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UB is resolute on Cuban
link
Program pursued despite
obstacles
By Stephen Watson , News
Staff Reporter. Buffalo
News, NY, February 28, 2005.
Thousands of international scholars come
to the University at Buffalo each year to
study, but Denisse Rondon is the only student
from Cuba.
In fact, the 28-year-old master's student
from Havana is one of just three Cuban students
currently taking classes at an American
university.
"It would be great if more Cubans
could come here like me," Rondon said
in an interview at a typically American
venue, the Starbucks at University Plaza.
"We are so close and we don't know
a lot about the life" in the other
country.
About half a dozen students from UB travel
each year to Cuba as part of a 3-year-old
partnership between UB and the University
of Havana.
But Rondon is the first student from Cuba
to come to UB.
"It's a big step for the program.
It's been a long time in the making,"
said Jose F. Buscaglia, a UB assistant professor
and director of the school's Cuban and Caribbean
programs.
The UB-Havana program is growing at a time
when the U.S.-Cuba relationship is decidedly
chilly, and both governments restrict travel
and contact between their residents. While
60 American colleges had academic partnerships
with Cuba as of last June, UB is one of
five colleges with an active program today,
UB officials said.
"We're in a pretty unique situation,"
Buscaglia said.
UB spent five years negotiating with Cuban
and U.S. officials to win approval for the
master's program in Caribbean cultural studies.
Students in the program take classes at
both UB and the University of Havana, as
well as at other colleges in the Caribbean,
but UB issues the degree.
The first class of five students graduated
in May 2004, and six students are to graduate
this May.
UB's program survived even after the Bush
administration put tougher regulations in
place in 2004, Buscaglia said, including
length-of-stay requirements that eliminated
summer and winter-break study programs.
"We're sad that many sister schools
around the country were not able to continue"
those programs, said Stephen C. Dunnett,
UB vice provost for international education.
UB is required to reapply each year for
permission from the federal government to
provide the program and is strict in adhering
to the regulations on travel to Cuba, Dunnett
said.
The UB students who have gone to Cuba say
that it was a valuable experience to live
and study in a country that few Americans
are able to visit.
"That's why I went the first time,
because it's forbidden," said Marielle
Mecca, a master's student from Buffalo,
who has been to Cuba four times.
Michelle Csonka, a Kenmore native and master's
student, spent the fall 2003 semester in
Havana, which has a population of 2 million.
"The people for the most part are
very welcoming," even to Americans,
Csonka said. "It's a struggle between
the governments, and people realize that."
Rondon, who previously took a trip to Boston,
said most Cubans are familiar with American
music and movies.
"In Cuba, we hear a lot about this
country. We know everything about Bush,
what the government is doing," she
said.
Rondon said she is adjusting to life here,
including winter.
"It's part of this experience. All
Caribbean children want to build a snowman
someday, because we see it on the cartoons,"
Rondon said.
Rondon is staying in the university guest
quarters at the Travelodge on Main Street
in Amherst. She likes what she has seen
of Buffalo, but said it doesn't seem to
have a vibrant street life.
Rondon, who will leave Buffalo in May,
hopes that more Cubans follow her to Buffalo
and America.
"This could help to build another
point of view of us," she said. "We
are not only Fidel Castro and the Cuban
Revolution."
e-mail: swatson@buffnews.com
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