The Path Ahead: Addressing The Moral Imperatives Of Our Times

Opening Plenary, Washington Leadership Meeting
NAFSA: Association of International Educators
January 26, 2007

Good evening and welcome. What a wonderful feeling it is to look around this room and see so many good people gathered together to advance a mission that unites us all in so many positive ways, filling our days and lives with so much purpose and commitment; and then, when we least expect it, offering us that ephemeral sense of doing something good that helps heal our world.  A night like tonight brings great hope.

To those of you who have returned to WLM to again pay homage to our work as fundamental to fostering peace, security, and well-being in our world, I am delighted to be rejoining you in such a warm homecoming. To those of you who are new to our mid-winter’s night tradition of renewal and resolve, I offer a special welcome. I trust you will find this weekend a memorable beginning as you embark on a path that can truly help us build that better world we all dream about.

2006 was a record year for NAFSA and our 9,400+ members.  More volunteers than ever got involved; and their success in advancing our field and meeting the professional needs of our members can only be attributed to the collaborative spirit of so many talented leaders like you who beheld a common vision, focused your energies, and applied your talents to the many challenges before you.  To each of you who jumped into the fray, thank you and congratulations.  I’m happy to report, and you’ll be glad to hear, even greater challenges await us in 2007!  So, please join me in making sure your seat belts are securely fastened. 

Looking around this room and seeing the power of our potential to meet those challenges is a bit overwhelming at first glance. Look around you for a moment and marvel at the breadth and depth of all the knowledge and experience assembled here tonight.  Look around again and marvel at all the different perspectives and aspirations that we embody.  Now, combine that abundance with the level of achievement that each one has accomplished thus far in advancing our profession, and you can begin to appreciate the magnitude of the vast collective resource we offer our field and our association.  Now imagine, if you will, what good we could do together that we can’t do alone. That’s the overwhelming part.

Even though we come from many diverse origins, each of us brings to our work the same heart space that promises a better tomorrow, a promise that awakens us each morning, lifts us from our field of dreams, and compels us forward in countless acts of faith.  I think I speak for each of us when I say, “International education is that promise, NAFSA nurtures that heart space, and all of us are the faithful actors.” I feel fortunate to be in the midst of so much hope, conviction and goodwill as we plan our next steps in shaping our global future. Thank you for shining your light on the path ahead, and with your indulgence, I would like to briefly share a few reflections on where that path might take us in 2007.

I first glimpsed the path some 35 years ago in a small Kenyan village called Tumutumu when I stood in a thatched hut called a classroom, looked about for books and desks that did not exist, confronted scores of friendly, hungry, penetrating eyes, and slowly began the process of learning how to see what life looks like from non-western, non-privileged perspectives. I lived in East Africa as a volunteer teacher, writer, and neophyte global nomad for two years and I doubt any period in my life has had a more profound impact on shaping my worldview or directing my moral compass. A door opened and a new consciousness began transforming my inner landscape in ways that still resonate today, fueling a lifelong quest for creating greater compassion and justice in a world desperately needing more of both.

I am sure each of you has your own story of cross cultural discovery and transformation, and now, as I look around and see so many fellow dreamers, believers and doers gathered together, I feel compelled to offer one more act of faith - a somber homily with a hopeful ending.  Some of you may remember some of these reflections from last WLM, and if so, perhaps like me, you’ll wistfully reflect that they ring even more true now than they did then.

As veteran international educators, no one knows better than you how rapidly our world is changing and how profoundly those changes impact our lives on a moment-to-moment basis. Because we work in a field so inextricably connected to the relentless advance of globalization, change is our constant companion, and coping with change becomes our collective challenge. As those changes grow increasingly interconnected across cultures, they become increasingly confounding, and the issues that ensue can assume staggering proportions that soon boggle the mind, jar the soul, and turn our hearts to stone. And from an ever growing menu of global issues that imperil our collective future, three "synapse rattlers" top my richter scale of moral conundrums that we, as cohabitants of our Earth community, can no longer afford to avoid:

First, what hope for justice can we find in a world where half our human family, over three billion people, live on less than two dollars a day, and half of those live on less than $1 a day 1.? What does justice mean when the combined wealth of the world's 712 billionaires exceeds the combined gross domestic product of the world's 150 poorest countries?2.  Imagine a world where 100 families have 100 bags of rice to share for their survival - in terms of global economic distribution in 2006, 2 families got to share 50 bags while 50 families got to share one bag.3 Now imagine what a more just world might look like and what path we need to take to get there.

Second, what hope for peace can we find in a world where global military spending exceeds $1.2 trillion annually.4? What does peace mean when the world's largest arms dealer accounts for more than half of that amount by operating 702 bases in 131 countries, plus another 6,000+ installations5 in a land called home?  Imagine a world where just one day of US military spending could provide 60,000 Fulbright fellowships a year, 10 times the current number6.  One day in 2006 = $1.5 billion7. Now imagine what a more non-violent world might look like and what path we need to take to get there!

And third, what hope for sustainability can we find in a world where the race to the bottom is driven by economic policies that champion unlimited growth, induce hyper consumption, generate obscene waste, and accelerate environmental devastation? What does sustainability mean when the triumph of entrenched greed over empirical truth allows the world's most powerful politicians to debunk global warming in favor of energy policies that ensure the advent of Apocalypse now? Imagine a world where everyone consumed as much as the average American in 2006; we would need three additional Earth size planets to supply the necessary resources and accommodate the residual wastes8.  Now imagine what a less materialistic, more sustainable world might look like and what path we need to take to get there!

These are the conundrums that frame the three moral imperatives of our times – reducing economic disparities, resolving conflicts non-violently, and adopting sustainable life-styles - and how well we respond as a global community to these challenges in the next five-to-ten years could change the future of our planet more profoundly than any other period in history. Preserving the planet for our children and grandchildren speaks to our deepest aspirations, no matter what culture, religion, or ideology we embrace or espouse.9 As the daunting social, political, and environmental costs of globalization continue to escalate and imperil our collective survival, we must learn how to foster and connect institutions, organizations and communities so we can generate global solutions for global problems.

The hopeful promise of such a global community is its capacity to connect people and institutions in collaborations that transcend the myopic legacies of competing forces advancing short-term self-interests. Imagine for a moment, a transnational civil society that prepares and inspires a whole new generation of global citizens who look at global issues systemically and envision new paradigms that foster synergistic and holistic approaches to creating sustainable environments and human security for all.

As international educators shaping our global future, we share a compelling responsibility and a unique power to envision possibilities commensurate with the challenges we face. We must act now to foster and connect learning communities that will create a more just, compassionate and sustainable world for all. We must prepare tomorrow's leaders to create a global civil society wherein perspectives are exchanged in pursuit of understanding, aspirations are transformed into deeds that enrich the human spirit, borders become invisible, nations become people, common ground is nurtured, partnerships flourish and goodwill prevails.

Therein lies our hope for the future – this is the promise of international education - and NAFSA is the organization that kindles that hope and lights the path ahead.  This promise is not some far away utopia. As NAFSA leaders, we have the ability to actualize this promise of international education, and it can begin right here, right now with addressing what I call our “3 Leadership Challenges For A World of Rapid Change.”

1. Empower Our Members
We must strengthen our professional development programs and services to help our members more effectively manage an accelerating confluence of global forces, circumstances, and players directly impacting every aspect of our field and profession. If we aspire to prepare and inspire global citizens, we first must be prepared and inspired as global citizens.

2. Transform Our Institutions
We must create collaborative synergies and innovative partnerships, both on and off campus, that will foster learning communities across borders and beyond comforts zones in order to optimize the acquisition of global competencies and prepare global-ready graduates for a workforce that will only grow increasingly interconnected and cross-cultural.

3. Heal Our World
We must successfully advance favorable public policies through systems and institutions that all too often champion short-term self-interests which inherently run counter to the solutions necessary to solve long-term global issues.  Our public policies must strengthen both the perception and the reality of our shared organizational values - that our work is fundamental to fostering peace, security, and well-being in our world and that international education plays a central role in preparing global citizens who will transcend competing short term interests and nurture a harmonic global civil society based on synergistic partnerships and creative collaborations.

That’s it - these are our three leadership challenges for 2007 - empower our members, transform our institutions, and heal our world. And for those of you who, like me, may sometimes wonder - how can we possibly do this, how can one person, or one community, or one organization, possibly make a difference with such huge issues on a global scale, allow me to remind you of the hummingbird that Wangari Maathai described in Montreal last May. Like the hummingbird putting out the wild fire with tiny drops of water, “We each must do what we can.”

Or as Bono so fervently cajoles us in his appeals to end global poverty, “Because we can, we must. Because we can, we must. Amen.“ So tonight let’s begin to address our leadership challenges for 2007. We are creating NAFSA's history every day through the work we do; now is the time for us to shape NAFSA's future as well. I invite you to act on two propositions during the remainder of our time together this weekend:

First, begin thinking strategically about the role NAFSA can play in advancing the promise of international education.  Remember that strategic thinking involves ‘the what’ while operational thinking involves ‘the how.” At its highest level, it’s a question of defining our vision. What do we want NAFSA to accomplish in the future? Toward what end is all our work directed? On Sunday morning we will have an opportunity to help shape NAFSA’s vision when we focus on reframing the Strategic Plan. You will be asked to identify strategic opportunities that can best move us toward our vision; to identify not only what we do well – what are the core competencies that establish our leadership reputation in the field? - but what else might we want to do well – what new competencies might we want to develop to advance our leadership? So this weekend please remain mindful that as we envision the future, we must think Pan NAFSA, we must think strategically, and we must think of our three leadership challenges.

Second proposition, if you have not already done so, begin securing NAFSA’s financial future. Much of our incredible success as the world’s leading association of international educators is derived from the revenue streams we generate.  We are leaders of an $11 million business enterprise and that’s not even counting what the regions generate. And like everything else in our organization, it’s up to the leadership to make sure we have sufficient resources to meet all our goals and objectives, both now and in the future. Membership fees only account for 30% of our revenue base; so we must generate all the rest from other sources. Financial stewardship is one of the key elements of leadership that all too often gets overlooked, or perceived as something that someone else is supposed to do.  Not so.  It’s up to each of us as leaders to make sure that our fund drives are successful, that our conferences are profitable, that our business partners are benefiting from their investment in us, that we spend wisely and balance budgets prudently. It’s important to understand that financial stewardship requires everyone’s involvement; it’s not about someone else doing it; it’s about us, each of us, doing it.

And finally, I would like to close on a personal note about meeting Wangari Maathai last May. In many ways it was one of those magical, ephemeral moments we least expect. Within a matter of seconds we realized that the very first tree she planted when launching her Greenbelt Movement in 1977 was in Tumutumu, just outside the same thatched hut of a classroom that launched my journey five years earlier. Imagine our delight in discovering the roots of our subsequent life paths shared the same common ground.

