OIP animates the international scene university wide

By Roxana Ma Newman

Even before the visionary leadership of President Herman B Wells, Indiana University saw the importance of a global approach to higher education, but it was Wells who began to develop programs that would bring international eminence. With the continued vision and commitment of subsequent IU presidents and administrators, that legacy has been woven into the fabric of the university.

Today, IU is a leader in international education, drawing on the expertise of its outstanding interdisciplinary language and area studies centers, as well as its professional schools, to focus on different dimensions of a changing world. IU's faculty includes leading scholars and teachers in the humanities, social sciences and the professions, who are often called upon to serve as consultants with the federal government, the private sector and educational foundations.

With dozens of academic departments and professional schools offering a variety of certificates and degrees based on hundreds of international studies and foreign language courses, supported by library and museum resources that are among the world's finest, IU is proud to be among the top international universities in the United States.

The new IU International Resource Center (IUIRC) reaches out to Hoosier educational, governmental and business organizations. Recently, IUIRC worked with the East Asian Studies Center to offer briefings for an Indiana trade delegation going to Japan and Taiwan.

Since 1976, the Office of International Programs (OIP) has been the central administrative unit to ensure that teaching, research and public service include a global dimension. OIP provides support, coordination and implementation of international activities on all eight IU campuses. Patrick O'Meara is IU's dean for international programs and directs a staff of more than 40 spread over several administrative units. (See O'Meara's "Viewpoint," this issue.)

While OIP is university-wide, it is more facilitating than supervisory, as each campus has its own international activities. For example, there is an Office of International Affairs at IUPUI and a Center on Southeast Asia. The campus has several international exchanges, internships and linkages. Last academic year, 76 IUPUI students studied abroad. The Indiana Center for Intercultural Communication at IUPUI is also new. (See story, this issue).

The Office of International Programs at IU South Bend fosters activities there. That campus has 233 foreign students from 61 countries and 24 IUSB students studied abroad last summer.

The two largest OIP administrative units headquartered at IUB are the offices of Overseas Study and International Services. (See stories on Overseas Study and International Services.)

His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, speaks about the need for world tolerance and respect for different views. Here he adjusts a ceremonial scarf for a student during a tree-planting ceremony at the Bloomington campus in August 1996.

OIP activities assist in many ways

• OIP informs area studies centers and their faculties about major sources of federal and private funding for research or graduate student support and makes available a number of competitive OIP grants to support international activities. IU faculty and administrators who want to develop affiliations and exchange programs with institutions around the world also get help. IU's global network of linkages now numbers more than 200.

• The Center for International Education & Development Assistance (CIEDA) provides academic and technical skills training programs for pre collegiate international students and mid-career professionals, and sponsors seminars for institution-building projects abroad. One of its largest current projects places mid-level professionals from four southern African countries in two-month internships in private and civic organizations around the United States.

• OIP also assists the university in welcoming and providing programming for distinguished international visitors, including high government officials, university heads and world leaders. The office handles and coordinates many of the arrangements, such as lodging, transportation, protocol and security.

• OIP's International Programs Newsletter, which now has a local, national and international readership of about 2,000, reports on international visitors, research projects and international conferences and workshops at all IU campuses.

• Responding to the Strategic Directions Charter's charge to "strengthen partnerships with public schools, business, government agencies and other external groups," OIP developed three successful Strategic Directives Initiatives this past year which centralize its efforts to reach out to this "larger community."

• Last summer, the Center for the Study of Global Change worked closely with Bloomington's area studies centers and outside consultants to develop a three-week residential "Summer Institute for International Studies" targeted for Indiana high school teachers. The goal was to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills on urgent global issues (environment, population, conflict resolution), so that the teachers could develop relevant lesson plans for their classes.

• The new IU International Resource Center (IUIRC) reaches out to Indiana's educational, governmental and business organizations, helping them gain access to IU's resources so that they can develop and expand their own global activities and international operations. For example, IUIRC recently worked with the East Asian Studies Center to offer country briefings for an Indiana trade delegation going to Japan and Taiwan.

• A new director for international alumni relations is now developing a database to maintain contact with overseas alumni. The director works with the IU Alumni Association and the IU Foundation to plan special programs and activities which will reach IU alumni throughout the world. In turn, these alumni assist in efforts to attract qualified and talented international students.

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