A select group of main campus students enrolled in The Politics of Social Protection and the Welfare State course were banking on a class trip to the Middle East this spring, but a lukewarm response to the offering by their School of Foreign Service -Qatar counterparts has cut short hopes of a spring break on Georgetown’s dime.

 “We deeply regret to share with you the bad news, which is not that you were not selected. Because of the lack of enrollment on the Doha side, the bi-local aspect of the course had to be cancelled,” Associate Dean and Director of the School of Foreign Service Mitch Kaneda wrote in an email to Georgetown students enrolled in the class.

The course, taught by Fr. Matthew Carnes S.J. of the government department, was set to employ real-time video exchanges between students at Georgetown’s main campus and its campus in Doha, Qatar.  A free trip to Qatar over spring break to meet the Doha-based students in person was also featured in the class’s curriculum.

The class, which was highly popular last  spring, focused on various aspects of social welfare policies around the world.

 “I thought this class would lend itself to the bi-local aspect very well, being able to interact with students in another country and being able to get firsthand experience in Qatar,” Carnes said. “Doha has grown so incredibly quickly but has a lot of inequality at the same time, and I really wanted to explore the politics of that area.”

Carnes had planned full immersion experiences at hospitals and other social service agencies for the spring break trip.

“Another great aspect of the trip was that it presented the opportunity for SFS-Q students and SFS main campus students to actually meet each other,” Carnes said.  “I was going to plan a group project for them to work on and present together.”

The SFS offers one bi-local course every semester, which has been highly successful in the past.  Because of the nature of the class, the number of students was restricted, and students were selected through an application process.  There were 64 applications for eight spots were received from main campus students.

But interest on the D.C. campus was not matched in Doha — only three Qatar students had signed up during pre-registration, a disappointing amount according to Kaneda.

“We were hoping that three would grow to six or eight, but as you know, the size of the [student] population is much smaller there, and we can’t force students to take certain courses,” he said.

After registration ended, the three became zero after the add/drop period.  

“And at zero, there was nothing we could do,” Kaneda said.

The bi-local aspect of the class was no longer possible, and the spring break trip was cancelled.

Kimberly Fernandes (SFS-Q ’11) had enthusiastically applied for the class.

“I’m not sure why there was such little interest from Doha this time around,” she said. “Until we received the email notifying us of the course cancellation, I didn’t assume that there would be this problem, especially since people have been so interested before.”

Kaneda cited several factors that may have caused the lack of enthusiasm from Qatar students, such as the fact that Carnes would be teaching from Washington, D.C., as opposed to in Qatar.  In addition, the spring break trip involved main campus students traveling to Doha, not vice versa.  

“It’s different — looking at a screen versus the professor being in the same room.  You want the professor to be around for office hours and more interaction,” Kaneda said.

Carnes, who has never been to the SFS-Q campus, wondered whether his lack of familiarity with the students in Qatar factored into the lack of student interest. Students often choose classes based on other students’ recommendations, and there might not have been enough awareness of Carnes’ class.

“I’ve been here for two years, so I haven’t been here too long, but I’ve taught about 400 students in the university so far,” Carnes said. “So, on this campus, there are a lot of students who could have pointed to this class. On the other side, I’m sort of an unknown quantity.”

The class is now offered as a departmental seminar, in the government department in Washington, D.C., and is no longer bi-local.  This change has increased the student enrollment cap to sixteen students.  

Future plans for a bi-local class are now tentative.

“After this experience, we don’t want to create expectations and be disappointed again,” Kaneda said. “So I think we have to rethink how best to [plan a bi-local class].”

Carnes also will be working on reconfiguring the bi-local class offering.

“I think it would be helpful for going forward to make sure that both professors and classes are well-known in Qatar, which may be done by including professors that have gone there or by having potential professors visiting and giving a talk at that campus,” Carnes said.