U.S. Department of Education - Title VI

Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program (UISFL)

George Mason University

Department of Modern and Classical Languages

PI: Dr. Jeffrey Chamberlain

**Building Bridges for Asia-Pacific Studies: Language, Culture, and
Connectedness**

Abstract

In this Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language
Programs application, George Mason University (GMU) proposes to develop
a minor in Chinese, expand its course array in Japanese, and thereby
enhance the University's Asia-Pacific Studies minor. Our plan implements
three components:

1\) new upper-level Chinese and Japanese language courses; 2) increased
study abroad options for students; and 3) new and redesigned courses in
a variety of disciplines to support the minors in Chinese and in
Asia-Pacific Studies.

We propose to form for the project an advisory group of faculty members
who will collaborate on the curricular changes and host seminars to be
given by Asian language and culture experts from within and outside the
university. The budget underwrites the development of ten new courses
and the revision of four existing courses; supports the creation of a
Chinese minor and the enhancement of the existing Asia-Pacific Studies
minor; and makes possible the inauguration of a semester-long study
abroad program in China. GMU demonstrates its commitment to the project
by contributing well over half of the required resources, with an
increase in GMU's contribution in the second year of the project.

The resources needed to help this project succeed are in place and are
of high quality. Fully 66% of GMU's instructors are tenure-line
professors; nearly half are tenured. The university's D.C. metro
location puts it in close proximity to 11 other major universities with
which it has no-cost reciprocal arrangements, including access for
students and faculty to university libraries in the D.C. metro area.
GMU's libraries are excellent in their own right. They are one of only a
few depositories for European Union documents. In its *Plan for 2007*,
GMU committed substantial institutional resources to a wholesale
internationalizing of the university. GMU's students, in full concert
with this effort, have enrolled in Chinese and Japanese language courses
in triple the expected numbers.

In addition to internal audits involving the Dean, Associate Dean and
the Project Director, GMU has obtained the services of Dr. Thomas W.
Burkman, Director of the Asian Studies Program at the State University
of New York, Buffalo, who will come to GMU for two on-site evaluations
of the project, in spring 2003 and 2004.

GMU's commitment to internationalization is extensive.
Intermediate-level proficiency in one foreign language is required of
every B.A. student, and all students must take one course that meets its
global understanding criteria. The Center for Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation, a consortium of faculty from 15 GMU departments, sponsors
seminars on globalization issues, publishes a journal that explores the
evolving role of Asian cultures and economies, and advocates for
internationalization of the curriculum. In a partnership with the United
Nations, GMU sends student volunteers to developing nations to help them
make better use of technology. GMU's Center for Global Education offers
programs in over 20 countries; the university has been ranked third
nationally in number of students studying overseas.

Recent articles in the national and international press have stated
flatly that American universities need to graduate more students with
expertise in Asian languages and cultures, or see America's ability to
meet its global challenges undermined. GMU students and faculty sense
this need. The proposed project will meet the demand for more courses in
Chinese, Japanese, and Asia-Pacific studies.

**Georgetown College**

The Commerce, Language, and Culture Program:

A Liberal Arts response to Globalization

# 

# **ABSTRACT**

Georgetown College seeks a total of \$145,270 over the two-year period
of this grant to complete the development of and to implement the
Commerce, Language and Culture (CLC) Program. This new program combines
foreign language acquisition and the analysis of culture with the study
of international business and the methodology of rational
decision-making.

In today's world, college graduates must be able to function effectively
in the global economy whether they live in Kentucky or Katmandu. Most
students at Georgetown College have grown up in rural areas and many are
first-generation college attendees. For such students the broadening of
cultural horizons is an absolute necessity to their successful
functioning in the professional arena. The CLC program offers our
students the opportunity to develop the capacity to navigate other
cultures and languages while at the same time building a strong
foundation in business practices. The CLC program addresses this need by
establishing an interdisciplinary major which offers the equivalent of a
minor in a foreign language and a minor in business followed by a series
of integrated courses which combine the two disciplines. Course
offerings are supported by and integrated with a business internship and
a study-abroad experience.

To implement this program, faculty members from the Foreign Languages
and the Business Administration and Economics Departments will introduce
seven entirely new courses, two significantly revised courses, seven
moderately revised courses, and two real-world components.