And tonight, looking around this room, I see a far more profound confluence of life paths finding common ground right here, right now - in our roles as NAFSA leaders - and from this common ground emerges a clear and enduring realization: by doing what we can, and doing it together, we become the indomitable force for good that empowers our members, transforms our institutions, and heals our world. Go ahead, look around this room, and see for yourself where the path ahead might take us; and when that happens, when we realize what good we can do together, “the stone in our breast dissolves; we take heart once more”10.  A night like tonight brings great hope. Thank you.

1. Anup Shah: Poverty Stats and Facts.
http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Facts.asp

2. Arundathi Roy; 2004 Sydney Peace Prize Acceptance Speech. Data updated for 2006.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=6594

3. Aaron Glantz; Richest 2 Percent Own Half the World's Wealth.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1222-04.htm

4. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Trends in Military Spending.
http://www.sipri.org/contents/milap/milex/mex_trends.html

5. Chalmers Johnson; The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic. http://www.americanempireproject.com/johnson/index.asp

6. Anup Shah, Arms Trade and World Military Spending.
http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/ArmsTrade/Spending.asp

7. U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs; Fulbright Program.
http://exchanges.state.gov/education/fulbright/about.htm

8. Bo Ekman, Man and His Endangered Home.
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=8225

9. John Sloboda; Saving The Planet and Ourselves: The Way To Global Security.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-institutions_government/global_security_3630.jsp

10. Daniel Berrigan; Trial of the Catonsville Nine. 1970.

 

What Our Members Are Telling Us

Opening Plenary , NAFSA Fall Planning Meeting
Minneapolis Minnesota
October 6, 2006

Thank you Mariam. Good morning. I’m delighted to welcome each of you to FPM.  We’ve all come a long way - some further than others, right Rebecca? - and we have a lot of important work ahead of us.  Our time together during the next 36 hours is critical to getting us focused on developing work plans for achieving our goals in 2007.  So let’s get started.
I would like begin with highlighting some of the findings from our recent membership survey because they may provide a useful context for our discussions later today and tomorrow.  And along the way I will mention a few NAFSA activities that are helping members respond to the ever-increasing challenges we’re facing in both the field and our profession.
Recently NAFSA engaged a research firm to conduct an extensive survey of the membership. One of the survey’s purposes was to discover the key challenges that members face in their professional roles as international educators.  At the beginning of the Survey respondents were asked 3 questions:

1. What is the biggest issue facing international education?
2. What is the primary challenge you face on campus or in your organization?
3. What is the biggest challenge in your job on a day to day basis?

After much analysis and discussion of the raw data, it became clear that many of the answers shared similar themes.  In fact, despite all of the diversity in institutions, disciplines, functions and professional experiences, the members surveyed had articulated a set of common concerns. Granted this was expressed in many voices, and with varying degrees of passion, but it is clear that certain fundamental concerns are shared by the entire international education community.  For the purposes of our discussion today, I will narrow the responses down to four statements that reflect the key ideas behind the survey results.

The good news is that the findings are consistent with NAFSA’s mission, vision, values and its strategic plan. The other side of that coin is that there is still much work to be done to promote international education as part of our daily mission. Here’s what the research discovered, or in many cases reaffirmed, about the issues and challenges shared by almost all our members. The four findings ar:e:

“Opening Doors in an Interdependent World is Essential!”
“Cultural Exchange Advances the Global Community.”
“Higher Education is a Global Marketplace.”
“Resources are the Key to Achieving Impact!”

So what does this all mean?  Well let’s break it down.

First -- Opening Doors in an Interdependent World is Essential. “Opening Doors” is a symbolic expression that has grown increasingly more relevant over the course of the last 50 years. “Opening Doors” means all nations truly embracing and living the concept of “real welcome” in all their words and actions related to educational and cultural exchange. It’s not just about nations saying they have laid down a welcome mat; it is truly about engaging international students and scholars in ways that help them become part of the daily fabric of the communities in which they live, work, play, learn and grow.  Too many barriers and hurdles still exist that contradict the message of ‘real welcome’ - in the US as well as in other countries. Barriers exist whenever governments establish regulations or enforce restrictions that make it harder to attract the talented women and men who serve as global cultural ambassadors - sharing their own knowledge and experiences and spreading the benefits that transformed their lives while abroad.  The theme of ‘opening doors’ was cited in the survey as the number one issue in our community; and it’s faced by both those who work with incoming students as well as those who work with students going abroad.

NAFSA has continued to work diligently to support the ‘open doors‘ concept during the last year.  Larry Bell and his teams have introduced a renewed spirit and energy to our advocacy work.I encourage you to get familiar with the activities of the Public Policy teams, especially with two new products they introduced to advocate for the importance of international student and scholar mobility.
The first is ACT – the Advocacy Centered Team – the grassroots lobbying team powered by over 1,000 engaged NAFSAns. The second is Issuenet - the on-line tool for members to identify regulatory challenges and seek assistance from their Regulatory Ombudspersons. I also urge you to join your colleagues in promoting events to showcase and celebrate international education accomplishments, such as International Education Week which occurs this year from November 13th  through the 17th .

Our second research finding revolves around the idea that “Cultural Exchange Advances the Global Community!”  Throughout its history NAFSA has consistently framed its mission to proactively address changing conditions and emerging trends. Globalization’s growing impact on all aspects of our Earth community demands no less; as educators shaping our planet’s global future, we must envision possibilities commensurate with the challenges we face. Whatever role NAFSA chooses in shaping that future, it must embrace a compelling mission that resonates from our core values, clarifies our focus in every goal we set, and inspires us to become more engaged in producing graduates who will create a more compassionate, just and sustainable global community.

The hopeful promise of such a global community is its capacity to connect people and institutions in collaborations that transcend the myopic legacies of hegemonic forces advancing short-term self-interests. Imagine for a moment, a connected and engaged civil society utilizing the inherent benefits of international education to prepare and inspire a whole new generation of global citizens who look at global issues systemically and envision new paradigms that foster synergistic and holistic approaches to creating a sustainable environment and human security for all.

The survey reaffirms that our members share such aspirations: we firmly believe international education advances learning and scholarship, builds understanding and respect among different peoples, and enhances constructive leadership in the global community. We also contend that international education by its nature is fundamental to fostering peace, security, and well-being.  The survey reaffirms all this but it also reveals that there remains an on-going need to do so much more in educating others about the value of international education - on our campuses, with our peers, and most dauntingly - with the general public.

NAFSA’s work strengthens the advent of this emerging global community by keeping the dialog current, fluid and accessible; by connecting like-minded people, organizations and institutions; and by creating opportunities for members to become more engaged in the pursuit of global solutions to global problems.  

Our most recent Annual Conference in Montreal attracted record attendance and we heard luminary speakers challenge us to grow more engaged in addressing global issues.   Here in Minneapolis next May, our conference will create the world’s largest gathering ever of international educators and it promises even greater results as we explore the many profound and innovative ways of preparing global citizens.   The newly revamped International Educator magazine is now more readable, more globally focused and appeals to broader audience both nationally and internationally. The new award winning NAFSA Website is easier to access. It is more user friendly, more timely, and as you know firsthand, has that great new networking technology available for our many communities. Chris Viers and his teams have done an incredible amount of work over the last year to enhance our educational and professional development products, services and resources.

Our third research finding has become increasingly more evident on our campuses, but not always well understood by our leaders.  The third finding is that Higher Education is a “Global” Marketplace. For decades following WW II the hallmark of America's public diplomacy was the importance placed on higher education in building greater international understanding and goodwill. Visionary leaders established programs and services to attract and support foreign students; and at the same time, they created study abroad, foreign-language and area studies programs to create graduates with international and intercultural expertise. Their vision was to ensure that those who would shape the world of the future had opportunities for an international education and opportunities for exposure to diverse cultural values. 

As a result of these early initiatives, no other educational system in the world could compete with the quality and payback of a U.S. degree. Some of the best and brightest students from every country ended up on America’s doorstep and international enrollments grew steadily for three decades. By 1982, the U.S. had a 42% share of the world’s student mobility market.

And as you know all too well, America's position as the leading destination for international students has been steadily eroding ever since that 1982 high water mark. While the absolute numbers increased until 2003, the rate of growth relative to other countries steadily declined. The US market share in 2004, though still the highest, had fallen to 28%.

While the frenzied regulatory tsunami of the post 911 world gets the brunt of the blame for America’s declining market share, to focus on 9/11 and its aftermath exclusively would be to miss the point; and by doing so, misunderstand the much larger dilemma that America faces in higher education’s global marketplace.

Some analysts suggest, and I concur, that the U.S. would have experienced similar declines even if 9/11 never happened. The decline might not have been as precipitous, but the real forces leading to it were already in motion well before 9/11 and reflect the new realities of the new playing field:

  1. the US is pricing itself out of the market.
  2. the US is the leading competitor, but it is not competing.
  3. the US lacks an international education policy;

While each of these observations deserve more time and explanation, the most salient point is what our survey results indicate: that many higher education institutions and leaders still need to embrace this new market reality and incorporate its implications into their strategic planning. Throughout the world, on every campus and in every government, there should be a comprehensive international education policy that strives to facilitate the mobility of students and scholars across borders, promote foreign-language, area studies and intercultural communications; and prepare ‘global-ready’ graduates with the knowledge skills and perspectives necessary to succeed in a global workforce that will only grow increasingly interconnected and cross-cultural.

NAFSA activities supporting this work include our long-term efforts to drive the creation of a U.S. International Education Policy and the more recent Lincoln Commission Work.  I urge you to encourage your colleagues to become more aware of these efforts and to advocate for them on and off campus.

And lastly, the 2006 survey reminds us that Resources are the Key to Achieving Impact. The survey clearly illustrates the continuing challenges international educators face when it comes to securing the facilities, tools and human resources necessary to support a high quality internationalization program. As the forces of globalization grow more ubiquitous and pervasive within the academy, and the role of international education continues to grow more mission critical within institutions, academic leaders will need to rethink their resource development and allocation strategies to match up with the realities of an increasingly global marketplace. NAFSA membership is one of the key ways that international educators demonstrate their professionalism, gain a seat at the table,  and become a respected voice in the resource allotment discussions.  Nancy Maly’s work over the past few years to strengthen the Member Relations teams and empower the Regional Organizations has yielded tremendous results.

Almost two thirds of the survey respondents indicated that having membership in NAFSA has increased their professional standing.  And over 80% said they are proud of their NAFSA membership.  Going further, over 90% of the survey respondents stated that NAFSA was an excellent source of current information on international education. Reading NAFSAnews online with its timely, authoritative, news-as-it-happens reporting was cited as a key information source for most NAFSAns. The new Professional Networks in the Knowledge Communities  are little more than one year old and yet have become a resource to over 2,000 NAFSAns. And the NAFSA Adviser’s Manual with its timely updates, ease of access, and comprehensive resources is moving on-line next year so it will be available to an even wider audience.

