FAYETTEVILLE -- A semester at the University of Arkansas Rome Center until now has been an opportunity almost exclusively for UA architecture students.
But beginning in the spring, a new academic program will welcome 15 to 25 additional students pursuing a range of majors, said Curt Rom, UA's associate dean for international education.
In the 2015-16 academic year, 108 UA students attended sessions at the center, he said.
"We'd like to see that grow to 150, 175," Rom said. In the spring, the center could also see its first students from other schools within the UA System, he said.
UA has long offered a shorter five-week summer session in Rome with a more general curriculum that includes language, arts and humanities courses, Rom said. It has grown from about 30 students to more than 70 this year, Rom said.
"We see this kind of increased interest in the Rome center," Rom said.
To prepare for expansion, the university has shifted the UA Rome Center's administrative oversight and entered into a contract with business management consultant Ernst & Young.
Rom said the center will continue its partnerships with other schools. About 390 students from all colleges enrolled in center programs in 2015-16, Rom said. Auburn University, the University of Tennessee and Philadelphia University are among the schools that pay to send students to study at the UA Rome Center.
Only a few schools in the Southeastern Conference maintain a satellite campus in Europe, Rom said, adding that when UA System trustees visited the center last fall, they said they wanted to expand Rome programs, including to other UA System schools, while continuing partnerships with additional colleges.
There's no plan to reduce those partnerships, but the percentage of UA enrollees at the center might increase to half of all students, Rom said. He estimated the center's yearly capacity at between 400 and 500 students.
Safety issues
For the past year, Rom has been the university's senior officer for study-abroad programs. He spoke days after an American student died in Rome while attending an unrelated exchange program at the city's John Cabot University.
The news brought about feelings of horror for Rom's family, he said -- especially because his daughter, Clio, now is conducting research in Rome as part of a project supported by UA's Honors College.
"I go to bed very single night knowing I have a 19-year-old in Rome," he said.
Beau Solomon, 19, disappeared within hours of his arrival in Rome. He was reported missing after a night out with friends who last saw him at a bar. He then was found dead July 4 in the Tiber River. Police in Rome later arrested a homeless man on suspicion of aggravated homicide, saying that they believe the man pushed Solomon into the river.
Italian news reports stated an autopsy found Solomon was alive when he fell in the water. The University of Wisconsin-Madison student may have been robbed before his death, police said.
For Rom, the death "did nothing more than refortify the need for me to be rethinking and revitalizing all of our training, all of our procedures and all of our operations so that we can prepare all of our students to avoid these kinds of situations."
Open for more than 25 years, the UA Rome Center is housed within Palazzo Taverna, a palace Rom said lies in the city's historic center. No student has died while attending, Rom said.
Before UA students begin their travels, "we talk quite a bit about personal safety and personal behaviors," Rom said, referring to pre-departure training programs. Upon arrival in Rome, students hear from U.S. Embassy staff who also discuss health and safety issues, he said.
The city is sometimes referred to as the world's biggest college town, Rom said. The legal drinking age in Rome is 16, lower than the U.S. minimum drinking age of 21, but Rom said concerns about students and alcohol in Rome differ little from campus issues back in Arkansas.
"It's always difficult to monitor that," Rom said.
Students live in apartments arranged by the UA Rome Center.
James Vo, a UA architecture graduate, attended the Rome center in the spring of 2014.
"Anything goes kind of after class. They expect you to just be adults," said Vo, adding he "felt really, really safe."
He added that he also went jogging alone at night with no problems.
"We usually went out with our group from school if we were going to go out drinking," Vo said.
2017 budgeting
The new academic program will involve the humanities, history and international studies, Rom said, with other details still undetermined.
Also to be determined is the annual budget for the UA Rome Center.
"We are still working on the [fiscal 2017] budget and the costs will increase due to additional salary and travel costs incurred as part of the official program transition," Rom wrote in an email. "The funding source of the budget is a combination of program fees, tuition, and UA support."
This past fiscal year, which ended June 30, the center had a $2.2 million budget.
UA students pay special fees to attend school in Rome, including about $5,000 for the semester-long program. The fees and other program revenue help fund operations, but the center also relies on general university support, Rom said.
Students can apply for scholarships and may apply financial aid to defray Rome costs.
The UA Rome Center, founded within UA's architecture school, came under the administrative oversight of UA's Graduate School and International Education on July 1.
In announcing the move, Davide Vitali, the Rome-based director of the center and an architecture professor, said in a statement that the reorganization provides "the opportunity to integrate more fully with the University of Arkansas campus community." He referred questions about safety to Rom.
A $70,000 yearly contract also took effect on July 1 between UA and business management consultants Ernst & Young for global advisory services. The university entered into the contract after asking for bids.
"It's the function of financial affairs to assess the accounting including tax compliance, registrations, etc. of the university's international programs and ensure that all of that is being done correctly," UA spokesman Mark Rushing wrote in an email. "Financial affairs contracted with Ernst & Young, LLP for this purpose -- providing expertise to assess the accounting and compliance of the university's growing international programs."
The contract allows for Ernst & Young to submit work statements to UA for additional professional fees and expenses related to various future projects.
Late payment fees from the university's general student population are the funding source for the Ernst & Young services, Rushing wrote in an email.
The Rome center is the university's largest overseas program, taking about a tenth of the roughly 1,000 UA students who study abroad each year, Rom said. Along with efforts to grow the UA Rome Center, the university also wants to expand other study-abroad opportunities, Rom said.
Vo said he appreciated his experience in Rome.
"Rome was just a historic city," Vo said, calling the UA program excellent. "They're really interested in giving out the many different aspects of Rome's history."
NW News on 07/11/2016