Successful graduates of this new program will:

-   Integrate effectively the study of business with the study of
    languages and cultures;

-   Bring high levels of language and cultural competence to careers in
    business; and

-   Demonstrate awareness of global issues and the analytical capacity
    for resolving problems growing out of these issues.

Graduates of the CLC program will function effectively as global
citizens, within the business community and beyond it.

The most notable aspect of the CLC program is the degree to which the
disciplines---foreign languages and business administration and
economics---are integrated at all levels of the curriculum. Even at the
foundational level of the program, students are presented with
information and methodological approaches of the complementary
discipline in all of their classes. (For foreign language classes the
complementary discipline is business and economics, and for business and
economics classes, the complementary discipline is foreign languages.)
At the upper tier of the curriculum the integration is even more
thorough. Three upper-level courses will be a combination of team-taught
and interdisciplinary classes, offered in conjunction with an internship
and study-abroad experience. Whereas these integrated courses will be
more costly than traditional courses, the benefits from such a
cross-disciplinary perspective will be greater as well.

Because this is a complex, highly integrated program, the bulk of the
funds requested under this grant will underwrite the curricular
development necessary for program implementation. Other key project
activities include the development of faculty expertise in the
complementary discipline, internship development and maintenance, and
the enhancement of our study-abroad program. Completion of these
activities will provide students at Georgetown College with the type of
high-quality interdisciplinary program that they have been requesting
for a number of years.

ABSTRACT

**PROPOSAL TO DEVELOP A LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES PROGRAM**

**AT LEE UNIVERSITY**

Our project is to develop a Latin American Studies Program at Lee
University over the next two years. There is already strong interest in
Latin America at Lee, and through a Latin American Studies Program, we
will create a versatile minor, enrich the general education language
offerings, foster study abroad and exchange opportunities, and enhance
awareness of Latin American culture, history, languages, and ecology on
the Lee University campus.

# OBJECTIVES

-   **Create a Latin American Studies minor** by supporting faculty
    members in their development of nine new courses in a variety of
    disciplines on Latin American culture, geography, history,
    literature, economics, media, biology and geology.

-   **Expand foreign language offerings** through the introduction of
    five new courses, including Portuguese for Spanish Speakers,
    Language and Culture courses in Portuguese, Guarani and Quechua, and
    a Spanish course in Folk Music and Culture of Latin America.

-   **Expand study abroad options in Latin America** by assisting
    faculty in doing the necessary travel, research and Spanish language
    study to establish new programs in Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, and
    Brazil.

-   **Develop and strengthen relationships between Lee University and
    universities in Latin America** through increased cooperation with
    Universidad Americana in Asuncion, Paraguay, and by establishing a
    relationship with four universities in Chile, Mexico, Argentina, and
    Brazil. These relationships will allow Lee faculty and students to
    study in Latin America and will bring Latin American scholars to Lee
    for short-term teaching.

-   **Enhance awareness of Latin America on campus** by introducing a
    film and lecture series.

A Proposal to Establish an Integrated Peace and Global Studies Program

at Le Moyne College, Syracuse, New York

**Abstract**

Le Moyne College, a Jesuit liberal arts institution in Syracuse, New
York seeks to strengthen its offerings in foreign languages and
international studies by creating an integrated campus-wide program in
Peace and Global Studies. The program will have two interlocking
components: (1) the transformation of an already strong international
studies major into an interdisciplinary Peace and Global Studies major
and

\(2\) the establishment of the Le Moyne College Center for Peace and
Global Studies. The center will act to support the new major, augment
the College's long-term goal of teaching global studies across the
curriculum, increase participation in study abroad and facilitate
community outreach. To enhance the educational experience of both Peace
and Global Studies majors and the student body at large, additional
efforts will be undertaken to use computer-aided technology in language
instruction, to provide greater opportunities for faculty research and
development, and to grow the available library holdings in non-Western
films and Middle Eastern studies. Through these initiatives, the school
intends to intensify the links between the classroom experience and
concrete issues of peace and justice in our global community.