I would also like to mention some of NAFSA’s New and Updated Publications which add to our professionalism and give authority to our knowledge domain. There is a brand new book called “Finding Your Way” which is a guide for international student advisors exploring their own career development. NAFSA has also revised the brochures for “Managing Your Money” for international students in the U.S. and the brochures “Good Health Abroad” and “Get Ready, Get Set, and Go” for financing study abroad. 

Finally, I want to thank all of you who participated in the survey.  These surveys are critical to NAFSA in focusing our priorities and crystallizing the messages that we all need to be carrying back to our offices, institutions and communities. I hope this overview has provided you with a deeper context for our upcoming discussions. I look forward to joining you in some of them and learning from you how we can strengthen NAFSA in 2007. Enjoy the rest of the FPM and thank you for your attention.

My Goals As Your
President-Elect

NAFSA's 58th Annual Conference
Montreal, Canada
May 25, 2006

Good morning. I would like to briefly share a few perspectives on my goals as your President-Elect.

As a NAFSA member, no one knows better than you how rapidly our world is changing and how profoundly those changes impact our lives on a moment-to-moment basis. Because we work in a field so inextricably connected to the relentless advance of globalization, change is our constant companion; and coping with change becomes our collective challenge. And as those changes grow increasingly interconnected, they become increasingly confounding, and the issues that ensue can assume staggering proportions. I imagine each of you has probably come up with your own list of global issues that boggle the mind, or jar the soul.

If you think about it, few other professions encounter change on the same global scale we do; and if we’re not proactive enough, or vigilant enough, or if we don’t respond quickly enough, or thoroughly enough, the unintended consequences can create adverse effects on our work and those we serve.

So, this morning I want to outline three ways I believe NAFSA can manage change in the coming year, and by doing so, continue to actualize our vision of being the leading association in the field of international education and exchange.

First, we will reframe our Strategic Plan. The current plan served us well for the past six years and guided us through a comprehensive reorganization. But our world and our work has changed drastically since 2000 and we need a proactive plan that transcends today’s constraints, envisions tomorrow’s capacities, and sets strategic goals for effective leadership in an increasingly globalized future. In March the Board of Directors began an in-depth study of expected changes within the field and the association over the next five years, and by next March I look forward to reporting to you the results of our study.

Second, we will strengthen international education's central role in preparing students to shape a more just, peaceful and sustainable world for all; and we will do it by helping our members and their institutions better prepare students for leadership roles in an increasingly global workforce. We envision new initiatives growing out of our knowledge communnities that will launch synergistic collaborations and partnerships, both on and off campus, that utilize innovative approaches to address a myriad of critical issues challenging our global future.

Third, we will convene next year’s conference in Minneapolis and we need your creative participation now. Our theme, “Preparing Global Citizens” provides many compelling opportunities to strengthen both the perception and the reality of our shared organizational values – that our work as international educators is fundamental to fostering peace, security, and well-being in our world. I encourage you to reflect on the many ways in which we might actualize those core values, both in our day-to-day work and in the strengthening of our association, and to submit proposals by the August 1 deadline.

With your participation and support, we can do all this and much more. I look forward to working together with you as we lead NAFSA forward in a rapidly changing world. Thank you.

 

Transformative Learning: Mapping the Inner Landscape

Association of International Education Administrators Annual Conference
San Diego, California
February 25, 2006

How many times have we exalted the transformative powers of an international education, yet wished we had better data to show how learning in an international setting improves a student’s readiness for the global workforce? How often have we utilized concepts like global proficiencies, or intercultural competence, yet wished we had a better understanding of what these terms mean, how they are acquired, and how they can be assessed and evaluated? For those of us who ‘got religion’ decades ago about the transformative benefits of an international education, but had little more than our own self-validations to back us, I’m pleased to report that reinforcements are not only on the way, they are actually sitting on this panel.

This morning I am pleased to introduce two colleagues who will discuss how their studies are beginning to identify the multifaceted outcomes that accrue from learning within an international context. Their research not only informs our campus on what to evaluate when assessing the effectiveness of our internationalization efforts, but more importantly, it informs us on how to better evaluate our effectiveness in preparing students for a global future. I trust that their observations will help you in your efforts to obtain the kind of assessment data that supports your internationalization efforts on your campus.

Our first presenter will be Patricia Torgerson who is the Academic Director of our International Business Program, and she will be followed by Dr. Renatte Adler, Professor of Economics and Director of the International Business and Economics Internship Program. And if there is some time at the end, I would like to propose an intriguing areas of outcomes assessment for future research.

Patricia and Renatte give their presentations

I’d like to return to my opening quandary about exalting the transformational powers of an international education while lacking empirical validation to justify such attribution, and in so doing, begin to explore an area that I’m going to call ‘Transformative Learning: Mapping the Inner Landscape.’

Please bear with me, for unlike my colleagues, I am not an academic scholar well versed in the architecture of theoretical constructs. Rather, I am a curious practitioner who has, over the course of 30 years, watched thousands of students develop unique capacities that I believe were derived primarily from their international learning experiences; and these capacities share a distinctly ‘transformative’ aspect that sets them apart from the normative learning outcomes associated with current student development theory. And, as you will soon discover, my curiosity has generated far more questions than answers; so I remain hopeful that one or more of you gathered here this morning will come to the rescue and volunteer some light or direction or clarity when it comes time for discussion.

I would like to begin by recognizing two experts who have both done some heavy lifting in the research arena of outcomes assessment of international education. They are my friends and colleagues, and the first is AIEA’s very own, Dr. Darla Deardorf who has presented some of her research here this week; and the second is Harvard’s lead strategist for education abroad, Dr. Jane Edwards. I have enjoyed the good fortune of working with both of these scholars recently in examining the intersection of international education and global workforce development, and I have come to admire and appreciate the important work they are doing in advancing both the field and the profession. And from the wide range of research topics they have pursued, I want to focus on one specific area this morning.

In Dr. Deardorf’s theoretical model of Intercultural Competence, she identifies two spheres of desired outcomes – one internal, one external – with the former being evidenced by an informed frame of reference/filter shift. Dr. Edwards, in a recent presentation of learning outcomes derived from studying abroad, refers to changes within ‘the inner landscape.’ It is precisely this nebulous realm - the inner landscape, the internal frame of reference - that intrigues me most. More specifically, what is the relationship between international learning and those inner transformations that precipitate enduring changes in perception, behavior, skill acquisition, and competency development. Thus the question, in its most basic element, becomes: what are the transformative powers of an international education? Or in more operational terms, how does learning in an international context change one’s inner landscape to the degree that it transforms not only how one perceives the world, but also how one relates to that world through new orders of consciousness? The task, then, it seems to me, is to figure out how to map that landscape, and I propose we first approach it through the perspective of student development theory.

We’ll begin with a model from a recent publication entitled: “Learning Reconsidered: A Campus-Wide Focus on the Student Experience” that identifies 6 student learning outcomes that form a comprehensive, holistic, transformative activity that integrates academic learning and student development, processes that have often been considered separate, and even independent of each other.

1. Cognitive complexity
2. Knowledge acquisition, integration and application
3. Humanitarianism
4. Civic Engagement
5. Interpersonal and intrapersonal competence
6. Practical competence

What does all that mean? Well, each of these learning outcomes includes specific dimensions of psychological development that further describe what the student outcomes might look like. We’re going to take a quick look at them, and I apologize in advance for throwing much too much information at you rather rapidly. The important thing to do as we go through each dimension, is ask yourself what might these outcomes look like for someone who is learning within an international or intercultural context. Would it make any difference, and if so, what might that difference be?

1.0 Cognitive Complexity

1.1 Critical Thinking
1.2 Reflective Thinking
1.3 Effective Reasoning
1.4 Intellectual Flexibility
1.5 Emotion/Cognition Integration
1.6 Identity/Cognition Integration

2.0 Knowledge, Acquisition, Integration and Application

2.1 Understanding knowledge in a range of disciplines
2.2 Connecting knowledge to other knowledge, ideas, and experiences
2.3 Relate knowledge to everyday life
2.4 Pursuit of lifelong learning
2.5 Career decidedness
2.6 Technological competence

3.0 Humanitarianism

3.1 Understanding and appreciation of human differences
3.2 Cultural competency
3.3 Social responsibility

4.0 Civic Engagement

4.1 Sense of civic responsibility
4.2 Commitment to public life through communities of practice
4.3 Engage in principled dissent
4.4 Effective leadership

5.0 Interpersonal/Intrapersonal Competence

5.1 Realistic self appraisal and self understanding
5.2 Personal attributes (e.g., self esteem, confidence, ethics, integrity, etc.)
5.3 Meaningful relationships
5.4 Interdependence
5.5 Collaboration
5.6 Ability to work with people different from self

6.0 Practical Competence

6.1 Effective communication
6.2 Capacity to manage one’s affairs
6.3 Economic self-sufficiency and vocational competence
6.4 Maintain health and wellness
6.5 Prioritize leisure pursuits
6.6 Living purposeful and satisfying life

So now that we’ve gone through all that, what does it all mean and what does it have to do with our topic of preparing global-ready graduates and assessing career-enhancing outcomes? Well, the most important lesson this model provides is the identification of measurable outcomes that reflect completion of some developmental task. Such an inventory is crucial to any kind of assessment effort, and how we go about assessing these outcomes serves as an entry point for future research. Of particular interest are the outcomes that cluster around two developmental tasks that I propose are fundamental to understanding the kind of transformative learning that is derived from an international education: Identify Formation and Integral Autonomy. As I mentioned earlier, I offer far more questions than answers:

The First Developmental Task: Identify Formation

Cultural/Glocal

  • How does an international education shape or change one’s cultural identity?
  • Does one develop stronger or weaker ties to one’s former cultural identity?
  • Does one transcend specific cultural or national identities and acquire global perspectives and allegiances?
  • Does an international education instill the desire and capacity to be identified as a glocal citizen – one who thinks global and acts local.

Moral/Ethical

  • How does an international education shape or change a person’s perspectives on what is right or wrong, fair or unfair, tenable or untenable?
  • Do absolutes or universal truths become more or less evident or does cultural relativity become more or less evident and how do absolutes and relativity interact?
  • In what ways does an international education change one’s moral compass?

Functional/Career

  • How does an international education shape or change a person’s life direction in terms of functional identity - what one does with one’s life, how one seeks to find purpose and meaning?
  • Are there changes in the range and scope of how one wants to contribute or apply one’s efforts, talents and skills?
  • Does an international education instill the desire and capacity to become more or less engaged in addressing global issues?

The Second Developmental Task: Integral Autonomy

In this area I’m indebted to the many theorists who have contributed to The Integral Institute, and I would like to reference one of the founders integral psychology, Dr. Robert Kegan of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Dr. Kegan is a pioneer in applying developmental theory to adult life and work challenges. In his writings, Kegan identifies five developmental levels or "orders of consciousness" that define how a person knows the world or constructs reality. The first three levels are similar to those found in today's child and adolescent development texts: impulsive (ages 2-6 yrs), egocentric (6-teens), and socialized or conformist (teens and beyond). Most adults (>80%) in developed nations reach at least the conformist or 3rd order of consciousness, where a person is able to internalize a value system, understand and respect the needs of others, and think abstractly.

