Under the direction of new associate provost for international affairs Mark Lusk, UGA readies itself for a world of possibilities and the widening of an already expansive Bulldog Nation

B Y - A L E X - C R E V A R - (A B - '9 3)

ark Lusk's office is scarcely more than one bus stop from GM's offices, but close proximity doesn't guarantee you an interview time with the new associate provost for international affairs. As the University's global point man, Lusk's goal is for UGA to rank among the nation's top five study abroad universities. That will mean raising the percentage of students who receive international exposure from its current level of 15.5 percent (15th nationally among research institutions) to 25 percent by 2010. That's a heady proposition, and it wreaks havoc with Lusk's day planner.

Left: UGA students (at left in photo) visit a Moroccan street market. This study abroad opportunity was made possible when UGA signed an agreement with Morocco's National School of Agriculture in 1999. Above: Comparative literature major Sonya Weeks of Savannah was able to expand her horizons and live an African lifestyle, thanks to an agreement UGA signed with the University of Ghana in 1996.

On one proposed interview date, Lusk asks for a rain check because of a day that ultimately played out like this:

8 a.m.—Talked with Northern Europe's finest higher-ed institution, the University of Helsinki, about a collaboration in forestry, agriculture, social work, education, plus an exchange program.

9 a.m.—Firmed up a presentation for senior administration retreat. Topic: Status and update on the internationalization of UGA.

11 a.m.—Met with Central Asia Working Group to develop framework for grant proposal to U.S. Department of State for collaboration with the University of World Economy and Diplomacy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Central theme of collaboration: "International Security."

1 p.m.—Met with director of UGA's Institute for Ecology, Ron Carroll, to discuss management of study abroad site in Costa Rica.

2 p.m.—Interviewed by newspaper reporter about the State Board of Regents meeting on proposed purchase of study abroad sites in Cortona, Italy, and San Luis, Costa Rica.

3 p.m.—Met with President Adams' chief of staff Tom Landrum and Associate VP for Public Affairs Tom Jackson about a press release for Cortona and San Luis sites.

4 p.m.—Finalized schedules for visiting candidates interviewing for the position of UGA's Executive Director of International Education.

5 p.m.—Made flight arrangements to visit University of Helsinki.

6 p.m.—Corresponded with executive director of East West Institute about funding for strategic languages such as Turkish and Persian.

When Lusk is finally able to fit GM into his schedule, it is more like a synapse between engagements, with Lusk answering questions while pulling clothes from the wardrobe he keeps behind his office's bathroom door. The quick costume changes enable him to move seamlessly between a series of disparate functions. One moment, he may be leading foreign visitors on a muddy tour of a University farm ("I am more at home walking an irrigation ditch in Kazakhstan than in UGA's Peabody Board Room," he confesses). Or, as is the occasion on the day of the GM interview, he'll slip into a pair of polished wingtips to greet the executive director of the University of South Africa's (UniSA) business school.

"We'll hear what he has to say," says Lusk "and see what his institution can offer UGA."

The South African, Anton Ferreira, and his escorts from UGA's Terry Business College—management information systems department head Patrick McKeown and MIS faculty member Rick Watson—arrive a little late. After shaking hands, Lusk shows everyone to chairs at a circular wooden table. Following a brief ice-breaking discussion of Subsaharan wines, the men get down to the matter at hand.

"Why would this make sense for us?" Lusk asks directly.

"Beyond resource and information sharing and an MBA-level student exchange with one of the world's largest universities at nearly 200,000 students," answers Ferreira, "we are attempting to create a network of institutions—in locales like Zambia and Zimbabwe—with which you might also be connected."

"We have also discussed a virtual collaboration by which UGA and UniSA would share lectures," adds McKeown.

Lusk leans back and thinks for a moment. When he leans forward the conversation becomes specific: "Having been there, I know there are some tough areas in Pretoria. I need to know that safety is a priority." Ferreira lays both palms down on the table and makes a point of how safe the area is.

"Where do we go from here?" McKeown asks after a pregnant pause.

"Now you go to the [Terry College] dean," replies Lusk. "I act as liaison, then work on documents when, and if, this moves to the presidential level." The group then stands in unison, shaking hands in a braid of crossing arms, concluding the first step in the sequence of events that partners UGA with institutions around the world.

