Temple University Rome celebrates 40th anniversary

Jan Gadeyne teaches a class at the Roman Forum at Pompeii. ( Photo courtesy Martha Madigan)

In 1966, 36 art students traveled by ocean liner across the Atlantic to begin their studies at a new study abroad program created by former Tyler School of Art Dean Charles LeClair in the Villa Caproni, a dignified 19th-century building overlooking the Tiber River in the heart of Rome.

Temple University Rome still calls the Villa Caproni home, but now, as the University celebrates the program’s 40th anniversary, Temple Rome has grown into one of the largest and longest-standing study abroad programs in Italy.

These days, about 650 students a year from more than 45 different universities — more than half of whom are Temple students — attend Temple University Rome to study visual arts, liberal arts, Italian studies, architecture, landscape architecture, international business and law with the program’s 40 faculty members.

The Villa Caproni now boasts high-tech “smart” classrooms, wireless Internet access, a computer lab with 23 workstations, digital photo labs, darkrooms, a printmaking studio, a sculpture studio, a computerized architecture studio, an art gallery and a 16,000-volume English language library — the third largest in Rome.

“In the world of study abroad, 40 years is a long time,” said Denise Connerty, director of Temple’s International Programs. “Temple University Rome is unique in higher education. The breadth and quality of the Rome program’s academic offerings — and the fact that we have our own state-of-the-art facility — make Temple a national player in international education.”

The program has continued to grow in recent months, adding internship programs, offering new opportunities for students to live in the homes of Italian families, and entering a cooperative academic and cultural exchange agreement with the University of Rome, La Sapienza, Rome’s first state university and one of Europe’s oldest.

Italian sculptor and Temple Rome instructor Roberto Mannino demonstrates a technique in a sculpture class. (Photo courtesy Kim Strommen)

Yet according to Kim Strommen, Temple Rome’s dean since 1991, the program’s primary asset will always be location, location, location.

“What makes or program special are Rome and its 2,000-year history as the source for our academic programs, and the ways we engage the city and the country of Italy,” Strommen said. “Rome is also a vital international city that offers a rich array of cultural events for our students, plus simple pleasures for daily life.”

Strommen’s tireless efforts to integrate Temple Rome’s programs and students into the life of the city have been aided by the Villa Caproni’s prime spot in the city’s center.

“We’re located near the Piazza del Popolo, the historic entrance to Rome,” he said. “Our location in central Rome enables our classes to access the city, and Italians to find us. For example, our gallery of art and our distinguished lecturer series have made us a cultural center that draws Romans to Temple, adding to cultural exchange and the life of the school.”

Strommen and his staff also use Rome as a staging point for firsthand academic experiences elsewhere in Europe.

“Students in our business program take weekend excursions to the European Union headquarters in Brussels and financial institutions in London, and our art history students study in Venice, Florence, Naples, Milan and other locations in Italy,” Strommen said.

Students in “Rome Sketchbook” classes have a study trip to Tuscania, a medieval hill town near Rome, to draw on-site for the day. (Photo courtesy Martha Madigan)

Strommen’s top goal for the program’s future is to attract more people and programs from Temple.

“We’re exploring shorter faculty appointments, which will allow more professors from Temple’s other campuses to teach in Rome,” Strommen said. “We also invite Temple schools and colleges to use Temple Rome as a home base for seminars and courses.

The Boyer College of Music and Dance, for example, will offer one-week courses in music education and music therapy for American and Italian music teachers in summer 2007, and the School of Dentistry will host seminars on our campus during this academic year.”

The benefits of experiencing study abroad in Rome have jump-started many a career. U.S. diplomat Barbara Cummings, who took a post as minister counselor for consular affairs and consul general for Rome last year, attended Temple Rome twice — once as an undergraduate at Brandeis University in 1976 and again as a law student at the George Washington University Law School in 1979.

“For me, a benefit [of attending Temple Rome] was learning the geography of Italy, the character of the country and the structure of the political scene,” said Cummings, who spoke to Temple Rome students in the Villa Caproni in September. “The field trips I went on have come in handy. I learned about the Italian legal system when we went to the ministry of justice and observed a trial. We also went to a prison in Rome in 1979, and now there are Americans in that prison.”

“The most important thing about studying abroad as an American is that it broadens your perspective,” she said. “We’re very insular thinkers. The world is not just the U.S.”

Cummings insists that one is never too old for a little perspective broadening.

“Maybe in retirement I can come back and take some landscape architecture courses,” she said. “I’m not done with Temple University Rome yet!”

Professor emeritus Justin Vitiello gives a lecture in the Greek theater at Segesta during a weekend study trip to Sicily. (Photo courtesy Kim Strommen)

During homecoming weekend in late October, all Temple Rome alumni are invited to join Dean Kim Strommen at a special Temple Rome alumni reunion in Philadelphia. Events include a talk by beloved, long-time Temple Rome faculty member Jan Gadeyne on Oct. 26 and a Temple Rome 40th anniversary celebration on Oct. 27.

Next spring, 40 years of work by Temple Rome visual arts and architecture faculty past and present will be the subject of an exhibition at the Villa Caproni’s art gallery.

The 40th anniversary celebration will peak with a weeklong Temple Rome alumni reunion trip to Rome, March 3–10, 2007. The trip package will include a welcome reception at the Villa Caproni; a buffet hosted by the U.S. Embassy in Rome at the residence of the U.S. ambassador to Italy, Ronald P. Spogli; a private tour of Quirinale Palace, residence of the president of Italy, hosted by Contessa Maria Fede Caproni; faculty-led walking tours of Rome; an excursion through Umbria; and more.

For more information, go to www.temple.edu/studyabroad/alumni.

— Hillel J. Hoffmann