wednesday, december 3, 2003
news
the university daily kansan 5A
COSTARICA: Program canceled
CONTINUED FROM 1A
program would continue. Yet, just a year later, University officials changed their minds.
Subtle changes
Carlin and Gronbeck-Tedesco knew that in more than 40 years of programs, the KU study abroad department had dealt with two student deaths.
In the early '70s, a young man drowned while on a University program in Ireland. Tragedy struck KU's study abroad programs again in 1995 when a woman was hit by a bus in Barcelona.
But Martin's death was different for Carlin and Gronbeck-Tedesco. First, a vicious murder, not an accident, had killed Martin. Second, Martin's death technically did not occur while she was on a University program.
Though Martin's tripto Golfito was independent of a study abroad program, it was Carlin's and Gronbeck-Tedesco's offices that were asked to handle the aftermath.
The violent nature of Martin's death, coupled with the publicity Golfifo and the University have received since the murder, also forced the University's study abroad office to reevaluate its practices, the program and the safety of the town itself.
Katie Nelson/Kansar
Structural changes to study abroad since Martin's death have been relatively small. The U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica now gives students a thorough, in-country cultural orientation. Previously, they went through orientation before they left. The orientation plays up the threat of violence more than past orientation programs did, Gronbeck-Tedesco said.
But many of the changes have been subtle. Carlin said the University used the incident as an opportunity to review its procedures.
A Golffito, Costa Rica, resident rode his bike toward the mountain that looms over the port town in late October. The University of Kansas canceled the Golffito Institute of Tropical Studies. a satellite study abroad program, little more than a year after Shannon Martin was murdered there.
"It forced me to reevaluate and look at everything we were doing," Carlin said, "and say, 'Is there anything more we can do?'"
An evolving economy
result, safety precautions have been more effective.
Students also have made themselves more aware of their surroundings since Martin's murder, Gronbeck-Tedesco said. As a
The town of about 18,000 that Martin studied in has been in a state of fux since the fruit and vegetable company Chiquita Brands. Inc. pulled its plantation from the area in 1985. The local economy had thrived because of the company's strong support system, which provided employees housing and medical benefits since investors first arrived in 1938. The town's economic stability reigned during the Chiquita era — Golfiteños could even play golf at a course on the edge of town. But after Chiquita's abrupt exit, however, residents were left hanging. After the plantation closed, signs of prosperity diminished. The exoskeleton of Chiquita still dots the city's landscape. Many Golfiteños still live in former company housing, which was discarded and left to them for free.
Residents, such as Martin's host parents, Odette and Marcial Porras, said the change caused many residents to turn to drugs. They said Gifito's port provided easy access to would-be users, including the two convicted for Martin's murder, Kattia Cruz, 29, and Luis Castro, 33, both of whom have rap sheets full of drug-related charges.
"This is the heritage that the banana company left," Thomas said.
Thomas said outsiders couldn't see the town devolving into a nest of crime because of a lack of local media, but violence had never been a problem. After Martin's death, the University sent several representatives to survey crime and safety. Among them were Gronbeck-Tedesco and Charles Stansifer, KU professor and expert on Costa Rica. Residents had seen a glimmer of hope in the Institute of Tropical Studies.
The Institute became a satellite program of the University in 1998. U.S. citizens studying in the area were telling people back home about the area, and local tourism began injecting money into the sluggish economy, locals say. Though program directors never
signed a written contract with the University, said director Quiros, its affiliation looked promising. He was stunned when the University canceled the program in July 2002, he said, because the Institute's classes had even made it onto the University's timetable.
Adios, Golfito
The program ended with a single phone call, Quiros said. The University didn't have any right to shut the program down the way it did, he said. The end of the program came from Gronbeck-Tedesco, he recalled. He couldn't remember specific reasons the director of study abroad had given him, but when pressed, he said it might have stemmed from sexual harassment allegations against another Institute faculty member.
Golfito prematurely. Carlin and Gronbeck-Tedesco said they couldn't comment on Quiros or any students who may have left the program. Carlin said a variety of factors contributed to the demise of the Institute. One of the primary reasons, she said, was the changed atmosphere since Martin's death.
Quiros said he had never confirmed the sexual harassment, but he remembered that at least one student had ended her stay in
But drugs have been around for years, Quiros said, a Golfto native, resident and University alumnus. He said the environment when the program was canceled was no different than the one Martin knew when she had studied there.
KU officials had discussed
After Martin's murder, some students continued to have a good experience, Gronbeck-Tedesco said. But for the first time, some said they would not recommend the program. With Golffito under the intense glare of media scrutiny, students began to experience anti-American sentiment, she said.
another key aspect of the cancellation even before Martin's murder. Both Gronbeck-Tedesco and Carlin had been reevaluating the necessity of the Golfito program. The University wanted more concrete ties with other universities so it could offer more amenities to students.
When the program was canceled, the University strengthened its ties with the University of Costa Rica program, which shuttles students to locations around the country.
"It was too much effort for such a small program," he said.
In the end, Quiros said he was glad to have washed his hands of the situation. He had designed and supervised all the classes and travel arrangements for the students.
Only so much
University officials are careful to point out that they can do only so much to protect students from
harm. Carlin said the recent death of Eric Wellhausen, a Mount Prospect, Ill., freshman who died after falling from a ledge beneath a seventh-floor Oliver Hall window, showed the University's limits in monitoring student behavior.
"Is putting a label on the window in the dorms going to stop somebody when they're drunk from doing this again?" Carlin said. "Common sense says, if you're drunk and you go out on this ledge, you could possibly fall and kill yourself. But when you're drunk, you're not thinking rationally. We can't hold every kid's hand."
In the end, Gronbeck-Tedesco said. Martin's death was something that could have happened to anyone, irrespective of location.
"I think the lesson is about the personal risk we all take," she said.
— Edited by Neeley Spellmeier
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