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Holy Cross
prepares
to make Indonesia "come alive on
campus." By Phyllis Hanlon
 Westerners
often have exotic images of Indonesia, visions that link
this Southeast Asian country to other so-called "tropical
paradises." Strains of Balinese gamelan music filtering
through open bedroom windows; warm, moist breezes blowing
through lush gardens replete with orchids; goldfish swimming
lazily in a pool surrounded by green rice paddies-these
and similar exoticized visions constitute the Indonesia
of the more clichéd sectors of international tourism.
The reality of this complex, modernizing country is quite
different: The world's largest Muslim nation, Indonesia
is a cosmopolitan crossroads-a place that is very much
part of Asia's "tiger economies" with their current problems
and potentials following the Southeast Asia-wide currency
crisis of 1997. The sights and sounds that will greet Holy
Cross students who participate in a new study abroad program
with Universitas Sanata Dharma, a Jesuit college located
in Yogyakarta, Central Java, will not be the touristic
imageries of "tropical island" life but rather the more
meaningful, realistic portraits of a country emerging boldly
from economic and political hardship into genuine democracy
and human rights reform.
This past January a four-person
Holy Cross contingent traveled to Indonesia to forge an
academic, cultural, religious and Library of Congress partnership
with this extraordinary Jesuit university and also with
wider Indonesia.
"This blossoming relationship
with Indonesia had its roots in 1996 when Susan Rodgers,
an anthropologist and chair of the Holy Cross sociology
and anthropology department, made initial contact with
administrators and faculty at Sanata Dharma," says Stephen
C. Ainlay, vice president for academic affairs and dean
of the College. On each of her subsequent trips to Indonesia
to conduct research on Sumatran literature and art, Rodgers
nurtured a potential alliance with the Central Javanese
university, in concert with members of the Sanata Dharma
staff, including its president, Rev. Michael Sastrapratedja,
S.J., and Rev. Priyono Marwan, S.J., a psychologist and
head of the University's international studies program.
Maurice A. Géracht, director of the Holy Cross study
abroad program, and Rev. Anthony Kuzniewski, S.J., professor
of history and rector of the Holy Cross Jesuit community,
accompanied Rodgers and Ainlay on the 20-hour flight to
Singapore and three locales in Indonesia: the capital of
Jakarta, arts-rich Bali and the university town of Yogyakarta.
Yogyakarta is a center of higher education for the entire
country, home to over 15 colleges and universities, including
major medical and law schools. Yogya (as it is often known)
is the desired destination of many Indonesian young people
planning to attend college. A draw for writers, artists,
educators and religious scholars of both Islam and Christianity,
Yogya is the country's intellectual heart.
This trip to Indonesia offered
the Holy Cross group the chance to witness what students
will experience during their semester-long residence. According
to Géracht, Yogyakarta offers a "good blend of modern
and traditional life"-the chance to see university arts
performances as well as rituals and temple ruins such as
Borobodur (a major Buddhist shrine). Ainlay adds that Yogya
street scenes are constant reminders of Year 2000 Asian
realities: buffalo carts rumbling past Internet cafes and
street food stalls competing with a McDonald's downtown.
While walking through the city, the visitors observed that
small-scale commerce (for instance, batik cloth production)
has sturdily survived Indonesia's recent sweeping economic
changes. "We saw elderly people as active market sellers," notes
Ainlay, a sociologist with research interests in aging.
The group toured the campus and a Catholic teaching hospital
as well as some Indonesian homes where Holy Cross students
will reside during their stay. "This is quite a complex
program," says Ainlay. Noting that there is "an elaborate
support system" that includes experienced language instructors,
faculty advisors and housing supervisors, he adds, "We
were reassured by the situation there." This sentiment
was echoed by Rev. James J. Spillane, S.J., a longtime
Sanata Dharma economics professor.
"The institution is first-class,
with a new library that boasts state-of-the-art equipment.
The school has an online catalog and computers that rival
those at any American university," says Ainlay. The institution
dates to 1955, when Jesuits and lay scholars founded a
teacher-training college with five departments. Sanata
Dharma, Yogya's only Jesuit university, is now fully accredited
by the Indonesian government as a full-scale university.
It includes programs in Indonesian and English literature,
religion, philosophy, accounting, economics, tourism management,
anthropology, history, psychology, guidance and counseling,
mathematics and physics.