Founded in 1946, the College's 2000 undergraduate students come
primarily from the Northeast, although the school is increasingly
attracting students from outside of the region. The school also has a
growing international student population, with undergraduates from such
diverse places as Jordan, Nicaragua and Bulgaria. As one of 28 Jesuit
institutions of higher learning in the United States, Le Moyne draws
upon a 450-year tradition of academic excellence in the liberal arts and
a commitment to values-based and person-centered involvement in the
broader world. Offering bachelor's degrees in 18 fields, Le Moyne
College has been consistently rated in the top tier of its division by
*U.S. News and World Report*, and plays a significant role in the
cultural and intellectual life of central New York.

Le Moyne College students generally come from the top 15 percent of
their high school graduating class. The average combined SAT scores of
our entering freshman is 1105 and nearly 50 percent of our entering
students receive some form of merit-based financial aid. Many of our
students are the first members of their families to attend a four-year
College. More important, while our students come to Le Moyne with a
solid educational background, they often lack any meaningful
international experience and instead possess a sense of isolation or
disconnection from the broader world. With the events of September 11,
2001 in mind, the authors of this proposal contend that helping students
become aware of their place and responsibilities in that broader world
and encouraging them to explore it for themselves are among our most
fundamental responsibilities as educators. In the long term, we hope to
change the entire underlying campus culture from one in which taking
foreign languages, studying abroad and making connections between the
local and the global is no longer the exception, but rather the norm.

## 

## ABSTRACT

"**Educating for a Global Community" *addresses the need to assist North
Harris College to become a world-class community college in which
students, faculty, staff and administrators gain international knowledge
and experience through educational and scholarly activities and
community and global partnerships. This mission is particularly urgent
because of the rapid globalization of the Houston economy and society.
***

In order to facilitate moving the institution to the next level of
global interchange, North Harris College is seeking support through the
Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program in the
amount of \$89,780 in FY 2002-03 and \$88,995 in FY 2003-04.

The College's commitment to this venture is evidenced by the creation of
the Center for International Education and Languages and its plan to
build an Associate of Arts concentration in International Studies. This
initiative will begin with a group of selected faculty working to
enhance a number of targeted courses, developing instructional
components that introduce students to the international context of their
coursework. Within two years, students will have the option of selecting
a sequence of coursework that provides a solid perspective on
international issues, at the same time that it meets current Associate
of Arts requirements. This option should be particularly attractive for
students who wish to pursue bachelor's level studies in international
relations, international business, or foreign language study. But
potentially all of our students will benefit from the availability of
this coursework, achieving a broader perspective on international
issues.

Significant progress has already been made. Faculty members of the Core
Curriculum received approval from the Executive Council and Board of
Trustees to add a multicultural requirement to the core requirements for
the Associate of Arts and the Associate of Science degrees. Partnerships
and affiliations with various international universities, consortia and
associations have been established, and the institution is actively
pursuing several study abroad and faculty exchange programs.

Funding of this proposal will provide support for faculty fellowships
and workshops, curriculum development, expansion of the modern language
program, and resource acquisition. Expected results include a coherent
International Studies program, leading to an Associate of Arts Degree,
which fully articulates with the Bachelor's level programs in
International Studies at local universities; a Diploma in Mexican
Studies; instruction in Vietnamese, Mandarin Chinese, Arabic and
Japanese and an infrastructure that promotes increased access to
international exchange opportunities for both students and faculty.

North Harris College has made a commitment of approximately \$185,000 in
support of this project. Funding of this proposal ensures that the
college is able to accomplish its goal to internationalize its
curriculum and programs.

A Project to Redesign, Renovate and Strengthen the International Core

Providing Students with an Alternative Set of Graduation Requirements

# 

#  ABSTRACT

## Need Statement

##  

The latest resurgence of interest in international education indicates
recognition on college and university campuses that educated people must
live effectively and responsibly in a global world. While the initiation
of international programs ebbed and flowed in the 1970s and 1980s, now
they are part of the undergraduate mainstream. What were isolated
initiatives have become institutional imperatives.

Yet despite all that has been done to date, the general education
curriculum as a whole has not been systematically and substantially
impacted. It must be if the overall goal that international educators
have extolled for decades is to be met, one version of which states that
generally educated people are able to analyze and respond constructively
to the basic issues facing humankind in the contemporary world.

