When I arrived at IWU in 1987, students had to take 35 course units (roughly the equivalent of a regular
course elsewhere), except that each course unit equalled 4 hours elsewhere. Each faculty member taught 7 courses. A January term class provided students the opportunity to take at least the three additional courses needed for graduation, and could include an international (or domestic) trip in January. The trips were supported by federal loans. Faculty members were required to offer a January term class.
Up until 1994, I had edged my services marketing class into a 3 night stay at the Palmer House (as the students viewed it) or 4 days of site visits (as I viewed it) in Chicago. That trip included a performance by the Chicago Symphony or the Lyric Opera, a discussion with Information Resources Incorporated (an early data-mining company), the marketing director of the Art Institute, etc.
It was obvious to me, however, after my 1990 trip to China, that my “calling” was to take students overseas and share my background expertise and love of adventure with a January term class. What prevented that was that a member of the business department had a lock on the trip, and the chair insisted that (at the time), there could be only one business trip.
Fortunately for me, Dr. Kieh, chair of the (nonexistent) International Studies Department (nonexistent because it was cobbled together with faculty who had appointments in other departments, but taught an International Studies class) offered me the opportunity to develop a course on Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast for International Studies credit. That was my 1994 segue into teaching a travel course for over 15 years at IWU. It started in China, but gradually expanded to East and Southeast Asia, to Europe, and in 2001, a trip around the world. Most were in business.
In some ways, it got harder to fill after 1995, when IWU overhauled its curriculum, requiring only 32 classes, and eliminating J-term. Student protests, however, led to a voluntary May Term, and the university put one of its most powerful leaders, Mona Gardner, in charge of it. Despite my fears that the May term would wither, partly because students could otherwise work that month, and partly because government funding got cut off, May term prospered, and as evidenced by the material in the blog, I enjoyed the opportunity to travel in May, with students, and after those trips without them.
I was also a strong advocate for having two faculty on those trips, a cause abetted when an English professor had an accident and had no backup. I was consequently able to travel with Zhenhu Jin, Jerry Olson, Dave Willis, Jin Park, Tim Query, Ruth Ann Friedberg, Bill Walsh, Jim Sikora, and Ella Pana.
The two memories that stand out the most to me from this trip both involved Xiamen, one of my favorite cities in China. Known as Amoy in earlier days, it had, on the island of Kulangsu, the “other” International Settlement (other than Shanghai). With no cars, the island was pedestrian friendly, and still full of colonial remnants, including a well-deserved reputation for music. This trip, we managed to stay on the island, in what I thought was a wonderful old hotel, but which was so primitive that I feared I’d have to barricade the doors. It didn’t mollify the students that the Wall Street Journal staff was quartered in the same hotel–as a reward!
The second memory was finding a shop that could make the impressive scrolls that hung on so many public meeting sights in China. I commissioned one that celebrated the last January Term and the Weidade Jiaoshou and his xiansheng who were on it. The banner used to hang in my office, and is now safely secured in my apartment.
I think this was also the year we stayed at the Palace Hotel in Shanghai, across from the more famous Sassoon House (now the Peace Hotel).