In addition to the three commonly accepted stages or orders of consciousness development, Kegan adds two others—autonomous and integral. At the autonomous or 4th order of consciousness, a person becomes "self-authoring"—that is, they become capable of constructing their own value systems as opposed to operating within the value systems given to them by their culture, family, or place of work. And at an integral or 5th order, they begin to bring together and synthesize many different value systems into coherent and meaningful wholes.” It is this 4th and 5th order of consciousness that I call Integral Autonomy and, for me, it is the most visible indicator of transformative learning.

Well, you’ll be relieved to know that we have we finally arrived at the outer perimeters of that inner landscape most transformed by an international education, and herein lies the challenge I would like to propose for future research on outcomes assessment. Can we take the kind of rubrics that Dr. Adler has so painstakingly developed for measuring the LOTS index in her comparative study of two internship cohorts, and can we apply them or similar metrics to a comparative study of how identity formation and integral autonomy may differ between two cohorts, one of which had an international education? If so, we may get a much better understanding of how international education prepares global-ready graduates from the inside out. Thank you.

 

Shaping Our Global Future: Leadership Challenges For A World of Rapid Change

NAFSA Leadership Plenary Meeting
Washington, DC.
January 29, 2006

As a NAFSA leader, no one knows better than you how rapidly our world is changing and how profoundly those changes impact our lives on a moment-to-moment basis. Because we work with an organization so inextricably connected to the relentless advance of globalization, change is our constant companion; and coping with change becomes our collective challenge. And as those changes grow increasingly interconnected, they become increasingly confounding, and the issues that ensue can assume staggering proportions. I imagine each of you has probably come up with your own list of global issues that boggle the mind, or jar the soul.

Well, as a long term recovering Lit major who still can’t resist a slightly stirred mixed metaphor, not to mention a double shot of tired clichés served straight up with a twist of hyperbole and a dash of irony, I’m going to beg forgiveness in advance for indulging in a brief display of figurative angst. Because it’s Sunday morning, because most of us gathered here entered this field believing our work helps build a better world, and because experience has taught us that leadership often involves looking for hope in all the worst places, I’m going to toss up three “synapse rattlers” from my richter scale of global conundrums that we, as cohabitants of our shared planet, will be contending with in 2006.

First, what hope for justice can we find in a world where half the population - nearly three billion people - live on less than two dollars a day? What does justice mean when the combined wealth of the world's 691 billionaires exceeds the combined gross domestic product of the world's 140 poorest countries?

Second, what hope for peace can we find in a world where global military spending exceeds $950 billion annually? What does peace mean when the world's largest arms dealer accounts for more than half of that amount by operating 702 bases in 131 countries, plus another 6,000+ installations in a land called home?

And third, what hope for sustainability can we find in a world where the race to the bottom is driven by policies that induce hyper consumption and accelerate environmental devastation? What does sustainability mean when the triumph of delusion over reason enables the world's most powerful leader to debunk global warming in favor of some kind of intelligent design that has the rapture index set at 144 - just one point below the critical threshold of Apocalypse now?

And while the list goes on, I’ll stop here with a simple caveat: if and when we should ever find such hope, holding on to it will mean the stone in our breast dissolves, and we can take heart once more.

Now onward to the less polemic landscape of our changing world. If you think about it, few other professions encounter change on the same global scale we do as international educators; and if we’re not proactive enough, or vigilant enough, or if we don’t respond quickly enough, or thoroughly enough, the unintended consequences can create adverse effects on our capacity to lead. And if you’re like me, that’s probably the last thing you want to have happen on your watch. So, my question to you this morning is: what are you going to do as a leader to keep on top of all this change?

Well, one tactic I find helpful in managing change is to pose an issue as a question. Such juxtaposition sometimes helps frame a different perspective that might just elicit a more innovative or effective response than the standard one that comes with the box. And I find that having choices usually increases my chances of achieving a more desirable outcome.

And so this morning, as a fellow leader trying to cope with too much change and too few choices, I offer you my top 10 questions on how we might shape our global future in 2006.

Let’s call them “10 Leadership Challenges in a World of Rapid Change”

1. What can we do to better empower our members to effectively manage an accelerating confluence of forces, circumstances, and players directly impacting every aspect of our field and profession?

2. How can we more effectively address critical policy issues when they have such a short shelf life that by the time we’ve built a consensus on our position, and everyone has gotten their talking points straight, the issue has changed?

3. How has economic globalization and increased competition for students impacted international enrollments worldwide; and what kind of proactive strategies can we develop to address the emerging trends we see?

4. What strategies can we devise that will advance favorable public policies through a congress that too often asserts our national interests are best served when they run counter to the spirit of international understanding, cooperation and goodwill?

5. What kind of knowledge, skills and perspectives must students acquire to succeed in a global workforce that will only grow increasingly interconnected and cross-cultural; and what concrete steps are we taking to insure their acquisition?

6. How can we strengthen plans for internationalizing our campuses so that we create more collaborative synergies, both in and out of the classroom, that will optimize global learning and facilitate the acquisition of global competencies?

7. What kind of innovative partnerships can we build in the private and public sectors, locally, nationally and internationally, that will facilitate student mobility in ways that will more effectively prepare global-ready graduates?

8. As emerging technologies continue to impact our work by further shrinking time and space, what kind of new learning communities can we create that effectively integrate e-learning processes with global competency outcomes?

9. As the daunting social, political, and environmental costs of globalization continue to escalate and imperil our global future, what can we do to foster global citizenship whenever and wherever we have an opportunity; and what strategies can we implement to ensure international education plays a central role in preparing students to shape a more just, more peaceful, and more sustainable world for all?

10. And finally, as a NAFSA leader, what can we do to strengthen both the perception and the reality of our shared organizational values - that our work is fundamental to fostering peace, security, and well-being in our world.

That's it. Thank you very much for your attention and for indulging me with this Sunday morning homily-pop-quiz; I’m confident you’re all going to get “A”s and that you are going to have a great year as a NAFSA leader. I look forward to working with you in the months and years ahead as we shape our global future and build a better world

 

Redefining Success for the Global University:
Challenges and Implications of Increasing International and Study Abroad Enrollments

College Board Colloquium
Dana Point, California
January 4, 2006

Colleges and universities have long valued the multifaceted benefits of enrolling international students and sending domestic students abroad. In recent years, however, institutions have been challenged to maintain and expand these efforts in response to a diverse range of global forces impacting student mobility across borders. How institutions address these challenges will define their vision for a global campus.

How has economic globalization and increased competition for students within the global marketplace impacted international enrollments worldwide? How have U.S. policies since 9/11 altered access for international students, defined limits for study abroad students, and influenced the diversity of our institutions? How do institutions balance the need to prepare global-ready graduates with the risks associated with international mobility?
International diversity, multi-cultural access, intercultural competency, and global workforce development are becoming key components in enrollment management strategic planning discussions. What are the components of a thorough response?

Presenters:
Ron Moffatt, San Diego State University
Jane Edwards, Harvard University

Slide 1: Redefining Success for the Global University
Good afternoon and welcome. Today we’re going to look at some of the challenges and implications associated with students crossing borders to attain their education, and I’m going to begin with students coming to the U.S. My colleague Jane Edwards will then talk about U.S. students who study in other countries. After our presentations, we hope we can discuss those issues you find most compelling.

Slide 2: Perspectives On Change
My remarks today represent two perspectives, and the first one comes from being a campus practitioner. I enjoy the good fortune of directing the International Student Center at San Diego State University where this year I play traffic controller for over 1,400 inbound students from 88 countries, and more than 1,200 outbound students in 47 countries.
On the best of days, I come home somewhat dizzy and wonder how can we better prepare global-ready graduates for a world that changes far faster than any of our institutions.

The second perspective comes from my work as an organizational strategist. I serve on the Board of Directors of NAFSA and assist with the strategic planning for an association that supports over 9,000 international educators around the world. Recently I was elected NAFSA's President for 2007, and on the best of days, I come home somewhat dizzy and wonder how can an organization so inextricably connected to the relentless advance of globalization better help its members keep pace with an accelerating confluence of forces, circumstances, and players.

So, it is from these two perspectives that I'd like to examine how recent trends in student mobility are impacting our campuses and redefining our constructs for success.

Slide 3: U.S. Trends 1954 – 2002
So let’s begin with some good news. And I’m going to ask you to please hold on to it; because, as you will soon see, we’re going to need it later on. As this chart from IIE shows, the U.S. enjoyed decades of steady growth as the destination of choice for the world’s brightest students. Our colleges and universities served as a magnet for generations of students around the world, and our attraction had a lot to do with our reputation for offering the best product on the market.

Slide 4: U.S. Trends 1954 – 2002
And our reputation is well established: a 2004 report on Academic Ranking of World Universities lists the U.S. as possessing 17 of the 20 top universities. Most students I know attributed their reasons for coming here to the belief that a U.S. higher education would provide them a first class ticket into the vanguard of the global workforce. And come they did, by the millions, in a steady stream that grew at an average rate of a little of 5% a year. And in 1982, the U.S. attracted a 42% market share of the world’s mobile students. Remember that number, please, because it serves as the high water mark of our market dominance.

Slide 5: U.S. Trends 2002 – 2004
And as we all know, many things changed after 9/11. We began to see international enrollments trending down—in some cases, dramatically so— Total enrollment declined for the first time in more than 30 years. In 2003-04 there was a 2.4% decline and 2004-05 showed an additional 1.2% decline. What once was a $13 billion revenue stream for the U.S. economy, and the source of much coveted revenue on our campuses, began decreasing and heading south.

Slide 6: U.S. Trends Fall 2005 Survey
A Fall 2005 survey produced by a half dozen educational associations reported on 938 responding institutions
that indicated the following trends: 34% reported an increase while 33% reported a decline. Among the institutions with more than 1,000 international students, 43% reported a decline while 33% reported an increase.

Slide 7: Recent Headlines
Not surprisingly, leading opinion makers have taken notice and are creating more public awareness as evidenced by some headlines following IIE’s release of their Open Doors Report last November :

Enrollment of Foreign Students Falls for a 2nd Year CHE 11/14/05
America’s Future is Stuck Overseas NYT 11/16/05
Bring Back The Brainpower IHT 11/25/05
Dude, Don't You Wanna Study in US? Economic Times 11/14/05

If I were to poll the average administrator at Any College USA, I imagine she or he would attribute these declining trends to the regulatory frenzy that replaced our welcome mat after 9/11.

Slide 8: The Culprit?
Such attributions have some validity.

Slide 9: The Bigger Picture
To blame these declines on 9/11 exclusively would be to miss the point; and by doing so, we would misunderstand the much larger dilemma that we, as a nation, face as the key player in higher education’s global marketplace. And if we misunderstand the problem, we will never understand what will be required of us to create the solution.

