IL), Fall 1969-Present.  The Urban Studies program began in Fall 1969, and the Chicago Semester in the Arts program began in Fall 1989 (which became the Chicago Arts program in Fall1995).  After operating as individual programs, they joined with the newly-created Business, Entrepreneurship, & Society program at a single site with an integrated curriculum in Fall 2008 as the Chicago Programs.  In Fall 2011, the three Chicago Programs were consolidated into the current single program with three areas of focus.
  • Children’s Theatre and Creative Dramatics (Evanston, IL), Fall 1969. The program, which included practicums as teacher-aides in the Evanston public school system and courses at Northwestern University, was offered only one semester. 
  • Geology in the Rocky Mountains (Colorado),  1967-1985.  Introductory summer program for pre-first-year or current students.  Originally, the program was operated in conjunction with Montana State University and held at the university's campus in Bozeman. The program was taken over entirely by ACM and moved to the Colorado Springs area in summer 1970.
  • Newberry Seminar: Research in the Humanities (Chicago, IL), Fall 1965-Present.  ACM/GLCA. Semester-length both fall and spring until Spring 1974, when short-terms began being offered in the spring. GLCA entered the program in Fall 1976.  The program originally drew faculty fellows from ACM colleges, visiting fellows from other institutions, and doctoral students as junior fellows (for example, visiting fellows in 1965-66 were from Oxford University and the University of Edinburgh).  The program was called the Newberry Library Program through 2009.
  • Oak Ridge Science Semester (At the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee), Fall 1978-Present.  GLCA/ACM.  This program supplanted the ACM Argonne Semester Program.
  • Urban Education (Chicago, IL), Fall 1963-Fall 2006, Fall 2011-Present.  Semester, term, block, and summer program. Called the Urban Teaching Program through fall 1974 and operated only in the fall through 1969.  Originally, the participants did eight weeks of student teaching in each of two schools, to provide some contrast between socio-economic levels of student populations, ethnic origins of school neighborhoods, or other relevant differential factors in the total school setting.  They also took seminars in urban education and urban sociology. The program initially received support from the Danforth Foundation.
  • Wilderness Field Station (near Ely, MN), Summer 1962-Summer 2002.  Summer program.  The program originally received assistance and support from the Wilderness Research Foundation, Quetico-Superior Wilderness Research Center, and the National Science Foundation.  This program is still active, with coordination of the program taken over by Coe College in 2003.
  • Women in Management (Chicago, IL),  1975-1982.  In cooperation with Keller Graduate School of Management (KGSM), a proprietary business school, the program arranged management internships for junior-year women from ACM colleges at Chicago-area businesses. The women worked for the three summer months at full-time internships and took two graduate-level business courses at KGSM.

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