Holy Cross students will take
several hours of intensive Indonesian language instruction
each day, gaining a full year of work in one semester.
Georgetown University-trained linguist Ria Lestari directs
the intensive language program. Géracht feels that
living with host families who reinforce the language will
also assist in the students' total integration into the
culture, a hallmark of Holy Cross' distinctive approach
to study abroad. "In this way the students will be able
to navigate around the city within a couple of weeks," says
Géracht.
Géracht and Rodgers both
gave research lectures to Sanata Dharma faculty. Géracht
is anxious to expand the Holy Cross student community toward
Asia. "Our students need the exposure to non-Western religions
and politics. They need to see a different way of life
and culture," he says. Holy Cross currently offers study
abroad opportunities in England, Ireland, Scotland, France,
Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Mexico, Russia,
Peru, Japan, China, Sri Lanka and Cameroon.
Géracht, who credits
Acting President Frank Vellaccio with what he calls "the
Holy Cross signature study abroad program," notes that
12 years ago the institution's approach still mirrored
that of other American schools with a reliance on programs
that were "for Americans, run by Americans, and that deal
with American experience." Vellaccio insisted on a more
innovative, intellectually and socially challenging engagement
with foreign cultures. In the typical Holy Cross program,
students are fully integrated into the host institution,
taking regular courses and eschewing "American Studies
Institutes." Students live with host families, immersed
in local language worlds. Géracht believes that
forging a bond with Sanata Dharma University will further
the "internationalization of Holy Cross resources" and
help link the college to global communities, reminding
us that "where we live is only a center, not the center."
Holy Cross students based at
Sanata Dharma will also be able to take advantage of an
extraordinary arts and performance opportunity: Yogya's
superb national arts, drama and music conservatory (Institut
Seni Indonesia) will arrange for tutorial courses for visiting
Holy Cross students.
According to Rodgers, in U.S.
academia, funding for major Southeast Asian initiatives
is rare. She explains that small institutions vie for support
with major universities whose area studies centers are
federally funded. Happily for Holy Cross, two years ago,
dancer, actor and director Lynn Kremer, chair of the theatre
department, composer Shirish Korde, chair of the music
department, and Rev. John E. Brooks, S.J., president emeritus
and professor in the humanities, wrote a major grant proposal
to the Henry R. Luce Foundation to support a new Holy Cross
professorship in the Indonesian arts, targeted for Balinese
dance-drama and gamelan instruction. Holy Cross has an
impressive track record here due to Kremer's and Korde's
collaborations in creating such theatre pieces as RASA.
The new Luce professorship was funded, making Holy Cross
one of just 12 liberal arts colleges to receive these new
Asian Studies positions. "Receiving this grant is quite
a feather in Holy Cross' cap," says Rodgers, herself the
recipient of a 2000-2001 National Endowment for the Humanities
faculty fellowship for research on Sumatran chanted epics
in political context.
This fall, Holy Cross students
unable to travel to Yogya on study abroad will be able
to enjoy a taste of Indonesian culture in Worcester with
the arrival of Ibu Desak, the first Luce artist-in-residence.
A world-renowned dancer, singer and musician from Bali's
premier arts conservatory (STSI), Desak will spend the
next four years on campus teaching Balinese music, theatre
and dance. "She is one of the very few female gamelan directors
in the world," notes Rodgers. This situation makes Holy
Cross' burgeoning gamelan program unique among others at
such schools as MIT and Swarthmore.
The Holy Cross community first
heard the elusive sound of the Balinese gamelan in the
early 1990s, when Kremer and Korde brought this classical
Southeast Asian art form to campus. In 1996, Holy Cross
hosted Fulbright artist-in-residence Pak Cerita as gamelan
instructor and master dancer. His performances reached
a wide audience, including the Worcester city schools.
"At that time we borrowed a
gamelan," recalls Ainlay. Enthusiastic response to the
instrument prompted Holy Cross officials to commission
one. "Finally we had our own gamelan custom-made in Bali," he
says, in a village the travel group had visited last January.
The typical gamelan is a ceremonial, deeply spiritual instrument
made up of multiple gongs, bronze kettles, xylophones,
drums, cymbals and flutes. Sounds interweave their tones
to produce a percussive melody, for human and "spirit audiences." Ainlay
reports that "each gamelan ensemble is given a name-in
this case, Gita Sari, or 'essence of song'-and undergoes
a blessing ceremony before it is used. . It is truly a
work of art." The instrument is housed in the Brooks
Concert Hall.
