In addition to the core seminar/tutorial (semi-tutorial), each student would enroll in an independent study linked to his or her fieldwork. The seminar portion of the semi-tutorial would help prepare the student for the fieldwork. It would teach our students both about South African society and about the methods they would need to conduct fieldwork on the substantive issues. We believe that the substantive and methodological study should be carried out in the formal, disciplined, academic setting of seminars. Having achieved an introduction to South African society and training in research methods suitable to the settings in which they will be working, our students should be better positioned for the experiential part of the program, the fieldwork – initially, with EPRI and the Treatment Action Campaign and eventually, growing to include opportunities to work with NGOs (such as Mothers-to-Mothers and IDASA) or governmental development projects. By using the seminars as a springboard for conducting research, our students can learn from as well as about the people they meet in their fieldwork. The seminar/tutorial would involve classroom sessions, field visits to each of the students’ project sites, and thoughtful engagement with the academic supervisor of each project.

The experiential fieldwork component would include several parts. One would involve pre-term summer work in the form of a ten-week non-credit internship. Another would include semester-long work with twenty hours per week of research and fieldwork with EPRI or the Treatment Action Campaign and eventually other non-governmental organizations (IDASA, Mothers-to-Mothers, others). Some fieldwork programs (including EPRI’s) would be available for students enrolling for only one semester, others (including Mothers-to-Mothers) would only be available for year-long students. Full-year and Fall semester-only students would begin their internship in the summer prior to the Fall semester. Spring semester-only students would complete their summer internship in the summer following their Spring enrollment, but would also enroll in a Winter Study Project in South Africa. In the program’s initial years, enrollments might be concentrated in the Fall semester, depending on program demand, in order to ensure a critical mass of students. The program administrator in consultation with the core academic team will oversee placement and progress of the fieldwork. The fieldwork would be informally integrated into the semi-tutorial, as described above, but graded as a separate independent study course offered by the appropriate professor (initially, Michael Samson, EPRI Research Director & Williams faculty member; eventually, other faculty (UCT, Williams faculty based in South Africa, etc.) affiliated with the student’s host organization. The fieldwork would be preceded by a special orientation and relevant training.

The third commitment of the program involves two other academic courses per semester, to be taken from those offered by the University of Cape Town (UCT), the Economic Policy Research Institute (EPRI) or one of the joint offerings of EPRI and UCT. As a leading university in South Africa, the University of Cape Town offers a rich selection of courses in social sciences, humanities and other fields as well as a world-class faculty and an increasingly diversified student body from across Africa. EPRI offers courses (often jointly with the University of Cape Town and/or Maastricht University in the Netherlands) to national parliamentarians (both from South Africa and the region) and government officials from around the world. For example, EPRI’s course on national development policy is taught to Southern African parliamentarians and government officials and can accommodate up to twelve Williams undergraduates. A number of Williams faculty and staff have taught in this course. EPRI’s course on poverty policy and instruments (jointly offered with UCT and Maastricht University) is taught to government officials as well as representatives from international organizations (World Bank, UNICEF, ILO) and non-governmental organizations and bi-lateral development aid agencies (like USAID) and can also accommodate up to twelve Williams undergraduates. Most of EPRI’s other courses could accommodate only a smaller number of Williams undergraduates.

If the stated objective of Williams in Africa is to provide formal instruction about South African society and to facilitate fieldwork, the unstated objective is to minimize the security risk of doing fieldwork in South Africa and to ease the transition into an unfamiliar society. The risk of violent crime can only be reduced – not eliminated. The dangers are known better to people on the ground, which is one reason why we prefer to work closely with South African institutions and scholars. Knowing the lay of the land better, they can steer our students to the most appropriate NGOs. In addition, we think the seminars can help immerse our students gradually into South Africa. Rather than throwing them all at once into a different society, we should aim to develop our students’ survival skills more slowly and to educate them out of excessive or insufficient security concerns and into more realistic security considerations. The Economic Policy Research Institute (EPRI) has fifteen years of security experience to protect Williams undergraduates. During this time, EPRI has hosted approximately 50 Williams interns, about 70 Winter Study students and several post-graduate Williams fellows—with zero incidence of violent crime. In addition, the Committee proposes teaming with Interstudy, a leading non-governmental international education organization that runs integrated study abroad programs in South Africa, Ireland and Britain. The partnership with Interstudy will provide the logistical foundation for the program, minimizing the infrastructure costs and risks associated with building a program from scratch.


