UD honored at U.N. for innovative international programs
Allan Goodman (right), president and CEO of the Institute for International Education, presents the Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education to UD President David P. Roselle.
3:41 p.m., March 30, 2007--On Friday, March 30, the University of Delaware received the 2006-07 Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education in the category of Internationalizing the Campus from the Institute for International Education (IIE), one of the world's largest international education and training organizations. UD President David P. Roselle accepted the prestigious award during a presentation at the United Nations.

“The University has achieved many milestones, it is also a very special place in the Olympic skating world, but, to us, the best record that [Roselle] achieved is, in his tenure, moving study abroad participation from 11 percent to 41 percent. That's a huge number,” Allan Goodman, president and CEO of IIE, said at the ceremony, which was held during a luncheon at the U.N. Delegates Dining Room.

In his acceptance remarks, Roselle outlined the history of UD's study abroad program and cited the impact it had on Ann Nields Garstin, a young woman who went on one of UD's first study abroad programs in 1929. Garstin, who died in 1998 at the age of 88, became a generous benefactor of the University and upon her death bequeathed nearly $10 million to the John P. Nields Scholarship Fund in memory of her father, a gift that now helps send other students abroad.

“We want to make sure that life-changing experiences can be available to many of our students, and individuals at our University have worked very hard to increase those opportunities. We are still working on scholarship support. That is the hurdle in getting more students to be able to study abroad. We are negotiating agreements with foreign institutions to administer programs across the academic spectrum, and our academic units also have increased the number of foreign students at the University and the number of countries they represent,” Roselle said. “Today's recognition by the Institute for International Education and the wonderful name Heiskell for the good work of my University colleagues is a most gratifying honor.”

Also honored during the presentation, which was part of the second annual IIE Best Practices Conference, were Emory University and Florida A&M University for increasing diversity in study abroad, and the State University of New York System for international exchange partnerships.

The award is named in honor of the late philanthropist Andrew Heiskell, former publisher of Life magazine and chairman of the board of Time Inc., who was born in Naples, Italy, to American parents. He lived in Germany, Switzerland and France before he moved to the U.S. at the age of 19 and studied at the Harvard Graduate School of Business.

“Andrew was a great believer in the values of international education and the importance of understanding other countries and cultures,” his widow, Marian Sulzberger Heiskell, said at the ceremony. “I want to congratulate the winners of this program. Your work is so important in preparing the next generation to be global citizens, and these programs are making a real difference. I hope they serve as inspirational models to all the educators who are here today, to hear about them and to share in applauding your success.”

During a panel discussion at the conference, “Comprehensive Internationalization Strategies for Provosts, Deans and Faculty,” Lesa Griffiths, director of UD's Center for International Studies (CFIS), said the University's success is built not only on a rich history, but commitment from the administration and a decentralized approach that allows academic units to help design programs that fit into their respective understanding of international education, thus giving them ownership.

“Don't be limited by what might be perceived as turf among faculty, that international education belongs to certain academic departments, because we know--the people in this room--that it belongs to everybody, but that's not necessarily true among the faculty,” Griffiths said. “Be very broad-thinking in terms of the kind of leadership that you have and their vision of what international means to your campus.”

Griffiths said CFIS programs have grown steadily and now involve 75 percent of UD's academic departments, which send about 100 faculty members with more than 1,200 students abroad every January.
UD's curricular and co-curricular international programs, many coordinated by CFIS and others by academic units and Residence Life, was featured as a “best practice” in international education by IIE's Networker magazine and best practices web site.
UD's long tradition of international education dates back to 1923 when it established the first study abroad program in the United States. In keeping with a Faculty Senate resolution in 2000 “to develop an international perspective in order to live and work effectively in an increasingly global society,” CFIS was established to provide leadership and support in international study and programming.

During a panel discussion, Lesa Griffiths, director of UD’s Center for International Studies, tells those at the IIE conference that UD’s Study Abroad programs now send about 100 faculty members and more than 1,200 students abroad every January.
UD now leads in the study abroad participation rate among U.S. public universities. There also has been a 70 percent increase in UD Study Abroad programs over the past five years. One example is the visual communications program, which enrolled its entire junior class of approximately 30 students, in its annual summer program in London. In UD's Learning Integrated Freshman Experience (LIFE) program, 123 students have studied since 2002 in Australia, Costa Rica, London, Mexico and Spain, with more trips scheduled in the future.

To encourage all students to study abroad, CFIS has awarded more than $350,000 in need-based scholarships and academic scholarships to students.
Among the innovative classroom-based curricular initiatives cited in the nomination is the recently created bachelor of science in international business studies, a joint project of the Lerner College of Business and Economics and the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures.

The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures also has joint majors with the Department of Political Science and International Relations in Spanish, French and German, requiring a semester of overseas study. About half the majors at UD have a language requirement.

UD's Global Citizenship Faculty Fellows program encourages faculty to include global content in their courses and has enlisted about 60 faculty members. The University also offers area studies, such as the African Studies, Latin American Studies, East Asia Studies, Continental European Studies and, in the future, Islamic Studies programs.

University exchange programs that contribute to globalization include the UD Discovery Learning Experience, which encourages service learning or study abroad and has a student exchange with Imperial College of London. The Office of Service Learning has awarded grants to develop service-learning components in Study Abroad programs in such locations as Australia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Fiji and South Africa.

UD also has partnered with the University of Sarajevo, with support from U.S. Agency for International Development to open the Sarajevo Graduate School of Business, which graduated its first class of 22 MBA students in May 2006.
The Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management has had a student exchange and degree program with the Swiss School of Tourism and Hospitality.

UD also is providing technical assistance to Romania in preventing the spread of avian influenza and has an existing partnership in public policy with Babes Bolyai University.

The Office of Residence Life sponsors international programs, and one residence hall includes “global citizenship” as its goal and has established a Study Abroad Living Community. On campus, there are 30 registered student organizations with an international component.

For more information on CFIS, go to [http://international.udel.edu]. For more information on IIE, visit [www.iie.org/].

Article by Martin Mbugua
Photos by Kathy F. Atkinson