Since we are edging closer to the synaptic fringes of post luncheon nap-time-itis, and in the interest of animating a rather dry topic, I will venture the following proposition: the U.S. would have experienced similar declines even if 9/11 never happened. The decline might not have been quite as precipitous, but the real forces leading to it were already in motion well before 9/11.

Slide 10: The Conundrum
As a recovering Lit major who still can’t resist a gently stirred mixed metaphor, I’m going to call this part:

The U.S. Gland Slam Triple Play.
Here’s a brief overview of some of the larger forces I believe are at play.

Bases Loaded: First Out
We are pricing ourselves out of the market.

Tuition, fees and living expenses for international students continue to skyrocket with few financial aid countermeasures available at either the institutional or national levels. Every student who gets accepted to my university must demonstrate they have $25,000 parked in a bank for each year of study they intend to enroll. Imagine what that means for families earning ruppies, or yuan, or pesos, or dinars. It’s truly mind-boggling to someone like me who could never afford to do this for my children.

Bases Loaded: Second Out
We are the leading competitor, but we’re not competing.

While competing nations work to remove disincentives to study in their countries, our national policies actually exacerbate the disincentives to study here. Our competitors decided they too want to reap more of the benefits that international students bring, and they developed policies and allocated resources to facilitate access to their higher education institutions. Some even revised immigration policies to allow students to work during and after their studies. Their strategies worked and their market shares grew; meanwhile, ours shrunk because we do little more than rest on past laurels.

Bases Loaded: Third Out
We lack a comprehensive international education policy,

It’s important to understand this critical point: there is no U.S. policy on international education. What now exists in Washington, despite the best efforts of many talented advocates, is a disarray of conflicting priorities between State, Education, Commerce and Homeland Security that systemically thwart interagency cooperation in advancing a comprehensive international education policy.

And because there’s no coordinated leadership, folks engaged in the beltway ballet are not paying sufficient attention to the emergence of several new players as they head for a seat at the world’s higher education table. What’s different about these new players, and thus cause for concern, is their capacity, both real and potential.

Slide 11: Current Players
To provide some context, we first need to examine those already seated at the table.
In 2003, more than 2 million students were enrolled in higher education outside their country of origin; 7 out of 10 studied in just five countries:

What’s interesting about our competitors is how rapidly some of them have expanded their capacity to accommodate students from other countries.

Slide 12: Current Players
This chart shows the percentage of foreign students in each country’s tertiary education system What’s important to notice about these graphs are the percentage changes between 1998 and 2003. In that 5-year period many countries significantly increased their capacity to accommodate larger percentages of foreign students. In the anglophone market, Australia went from 12% to 19%, New Zealand went from 3% to 14%, while the UK stayed level at 11%. Among the European competitors, 9 countries had foreign enrollments ranging from 18% to 8% of their total enrollments. Through the same period, the U.S. remained constant at a little over 4%.

I’d like to acknowledge my appreciation to Rachel Banks, NAFSA’s Associate Director of Government Relations, for compiling most of the data being presented today. In late November, Rachel prepared a report for NAFSA’s Public Policy Advisory Committee entitled “The Explosion of Higher Education Capacity Abroad” and a copy of it has been included in your materials for reference.

Slide 13: New Players - New Markets
So where are the new players in this picture? Well, not all of them appear here, and that’s one reason why they’re not getting as much attention as they should. Evidence of the converging factors bringing other new players to the table is only beginning to emerge.

So this begs the question: what is it that attracts the new players? Well, the answer is simple – a market that it is expected to grow fourfold within the next 20 years. In 2000 about 1.8 million students worldwide crossed a border to attain their higher education. Demand for international higher education is expected to reach 7.2 million by the year 2025.

Slide 14: Explosion of Higher Education Capacity
In response to both internal and external forces driving up demand for higher education in most countries, there has been a surge in institutional capacity and along with it, stronger competition for a greater share of the global mobility market. So who are these emerging competitors? Well, they come in several shapes, sizes and compositions, each with their own dynamics, circumstances, and destinies. Some are current competitors who are collaborating; some are traditional feeder countries investing heavily in meeting their educational needs as a way to fuel their economic development; some are innovative upstarts featuring branch campuses of U.S. institutions, or multinational ‘E-learning’ consortia.Let’s take a closer look at three of the larger players and the forces shaping their higher education policies. First stop – Europe

Slide 15: Regional Market Forces - Europe

However, the real engines accelerating the capacity boom are in the same region of the world that now send us close to 60% of our international students – Asia

Slide 16: Regional Market Forces - East Asia
And the biggest engine of all comes as no surprise - China. The number of undergraduates and doctoral degree holders increased nearly 5-fold in 10 years. China graduates four times as many engineers as the United States. State financing of higher education more than doubled since 1998 (in 2003, it was $10.4 billion.) Number of foreign students in China doubled in five years, from 43,000 in 1998 to almost 86,000 in 2002. In 2004 alone it grew by 43% to exceed 110,000.

Slide 17: Regional Market Forces - South Asia
The other big powerhouse is China’s southern neighbor and hegemonic rival: India. For the past three years India has outpaced China as the largest U.S. feeder of foreign students, but that may soon change. With its rapidly growing economy opening up hundreds of thousands of knowledge-based employment opportunities, both public and private sectors in India are investing heavily in higher education, providing more viable options for students to remain at home.

Slide 18: How Do We Respond ?
These are just three of the major players who have huge potential for expanding capacity and significantly influence mobility trends for years to come. So, with all these players out there successfully competing for a larger share of the market, and with the U.S. not yet having its act together in a coordinated, strategic way, what does this mean for our institutions?

This is the part where I wish I were born a whole lot smarter than I actually ended up being, because I don’t have any sure-fire answers. However, it seems abundantly clear, even to me, that it’s going to take a lot of effort on the part of a lot of people to effectively deal with the driving forces we just reviewed.

So, we come down to the question: what are the elements of an effective response?

Well, the first element has to be Progress in Washington.

For the skeptics in this room, that phrase may well be a good example of an oxymoron. Just like the University President’s summit on International Education organized by the White House and State Department three days ago, we can expect to see more supportive rhetoric for international education couched in terms of “American competitiveness”, “U. S. Leadership” and “national security”; as well as a continuing patchwork of proposed regulatory reforms aimed at clearing the latest clog in the pipeline. Nothing new or revolutionary here, but any progress is better than none.

However, we may also see for the first time ever, a proposal that goes to the very heart of the foreign student access dilemma and, if passed, would significantly improve the playing field. Last month a leading Republican Senator drafted proposed legislation that would exempt student visas from section 214B of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
This section pertains to the “immigrant intent” assumption that underlies the issuance of all non-immigrant visas, and should such legislation pass, it would dramatically change how student visas would be issued, and it would create an entirely different image about our country’s openness to foreign students. While a full scale exemption for all students remains highly unlikely within the current immigration debate, a more realistic compromise might offer an exemption for graduate students, much like the loosing up of H1-B visas and labor certifications for graduates proposed last Fall.

The second requisite for an effective response is Professional Networking

I trust many of you are already familiar with, and therefore utilizing, the enrollment management resources provided by NAFSA. We serve 9,000+ members worldwide in advancing international education and global workforce development. We set and uphold standards of good practice; provide training, professional development, and networking opportunities; and advocate for international education. This year we are stronger and more nimble than ever because of our recent restructuring, and I encourage you to take full advantage of our resources. I included our 2005 Report to Members in your materials so you can review our progress, obtain our contact info, and begin to network with leading experts in the field

The third requisite for an effective response is Strategic Planning.

This is probably the most important step you can take to ensure the success of your international enrollment plan: make sure that your applicant pool is strategically developed. By this I mean:

Also, make sure you include the NAFSA members on your campuses to help you develop your strategies. On my campus, we doubled our international enrollment to 1,400 in three years by strategically optimizing the quality of our applicant pool without actually increasing its size.

Slide 19: Redefining Success: Going Beyond The Numbers
Finally, while most of us in this room are all hardwired to pay attention to numbers and to judge our level of success in terms of how well our numbers match our projections, or someone else’s expectations, I propose we consider alternative measures of success when it comes to engaging international students in our institution’s internationalization efforts. And rather than be prescriptive, I’d like to pose some of the residual questions that linger on and bump around in my head when I arrive home somewhat dizzy on the best of days. Perhaps they will form a starting point for whatever discussion might ensue later on.

Thank you very much. I appreciate your attention and will happily respond to questions after Jane’s presentation.

That Big Crazy World Out There

ISC Graduation Dinner
San Diego State University
May 19, 2005

Good evening graduates and guests, and welcome to an evening of celebration. For over 2 decades I have enjoyed the good fortune of serving as Director of this Center, and one of the traditions I have enjoyed most has been the opportunity to be the first person to officially congratulate you for completing your studies at SDSU. It is now my pleasure to do just that: will all the graduates please stand and accept a well earned round of applause.

Years ago, during orientation, your SDSU journey began in this room, and so it seems fitting that tonight, in this same room, we celebrate your arrival at another turn along this trail winding through SDSU. Some may feel it was more of a maze than a trail, but there’s no mistaking the feeling that you have now arrived at what you aimed for all these years. And, as one of those old English bards once warned, "Parting is such sweet sorrow."

I am especially pleased so many loved ones could join us for this special celebration. Tonight offers a wonderful opportunity to let all your relatives and friends know just how proud we are of you, and how much we appreciate the trust they put in us to help you during your studies. Your families sacrificed much to support you, and your success is a reflection of the love they have given you, day after day, year after year, from so far away, and they deserve a special thanks. Will all the relatives and friends please stand and accept a warm round of applause. Welcome !!!

I always marvel at the paradoxical term "commencement". It literally means "the beginning" but the event always comes at the end. Perhaps it suggests that a process is taking place...as one thing ends, another thing begins...and so for all our graduates here, tonight marks both an ending and a beginning. 

Your time here has provided you with abundant opportunities to learn and to grow, to acquire new skills, to develop special talents, to set high goals, to dream great dreams, and maybe for one of two of you, to have had a little bit of fun. While you will soon leave SDSU with a diploma in hand, you will also depart with unique and extraordinary knowledge, skills and perspectives that only accrue from living cross-culturally. You are now seasoned veterans at navigating change, embracing ambiguity, transcending differences, fostering tolerance, finding common ground, working collaboratively, and always reaching beyond your comfort zone to attain your goals. These powerful skills place you in the vanguard of the G-Generation, aka: Global-Ready Graduates, and mark you as the most promising of tomorrow’s leaders who will envision and create a safer, healthier, and more just world. So, a night like tonight brings great hope.

No commencement speech would be complete without some words of worldly advice, and, I’m sorry to say, tonight is no exception. I just can't help myself. I've waited all year for a captive audience and tonight's my big chance, the only time I get to stand up at a fancy dinner, face a bunch of people who are all dressed up and who think they are really, really smart, and I get to tell them what they need to know to survive in that big crazy world out there. 

