Note: English teacher Adele Suslick was interviewed for this story via e-mail. The interview was conducted prior to her going on medical leave for the remainder of the spring semester.

LAST YEAR I was lucky enough to spend a week in Italy during spring break. It was, by far, one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.

We ate pizza on the Spanish Steps; we saw some of the most famous works of art in the Academy, the Uffizi, and the Villa Borghese. We saw Florence from the top of the Duomo; we saw Pisa (at a slightly tilted angle) from the top of the Leaning Tower. And we learned a ton about the culture and capital city of ancient Rome, the empire that shaped the world into what it is now.

But Italy in spring break was just one of the many trips offered last year. In the summer, the foreign languages department sponsored trips to France, Japan, and Spain; Global Studies Initiative offered a trip to the Dominican Republic; history teacher Chris Butler took a group to Italy; and biology teacher David Stone took students to Costa Rica. Needless to say, there were a lot to pick from.

This year, however, only three trips are being offered: a Spanish trip to Mexico, a Germany trip, and a Japan trip.

There are a number of reasons that could account for this. The weak dollar and the skyrocketing gas prices could make it difficult for families to afford. International safety could also be an issue, but the world does not seem to be a more dangerous place this summer than it was last summer.

One thing I have learned is that it takes an extraordinary amount of work to organize a trip. Here is how it works:

Before a trip is formally announced, a tentative schedule and list of expenses have to be made. Once the trip is announced, students can use this information to decide whether they’re interested in going.

Then comes the deciding point in the trips planning. If enough students show an interest, planning continues. However, the fewer the students who show an interest, the higher the price for the trip becomes for each student, making the trip unlikely.

Club funds from pizza, bake, and coffee sales, etc. can also be used to finance the trip, although they won’t cover all the expenses. This again emphasizes the importance of early student involvement in the planning of a trip.

In addition, there are often school travel deals that are only available with a confirmed number of attendees.

Once a trip makes it past the preliminary stages of planning, the organizer needs to deal with the next steps.

“A meaningful itinerary needs to be prepared, teachers recruited, hotels booked, transportation arranged, passports and visas obtained, fees collected, and rules for behavior established,” explained English teacher Adele Suslick, who organized the GSI trip to the Dominican Republic.

Furthermore, a formal application must be submitted to the Study Abroad Office at the University of Illinois for approval, as well as an application for travel insurance.

When the applications are approved, the trip has reached its final stage. Now, all that those involved have to do is wait for the departure date.

Depending on the excursion, it can be extremely difficult or relatively easy to organize a trip. Suslick, who has organized many trips, has found the process to be tough as well as time consuming.

“I initiated, planned, and participated in the first senior class trip (to New Orleans in 2000) as well as subsequent trips to Chicago (twice) and New York (to the site of the World Trade Center destroyed six months earlier), and I can say that each experience was extraordinary in what it taught students,” she explained. “Few students or parents, however, appreciated the enormous amount of time and effort that I put into these projects. It now takes a group of senior parents to accomplish what I used to do all by myself!”

Biology teacher David Stone found the process of organizing the Costa Rica trip to be “not hard, but very time consuming.”

No matter the difficulty, setting up a trip is always time consuming for the lead teacher and the office staff, who take care of all the paperwork and organizing. A policy is being made for those in charge that would streamline the process and maintain consistency, which would make the paperwork much easier to complete.

Needless to say, this will cut down on the planning time, making a large variety of trips to choose from a greater possibility.

“We definitely recommend that students go on trips,” said Latin teacher Krisanna Zusman, who organized the 2007 spring break Italy trip. “Nothing compares to experiencing the sights and sounds of the country/language, which you have studied in class, in person.”