Norfolk State University News April 2012 Norfolk State Goes to Cuba for Second Year For a second consecutive year, Norfolk State University students will travel to Cuba-something that not everyone in the United States is able to do. Cuba and the U.S. have a strained history dating back to the 1960s. Travel to Cuba is restricted by U.S. regulations to licensed travelers engaged in a set of specified activities. All U.S. travel to Cuba is licensed by the Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Dr. William Alexander, director of NSU's international programs, said the back-to-back trips to Cuba are quite significant. "Few universities-no other historically black colleges or universities (HBCUs)-have been able to offer any programs there because of licensing and other difficulties." This year, a dozen NSU students will travel to the country as part of a program that will also include 10 Tufts University students. The Tufts students will get credit through Norfolk State and the grades will transfer to their institution. All students will study at the Casa De Las Américas June 11 - July 23. NSU has working partnerships on the ground with non-governmental and community organizations as well as urban development and historical preservation programs, ecumenical and Afro-Cuban religious groups, and several universities. Student participants will receive nine credits in six weeks of Cuban cultural immersion, in which their trip cost will include instruction, academic credit transfers, travel to and from Norfolk to Havana, a travel visa, medical insurance, housing, two daily meals, on-site transportation and educational activities while in Havana. Dr. Geoffroy de Laforcade, an expert on Cuba and the academic coordinator of international programs, said that last year's trip was life-changing. "Several students are going back or have embraced Spanish language and the study of Latin American society," he said. "One, who is now an alumnus, is teaching in Chile this year." Another student, Lynn Godfrey, was so deeply touched by last summer's study-abroad experience in Cuba that she recently returned to the country. Godfrey, who is set to graduate in May, participated in a service-learning project on HIV/AIDS in Havana in March. "Students who go," said de Laforcade, "will discover how transformative world travel and cross-cultural relationships can be." SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-520-0593 Skype:sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree Street NW Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children. Register now http://www.hbculibraries.org/html/2012meeting-form.html for the October 21-23, 2012 HBCU Library Alliance 5th Membership Meeting and the Photographic Preservation Pre-Conference in New Orleans, LA. The Pre-Conference and Membership meeting are open to directors and other librarians.