I spent a lot of time pondering what to tell you tonight about that world out there. Ever since my speech at last year’s dinner left everyone deeply depressed, the ISC staff insisted I be more upbeat this year. Some of the newer staff even suggested I sing a song, but they quickly changed their minds once they heard my rendition of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start The Fire”. So I’m also very sorry I won’t be singing that song for you tonight as I had hoped, and so you have the ISC staff to blame for getting this boring speech instead.

Determined to be positive, I started to read other peoples’ speeches, to see if anyone had anything more encouraging to say about our collective future on this planet. Well, after reviewing several hundred alarming forecasts of imminent global doom, I‘m relieved to report that my intrinsic tilt toward apocalypse now has been momentarily realigned. I actually found 3 speeches that yielded a kernel of quintessential, real-time optimism. Believe it or not, 3 gallant voices tentatively implied the possibility that we just might, maybe, perhaps, could prolong this planetary experiment in human co-habitation for at least the remainder of this first decade of the new millennium. Allow me then, if you will, to share a few excerpts from these 3 harbingers of hope, these 3 latter day oracles of a new world makeover.

The first excerpts come from Bill Moyers’ acceptance speech at Harvard last December upon receiving the Global Environment Citizen Award and upon retiring from an illustrious 54-year career in journalism, the majority of it spent enlightening PBS audiences on some of the more compelling enigmas of American society and culture.

One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the oval office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. Theology asserts propositions that cannot be proven true; ideologues hold stoutly to a world view despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad, but they are always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts.

So what does this mean for public policy and the environment? It means that millions of Christian fundamentalists believe that environmental destruction is not only to be disregarded but actually welcomed, even hastened, as a sign of the coming apocalypse. These are the people who believe the Bible is literally true, 1/3 of the US electorate, if a recent Gallup poll is accurate. In the past election, millions of good and decent citizens went to the polls believing in the rapture index. The rapture index now stands at 144 - just one point below the critical threshold when the whole thing will blow, the son of God will return, the righteous will enter heaven, and sinners will be condemned to eternal hellfire. It's why the invasion of Iraq for them was a warm-up act, predicted in the Book of Revelation. A war with Islam is not something to be feared but welcomed - an essential conflagration on the road to redemption.

A 2002 TIME/CNN poll found that 59 percent of Americans believe that the prophecies found in the Book of Revelation are going to come true. Nearly one-quarter think the Bible predicted the 9/11 attacks. Drive across the country with your radio tuned to the more than 1,600 Christian radio stations or in the motel turn on some of the 250 Christian TV stations and you can hear some of this end-time gospel. And you will come to understand why people under the spell of such potent prophecies cannot be expected to worry about the environment. Why care about the earth when the droughts, floods, famine and pestilence brought by ecological collapse are signs of the apocalypse foretold in the Bible? Why care about global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in the rapture? And why care about converting from oil to solar when the same God who performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes can whip up a few billion barrels of light crude with a word?

And their voices resonate in the highest offices of our government. We’re not talking about a handful of fringe lawmakers who hold or are beholden to these beliefs. Nearly half the U.S. Congress before the recent election - more since the election - earned 80 to 100% approval ratings from the three most influential Christian right advocacy groups.

I myself don't know how to be in this world without expecting a confident future and getting up every morning to do what I can to bring it about. So I have always been an optimist. Now, however, I am not sure my optimism is justified. Once upon a time I believed that people will protect the environment when they realize its importance to their health and to the lives of their children. Now I am not so sure. It's not that I don't want to believe that - it's just that I read the news and connect the dots.

The news is not good these days. I can tell you, though, that as a journalist, I know the news is never the end of the story. The news can be the truth that sets us free to fight for the future we want. And the will to fight is the antidote to despair, the cure for cynicism. What we need is to match the science of the mind with the science of the heart...the capacity to see...to feel...and then to act...as if the future depended on it.

Believe me, it does.

The second excerpts come from another acceptance speech delivered last November when Arundathi Roy received the Syndey Peace Prize. Ms. Roy, an author best known for her novel, The God of Small Things, has become a prominent voice in a worldwide movement calling for ‘moral globalization’.

The invasion of Iraq offers us an opportunity to watch the Corporate-Military cabal that has come to be known as 'Empire' at work. As the battle to control the world's resources intensifies, economic colonialism through formal military aggression is staging a comeback. Iraq is the logical culmination of the process of corporate globalization in which neo-colonialism and neo-liberalism have fused. If we can find it in ourselves to peep behind the curtain of blood, we would glimpse the pitiless transactions taking place backstage.

Until recently, while there was a careful record of how many US soldiers had lost their lives, we had no idea of how many Iraqis had been killed. A new, detailed study, fast-tracked by the Lancet medical journal and extensively peer reviewed, estimates that 100,000 Iraqis have lost their lives since the 2003 invasion.

For the White House PR machine, that bloodbath might be called ‘Shock and Awe”, for the Pentagon PR machine, that bloodbath might be called precision bombing. In ordinary language spoken by ordinary people doing the bleeding, it's called butchering. Most of this is common knowledge now. Those who support the invasion and vote for the invaders cannot take refuge in ignorance. They must truly believe that this epic brutality is right and just or, at the very least, acceptable because it's in their interest.

So the 'civilized' 'modern' world - built painstakingly on a legacy of genocide, slavery and colonialism - now controls most of the world's oil. And most of the world's weapons, most of the world's money, and most of the world's media. And it wants more.

So what does peace mean in this savage, corporatized, militarized world? What does it mean in a world where an entrenched system of appropriation has created a situation in which poor countries plundered by colonizing regimes for centuries are steeped in debt to the very same countries that plundered them, and have to repay that debt at the rate of $382 billion a year? What does peace mean in a world in which the combined wealth of the world's 587 billionaires exceeds the combined gross domestic product of the world's 135 poorest countries? Or when rich countries that pay farm subsidies of a billion dollars a day, try and force poor countries to drop their subsidies?

We know very well who benefits from war in the age of Empire. But we must also ask ourselves honestly who benefits from peace in the age of Empire? War mongering is criminal. But talking of peace without talking of justice could easily become advocacy for a kind of moral capitulation. And talking of justice without unmasking the institutions and the systems that perpetrate injustice, is beyond hypocritical.

It is mendacious to make moral distinction between the unspeakable brutality of terrorism and the indiscriminate carnage of war and occupation. Both kinds of violence are unacceptable. We cannot support one and condemn the other. The real tragedy is that most people are trapped between the horror of an alleged peace and the terror of war. Those are the two sheer cliffs we're hemmed in by. The question is: How do we climb out of this crevasse?

For those who are materially well-off, but morally uncomfortable, the 1st question you must ask yourself is: do you really want to climb out? How far are you prepared to go? Has the crevasse become too comfortable? If you really want to climb out, there's good news and bad news.

The good news is that the advance party began the climb some time ago. Thousands of activists around the world have been hard at work preparing footholds and securing the ropes to make it easier for the rest of us. There isn't only one path up. There are hundreds of ways of doing it. There are hundreds of battles being fought around the world that need your skills, your minds, your resources. No battle is irrelevant. No victory is too small.

The bad news is that colorful demonstrations, weekend marches and repeating clever slogans are never enough. There have to be targeted acts of real civil disobedience with real consequences; simple acts of resistance which, above all, remain grounded in the profound legacy of non violence. If the struggle were ever to resort to violence, it will lose vision, meaning and imagination. Most dangerous of all, it will marginalize and eventually victimize women. And a political struggle that does not have women at the heart of it, above it, below it, and within it, is no struggle at all.

The final excerpts come from U2 rock star Bono who needs no introduction to his role in awakening worldwide audiences to a universal consciousness of our global condition. His remarks come from a commencement speech delivered one year ago today at the University of Pennsylvania.

I saw something in the paper last week about Kermit the Frog giving a commencement address somewhere. One of the students was complaining, "I worked my ass off for 4 years to be addressed by a sock?" Well, you have worked your ass off for this. For 4 years you've been buying, trading, and selling, everything you've got in this marketplace of ideas. The intellectual hustle. Your pockets are full, even if your parents' are empty, and now you've got to figure out what to spend it on. Well, the going rate for change is not cheap. Big ideas are expensive. 

So my question I suppose is: What's the big idea? What's your big idea? On what pursuit are you willing to spend your moral capital, your intellectual capital, your cash, your sweat equity?

An epic Irish poem called the Book of Judas has a line that never leaves my mind; it says: "If you want to serve the age, betray it." What does that mean - to betray the age? Well to me betraying the age means exposing its conceits, its foibles, its phony moral certitudes. It means telling the secrets of the age and facing harsher truths.

Every age has its massive moral blind spots. We might not see them, but our children will. Slavery was one of them and the people who best served that age were the ones who called it as it was--which was ungodly and inhuman. Segregation. There was another one. America sees this now but it took a civil rights movement to betray their age. And 50 years ago the U.S. Supreme Court betrayed the age. Brown vs. Board of Education came down and put the lie to the idea that separate can ever really be equal. Amen to that.

Fast forward 50 years. What are the ideas right now worth betraying? What are the lies we tell ourselves now? What are the blind spots of our age? What's worth spending your post-university lives trying to do or undo? It might be something simple. It might be something as simple as our deep down refusal to believe that every human life has equal worth. Could that be it? Could that be it? Each of you will probably have your own answer, but for me that is it. And for me the proving ground has been Africa.

Africa makes a mockery of what we say, at least what I say, about equality and questions our pieties and our commitments because there's no way to look at what's happening over there and its effect on all of us and conclude that we actually consider Africans as our equals before God. There is no chance.

7,000 Africans dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease like AIDS? That's not a cause, that's an emergency. And when the disease gets out of control because most of the population lives on less than $1 a day? That's not a cause, that's an emergency. And when resentment builds because of unfair trade rules and the burden of unfair debt, debts, by the way, that keep Africans poor? That's not a cause, that's an emergency.

Equality for Africa is a big idea. It's a big expensive idea. But the scale of the suffering and the scope of the commitment - they often numb us into a kind of indifference. Wishing for the end to AIDS and extreme poverty in Africa is like wishing that gravity didn't make things so damn heavy. We can wish it, but what the hell can we do about it?

Well, more than we think. We can't fix every problem--corruption, natural calamities are part of the picture here--but the ones we can we must. The debt burden, unfair trade, sharing our knowledge, the intellectual copyright for lifesaving drugs in a crisis, we can do that. And because we can, we must. Because we can, we must. Amen.

The fact is that we're the first generation that can look at poverty and disease, look across the ocean to Africa and say with a straight face, we can be the first to end this sort of stupid extreme poverty, where in the world of plenty, a child can die for lack of food in it's belly. We can be the first generation. It might take a while, but we can be that generation that says no to stupid poverty. It's a fact, an expensive fact, but surely cheaper than fighting wave after wave of terrorism's new recruits.

So why aren't we pumping our fists in the air and cheering? Well probably because when we admit we can do something about it, we've got to do something about it. For the 1st time in history we have the know how, we have the cash, we have the lifesaving drugs, but do we have the will?