Ainlay points out that such
cultural exchanges must not create a brain drain for Indonesia,
which needs to have its own highly trained college instructors
continue to teach in their own country. Explaining that
the Luce professorship is a visiting appointment for a
series of Balinese artists over the coming years, he says, "We
want the foreign faculty to infuse the campus with its
presence." He hopes that eventually a reciprocal teaching
exchange program may be established, giving Holy Cross
faculty the opportunity to go to Indonesia.
This fall also heralds the implementation
of the International Jesuit Scholars Program at Holy Cross.
Javanese and Indonesian Jesuit Rev. Justin Sudarminta,
S.J., will arrive on campus in mid-August to prepare for
a full semester of teaching and research. Fr. Sudarminta
earned his Ph.D. in philosophy at Fordham University in
New York. The director of the theological college in Jakarta
that trains Indonesian Jesuits, he specializes in environmental
ethics and Christian-Muslim relations.
The International Jesuit Scholars
Program was established by Ainlay and Fr. Kuzniewski as
a way to encourage to a greater extent an international
dimension to Holy Cross' Jesuit presence. While in Yogyakarta,
the Holy Cross group met with the Jesuit Provincial of
the region, Rev. Paul Priyotamtama, S.J., to discuss future
exchanges. Fr. Kuzniewski anticipates "a fruitful sabbatical
experience here" for the Javanese Jesuit and future visiting
scholars. While in Indonesia, "Romo K," as Fr. Kuzniewski
was often called, spoke with Fr. Sudarminta about his upcoming
visit.
James E. Hogan, director of
library services, did not travel to Indonesia with his
colleagues, but enthusiastically endorses the creation
of a Library of Congress site focused on the collection
of Southeast Asian materials at the College. Typically,
this honor has been reserved for research universities-those that
rely on the Library of Congress' Jakarta Southeast Asia
field office to identify newly published books on such
topics as Balinese art or changes in the Javanese economy.
Two years ago, Holy Cross officials gave William Tuchrello,
director of the Jakarta field office, a whirlwind tour
of Holy Cross, Clark University, WPI and the American Antiquarian
Society. The strengths of the College's various Asian Studies
programs along with its study abroad plans convinced Tuchrello
to authorize Holy Cross as a pilot program to join the
Library of Congress' collections service for Southeast
Asia. Tuchrello and his Indonesian staff will scour the
country for appropriate titles, keyed to Holy Cross' curricular
needs. The College will pay for the materials, but the
Library of Congress will provide indispensable help in
locating these on-site publications. "We will be gaining
invaluable intellectual assistance from the government," Hogan
says. Such growth potential in Asia-related collections
will assist in recruiting both new faculty members and
high-caliber students. There are benefits already: This
fall, Holy Cross will welcome Vietnam specialist and economic
anthropologist Ann Marie Leshkowich to its anthropology
program. The Library of Congress/Holy Cross partnership
may open the door to collaborations with other undergraduate
institutions across the country.
School officials at Holy Cross
and Sanata Dharma have considered the safety issues associated
with this impending partnership. "Indonesia stretches from
California to Maine, as far as distance goes," Ainlay says. "What
happens at one end does not necessarily affect the other
one." He explains that when trouble erupted in parts of
the country during the transition of power from President
Soeharto, the sultan of Yogya-the city's spiritual leader-drove
around in a car with a loudspeaker to reassure the people
that they were safe and that violence would not come to
Yogya. "We didn't feel in any danger there a year and a
half after these events," Ainlay says. "The environment
did not strike us as being volatile."
Holy Cross will continue to
monitor the political situation, however, and will not
consider sending students until administrators feel it
is quite safe. Rodgers notes that the election of President
Wahid, a pro-democracy Muslim intellectual leader and long-term
human rights advocate, is an extremely positive political
development.
"Our connection with Sanata
Dharma is quite far along and very healthy," Ainlay says. "Overall,
it's amazing how much we accomplished on that trip. We
hope to make Indonesia come alive on campus. We have an
unparalleled opportunity to step outside our own world
and gain a global perspective with a culturally advanced
country." Sanata Dharma itself, along with its Jesuit
leaders and diverse Indonesian student body, stands to
grow internationally as well in its association with Holy
Cross and the College's liberal arts traditions.
Phyllis Hanlon is a free-lance journalist from Charlton,
Mass.
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