This is the basic process that enables UGA students and faculty to participate in more than 75 official study abroad and exchange programs in 24 countries with courses offered in 22 different languages. It's how more than 500 foreign faculty and post-doctorate scholars arrive yearly at the famous Arch to enrich the University and share theories on subjects ranging from tropical diseases to political science. It's also how UGA lands on the shores of the Ivory Coast or the Mexican Gulf Coast to share its resources with communities in need of its agricultural expertise.

he precise number of global relationships, customarily referred to as "partnerships," is tough to wrangle. Even officials in the Office of International Affairs (OIA) admit an exact number is tough to come up with because, as Lusk assistant Shelli Bond says, "Over many years, faculty members from different departments have made connections with foreign institutions—and OIA has only existed for three years."

Bond says she's sure activities exist that the office is unaware of but that all international activity should, theoretically, go through the OIA. "This office was created to be a one-stop shop for faculty and students who want to know where we have connections abroad."

Inside UGA's international offices in Barrow Hall, a student or professor can talk to academic advisors, thumb through the global library, and ask questions about anything from language to insurance. Officially, there are 144 "international cooperative agreements," or university-level contracts (typically five-year) brokered by the OIA and then signed by UGA's president and the chief executive of another university or government. Technically, all programs—be they study abroad, research exchange, or outreach—have these initial contracts.

By virtue of their nature, all global relationships, regardless of origin, fall under the umbrella of the OIA with Lusk at the helm. The office is responsible for advising international program directors, finding funds for programs, and guiding the nine international institutes and centers on campus, examples of which include the African Studies Institute or the Institute for European Studies. The OIA is also responsible for making sure that the nearly 2,000 Bulldogs traveling abroad every year arrive home safely to don cap and gowns come graduation day.

An association between UGA and another school or government occurs in one of three possible areas. The most familiar involves study abroad and exchange programs for students. (Exchange students take courses overseas from a host school. Study abroad programs are supervised by UGA faculty.) A semester spent at Oxford University in England (see GM, Dec. 1999) is a prime example. In 1999, UGA added luster to its long-standing Oxford program by purchasing a 30-person residence, thereby becoming the first public university in America to have a year-round program at the world's oldest English-speaking university. UGA did it again in Cortona (see GM, Dec. 2000), leasing one building and purchasing another (a villa for classes and a 13th century convent for dorm space), thereby cementing a relationship that started in 1970.

Other examples are UGA programs at the University of Avignon in France, the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies in Japan, and another recent property purchase: the 70-acre Ecolodge San Luis and Research Station in the San Luis Valley, Costa Rica.

To learn more about how they can go about studying abroad after their first semester as freshmen, students can take a virtual tour of UGA's Office of International Education (www.uga.edu/oie) or attend one of OIE's 50-minute "Options Abroad Sessions" that explain cost, credit transfer, and financial aid.

"In college you polish your edges," says Britney Buck (BSEd '02) from Kingsport, Tenn., who spent a year at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, as an exchange student. "When you travel you mold the kind of adult you are going to be—one who deals with adversity or panics."

A second area of international partnerships focuses on collaborative faculty scholarship and research. Two ready examples are the recent agreement between UGA and the Pôrto Alegre Symphony Orchestra Foundation in Brazil and a long-standing collaboration between UGA and the National Center of Scientific Research and Technology in West Africa's Burkina Faso. Although the former involves music theory and peformance while the latter involves crop and soil sciences, the premise is the same in both cases: expansion of knowledge through cooperation.

"When partnerships work, everything is facilitated," says Mike Padilla, the College of Education's associate dean for educator partnerships. "Both entities get more."