I know idealism is not playing on the radio right now, you don't see it on TV, irony is on heavy rotation, the knowingness, the smirk, the tired joke. Outside this campus--and even inside it--idealism is under siege- beset by materialism, narcissism, cynicism, and all the other isms of indifference.

Every era has its defining struggle and the fate of Africa is one of ours. It's not the only one, but in the history books it's easily going to make the top five, what we did or what we did not do. It's a proving ground for the idea of equality. But whether it's this or something else, I hope you'll pick a fight and get in it.

And so there you have it - the three most compelling global conundrums of our times: first, the accelerated environmental degradation of our planet brought on by the triumph of delusion over reason in Washington; second, the imperial hegemony of superpower peace-mongering that locks every nation on earth within the cross hairs of the cruise missile and the IMF checkbook; and third, the dearth of will among the world’s most privileged to reverse the escalating ravages of poverty and disease afflicting billions of the world’s least privileged. 

As one of many who have wrestled with these dilemmas over a lifetime and watched their human stain grow more indelible, I am truly sorry that things are as they are, and that it is now up to you to figure out how to resolve them. Now that you’re graduating you probably thought your toughest tests were behind you. I hate to burst that bubble, but the first lesson of your hard-earned, new-found freedom may well be this: your most difficult tests are just beginning, and the outcomes will not be measured in gpa’s nor framed diplomas.

And so I propose the oracles’ questions become your questions. Cognizant of the fact that this may sound much too melodramatic, I truly believe that the stakes are such that our collective future depends entirely on your answers.

Well, that’s enough for this evening’s pop quiz. And while the jury deliberates on whether tonight’s sermon is more or less cheery than the one last year, I will return to my earlier promise of delivering some worldly advice. I can see by the look on your faces what’s needed most at this moment is for me to sit down and just be quite. But again, I offer another profuse apology and the lament that I just can’t help myself. How can I leave you stranded here on this pernicious pinnacle of pessimism? I must somehow infuse you with something inspirational as you prepare to walk outside that door over there and begin your turn at changing the world into the version that best fits your vision of the future.

So here goes: my top 10 solutions to world peace and personal happiness.

Solution 1: Eat 2 donuts every morning. This always gets me in a good mood and helps my digestion while I read the newspaper. We all need a lot of help in that area, especially this year.

Solution 2: Understand who you are and why you are here. At least once a day, unplug your MP3, GPS, DVD, VCR, CPU, TV, wi-fi and hairdryer, put away your palm pilot, I-pod, game boy, cell phone, pager, calculator, watch and car keys, and listen to the silence of your center. Relax your muscles, quiet your mind, soften your heart, and pay attention to each breath you take. Remove the harness of your conditioning brought on by the tyranny of thought and the fallacy of pursuit. Let time stop and space empty. Discard allegiance to your own inner authority of yesterday and the outer authority of a thousand years. Open your mind and awaken choiceless awareness - not observing, not processing, not judging, not wanting, not waiting – just being here now - and then you become a light unto yourself that never goes out.

Solution 3: Connect with nature and stay connected. Think green; be green. Maybe then we’ll grow connected enough and empowered enough to return our fouled planet to its nurturing Mother - before it is too late.

Solution 4: Say No to the drug pushers who traffic in the corporate-fed, military-induced, media-driven pop culture of violence. The glorification of violence, in any of its many seductive and addictive forms, is an insidious, contagious disease that diminishes, and eventually destroys, our capacity to transcend history. How can we survive as human beings in a world more and more receptive to institutional violence and legitimized murder? Blindly, blatantly feeding violence to our children in the name of entertainment or patriotism or conformity or indifference is one of the greatest injustices we can inflict upon the innocence of youth. Challenge it, whenever and wherever you can.

Solution 5: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It’s the most powerful tool we have for shining light into the deepest corners of our heart, where truth is kept.   

Solution 6: Teach your children well. The most important choices of our lives demand a solid grounding in what we might call “issues of the heart.” We cannot teach younger generations all the answers, we can only help them ask thoughtful questions and hope the seeds we plant germinate into wise choices. We can only model the juggling of change, the meaning and consequences of commitment, the transcendence of ideals against the abrasion of authority, the devastation of losing loved ones, the giving and receiving of comfort in the face of life threatening situations. These are just a few of the pivotal moments where everything we are, and must be to others, is tested. It is where we must be true to our selves; where we define and defend our humanity.

Solution 7: Keep things simple.

Solution 8: Never stop asking questions, challenging authority, and demanding integrity, especially from those who presume to lead us. Humility, curiosity, skepticism, persistence and courage are the most powerful weapons anyone can wield in the never-ending battles against those who profit from deceit and duplicity, induced-fear and false-hope, self-righteousness and hubris, supremacy and demagoguery, fanaticism and fundamentalism, and 1001 other manifestations of indoctrination and exploitation.

Solution 9: Do something kind every day for someone you love. We often overlook the ones closest to us, take them for granted, or forget they need us as much as we need them. Never miss an opportunity to let them know how much they mean to you. You never know when you will see them again.

Solution 10: Always leave a place better than you found it. You did this at SDSU, make sure you do it again at your next stop along the trail.

That’s it: the 10-step process to Peace and Happiness.

Finally, if I have offended anyone with this public display of some rather entrenched personal angst, please forgive me. At times, the darkness extinguishes the light on the work we do to earn our daily bread, and hope fades. But seeing you here tonight, all bright, and confident, and eager to take on the challenges of our times, I know I speak for all the ISC family when I say: the stone in our breast dissolves and we take heart one more.

Again, congratulations for a job well done. Enjoy the festivities and celebrations in the days ahead, and if after leaving SDSU, you insist on making a lot of money, be sure to remember your first "home away from home" - your International Student Center. We have new expanded facilities planned and they’re waiting for your name to go on one of them. Goodnight, and thank you.

 

The Need for a Strong U.S. International Education Policy

Hobsons Workshop on Practicing Excellence in Student Recruitment
Claremont Resort and Spa, Berkeley California
April 14, 2005

Good Afternoon. My name is Ron Moffatt and I enjoy the good fortune of directing the International Student Center at San Diego State University where this year I play traffic controller for over 1,400 inbound students from 86 countries, and more than 1,200 outbound students to 47 countries. On the best of days, I end up coming home somewhat dizzy.

As an extension of my campus work, I also serve on NAFSA's Board of Directors and assist with the strategic planning for an association that now includes more than 9,000 international educators around the world. Recently I was asked to chair NAFSA’s Public Policy Advisory Committee, and it is in this capacity that the good folks at Hobsons invited me to join you for this workshop. So today I‘m wearing my NAFSA hat and I’d like to talk with you about NAFSA’s public policy agenda for 2005, thus the title: The Need for a Strong U.S. International Education Policy. I have prepared a brief presentation, and then I hope we can discuss whatever issues you find compelling.

For openers, it’s important to understand that there is no U.S. policy on international education, even though it has been recognized as a key component of our country’s national security and global leadership for almost 60 years. Since the end of World War II, foreign policy makers on both sides of the red and blue divide consistently shared a common belief that fundamental U.S. interests are best served by international engagement through public diplomacy, especially when it comes to educating successive generations of future world leaders in the U.S. and educating U.S. citizens about the world. The explosive rise of globalization in the 80’s and 90’s only reinforced this belief; but for a variety of reasons, what had become common wisdom over the decades was never transformed into public policy. Then came 9/11, directly challenging that belief to the core.

Foreign policy experts, along with international education proponents, quickly focused on a common objective: the key to restoring legitimacy in the public arena would be to reeducate leaders and opinion makers that international education serves important national interests, that the soft power of public diplomacy is one of the most formidable weapons our country can use in the struggle to neutralize extremism and nurture allies, and that a comprehensive policy on international education is essential to advancing US leadership in the world.

International Education Is Part of the Solution.

In response to proposed legislative actions in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 that would have essentially shut down educational exchange as a security risk, NAFSA became the leading protagonist on behalf of the proposition that international education is part of the solution to terrorism, not part of the problem. For a while there, holding such a position became very controversial. Now, as we enter our fourth post-9/11 year, it’s helpful to take stock of where we are in meeting our original objective.

Positive Trends Emerging
Fortunately, there is some good news to share.

  • Value Reclaimed
    First, it is safe to say that international education has weathered the crisis and now stands with its legitimacy essentially revalidated and strengthened. Government leaders, business executives, and newspaper editors now routinely make the case that international education is important to U.S. national security and leadership. Top level State Department officials have repeatedly claimed that some of our well-intentioned security measures inadvertently went too far. Even Condoleezza Rice’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January turned into a virtual international education love fest. Rice not only voiced strong support, but also noted that the problem of foreign student access came up in each of her individual meetings with committee members – a statement that would have been inconceivable 2 or 3 years ago.
  • Progress in Washington
    For the skeptics in this room, that phrase may well be a good example of an oxymoron.
    • Middle East Exchanges
      Congress is establishing—and, what is more important, in some cases even funding—exchange programs with the Middle East, in recognition of the fact that we must strengthen our exchange relationships with this vital area of the world.
    • Visa Mantis Streamlined
      In February, the State Department extended the validity of Visa Mantis checks to four years, and now allows multiple re-entries, thus greatly reducing visa delays for foreign scientists. Background checks for Visas Mantis are very time-consuming, and because they impact the world’s top scientists, reducing excessive access barriers will directly benefit American competitiveness in science and technology.
    • Senate Bill
      Also in February, Senators Norm Coleman (MN) and Jeff Bingaman (NM) introduced Senate Bill 455 to reverse the decline in the number of international students studying at American schools. The bipartisan ACTION Act of 2005 stands for American Competitiveness Through International Openness Now and calls on the United States to reclaim our preeminent position as a destination for the world’s best and brightest. In March, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee added important provisions of the ACTION Act to the Foreign Affairs Authorization Act for FY 2006 and 2007.
    • House Conference Resolution 100
      In March, Representative Jim Kolbe (AZ) and Jim Oberstar (MN) introduced a bipartisan resolution calling on Congress to express its support for an international education policy for the United States.
    • Lincoln Fellowship Commission
      Unlike inbound enrollment trends, participation in study abroad is at an all-time high and growing rapidly. In February, a congressionally mandated bipartisan Commission on the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program began work on recommendations for significantly increasing such participation.
  • NAFSA: the “Go To” Organization
    It is important to point out that NAFSA has become the primary ‘go to’ organization in Washington for articulating the issues and providing the administration and congressional leaders with the data, the language, and the strategy for each of these major accomplishments. Much of what is happening in the 109th congress this Spring is a direct result of public policy initiatives that NAFSA leaders developed in 2003 and 2004. The public policy agenda that NAFSA has been steadily advocating for the past four years is now getting real traction and gaining momentum.

Daunting Challenges Ahead
Despite these signs of progress, daunting problems remain.

