The Study Away Program has, from its beginnings, minimized formal rules and emphasized individual and group responsibility for appropriate behavior away. What is considered appropriate is determined largely by the local context and local norms and practices. With certain exceptions, participating students have enjoyed a degree of freedom, both social and academic, generally comparable to that of their counterparts.

A guest student’s freedom, however, is different in kind from that of a host and entails certain unique obligations determined in part by the terms of the visit. The Kalamazoo student, as a guest, functions within a context that needs to be clearly understood. Kalamazoo College and the student are jointly responsible for the student’s actions to individuals and communities, to universities that indirectly subsidize study away, and to students who may want to study away in the future. Recommended and accepted as someone who desires to take advantage of educational opportunities, a study away participant is obligated to take seriously the role of a student, and the College is likewise obligated to see that poor academic performance and unacceptable social behavior, even though judged on a somewhat different basis, have at least the same consequences away as they have at home.

What, then, constitutes acceptable social behavior? Ideally, acceptable behavior should reflect such qualities as integrity, openness to the new and different, sensitivity to others’ needs and a generous portion of compassion. Minimally, it must include compliance with all local laws and regulations and a genuine concern for the mores and social patterns of the host and community, in order that student actions not be offensive either to the host or to the community. Student misconduct and poor behavior influenced by the abuse/misuse of alcohol and/or drugs may result in the immediate dismissal from study away. More generally, any behavior which in the judgment of the Executive Director of the Center for International Programs causes pain or serious discomfort to others or which reflects discredit upon the individual or upon the College is considered unacceptable and will subject the offender to dismissal from the program.