Administrative arrangements

So how are these objectives to be accomplished administratively? First, we propose that Williams establish an ongoing relationship with a small group of South African academics in Cape Town (whether at the University of Cape Town, University of the Western Cape, or Stellenbosch) who themselves conduct field research. EPRI would coordinate their involvement with Williams faculty in organizing the core seminar/tutorial. Jointly, the involved Williams faculty and collaborating South African faculty would constitute the core academic team. This team would conduct seminars for and help arrange and supervise the fieldwork of our students and offer advice and counsel to our students. Second, we recommend partnering with Interstudy, a stellar study away provider with a long standing program at the University of Cape Town to oversee our students in South Africa, to house and help with their orientation and access to UCT courses, to facilitate their transition to and immersion in South African society, and just to ease the many unforeseeable problems that will arise for our students. Third, we propose to preserve the post-graduation fellowships and to include the recipients of them along with our students in the seminar program. They would not be expected to take courses at the South African university (although they would be welcome to take them), but would be expected to participate in the seminar along with our undergraduates. We also expect that they would live in the same accommodations as our students. Fourth, we propose appointing a committee of Williams faculty and staff to oversee the program, including (but not limited to) Paula Consolini, David Eppel, Kiaran Honderich, Michael MacDonald, Ngoni Munemo, Kenda Mutongi, and Michael Samson.

We believe this administrative arrangement offers educational and security advantages. Educationally, it takes advantage of the expertise, connections, and local knowledge of South African academics while reducing staffing problems on our side. As a practical matter, it would strain College resources to have a full-time faculty member stationed in Cape Town (not to mention complicating the life of whoever assumed the responsibility); yet the program clearly requires continuity in administrative supervision. We believe that the on-going relationship with EPRI, a cultivated interaction with Williams faculty on leave or otherwise visiting Cape Town, the involvement of a committed circle of South African academics and especially a permanent relationship with Interstudy in Cape Town would provide the administrative structures the program requires.

This proposal involves a flexible opportunity for Williams faculty to engage actively with the program, but without constraining the College to ensure a rigid or burdensome obligation by faculty to participate. By linking with existing programs of the Economic Policy Research Institute and Interstudy, as few as one or two students could participate each semester—although we anticipate likely demand to be in the range of five to twelve students per semester. Opportunities for Williams faculty would be linked to student demand. Each student would enlist a faculty or staff sponsor/mentor for their experiential learning project. The faculty/staff sponsor might also be involved in the core seminar/tutorial, which would be organized on a semester-long team-taught basis to involve a flexible mix of Williams and South African faculty. At full capacity—involving twelve Williams students—the course might involve a full semester of Williams faculty involvement. This could be shared, however, among multiple faculty members. The core academic team would oversee the integrity and content of the course, nominating a course coordinator for each semester.

Besides teaching all or part of the core seminar/tutorial (involving flexible visits of two weeks to a full semester), Williams faculty will have other opportunities to engage with Williams-in-Africa students and Members of Parliament. The intensive courses EPRI offers always involve collaborative teaching by a range of experts. In the past, several Williams Faculty and Staff (including Ralph Bradburd, Henry Bruton, Cappy Hill, Peter Montiel, Thomas Powers, and Michael Samson) have taught in these courses, which have usually involved one-week commitments from faculty members over the summer. Other faculty members have expressed an enthusiasm for teaching in these courses. Participation in these courses is normally contracted by EPRI directly with the participating faculty members.

There is a deep interest among faculty members for engagement in this program. Aside from the Review Committee, those who have taught in South Africa or are likely to be willing to teach either short-term or semester-long include: Ralph Bradburd, Jerry Caprio, Douglas Gollin, Cathy Johnson, Peter Montiel, Thomas Powers, Anand Swamy, and David Zimmerman. The Economics Department-bias of this list is largely a construct of revealed preferences for historical opportunities—this list is likely to broaden considerably once the diverse opportunities available become more widely known.