By RORY MCCARTY

Senior Reporter

For many students, college is a time to get away from their homelives and go out and explore the world. So what better time is there to go on a trip to visit another city?

Oakland University students are going to have that opportunity beginning this semester with a series of trips sponsored through the Center for Student Activities and a new OU student group, Travel America.

The College of Arts and Sciences’ theme this year is “Cities,” so the CSA’s contribution will be to allow students to explore a city a month.

Jean Ann Miller, the Director of CSA, believes that every student will be able to get something different out of the trip. “Some students will be interested in the culture, some in the arts, some in the architecture, some in the food.”

Although the trips focus on student participation, they are also open to faculty and staff who would like to come along.

“It would be good for students and faculty to go and explore cities together,” Miller said.

The trips vary greatly in distance and focus, from places here in Michigan like Mt. Pleasant (in November) and Grand Rapids (in April), to Toronto (in March) and even to the Presidential Inauguration in Washington D.C. this January.

CSA’s goal is to have the trips subsidized so that there is little cost to the students taking part, but so far no details have been worked out as to transportation or price.

Another trip, one to Chicago that will take place in October, is a collaborative effort between Travel America and the Student Program Board.

Travel America is trying to schedule one such trip per semester. The trips will open to all current OU students.

“We would like to be able to say we are well traveled. I think that’s what we really want to gain,” Travel America President Cristina Ciraulo said. “We also want to be able to have some really amazing experiences and be able to share them with other students who want to travel as well.”

Like the CSA trips, Travel America has not worked out the cost details yet, but “Our goal is to find the most affordable prices possible since we are still paying for school and have other expenses,” Ciraulo said.

Travel America was created out of a desire to go out and see the world.

“The group was formed while my friends and I were talking about all these places we would love to go and things we would like to see for ourselves,” Ciraulo said. “There is so much to see in our country, let alone the rest of the world.”