In a year when many Americans are fearful of traveling overseas, a record number of Macalester students are studying abroad.

This spring, 151 students are studying away, a number that Study Abroad Coordinator Katherine Yngve said exceeds the highest she can remember. Although she was hesitant to declare this semester’s total the largest ever, she said that it is the largest group to study away in the last decade.

In the fall, only 79 students went away, an unusually low number, leaving a higher amount of spots open in the spring to fill the 216 spots awarded yearly. However, according to Yngve, that limit was exceeded by eleven this year due to the highly qualified applicant pool.

Study abroad coordinators across the nation thought the events of Sept. 11 might lead some students to reconsider studying abroad. “There’s been a lot of worry that the events of September would cut down on study abroad,” Yngve said. The effects, however, have been hard to see both here and around the country. Yngve pointed out that many Macalester students come to this school “already committed” to spending a semester away. Yngve said that after Sept. 11,“Mac students see that it’s even more important to have an international experience.” She added that this spring saw “a slight raise in interest in places that teach Arabic.”

Clearly anxieties did not go deep enough to discourage most juniors from travel. “I can’t say that it really had any impact on my decision,” said Richard Landon ’03. Anne Griffiths ’03 was “a little anxious” but not enough to keep her from studying in Wales. And Carly Schmidt ’03, supported Yngve’s hypothesis. “I always planned on studying abroad in the spring of my junior year.”

Although this spring is exceptional in the number of students studying away, Macalester has long seen more students studying abroad in the spring versus the fall semester. According to Treasurer Craig Aase, it is a trend the school would like to reverse. The current, unbalanced situation leads to fall over-enrollment, he said, and spring under-enrollment.

Yet according to Yngve, it is not just a matter of escaping the Minnesota climate. It is a national issue, and it is the result of several factors. At Macalester, sophomores have to declare their major at the beginning of spring semester in order to study away in the fall. Yngve thinks that is the biggest factor keeping students on campus an extra semester. Director of Residential Life Sarah Griesse also cited the fact that students want to “have a structured program to get their confidence up” before spending the summer traveling on their own.

Some language departments encourage majors to go away first semester of junior year in order to improve their language skills earlier in their school career. Schmitt, however, who went away to study Spanish, said that going away in the spring made more sense so that she could have an extra semester of study before she left. And not all students study away to learn a language.

Schmitt said the fact that most of her friends would be away in the spring also factored in her decision. Landon agreed that being on campus in the spring when many of her classmates were away was “definitely a factor that I considered.”

While more juniors away in the spring might mean fewer friends for those that remain, it does mean more space. Yet, according to Griesse, that space does not get put to use. “We don’t really recover numerically from fall semester in terms of housing” she said. Only “a handful” of students that had been off campus in the fall move on campus for spring, leaving empty dorm rooms and lonely roommates. Like many other students on campus living in half-empty rooms this spring, Natasha Boska, Erin Boeke-Burke and Kakki Rawson are sophomores living in a quad. With their roommate overseas, Boeke-Burke said there’s plenty of extra room and no prospects of anyone moving in.

“We always feel like there’s something a little bit missing,” she said.