Organization of classes by geographic region could aid students seeking to take classes focused on a specific part of the world.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will attempt to add convenience to locating courses on international studies by dividing the programs into five different geographic regions: African, Asian, Latin American, Russian, Eastern European, Central Asian and Western European studies.

The area studies programs are centers of information where students interested in international studies classes and activities can find organized information for classes and symposiums and other information related to the region they are interested in.

“We want to give visibility to what we already have,” said Michael Whiteford, interim dean of LAS.

Whiteford said the international studies program was under the supervision of the university’s vice provost until a year ago, when LAS agreed to take over the program.

After receiving control of the program, Whiteford said one goal was to organize the classes before the fall catalog was released, so students wouldn’t have to search department by department for classes. Members of the program noticed patterns of concentration among the geographic locations in the classes offered.

Each region has a faculty member in charge of coordinating activities and information with a group of multi-disciplined faculty who have work involving that region.

The ultimate goal is to provide a “one-stop shopping” area for classes, study abroad programs and various events involving specific regions, said Whitney Sanford, associate professor of religious studies and head of the Asian studies section of the program.

Whiteford said benefits of the program would also extend to faculty. By consolidating regions, professors who share geographic interests from different departments could pool resources and organize research and extra activities to receive more funding.

“What we hope emerges from this is literally more activities around geographic area interests,” Whiteford said.

While many parts of the program have fallen into place — such as the list of international study courses available on the LAS Web site — Whiteford said the program still needs a lot of work to organize information.