Students hoping to improve their Spanish no longer have the opportunity to study abroad south of the border in neighboring Mexico.
Last year, press coverage of increased drug violence and the fear of flu epidemic led the University to cancel the trip to Mexico in March after final preparations had been made by interested students.
"The University did not feel comfortable with the risk of traveling abroad," said Jana Gutierrez, associate professor of Spanish. "And certainly you can appreciate that we don't want to put our students in any danger."
Previously, Auburn sent students on a five-week trip to Cuernavaca, Mexico, capital of the southern state of Morelos.
Enrolled in classes at the Universidad Internacional, students lived with host families and could engage in a variety of extracurricular activities to help them learn the language through interaction and receive a richer experience beyond university walls.
Following the cancellation in 2009, professors looked forward to returning to Cuernavaca.
"We felt that, with the swine flu epidemic having subsided, we would be OK because in Cuernavaca, they weren't experiencing the same kind of violence you see on the border," Gutierrez said.
However, this year the University did not reopen an official trip to Cuernavaca, though students can still travel there and study with programs independent of the University.
When the Cuernavaca trip fell through in 2009, the department chose Costa Rica as an alternate location, and the program became the permanent replacement for the study abroad program in Mexico.
Costa Rica offers a comparable program for students, placing them with host families for four weeks while they study at the Universidad de Costa Rica in the capital of San Jose.
"What I love about this program is that it affords a home stay opportunity...while still giving students enough freedom to explore the city, engage with locals in Spanish and work on group projects during the day," said Almitra Medina, assistant professor of Spanish and the director of AU Abroad in Costa Rica.
The end of the foreign language department's program in Mexico coincided with the end of other study abroad opportunities in Mexico.
The School of Architecture ran its own exchange program for four years from a Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education grant that linked three universities: one in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Once the grant expired in 2007-08, the program ceased.
"We have built some great relationships through the program, particularly with our Mexican partners at the SOA in Merida, but have not been able to sustain a more formalized exchange," said Cheryl Morgan, professor of architecture.
The strength of the U.S. dollar over most Latin American currency makes studying in a Latin American country cheaper than programs in Europe, but the convenience offered to cash-strapped students is not the only reason to study in Latin America.
"(The press coverage) is unfortunate because Mexico is a beautiful country with a rich history, and for our students studying languages, the reality is that in the United States, the Spanish they will come into contact with most is a Mexican type of Spanish," Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez said she hopes the Mexico program will return, but also hopes to keep the Costa Rican option open, expanding students' access to Latin American countries.
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