PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 23, No. 18, April 22, 2004

New initiatives expand, enrich UI's international dimension

By Melissa Mitchell, News Bureau Staff Writer
217-333-5491, melissa@illinois.edu

Photo by Bill Wiegand International excellence While the financial challenges of recent years have forced some universities to pare their international programs, the UI has bolstered its reputation for excellence in international teaching, research and public outreach, according to Earl Kellogg, associate provost for international affairs. The UI ranked fourth among 43 universities in the amount of U.S. Department of Education grant funding it received this academic year.

Nationwide, shrinking budgets have forced university administrators to make tough choices regarding academic priorities in recent years. And at some of those institutions, international programs are among those that have landed on the chopping block.

"Cutting out what's not central -- that's how it has been viewed," said Earl Kellogg, associate provost for international affairs. Despite similar financial challenges, "internationalization," as Kellogg calls it, has remained a priority at the UI. In fact, he said, "international studies is becoming a signature dimension for our university, and we want to continue to build on this pre-eminence.

"You can't have true excellence in universities these days without a strong international dimension," said Kellogg, who suggested that the nation's higher education hierarchy may be evolving into a two-tiered system. That is, "those who take the international component seriously, and invest in it -- and those who don't. Those who don't will become marginalized," he predicted.

As the world's economic, political and social systems become increasingly interconnected and interdependent, students and faculty members in every corner of the campus should be realizing how globalization affects their individual disciplines.
"If we're serving our students and the public, even if they don't leave Champaign County, the international dimension will be an important part of their future," Kellogg said.

This past academic year has been a good one for UI students, faculty and staff members engaged in international education and activities. "There have been a number of significant developments in international studies," he noted, "that will allow us to substantially expand and enrich the international dimension of our teaching, research and public engagement missions."

Chief among them, the U.S. Department of Education awarded the UI six Title VI Comprehensive National Resource Center grants and two Undergraduate National Resource Center grants, totaling about $8.2 million. The highly competitive, three-year grants were awarded to 43 U.S. universities, based on excellence in several categories, including international curriculum and foreign language programs, faculty members and other personnel, international outreach programs, library collections, and institutional commitment.

The comprehensive awards went to the Center for African Studies, European Union Center, Center for Global Studies, Center for International Business Education and Research, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Russian and East European Center. The Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies and the Program in South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies received the undergraduate awards.

The grants are a primary funding source for the units, which use them for a variety of purposes, from supporting faculty and programs to initiating new courses. The grants also include funding for 141 Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowships, which provide opportunities to graduate and professional students to study a language relevant to their area academic specialization.

"Illinois was ranked fourth in terms of the number of centers receiving funding," Kellogg said. "We received awards for each proposal we submitted and were successful in adding three new centers at Illinois to the list funded by Title VI."

Among the new recipients was the Center for Global Studies, which became operational this past December.

"Through a $1.1 million grant from the Title VI program, the center marshals the human and material resources of the UI to develop a greater understanding and explanation of globalization through research, teaching and outreach programs," said Edward Kolodziej, the center's director and research professor emeritus of political science. "The center assumes responsibility for organizing, sustaining and enlarging the dialogue of units, faculty and students about what globalization means, how it impacts our lives, and how we -- as Americans and world citizens -- address its many challenges."

More than 100 faculty associates in 29 units have agreed to help support the mission of the center through various means -- from teaching new courses to participating in conferences, workshops, lectures and outreach activities. The center plans to play a role in the initiation of new degree programs in the future, and works closely with five campus groups it identifies as "Clusters of Excellence." Those efforts include supporting the initiation of a new master's of education in global studies online degree program, the first of its kind in the country. Kolodziej said the program, under the leadership of education professor Fazal Rizvi, "will be offered by the College of Education as a key mechanism to internationalize the nation's K-12 curriculum."

Other "cluster" work includes developing new undergraduate and graduate courses in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; developing a multi-track interdisciplinary master's degree in global studies for students interested in careers in government, business, education and public affairs; and a new International Business Immersion Program in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. The center also is working to strengthen the UI's role as a leader in information systems, communications and librarianship through new courses in global information systems, and by supporting a new global studies librarian. And it is cooperating with the College of Engineering and the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security to develop advanced interdisciplinary seminars on homeland, regional and global security.

Other good news on the UI's international front this year included the university's designation as lead institution on a four-year, $5.4 million award by USAID Egypt to the Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities. Kellogg said the project, which is focused on agriculture, funds work that will assist Egyptian universities in educating students to become "better prepared to contribute in this new world of interconnected economics, trade and private-sector development." In addition to the main project, the UI also is providing significant assistance to a $1.2 million training grant awarded to another contractor.

Yet another indicator of the UI's reputation as a leader in international education was its selection as one of two participants in the large-university category in a research project of the American Council on Education. The goal of the project, "Forging New Connections: A Study in Linking Internationalization Strategies and Student Learning," is to determine how attitudes and experiences of students at universities that value the international dimension compare with those of students nationwide. The UI was selected for the study from among 752 institutions that completed a 2001 ACE survey on the status of internationalization in undergraduate education.

According to ACE, the UI is "among the most active research universities in the country in advancing internationalization in a wide variety of areas, including offering on-campus student and faculty opportunities, articulating a commitment to internationalization, and providing academic experiences abroad."

Study abroad opportunities are definitely a strong suit for Illinois, which ranks among the top 10 or 15 programs nationally, in terms of number of participants. Jeremy Geller, director of the UI's Study Abroad Office, said about 1,400 students participate in some form of international study during the typical academic year. Destinations attracting the greatest number of study-abroad students include France, Italy, Latin America, Spain and the United Kingdom. The university also offers programs in less frequently traveled venues, such as Egypt and South Africa, and even has a summer program in Cuba.

Kellogg said the study-abroad program was just one of the areas examined when the ACE study's principal investigator, Laura Siaya, visited the campus this spring. While on campus, she met with students and various academic unit heads, and later sought input from the student body at large, through a Web-based survey.

"She said this was the largest, broadest and deepest international program of any university she had visited," Kellogg said. "She was impressed by the substance, breadth and depth of it, and noted the thoughtfulness that had gone into development of new initiatives. She said many programs in other universities she had visited indicated evidence of 'the spaghetti approach' -- which she described as 'throwing spaghetti on a wall to see what sticks.' It was clear to Siaya that the program at Illinois was the result of a more purposeful development. She was quite struck by its innovativeness."

Center receives funding and new name
The campus's oldest area studies center -- the Russian and East European Center -- has become the Russian, East European and Eurasian Center.
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