SlowpokeBlog

I've received both positive and negative emails about my "Semester at Sea" strip. One person was particularly incensed:

As an alumni of the Semester at Sea program it is clear to me that you read a headline somewhere and wrote a strip. Take five minutes, maybe even go to their website, and find out about a program before you malign it.

Semester at Sea is not a new program it has a long history of success at the University of Pittsburgh and before that at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Its' "cruise ship as campus" is the only traveling accredited university in world and it exposes 1300 students a year to between 8 and 12 countries around the world. All of these nations are either 3rd world or developing countries chosen specifically to give students an opportunity to see a culture that would be difficult or nearly impossible (Korea or Vietnam) to see on their own.

Generally I find your work funny and well done, but now knowing that you do so little research into your topics, I doubt that your commentary on politics or current events will really mean much to me.

Ouch! Actually, this cartoon is informed by how the program is being handled at UVA. The administration has done an end-run around the academic departments whose courses it intends to teach on this cruise ship, angering many faculty. The anthropology department has refused to allow the ANTH course description to be attached to any course offered in the program because they have not been consulted to make sure it will meet the standards of the department. Since the Semester at Sea is so clearly academically problematic here, it's an open satirical target.

In today's academic climate, where increasingly only the wealthy can go to college, one could not ask for a better symbol of the commercialization of education than a campus as cruise ship. I mean, you have to admit the idea is kind of funny, especially in the context of UVA, where students often drive nicer cars than the staff. If it were on any kind of ship other than a cruise ship, and was actually academically rigorous, and gave ample need-based scholarships to ensure it wasn't mostly rich kids, then it would sound like a worthwhile experience to me. Americans desperately need to see the world, though I'm not sure brief port-of-call journeys qualify as getting to know other cultures.

If others have had good experiences with the Semester at Sea elsewhere and wish to tell the world that the way it seems to be working at UVA is not the way it has to work, write to me and maybe I'll print your letters here.