	Can music partnership help revive Argentina?
	Brazilian guitarist Egberto Gismonti instructs South American students on a stage in Argentina while UGA students (on screen) distance-learn from Athens. For Chaco, Argentina's poorest province, reinvention during financial calamity has taken a modern and unfamiliar shape: live webcasts, a partnership with the University of Georgia, and a virtual classroom in Athens. The process started five years ago when the staff at Argentina's Northeast National University cultural center in Resistencia, Chaco, contacted UGA music professor Milton Masciadri at the Festival de Inverno (winter festival) in Vale Vêneto, Brazil, which he has co-directed since its inception 17 years ago. The Argentine delegation attended the classical music festival to take notes on how a successful festival runs—with hopes of starting their own event, which they saw as both an economic and cultural enterprise. In 1998, the same year Chaco province signed an agreement with UGA to exchange music students and faculty, Masciadri helped manage its debut music festival: "Tocar La Vida" (touch life). The event proved successful as both a showcase for international talent from several genres, including jazz and indigenous folk music, and as a music camp where students from all over South America and Georgia could study with the nightly performers in daily workshops. But it was also successful in a greater, self-actualization sense. "Our past governments thought like Hitler," says Marilyn Cristofani, who started the cultural center at the Northeast National University and serves as Chaco's undersecretary of culture—an unheard of positon just a handful of years ago. "They knew that culture meant enlightenment and they preferred us not to think. Now we are uncovering ourselves." During the four-year period since Chaco's first festival, Argentina—South America's second largest country—has fallen into a political and economic tailspin with a rotating chair in the president's office and nearly 20 percent unemployment. Perhaps unavoidably, the Tocar La Vida festival has been pared down. But the province's spirit continues to combine innovation with a desperate sense that it has a duty to take matters into its own hands and export its most treasured commodity: Chaqueño culture. In that sense, the week-long Tocar La Vida 4 could have been the most important festival yet. The 2001 fête, held last July (during the Argentine winter), featured performances aired world-wide via live webcasts. It also featured master's workshops taught to South American students in Resistencia and UGA students in Athens at the same time, through an interpreter and Internet connection. UGA music professor Leonard Ball explains the electronic tweaking that was necessary for cultural exchange to take place: "I would open my end at the indicated time and set it up to accept a connection. [The Argentinean computer expert] would then connect to my NetMeeting (a computer program) host. Usually I would see a video signal first, with techs working the stage as they prepared for the day's class. Then, as they focused their efforts, audio would follow. Finally, [The Argentinean] would initiate with voice contact. I was surprised and impressed with the simplicity of the process once we had the appropriate machines and cards in place." Although there were gliches, the virtual classroom became cleaner with each day. "The chance to share and learn with American students and know that you are studying similar theory with people you have never seen is great," said Argentinean student Maxi Delanian, a 20-year-old pianist from Córdoba. "It allows people from completely different cultures to have the same vision." Armed with creativity and a growing know-how, Chaco hopes positive publicity will help it emerge from the current economic downturn. "By sharing our culture through Internet pedagogy with UGA," says Sergio Pérez, director of the Guido Miranda theater, the province's cultural center, "we are attempting something that has not been tried very often and through which both our students and those at UGA will be enriched." —Alex Crevar (ABJ '93)

A third example of international partnerships is headquartered in UGA's Office of International Public Service and Outreach (IPSO), whose outreach endeavors include UGA's work with Argentina's beleaguered Chaco province (see sidebar); Belarus State University in the former Soviet Union; civil war-ravaged Croatia; or Mexico's Universidad Veracruzana (GM, Dec. 2001). In each case, students, professors, and professionals are immersed in intensive culture studies, research exchange, and public service.

"Just as the state of Georgia's prosperity impacts other parts of the world, the economic, political, and environmental issues in other parts of the world affect us in Georgia," says Jennifer Frum, IPSO's assistant director, who responded to GM questions while on duty in Tanzania. "You can find examples of UGA's international public service and outreach in virtually all parts of the developing world: UGA's International Center for Democratic Governance is working with public administrators in China and in the newly emerging democracies of the former Soviet Union in their transition to civil societies; IPSO has also coordinated dozens of projects—in areas like sustainable development in Trinidad, higher education reform in Tanzania, and agribusiness development in the Republic of Georgia. This work has global impact, which benefits Georgia and UGA."

o take a more institutional approach to UGA's long-time global activity, an office was created in 1999 to serve as an umbrella for international programs as part of the senior administrative reorganization directed by President Michael F. Adams. David Coker was appointed as the first associate provost for international studies.

Coker's promotion (he was appointed executive director for international education by former UGA President Charles Knapp in 1997) was also a promotion for UGA's international programs—one spurred by the skill Coker displayed during his necessarily brief tenure as the director of the University's Olympic operations.

"After exhaustive review, the International Studies Committee concluded that the University has 'the capacity to become a national leader in international education,'" said Coker back in 1999. Indeed, from 1993-2000 the number of UGA students abroad increased by 300 percent. Upon Coker's retirement in 2000, UGA was in a position to challenge the top echelon of internationally minded schools—and within shouting distance of No. 1-ranked Brigham Young.

UGA's Cortona program (shown during last year's Fourth of July celebration with director R.G. Brown at center) is 32 years old and a model for future study abroad programs.

While a national search was conducted for Coker's successor, Richard Reiff served as interim provost for international affairs. During that time, the number of students abroad rose another 20 percent and UGA became the first public university in America to run year-round programs and purchase permanent residences in Oxford and Cortona. UGA rose to No. 15 on The Chronicle of Higher Education's list of study abroad institutions—three places behind Ohio State, a school with nearly twice Georgia's overall enrollment.

