The School of Art and the Center for International and Special Programs are sponsoring a summer program to Europe and Asia for graduate and undergraduate credit.

Dimitri Liakos, professor and chairman of Art History, is directing the program, which gives participants the chance to sign up to go on the first program, from June 24 to July 16, the second program, from June 16 to Aug. 3, or both programs.

“There are usually about 30 students that participate in the program each year, but we are limiting the number to 20 this year because of the large number of countries we are visiting,” Liakos said. There are about 10 students signed up for the trips.

Participants in past years have been evenly split between graduates and undergraduates. Students can earn three to six credits or they can go just for the experience.

Anne Sauter, of International and Special Programs, said many times spouses accompany students on these trips.

The trips include stopovers in many countries including Holland, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Greece and Turkey. The number of days the group stays in each country varies according to what has to be accomplished there, Liakos said.

NIU student Rena Sereno, who has been on several of Liakos’ trips describes the program as “fabulous…half of the people on all the trips are repeats.”

The programs include air fare, hotel accommodations, two meals per day, admission fees to scheduled sites and land transportation.

This program is the most expensive of the summer overseas programs, Sauter said. The first trip is $4,595, the second trip is $3,145 and the combined trip is $6,450.

International and Special Programs also offers other less-expensive trips, all available for credit, Sauter said. Trips to England, France, and China run three to six weeks and cost from $1,500 to $2,400 (airfare not included). “There are 27 programs, and they are divided up by topic rather than country,” Sauter said.

No scholarships are given for the program, he said.