The University Senate is considering ways to make sure all students get a chance to study abroad after discovering a disproportionate number of those enrolled in science or math-related majors never get a chance to travel.

The university’s most powerful policy-making body discovered students with concentrations in physical sciences, engineering or mathematics are unlikely to spend part of their college experience abroad, said educational affairs committee chair Nick Hadley. Those majors’ vigorous requirements, specific course loads and focus on research rarely afford students enough time to go abroad and still graduate in four years.

“If one of our students wants to study abroad, it’s something that they take a hit for,” said University Senator Glenn Moglen, professor of civil engineering. “It doesn’t really seem terribly compatible with the goal of graduating in four years, for an engineering major.”

The College of Computer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, which, according to the 2006-2007 undergraduate catalog, had 1,320 undergraduates in 2005, sent just 10 students abroad between fall 2005 and summer 2006. The numbers are a stark contrast to the 301 students the College of Arts and Humanities sent abroad during the same period. However, that college also has a much larger student population of 3,259.

The committee began exploring the issue at the request of university President Dan Mote, who said every student should have an experience abroad.

So far, senators have found that financial and program obstacles are some of the main challenges for most students in those majors, Hadley said.

“I would love to go to a place like Israel or England – any place where I won’t have to speak another language,” said Matt Jordan, a sophomore mathematics and physics double major. “They’d have a much easier time finding people to sign up for these things if they had more programs where you could take classes for your major.”

Although the investigation, slated for completion in late March, is still in the early stages of data collection, members of the Educational Affairs Committee are already brainstorming other ways students can receive an international education at the university.

“What Dan Mote is driving at is giving students a chance to experience international culture in some way,” said Senate Chair-elect William Montgomery. “We’re not going to achieve 100 percent participation [in study abroad programs], as much as we’d like to.”

A committee discussion of alternatives focused on inviting more guest lecturers, expanding existing honors programs and encouraging more international students to study at the university. While committee members talked about few specifics of the proposals, they discussed the need to define what could qualify as an international experience in some detail.

“If a student has lived in St. Mary’s Hall [in the Language House] for a semester, then that must be an international experience,” said Valerie Woolston, director of international educational services. “There are a few programs like that on campus that I would consider a real international experience. But I don’t think any single course is an international experience.”

Contact reporter Alex Tilitz at tilitzdbk@gmail.com.