University Governance
Preliminary Report 2011
International Affairs Committee
The IAC believes that the link between governance and those who administer a wide variety of international programs is vitally important. As such, we feel that the International Affairs Committee is central to strategic planning for the 21st century. Members of the committee believe that the IAC should play a central role in moving international programs in novel and consequential directions as part of KU’s strategic planning for success as a world-class academic institution.
Currently, KU has various units that engage in transnational work on multiple levels, from undergraduate language acquisition through international business partnerships to cross-national research teams in science, engineering, medical research, artistic partnerships, and area studies programs based in the humanities and the social sciences. Such activities will only increase as the century progresses; the new school of public health, for instance, will not be able to function unless it takes into account transnational populations. In the past, the IAC has been helpful in identifying individuals to serve on task forces related to strategic planning and development of successful programs, such as GAP. The IAC has raised issues that relate to the Applied English Center policies and to the placement of ISSS. Through a concerted effort, we feel that the IAC can help KU to continue responding to the challenges of preparing Kansans for life and work in a rapidly changing and increasingly interdependent, networked and globalized world.
The International Affairs Committee should be the umbrella for all international programming across the university. We feel that the IAC should serve as a clearinghouse; facilitator; record keeper; and occasional game-changer when it comes to responding effectively to the challenges and opportunities associated with international affairs. However, no one at KU knows how many units are doing this kind of work, and precisely what it is that they are doing. One thing that is clear is that there are many areas where services and activities are being duplicated. This makes for a costly, dysfunctional, organization.
The committee's questions last fall remain largely the same this spring: What exactly is happening internationally across campus? Where exactly is it happening? With what resources (people and money) and what goals? Is there overlap that could be more efficient? Do current institutional structures and procedures serve us well? What do we need to do to take the next steps toward realizing the global ambitions of the strategic planning process as the impact teaching, research, and
outreach?
To respond effectively to these pressing questions, the committee feels that the IAC should coordinate a university-wide self-study regarding international affairs at KU. In this regard, our efforts in IAC can dovetail well with the Administration's plan of bringing the Huron Group to conduct an efficiency review.
At the conclusion of the self-study a credible and internationally recognized external review team should visit campus for the purpose of making recommendations that stem from issues raised by the self study.
Proposed International Affairs Evaluation Plan
The IAC proposes to spend next year doing a university-wide self-study of international engagement across the university, including the Edwards campus and the Medical Center. The study will be designed with the goal of bringing in an external review team the following year. The Committee will begin by thoroughly familiarizing itself with the self-study and external review of several years ago. It will then formulate a series of questions that can be applied to all units about the depth and breadth of their international programming. The questionnaire will be administered in person by teams of two committee members. Each team will write up its findings, and the Chair and a sub-committee will collate and write the master report. The Provost’s Office can then use the report as the basis for an external review that will help the University as a whole determine what our current resources are, how we can consolidate, reduce expenditures, and increase viable units.
The proposed self-study should include past external reviews and planning documents such as: HLC report from the last visit, the external review done 6 or 7 years ago (housed in IP); planning documents for what is now CGIS and Global Scholars; the planning document that IP prepared for Chancellor Hemenway in 2006 after winning the Simon Award.
Rather than using it as a justification for an infusion of more funds in the current fiscal environment in which they are not likely to be available, the proposed self study should consider missions of units, issues of duplication, opportunities for synergistic activities and ways to do more with current resources. Committee members note that the authority for such a self study must come from the Provost’s
Office. As one Committee member noted “this simply can’t happen without the strong backing of the Provost’s Office.”
The IAC notes a number of compelling arguments for implementing the Proposed International Affairs Evaluation Plan:
1. Important for budget issues--helps clean up duplicate programming and consolidate financial resources.
2. Promote interdisciplinary research and teaching by “taking down silos”; facilitate communication across units regarding international affairs
3. Facilitates future strategic and operational planning for international programs across a series of intersecting issues of consequence:
Language acquisition & Cultural competency
Faculty/Student/Staff exchange
Commerce/Business
Research
Cultural exchange
4. Facilitates fund-raising, both for research and for program building and expansion.
Our proposed recommendation of conducting a self study of international affairs should be a central part of the university’s strategic planning, particularly as KU embarks on a broad range of initiatives designed to propel the university to new levels of international engagement and global positioning.
Bartholomew Dean
Chair--IAC