Reiff was, in many ways, the perfect segue between what UGA had started and what it believes it can become. Thirty years before, he had created a Friday afternoon coffee hour, which brought crowds of international students to Memorial Hall for networking and fellowship. Still in existence today, Reiff's coffee hour is one of the longest running programs of its kind in the nation. "The University has all the important ingredients for optimal internationalization," says Reiff, who retires this month after 31 years at UGA.

Over the past five years, UGA has benefited from both President Adams' emphasis on international education and the palm-pilot globalization of our society. "No single experience has a greater impact on one's self-image than to leave the comfort and familiarity of this American culture for a new and unfamiliar one," says Adams. "It helps students gain wisdom, not just knowledge."

When University of Montana vice president Mark Lusk was hired last August as the first person to hold the renamed position of UGA Associate Provost for International Affairs, he joined three other associate provosts (diversity, information technology, Honors Program) and later an associate provost for institutional effectiveness—all of whom report directly to Senior Vice President and Provost Karen Holbrook. Lusk's job description provides a clue to the enormity of his responsibilities: ". . . maintain a comprehensive knowledge of UGA's international efforts, coordinate the institutional programs associated with international education, and serve as the principal link for UGA."

"We were looking for broad experience," says Art Dunning, UGA's vice president for Public Service and Outreach and chair of the international affairs search committee. "A scholar who had travelled extensively and had a good grasp on other cultures. Lusk had the best combination of all the traits we needed."

hen asked where he was born, Mark Lusk replies simply: "USA."

It seems a curious reponse but not for Lusk, who thinks of the globe in a macro sense. Born in 1949 (in Lyons, Kansas, let the record show), he and his brother got their first taste of international life when their father joined the U.S. Foreign Service. The family moved to Paraguay for five years—"back when it was a small, rural dictatorship led by Stroessner, a Paraguayan general with a fondness for sheltering Nazi fugitives," recalls Lusk, who is fluent in both Portuguese and Spanish.

Growing up in the capital city of Asunción, Lusk remembers exploring "the Chaco jungle in the north next to Bolivia to the fertile valleys of Encarnacion on the Argentinean border to the south" with two German pointers that he trained to hunt perdiz (South American quail). After elementary school the family moved again, to Bogotá, Colombia, where Lusk says he "left the life of the outdoors for books and prep school."

The day after he graduated from high school, Lusk flew to Las Cruces to attend New Mexico State University, where he could be among Spanish speakers—"my people," as he puts it. He continued to return to South America every year to visit his family, do research for his dissertation, and study via two Fulbright Fellowships. Following a graduate degree in social work and a doctorate in education from the University of Kentucky, Lusk taught at the Catholic University in Peru, then secured a U.S. Aid for International Development (USAID) contract through Utah State University, taking his research to South Asia and Africa. He has spent the last 10 years working on projects in former Soviet Central Asia.

Lusk's research has taken a renaissance-man approach to everything a developing country might need in order to get on its feet. He lists among his professional competencies: international education, agriculture education, irrigation management, and water resources policy—about each he has published numerous articles. Prior to UGA, where he holds a faculty appointment in the school of social work as well as his associate provost position, Lusk held both faculty and administrative appointments at Boise State, the University of Wyoming, Utah State, and the University of Montana, where he served as vice president and director of international programs.

Jim Mclaughlin (with children from La Caña) spearheads a College of Education partnership with Mexico. UGA and the University of Veracruzana signed an official agreement in May.

usk's goal is uncompromising. "UGA has the resources, structure, and faculty expertise to become one of, if not the leading research institution in the country in international education." He believes in this statement so strongly that he amended his original goal of 20 percent of UGA students having a study abroad experience before graduation to 25 percent. "As an institution," he says, "we see the need for our students to have both global and linguistic competence.

"We have congressmen in Washington who brag about not having passports. By controlling one-third of the world's economy, the U.S. can be a bull in a china shop, but UGA's goal is to break out of that pattern."

Lusk is quick to point out that, for most American institutions of higher learning, desire and reality are two separate things. Despite the fact that the U.S. is one of the most heterogeneous countries in the world, it is also one of the most incompetent with regard to, as Lusk contends, "cultural and linguistic cognizance."

"I'm absolutely convinced Mark has the desire and ability to take UGA into the top 10 among public research universities in the area of international programs," says Provost Karen Holbrook. "He's got good judgment, he's an innovator, and he's very skillful in working with all kinds of people. He's made an enormous impact here in less than a year."

