BY CAMILLE CONDREY
University of Mississippi alumni not only have a Rebel network to keep in touch with lifelong friends, they also have unusual opportunities to travel the world with other graduates.
Tim Walsh, executive director of the university’s Alumni Association since 2008, has been expanding the university’s 23-year-old travel program.
One of the most recent additions is a 23-day a trip around the world by private jet − with a price tag of $67,950. So far the trip has been well received, “exceeding the expectations” of Walsh’s friend who went on the trip in January of this year. Since Ole Miss’ first trip around the world in 2012, the two offerings have completely sold out and the trip scheduled for 2014 already has two people signed up.
“The rep was very nice when she pitched the idea to me but then she told me the price and I was like ‘Aw, we’re not going to do this,’” Walsh said. “But then she told me, ‘We’ve run data and the only schools we are offering this to in the Southeastern Conference are Ole Miss and Vanderbilt.’ So that stroked my ego and I said ‘OK, let’s give it a whirl.’”
According to Walsh, this trip is for travelers who can handle being in a different country every day for a three-week period. The destinations include Machu Picchu, Easter Island, Samoa, Tanzania, India and Egypt.
Some of the most popular trips offered by the travel program include Italy and a Celtic Lands cruise that visits England, Scotland and Wales.
“These are countries that have the heritage of many of our alumni friends,” Walsh said. “They are also perceived as safe countries.”
For the first time ever, University of Mississippi alumni will have the opportunity this fall to visit Cuba, a country that has been off limits to most Americans for so long. This week-long trip set for September has been made possible by an organization called Go Next Inc., which has been issued a People-to-People license by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for an educational exchange program.
Unlike most of the other trips that have a flexible daily schedule, this trip will be very tightly scripted. Participants will not be allowed to explore cities on their own, but instead are expected to follow the schedule that they have laid out for them every day.
“We were worried about whether or not we should do the trip, but we have 14 people signed up already,” Walsh said.
Another surprisingly popular destination has been Antarctica which features a 13-day itinerary to Iceland, Greenland and the Arctic Circle aboard Le Boréal cruise ship. Walsh believes this trip draws in those who are serious world travelers.
“This trip tends to appeal to the people who are trying to visit every continent,” Walsh said.
Although the ages of Ole Miss travelers range from 20 to 70, most people taking advantage of these trips are in their 60s. With more than 50 trips to choose from, the Alumni Association encourages alumni to invite friends and family to take part in any of the offered trips, with the exception of one annual January trip that is reserved only for people who have attended or still attend Ole Miss.
Walsh, a University of Mississippi graduate himself, works with five different travel companies that pitch him trips. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has contracted with former Poland president Lech Walesa and former Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev to lecture on previous trips. This year, UNESCO has contracted with Julie Nixon Eisenhower, who will lecture about the pivotal role her late father played in bringing Communist China out of isolation, for a 15-day journey this month through ancient kingdoms of China.
Kristen Vallier, who will be a senior at the university in the fall, hopes that one day she will be able to travel to another country with friends from school.
“The trip to Cuba sounds really cool,” Vallier said. “I’ve always wanted to go there, especially since we’re not really allowed to. It kind of makes me want to go even more. It’s nice that they have the trip all planned out for you because I think that would be one of the hardest things about going on a trip.”
