ANNUAL REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE FOR FY08
Revised in Committee 22 September 2008 for FY09 REPORT
International Affairs Committee added test in bold font, and submitted for FY09 Final Report
STANDING CHARGES
1. Communicate with appropriate administrative officials and units to guide initiatives and make recommendations to governance for improving the recruitment, retention, and success of international students. Report important issues and any recommendations for action to SenEx. (ongoing)
RECOMMENDATIONS:
2. Communicate with the appropriate administrative officials and units to develop strategies for encouraging KU faculty, staff, and students to pursue an international experience and to review measures in place that help evaluate the effects of this experience on faculty, staff, and students. Report important issues and any recommendations for action to SenEx. (ongoing)
ISSUES AND ACTIONS RECOMMENED:
Departmental units should discuss ways in which faculty might be acknowledged for teaching abroad, especially in relation to Departmental expectations for promotion. These points should be considered:
1. A year of teaching abroad should be credited in a way that recognizes that teaching in another culture requires more preparation, flexibility, and effort than is needed to simply continue one’s teaching load here in Lawrence. The benefit to teachers and their students is that a faculty member who has taught abroad will bring to a KU classroom a more international perspective that will enhance everything s/he teaches after the experience abroad. It is hoped that Senex will undertake to devise a means of measuring such effort, and consider teaching that occurs during winter/spring break and summer study abroad sessions. Attention should be given to Blue Form requirements, and consideration to suitable crediting of the many short-term faculty-led study abroad programs that occur during winter break, spring break, the summer, and semesters. If an eight-week session occurs abroad, consideration should be given in the Blue Form or merit review to the necessary cultural communication requirements incumbent on the instructor. (Attn: Standards for Promotion and Tenure Committee)
2. The Departmental unit should be rewarded for giving release time to a faculty member for teaching abroad. This reward should involve compensation in the form of something comparable to payment for a lecturer to make up for the student enrollment lost through the absence of a faculty member. The institutional approach to this will vary by unit. Some units consider one course to equal 1/10th of nine months’ salary; a buy-out for collaborative foreign work might be considered as compensation to a departmental unit.
3. Increased support, both in terms of sufficient cultural support and enhanced housing support, should be provided for bringing exchange professors to KU from abroad. Currently the university offers 7 rooms (2 for a maximum of one month, five for a maximum of one semester) as housing for visiting professors from abroad. The cost to them is $25/day for a room, or $400 a month for an entire suite. This deeper financial fund should be established to support unmet needs in housing and transportation for international faculty, especially in relation to the expectations for international faculty outlined in the Initiative 2015 plan. With regard to transportation needs, the University should allow visiting professors with a disability to have access to the same transportation as that provided for students with disabilities. At present there is no transportation provision for non-students with disabilities.
(Attn: Provost – budget, International Programs)
4. Consideration should be given to the prospect of faculty members “piggybacking” on the travels of units that need to travel for site reviews abroad (i.e. International Programs, Study Abroad, and Applied English Center). The rational is that the opportunity to see other venues will raise the prospect of new interest in international experiences on the part of faculty who accompany KU staff on these trips. Another option is the establishment of an “International Whirlwind Tour”, modeled on the highly successful domestic tour that is well established at KU, or a faculty seminar abroad, based in various places for various trips. The University of Missouri at Columbia has such an international faculty seminar that might be a model for KU. The aims of such a trip could include recruiting graduate students and the establishment of a faculty exchange, as well as investigating research sites by region. Such a seminar could occur in June, and require a competition by proposal during the previous fall. No more that a dozen faculty and/or staff would be involved per trip, and the competition should be based on a faculty member’s not having already spent extensive time in the region. Applications could be submitted, and opportunities should be rotated so that participation is available to faculty in all Schools, including the Library and Medical School. This recommendation was heartily endorsed by the 2008-09 committee. (Attn: Provost – budget)
Students:
1. Geoff Husic, a KU librarian, created the Carl and Margaret Husic Award for Librarianship with a focus on less commonly taught language capability. These types of awards are exemplary and should be supported through helping to develop awareness of these opportunities. The 2008-09 committee endorsed this effort and suggested increased marketing of it, as well as the creation of other, comparable awards in other units. (attn: library committee)
2. To foster international awareness among students throughout the university (even among those without foreign language requirements) we suggest a project that would provide language and culture education, based on the premise that spoken foreign language ability and cultural awareness are as important in the global scale as disciplinary expertise. We offer an example through which this might be effected: we suggest consultation with the Deans of all Schools to investigate the establishment of a KU Foreign Language Undergraduate Stipend (FLUS) (or perhaps FLCSS, Foreign Language and cultural Studies Scholarship?), and be funded by corporate monies targeted through University School connections (example: Boeing connections in Engineering). We live in a global context, and no one recognizes that more than multinational corporations, who depend on the university training of their prospective employees. It would seem logical for them to support foreign language and culture study that would benefit them in the ability of their employees to better negotiate a global marketplace.
The fellowship would provide tuition and a stipend for students who enroll in a foreign language course as freshmen. The second phase of the fellowship would provide funding for either second year language study or (if that will not fit in someone’s schedule) a summer program of foreign cultural study through any university program. The fellowship would be available in two modes:
A. For units without an existing foreign language requirement any foreign language can be studied.
B. For units with a language requirement, the fellowship might have a two-tiered basis. One level might allow someone to pursue French, German, and Spanish, while another level could provide funding for the study of a less commonly taught language.
