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Columns::April 21, 2003
Honors and Awards
UGA’s top students and teachers recognized at Honors Day ceremony
University hosts state championship for future problem solvers
The greening of South Campus
Flower(ing) power: UGA scientists plot key events in plant evolution
Office of Research Services appoints a new director
Education dean receives diversity award from housing residents
On-the-job training: Engineers team up with businesses for new designs
Lifelong interest in animals leads prof to career as wildlife biologist
Retirees
Kudos
Making a scene
Across the board
Campus News
Forum essay
International education
Editor’s note: The annual Faculty Symposium at Unicoi focused this year on four areas of concern: international education, faculty-administration relations, enhancing quality teaching, and extended academic programs. The resulting position papers have been sent to the provost, and are being published in the April 7, April 14, April 21 and April 28 issues of Columns.
In recent years, the University of Georgia has moved toward a greater interest in international studies. Study-abroad programs have proliferated, new faculty have been hired to teach and research global issues, more international courses have been added to the curriculum, a new college has been established with a focus on public and international affairs, and an increasing number of students from abroad are studying at the university. While making the University of Georgia a more “global” campus is an excellent goal, there are many issues about this “globalization” that warrant attention from faculty and administrators. We offer the following recommendations for improving the state of international awareness and education at UGA.
First, we recommend that international programs and resources be consolidated into a new or modified general organization which is structured as a service and marketing office. There is a great deal of interest in international projects at the university—study-abroad programs, joint research, international outreach—but these efforts seem to be fragmented, pocketed, uncoordinated, and even redundant. Often, it is extremely difficult to start new projects, particularly study-abroad programs. (That process has been described as labyrinthine.) A new or modified organizational structure would help accomplish the university’s strategic goals for internationalization by coordinating efforts, finding resources for projects, preventing redundancy and, most importantly, creating the impression of a central administrative umbrella under which international activity takes place. We feel strongly that this new organization should serve to support and assist international endeavors rather than to police them, and we offer the Office of Instructional Support and Development as a model. Programs should be autonomous but operate as part of a network. Ideally, this will require fewer administrators than at present and a smaller staff; it should save money, reduce redundancy, and streamline the existing bureaucracy.
Second, we recommend improvements for study abroad. The university needs to provide incentives for faculty to start and participate in study-abroad programs. While many people at the university assume that for faculty study-abroad programs primarily serve as opportunities for travel, starting a study- abroad program is incredibly time-consuming and involves huge amounts of work. Many professors would like to teach for existing study-abroad programs, but because departments do not receive compensation for the classes that professor would have taught at UGA, department heads are understandably reluctant to release the professor. In the end, departments and professors who are devoted to study abroad donate time and money in order to participate. We therefore recommend that departments receive direct compensation for classes when faculty participate in overseas programs and that classes taught in UGA study-abroad programs count as part of a professor’s required teaching load. We recommend that participation in international activities (including study abroad—both starting and administering a program and also teaching for an existing program) be recognized in the tenure and promotion process and in post-tenure review. Because UGA already has a number of excellent study-abroad programs in Europe, we recommend that the university concentrate on using its resources to strengthen these, rather than to start new European programs. If new programs are desired, the university should focus on developing non-European study-abroad programs. In general, we recommend that study-abroad programs offer students and faculty cultural orientation using materials from the Southern Center for International Studies. We have reviewed these materials and feel that they will be particularly effective in introducing students and faculty to the history and culture which they will be studying. Finally, there is an overwhelming need for endowments for scholarships to help students of lesser financial means take advantage of study-abroad opportunities and for maintaining and improving the university’s residential study-abroad centers. This drive for endowments should be part of the capital campaign.
Third, we feel that international awareness and education at UGA should be improved. It is essential that we prepare our students for today’s dynamic international environment, and it seems that even now many UGA undergraduates cannot locate Iraq on a map. There seems to be a general lack of interest in international concerns among students and a general assumption of American superiority. We propose that undergraduates be required to take at least one class with significant international content, and we recommend that existing classes serve to fulfill this requirement. Because of the general lack of interest in global issues and other cultures among American students, international students at UGA seem to remain in insular groups and thus feel isolated and marginalized. We recommend a new program for welcoming and mentoring international students which involves pairing American “diplomats” with incoming international students. This program would serve to introduce international students to American culture and make them feel more comfortable on UGA’s campus as well as to afford the American “diplomat” an opportunity to get to know an international student well and learn more about that student’s culture.
Finally, while UGA should strive to improve the state of undergraduate international education, international education really needs to begin at the elementary and high school level. We recommend that the university develop more outreach programs for educating elementary and high school teachers and that, because individual departments do not have administrative resources for organizing such programs, an existing administrative office be designated to create these programs.
The workgroup members were Christine L. Albright, UGA at Oxford and classics; Phillip Greenspan, pharmacy; Loch Johnson, Public and International Affairs; John Langone, special education; Edward Larson, history and law; Lynne M. Sallot, advertising and public relations; Kathleen Smith, Instructional Support and Development; Anne L. Sweaney, housing and consumer economics; Rupal Thazhath, cellular biology; Jessie L. Whitehead, art education.
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