That impact is based on two main factors. The first is marketing savvy combined with global literacy. "I have visited most of the countries of the world and can easily sell UGA as a top 20 research institution," says Lusk. And secondly, "UGA is different from other schools because of its administrative support—particularly from President Adams. The faculty are first rate—they could work at any American university and they have superb international credentials."

Not even the horrific events of Sept. 11 could diminish UGA students' desire to travel. "A negligible number of UGA students changed their minds to study abroad," says Lusk, "and only a handful of foreign students have decided to return to their home countries. In fact, numbers of students traveling abroad rose at Georgia by 33 percent over this time last year."

rom somewhere on the globe, nearly every day of the year, a representative of a major international university is booking a ticket to fly across multiple time zones to sell his institution as an international partner to UGA.

"The question is, 'Why should we dance with you?'" Lusk asks, as he looks over his notes prior to the meeting with the dean of the University of South Africa's business school. "We don't just want paper partnerships. That creates resentment because nothing ever comes from it. When we sign an agreement, both sides must benefit."

As soon as a relationship between UGA and an international institution begins, as in the case with UniSA, deeper investigation follows. Does the partner share common interests? UGA is a school soaring in numbers of national and international scholars, GPA and SAT rankings—and, thus, in reputation. "If the University of Georgia said yes to all those who want the cachet of a partnership with a top American university," says Lusk, "its dance card would be a mile long."

Second consideration: Is there a proper, energetic, and devoted contact from both parties willing to work the long hours, deal with the language barriers, make the 4 a.m. phone calls, and manage the funding issues?

"There are always issues and problems," says Milton Masciadri, UGA music professor and the contact for eight of UGA's global programs. "As with most things, the easiest thing to do is nothing. If the contact people involved aren't extremely active—amidst their own research and personal lives—the relationship will wither. It is an amazing amount of work."

Next, is this a place where UGA wants to be? A major factor in adding Georgia partners is a desire to "fill in global gaps," according to Lusk, where the University is unconnected. Currently, the University has embarked upon an African initiative to fill in the Central and Southern portion of the continent and much of what constitutes Africa's "cone."

And, potentially the most important consideration: Is this a place where we feel safe sending our own? In the post-9/11 world, there are areas of the world young Americans probably shouldn't frequent for the simple reason that there is inherent danger and aggression towards Americans.

After the investigatory phase comes a trial period, wherein a potential international partner will likely enter into a working agreement with UGA on the college or departmental level until officials are sure the match is a good one. An example of this kind of arrangement is the agreement between UGA and the University Veracruzana in Xalapa, Mexico, which has existed on the college level since 1994 with social work, education, family and consumer sciences, agriculture and environmental sciences, and anthropology. Eight years later, in fact just this May, the partnership was made official.

If, as is the case with Xalapa, everything runs smoothly, the proposed partnership goes before UGA's international advisory committee, chaired by Lusk. From there, it moves to Provost Holbrook and a partnership contract is drawn up on the university level. Finally, the agreement lands on President Michael F. Adams' desk, where it is signed in a ceremony with his dignitary counterpart. Typically, a contract is for five years, at which time the partnership will be reevaluated.

Even after all of this work, some partnerships are fated for termination for a number of reasons—lack of enthusiasm, changing faculty and administration, or funding issues. But others, of which the Cortona alliance is an obvious example, last for decades and enable fathers and daughters, sons and mothers to share similar experiences during different UGA generations.

poster in the reception area of UGA's international education office shows an African man outlined against a desert horizon with his arms outstretched and his head thrown back, chin thrust to the sky. "Study abroad, it could change the way you look at the world," reads the caption.

With leadership from President Adams and Mark Lusk nearing his first anniversary in the job, UGA is doing just that. In less than a decade, the University has climbed to a position among the nation's leaders in international education with one of every six students experiencing life via camel back, hillside castle, or exotic bazaar. And as students and faculty come home from abroad, they help network a world of possibilities, changing the way we think about, live in, and tolerate our surroundings. An international partnership might mean a journalism study abroad program in Avignon, France, or a biology research agreement in India. Partnerships swap music performance majors between UGA and the National University of Tucuman, Argentina. Faculty and future service providers study historic preservation techniques and community improvement through a service learning program while rebuilding Ghana or Croatia.

"Partnerships complete our expertise," says Lusk. "It's not just political scientists who gain from foreign relationships, like years ago. Now it's students of veterinary medicine, who learn about major infection from sources we can never know in the States; or it's agricultural researchers, who learn about bioterrorism from studying foreign crops and foreign methods for combating those issues. It's all about looking under rocks—and your point of view. When yours is wide, you find success."

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