C. The 2008-09 committee noted that the University of Missouri at Columbia gives credit for study abroad immersion language study, sometimes counting a semester of immersion as a year of domestic language study. (Attn: Deans of all Schools)
3. The most important aspect of internationalizing student education, however, depends on freshman-sophomore advising. We suggest a workshop recommending less commonly taught languages and study abroad opportunities that all f-s advisors would be required to attend, so that they could be better informed of opportunities for students across the university. This should include information concerning foreign languages recommended by unit as suited to a particular discipline and major. We hope that these resources will be involved in such a workshop: EGARC (they have a wonderful website of language courses offered at KU); Study Abroad; AEC. The 2008-09 committee agreed that this can be implemented. (Attn: Advisory committee)
3. Communicate with appropriate officials and units concerning the evaluation of prospective students for admission, such as in methods of assessing English language proficiency. Report important inquiries and issues of concern and any recommendations for action to SenEx. (ongoing)
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Review the results of the survey of Big 12 Institutions conducted by the FY07 committee and consider whether the information gathered suggests particular opportunities or directions for the improvement of international education at the University of Kansas. Report any recommendations to SenEx by November 16, 2007.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
§ Make sure the KU International Recruitment Advisory Committee is aware of the International Ambassadors program at Iowa State. They may be doing some activities that KU is not. The 2008-09 committee noted that the KU International Student Ambassador program’s web address is: http://groups.ku.edu/~isap/menu.htm
§ Develop training program for KU students traveling internationally that…
Ø links KU students with the study abroad/exchange program office in their destination university
Ø provides students with the appropriate tools for talking about international study abroad at KU
The committee noted that such a training program already exists within the Study Abroad office.
· Survey all-university departments to determine how many offer departmental specific awards for international students at either undergraduate or graduate levels
§ KU has very limited funds for scholarships for top international undergraduate students. Many departments will not grant either TA or RAs to incoming international students. This should be critically looked at with an eye towards increasing availability to scholarships.
§ Increase current KU effort on providing transportation from KCI to Lawrence. The 2008-09 committee noted this has been implemented to provide transportation for the August orientation period. There was a question as to whether provisions could be made for airport transportation needs outside that window. (Attn: International Programs)
§ KU programs such as Global Partners, which pairs domestic and international students, Welcome Families (very active Host family Program) and International Student Association, and 30 nationality clubs and organizations all provide excellent opportunities for interaction. These groups should be commended for what they do and supported in their efforts along with greater publicity of what they do to help the KU community support international aspects of KU. The 2008-09 committee also noted that students could easily petition for GAP credit for their involvement in programs like the International Friends conversation partners. (Attn: International Programs)
§ There should be up to three additional follow-up sessions for ALL international GTAs to address concerns that arise throughout the year.
2. Commend the recent successful reorganization of university administration that created separate international and graduate programs, which help to identify problems and issues of concern to students, staff, and faculty that result from the transition and make recommendations to governance concerning appropriate responses. Report important issues and any recommendations for action to SenEx. (ongoing)
ISSUES AND ACTIONS RECOMMENDED:
§ The Committee discussed this and everyone felt there are no issues that warrant action at this time.
3. Examine the current composition and functions of the International Affairs Committee to determine whether restructuring the committee or revising its responsibilities is necessary or desirable to improve its effectiveness. Report recommendations to SenEx by March 7, 2008.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
§ The Committee does not have any specific recommendations on this. This Committee is quite large which makes it challenging to work as a Committee of the whole. We were able to complete more work in smaller sub-groups which then make the size of this Committee viable. It is important to have all the ex oficios participate since they provide valuable insight and in fact would be some of the KU departments that could help champion some Committee ideas. As chair, I appreciated the efforts of Stacy Elmer who did an outstanding job of contributing to the work of this committee as a student representative. I would be interested in exploring ways to garner more participation from student representatives.
4. Review the current policies and standards for evaluating and supporting the English language proficiency of international students, with particular attention to the tests currently administered and the requirements for further instruction. Report recommendations to SenEx by March 7, 2008.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
· Chuck Seibel reports (16 September 2008):“We have gathered some evidence that 26 is too high to ask for on the iBT speaking test. The Board of Regents is going to consider adding an iBT score to the rule on oral proficiency for GTAs this week, and Sara Rosen has recommended to the Provost that he propose to the Regents that we use 24 as the required score. (25 is not a possible score.)
My colleague at Michigan State told me that there is a good chance that we could work something out so that she and her people could administer SPEAK tests in China for KU. They still do them on audiocassette; they would send the tapes to the AEC for scoring.” (Attn: Applied English Center)
· There is interest by some on the Committee in lowering the requirement for GTA positions who do not teach lecture classes, but rather lead laboratory sections. We recognize this is a Board of Regents policy and would take effort to change but would suggest the idea be further explored at KU to determine if there is strong enough interest to warrant the process necessary to revise a Board of Regents policy.
§ Create a funding mechanism at College or University level to support foreign graduate students of exceptional promise, who do not meet the English proficiency requirement for a waiver from the AEC Proficiency Test. These funds would be used to support the students as Research Assistants for a limited time (1-2 semesters). In that time they would work on a research project with a selected faculty member, while concurrently taking English classes at the AEC. Science departments currently use this mechanism to bring talented foreign graduate students to KU using their internal funds. The number of students involved is very low, typically 1 student per department per year, due to limited funds available.
o Consider a flexible fee structure, especially for students from developing countries.
o Allow departments to view of applications before fees are paid.
o Allow departments to pay the application fees for foreign students.
o KU should develop ways to support getting these students to KU including scholarships and fellowships that pay part or all of the tuition. The Deans and perhaps department chairs along with research directors should discuss this and, if necessary, recommend this.
§ Many faculty members have international collaborators, whom they meet at conferences or during personal visits to foreign laboratories. Stimulating collaborative research with these international centers would be greatly enhanced if there were a mechanism for funding short-term - e.g. one-semester exchange visits by graduate students in the participating laboratories.