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University plans new Passport Program

Students, deans and faculty members may soon be crossing more cultural borders through a newly planned project, the Passport Program, which is designed to promote attendance at University programs normally unfamiliar to students.

Participants in Passport will attend at least six University events such as programming on cultural issues, religious events, political viewpoints, social or community causes, or sexual orientations during the course of a semester, Assistant Dean of Students Pablo Davis said.

Criteria for choosing events will be self-administered by each student to include those events which the student might find difficult to attend out of discomfort or unfamiliarity, Davis said.

Organizers hope about 200 students will participate in a pilot Passport program at the beginning of the spring semester. There will be a student interest meeting held after Thanksgiving break, he said.

Students will be issued a "passport," a booklet in which they will keep a record of the date, time and reflections on specific events, Davis said.

Students who complete the program would be provided with some sort of reward, said Tasha Levy, interim assistant dean of the Office of African American Affairs. Possible incentives would include free entry to certain cultural events, extra ART$ or discounts on travel expenses. A celebration for participants who complete the program is also being considered.

The idea is that these incentives "work with the mission and goal of the program to promote cultural awareness," Levy said.

Funding for the Passport Program has not yet been determined, but a deans' working group is looking into the needs of the program. The group is currently putting together a budget, Assistant Dean of Students Ajay Nair said.

At the end of next semester, Passport Program organizers will evaluate the success of the program. The analysis of the program will be largely based on the number of students who complete the program, Nair said. The analysis also may include satisfaction surveys of student participation, he said.

The idea for the Passport Program emerged last summer during strategic planning sessions for the Office of the Dean of Students.

The Passport Program will enable the office to meet one of its educational objectives: to aid students in developing skills to interact with people both like and unlike themselves by "seeking out relationships and situations that challenge and broaden perspectives."

Students also have expressed an interest in promoting cross-cultural attendance both at Leadership 2000 and Reflections on Complexions, Davis said.

"The overriding goal of Passport is for the University students in partnership with faculty and administration to come up with a way to dramatically nourish learning and the growth and sense of interconnection just from what we've got here already - the people and the programs," he said.

The Passport Program Web site is accessible online at http://www.virginia.edu/deanofstudents/passport.html.

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