Many campuses, including PLU, have responded to the need for
international education by adding to their graduation requirements such
categories as modern language study, an international studies course,
and/or a cultural diversity course. Yet, as stated by Martha Nussbaum in
*Cultivating Humanity*, "An amorphous elective diversity requirement
does not adequately prepare students for the complex world they will
confront." (Nussbaum 1997, 96)

Pacific Lutheran University has decided to meet the challenge of
enabling its undergraduates to become globally literate by offering a
revised and strengthened International Core for students to meet their
graduation requirements. In this world of internationalizing societies
and systems contrasted with revived cultural identities, educated people
must live and work in a global context as they choose occupations and
lifestyles, problem solve and participate in the political process, and
respond ethically to events. They are consumers and citizens
contributing to the pattern of international interests and demands. As
components of complex systems, students should become conscious of their
place in the world.

## Goal Statement

Pacific Lutheran University's Core II is distinct from Core I in that,
as a typical distributive core, Core I mandates courses in literature,
philosophy, modern language, natural and social sciences, mathematics,
cultural diversity, writing and critical conversation. In the process of
renovating and strengthening its International Core II, Pacific Lutheran
University will address a major international education issue, namely
the linking of international and general education, plus create a
constructive response to pedagogical imperatives facing higher education
in general, that is achieving curriculum coherence and student outcomes
assessment.

[Goal One]{.underline}: Produce a coherent, cumulative, systematically
designed international general education core curriculum. Forty seven
faculty, 20 percent of PLU's full time faculty, will design and teach 14
new courses and 12 revised courses two with several sections.

[Goal Two]{.underline}: Hold three-day summer workshops followed up by
one day each semester in which participants will collaboratively learn
from each other in applying the common content and student skill
development themes that will link each course in the program.

[Goal Three]{.underline}: Design and develop two program assessment
methods that will be built-in to the program as measures of student
learning: 1. A pre and post test using objective as well as competency
essay strategies, and 2. Creating a new strategy using what the project
planning committee now calls student self assessment academic essays
that will be required in every course in The International Core.

**DEVELOPING AFRICAN AREA STUDIES**

**TEXAS SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY**

**HOUSTON, TEXAS 77004**

### Abstract

Texas Southern University seeks support from the Undergraduate
International Studies and Foreign Language Program of the United States
Department of Education to institutionalize its African studies
activities into an undergraduate African studies program. Texas Southern
University is a historically black, state supported, urban, university
in Houston, Texas. The University has engaged in a decade long program
of enlargement of its support for teaching African studies. It hosted
host a Fulbright Scholar in Residence from Tanzania, it has increased
the number of faculty with expertise in African studies and the number
of courses with Africa oriented content, it has won competitive grants
from the Fulbright program and the National Endowment for the Humanities
for projects devoted to Africa, it has piloted a study abroad program in
Tanzania, it has developed an externally funded linkage program with an
institution of higher education in South Africa, it has helped sponsor
the organization of a group devoted to promoting African studies in
Houston, it has served as one of the host institutions for the Annual
Meetings of the African Studies Association in Houston in 2001, and
several of its faculty members have engaged in sponsored research in
Africa and published signification contributions to scholarship based on
that research. Texas Southern is committed to taking the next step in
this process, and using resources available through the Undergraduate
International Studies and Foreign Languages program to institutionalize
its African studies program.

Towards this end, the University has engaged in a two-year process of
evaluation and planning. A core group of members of the faculty has
identified specific goals and the actions needed to achieve them. The
administration has committed significant resources towards those ends.
Funds generated through grantsmanship have been utilized to bring to
campus internationally recognized experts on teaching Africa in higher
education to advise on the process. The result is a realistic and
sustainable plan of action.

A need for a program of African studies at Texas Southern exists. One
oft noted aspect of the growing internationalization of the United
States society and economy has been the relative lack of participation
by minority group members, especially African Americans, in this
internationalization. Texas Southern University has an unique
opportunity to increase participation by minority group members,
particularly African Americans, in international affairs through its
African studies program. The program seeks funding for faculty
development activities to increase faculty expertise in African studies
and revise existing courses, for the development of foreign language
programs focused on Africa, for support for a student study abroad
program in Tanzania, for the improvement of library and media holdings
on Africa, and for administrative support for the program. Program
development has already begun. Significant outside support for some
activities has already been received. Other significant support for our
program is being sought. We intend to make Texas Southern a recognized
center for international and African studies.

