University of Santiago de Compostela Questions



Loras College will prepare you before you head overseas and continue to provide you with support via telephone and email once you arrive in Spain, but the staff and professors at the University of Santiago de Compostela will be there in person to guide you through your time abroad. Below you will find information about the roles and responsibilities of the directors of various programs at the University.

WHAT DOES THE ORIENTATION DIRECTOR DO?

The orientation program director is responsible for coordinating all aspects of the on-site orientation program. She contracts for outside teaching, room and board and touring services as needed; serves as an instructor/guide for local, logistical orientation sessions and may teach all, or a portion of, a required orientation seminar.

WHAT DOES THE ACADEMIC PROGRAM DIRECTOR DO?

The program director is an on-the-spot academic adviser. She checks over program grades along with the Loras faculty liaison.

The program director can also serve as a liaison for students, using informal channels to pass along student complaints and suggestions to faculty members. These are more likely to yield results if handled by the director than if proposed directly by students to their professors.

DO WE GET TO GO ON EXCURSIONS AND ATTEND CULTURAL EVENTS?'

Yes! The program director has direct responsibility for planning and supervising the formal excursions and cultural events, which enrich the program. The particular procedures and restrictions will be outlined for students upon arrival and throughout the semester. The director is responsible for making flexible shifts and changes in order to provide the best possible program within budget limits.

Student participation is required and non-transferable. Most trips are planned on a group basis and require advance deposits for transportation, tickets, guides and housing. The program director will establish procedures by which students make advance commitments to facilitate planning.

WHO DO I GO TO FOR STUDENT SUPPORT?

The program director is ready to help students in their efforts to understand and adapt to the culture. She interprets attitudes, customs, values and assumptions and explains how students can get the most out of their environment.

When students encounter unexpected difficulties, such as sickness, accidents, conflicts with authorities or unpleasant news from home, the program director will try to help. The approach is to work with the student as a responsible adult. Consequently, the program director will try to help students resolve their own difficulties and solve their own problems. However, when in the judgment of the director, the student’s family, academic adviser or home college should be notified, she will do so. Normally, this will occur any time the student is involved in an accident, is hospitalized or when the student seems to be in danger of losing academic credit or of being dismissed from the program.

For the majority of students, the program director is a resource that they use less and less as they become more accustomed to the culture.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR PROBATION AND DISMISSAL FROM THE PROGRAM?

The program director has the responsibility for maintaining good order and an atmosphere within which the students can feel secure and make progress toward the program’s objectives. On those rare occasions when a student’s behavior disrupts or endangers the reputation and good standing of the program, or seriously affects group or personal safety or morale, the director must intervene.

Intervention usually occurs in two stages. Students may be dismissed from the program without a warning. The students are always given the opportunity to present their own cases to the director, but the director has the authority to make the final decision.