The specific goals to be realized with the support of an Undergraduate
International Studies and Foreign Languages grant are:

> 1\. The development of a minor in African Studies
>
> 2\. The implementation of foreign language courses in African
> languages
>
> 3\. The regularization of its study abroad program in Tanzania

Elements of the program to be directly supported by this grant include:

> 1\. Faculty development activities directed towards curriculum
> development
>
> 2\. The beginning of foreign language instruction in African languages
>
> 3\. Continuation of the study abroad program in Tanzania
>
> 4\. Support for enrichment activities and faculty workshops on campus
> that include lectures by distinguished academics and activists
>
> 5\. Acquisition of library and other teaching materials
>
> 6\. Support for the administration of the program

The University's commitment to the program includes:

> 1\. An office and structure for the African studies program
>
> 2\. Release time for key personnel
>
> 3\. Administrative support
>
> 4\. Support for faculty workshops
>
> 5\. Continued financial support for the study abroad program
>
> 6\. Support for curriculum revision and the implementation of an
> African studies minor

Measurable outcomes of the program will be:

> 1\. The creation of a minor in African studies
>
> 2\. The continuation of the study abroad program
>
> 3\. The offering for foreign language courses in African languages
>
> 4\. The number of courses revised or created
>
> 5\. The number of enrichment activities

**The Iowa REEES Distance Learning Consortium**

**Abstract**

The dramatic advances in simulated communication environments of the
past decade have suggested myriad potential educational applications
that faculty are only slowly putting to use. The exploration of new
technologies for educational purposes is both exciting and, if applied
in haste, potentially hazardous. Experienced teachers are right to be
skeptical of flashy applications that promise miraculous results with
little student effort. While new technology must therefore be approached
with care and foresight and with an ever critical questioning of
supposed benefits, clear potential for constructive innovation
nevertheless exists.

While technology has leapt forward, budgetary pressures on public
institutions serving relatively specialized subject areas have grown
more acute in recent years. With enrollments as the bottom line in
deans' offices across the country, more specialized fields of study have
found themselves at a distinct disadvantage before the most heavily
enrolled subject areas. Slavic, East European, and Eurasian area studies
have been among the disciplines most affected.

With these two broad considerations in mind, the Center for Russian,
East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Iowa, in
partnership with the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at
Iowa State University and the Department of Modern Languages at the
University of Northern Iowa, has begun a pilot program of distance
learning for REEES students at the three Iowa Regents Institutions.
Through the REEES Distance Consortium, we hope to pool faculty resources
and combine student populations such that undergraduate foreign language
and area studies offerings at all three campuses are simultaneously
enriched. Based on specific institutional strengths, faculty resources,
and student demand, we have selected three REEES languages----Czech,
Polish, and Serbian-Croatian----for initial concentration. These will be
augmented by a series of new, English-language area related courses on
Russian environmental health, Central Asian area studies, Yugoslav
cultural politics, Central European history, literature, and culture,
and spiritual responses to violence in the former USSR. Finally, without
ignoring the possibility that certain of our new courses may attract
wide student interest, we anticipate that the exploration of educational
delivery systems in common will enable us to provide some solutions to
the general problem of how to sustain smaller classes in public
institutions.

The consortium partners have been working together since the summer of
2001 to evaluate technologies, carefully select courses, and explore
internal funding sources. We have decided initially to employ an
internet-based video conferencing technology (Polycom) as our primary
delivery system. This proposal outlines the next stage of our
activities, which may be divided into the following three categories:
(1) curriculum development for 12 new courses designed specifically for
distanced delivery; (2) procurement of additional computer hardware and
related equipment; (3) establishment of study abroad opportunities for
students who wish to pursue their studies beyond the level envisioned by
the consortium. Finally, we are seeking limited funds for the
organization of a series of REEES speakers to enhance our general area
effort by touring the three host institutions.