  • Declining Enrollments (show total graph)
    International student enrollments at U.S. colleges and universities are trending down—in some cases, dramatically so—for the first time in more than 30 years. As you can see, in 2003-04 there was a 2.4% decline in overall numbers; and preliminary data suggests we are experiencing a much larger drop in 2004-05. What was once a $13 billion revenue stream for the U.S. economy, and the source of much coveted revenue on our campuses, is decreasing and heading south. Let’s briefly look at what some experts think may be causing this decline.
    • Regulatory Barriers
      Although the government is now devoting a great deal of attention to making it easier for legitimate students to gain entry into the US, actually getting here remains arduous at best. Prospective students must run a regulatory gauntlet that includes: scheduling a visa interview, paying the SEVIS and visa fees, gaining access to fortified U.S. consulates, passing an average 90-second in-person interview, background security clearances, uncertain treatment at the port of entry, remaining in active SEVIS status, and the threat of being stranded abroad after temporary visits home. It’s important to know that students constitute only 2% of the annual foreign visitors to the U.S. each year, yet they are the most monitored and controlled of any visa category. No other country imposes the obstacles we do.
    • Negative Perceptions
      The more enduring problem is the perception that cumulative regulatory actions since 9/11 have severely damaged our reputation as the destination of choice for the world’s brightest students and scholars. Anecdotal feedback increasingly indicates that prospective students are worried about what kind of treatment they will get here and they end up going somewhere else where the welcome mat is more prominently displayed.
    • Increased costs
      Tuition, fees and living expenses for international students continue to skyrocket with no additional financial aid countermeasures available at either the institutional nor national levels. Every student who gets accepted to my university must demonstrate they have $24,000 available in the bank for each year of study they intend to enroll. Imagine what that means for families earning ruppies, or yuan, or pesos, or dinars. It’s truly mind-boggling to someone like me who could never afford to do this for my family.
    • Strong Competition
      While our policies actually exacerbate the disincentives to study here, competing nations work to remove disincentives to study in their countries. Britain, Australia, Canada, France, Germany and other forward looking countries, decided they too want to reap more of the benefits that international students bring, and they developed national policies and allocated national resources to facilitate access to their higher education institutions. Their strategies worked and their market shares grew substantially; meanwhile, ours shrunk. In addition, several of our leading feeder countries are successfully expanding the capacity of their higher education systems to better accommodate their own student demand. China, India, Korea, and Taiwan have all experienced rapid growth in their higher education systems, and not as many of their nationals are forced to go abroad to obtain their educational objectives.
    • Alternative Access to U.S. Degrees
      As technology advances, an emerging trend that will undoubtedly grow larger involves distance learning, joint degrees, and sandwich programs. These and other alternative access points to U.S. higher education that don’t fit the traditional patterns of student mobility are already affecting enrollment trends.
  • An Absence of Policy
    For more than a century our nation's security and leadership has depended on our constructive engagement in the world. And now that we are living in an increasingly complex and interdependent global age, ensuring enhanced international skills and knowledge becomes even more integral to the mission of US higher education. Considering how frequently it is now alleged in the political debate that international education is a critical component of our economic competitiveness in the global market, it is striking that the U.S. government has never issued any official policy that makes it so.

NAFSA’s Public Policy Priorities for 2005
To meet these daunting challenges, and to keep the positive momentum going, NAFSA will renew its efforts to establish international education as an essential component of U.S. leadership and security. We have identified four priorities:

Priority 1: Seek U.S. Commitment to an International Education Policy.
The United States requires a policy that articulates the national interest in international education, commits the nation to ensuring the global competence of its citizens, and provides resources commensurate with the urgency of the problem. Building on the model of the National Security Council, we will seek the establishment of a White House-led International Education Council to spearhead and coordinate the elaboration and implementation of a U.S. international education policy and to engage higher education, international education, and business leaders in the task. All key agencies with a stake in international education—including, State, DHS, Commerce, Education, and Defense—would be represented.

Priority 2: Promote Comprehensive Strategy to Re-establish US as Destination of Choice
Two years ago, when NAFSA released its report, In America’s Interest: Welcoming International Students, the United States had been experiencing a long-term decline in its competitiveness in the international student market, but the absolute number of international students studying here was still rising at a healthy rate. At that time, the loss of this market was still a theoretical danger. Now it is real. We have been brought face-to-face with the reality that international student enrollments not only can decline, they are declining.

To reverse this trend, we must not only ease certain post-9/11 visa restrictions, but we must also undertake a comprehensive national strategy to restore U.S. competitiveness in the international student market by addressing the long-term factors that impact on competitiveness. Drawing on the recommendations of our report, we will seek the development of a strategic plan for promoting U.S. higher education to international students, which includes the following elements:

Priority 3: Promote comprehensive strategy to establish study abroad as integral component of undergraduate education.
At the initiative of the late Senator Paul Simon, Congress has established the Commission on the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program. In 2005 the commission will consider, adopt, and submit its recommendations for significantly expanding participation in study abroad by U.S. college students, with particular emphasis on sending students to developing countries. NAFSA, having been instrumental in the establishment of the commission, will devote 2005 to supporting its work and its recommendations. It already has taken on the role of providing staff support to the Chair of the Commission, former Michigan State University President, Peter McPhereson.

Priority 4: Be active participant in immigration debate in 109th Congress
President Bush’s immigration proposals make it likely that the 109th Congress will conduct a long overdue debate on immigration policy. We intend to be an active participant in that debate. In collaboration with colleague organizations, we seek an immigration policy that will protect and enhance the ability of U.S. colleges, universities, and research institutions to benefit from international students, scholars, and those in specialty occupations.

Become an Advocate for International Education
In conclusion, our national priorities have never included a comprehensive international education policy. Our complacency was seemingly based on the assumption that international students will always come because they always have. So, while the market became highly competitive on a global scale, the market leader was not competing. Whether our reluctance was due to hubris or isolationism or indifference, we, as a nation, failed to harness our competitive energies into a national strategy. The time has come for our country to put out a new welcome mat, one that tells the world that while we work to secure our borders, our educational doors are open, and students from every nation are welcome on our campuses and in our communities. Leaders in government, academe, business, the arts, and all who care about our nation's future, must step up to the task of ensuring that we continue to renew the priceless resource of international educational exchange. Now is the time to let your representatives in Washington know that you support an international education policy for advancing U.S. leadership. We had a strategic need to endorse a policy before September 11. The need is only stronger now.

I urge you to visit the NAFSA website at NAFSA.org, click on the Public Policy links, download the many resources available, and become an advocate on your campus, in your community, and in our nation’s capital, for public policies that can truly make a positive difference in our country, and in our world.
Thank you very much. I welcome any questions you may have.

The Role of Experiential Learning in Preparing Global-Ready Graduates

AIFS Foundation: Study Abroad in the 21st Century
Volume 3: "Impact of Education Abroad on Career Development”

Renatte K. Adler
Director, International Business and Economics Internship Program
San Diego State University

Steven J. Loughrin-Sacco
Director, International Business Program
San Diego State University

Ron Moffatt
Director, International Student Center
San Diego State University

How many times have we exalted the transformational powers of an international education, yet wished we had better data to show how experiential learning in an international setting gives students a competitive edge in the global workforce? How often have we utilized concepts like global proficiencies or intercultural competence, yet wished we had a more definitive understanding of what these terms mean, how they are acquired, and how they foster success in the global workplace? For those of us who ‘got religion’ decades ago about the career enhancing benefits of an international education, but had little more than our own self-validations to back us up as we moved forward in preparing students for a global future, it looks like reinforcements are finally on the way.

A growing number of studies are now focusing on various learning outcomes and processes associated with international education, and their findings are beginning to validate the multifaceted benefits that accrue from learning within an international context. New research is now informing those institutions intent on assessing the effectiveness of their campus internationalization efforts, and it is helping international educators learn not only what to evaluate, but more importantly, how to evaluate their success in preparing students for the global workforce.

Some of the research focuses on defining those basic elements that constitute specific conceptual learning outcomes. Deriving consensual definitions within a myriad of abstract constructs seems to be the first hurdle most researchers face. For example, the Spring 2004 issue of NAFSA’s International Educator introduced two studies that seek to define global and intercultural competencies as a precursor to measuring such competencies. William Hunter’s (1) research focuses on deriving a definition of global competence before determining the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and experiences necessary to become globally competent. Likewise, Darla Deardorff’s (2) research focuses on deriving a definition of what it means to be interculturally competent before determining how institutions can best measure such an outcome.

Other recent studies explore the role of experiential learning in an international setting. In previous volumes in this series, University Presidents Harold Barry (3) and Humphrey Tonkin (4 )each extol the value of international service learning. Barry summarizes their findings: “The values inherent in service learning are particularly enhanced when it is conducted in international/intercultural settings. It allows students to experience and encounter levels of the other culture not usually possible with more traditional programs. Instead of the cultural experience being secondary to the study abroad experience it becomes central and co-equal. There is strong evidence that cultural and language learning particularly are strengthened and accelerated through the service-learning experience.”

At San Diego State University (SDSU), clear results are emerging from studies on the impact of study abroad and international internships on the career development of over 3,000 international business students during the past 16 years. Now, for the first time, solid evidence supports the contention that students with an experiential international education compete more successfully than their peers in today’s global workforce.

SDSU’s International Business (IB) program is a nationally recognized, multiple award-winning, trend-setting innovator that combines curricular, co-curricular, and experiential learning requirements to facilitate students’ transition into the global business workforce. Experiential learning in the IB program consists of semester-long study abroad and an internship, both of which are required for graduation.

The program’s study-abroad model is truly unique for several reasons (5). All 750 majors must complete four business and regional/cultural studies courses at a business school abroad. All coursework is conducted in the host country’s language, including all lectures, assignments, and exams. IB majors must compete for grades with students from the host university. There is no special grading scale for IB majors. Concomitantly, the experience enriches the student’s knowledge of business practices of the host country and also strengthens their language skills.
This study-abroad model also includes the availability of transnational dual- and triple-degree programs. In the transnational dual-degree program, for example, IB majors complete 10 to 20 business and regional/cultural studies courses at the host university. Upon completion, students receive not only SDSU’s B.A. in International Business but also the bachelor’s degree from the host university. The transnational multiple-degree concept makes our students globally ready as a result of one to two years of study at a business school abroad. SDSU now offers dual-degree programs with Mexico (two years in length), Quebec (one year), Chile (three semesters), and Brazil (three semesters) and two triple-degree programs, one with Mexico and Quebec and the second with Mexico and Chile.

How effective has SDSU’s IB study-abroad model been in preparing global-ready students? The key data comes from our alumni survey that many complete yearly. The survey tells us the percentage of alumni working in an international setting, their salaries, and most importantly for this paper, the impact of study abroad and an internship. Compacting survey data from 1989 to 2004, 82% of SDSU IB alumni stated that their study abroad experience improved their chances at getting a job. Additionally, 58% stated that their study abroad experience increased their earning potential. As for internships, 80% stated that their internationally oriented internship improved their chances at getting a job, while 51% claimed that their internship experience increased their earning potential.

While the alumni survey provides us with critical data on the importance of study abroad, how interculturally competent are SDSU IB majors? To assess global skills, the IB program requires students to pass an international certification exam that includes language, intercultural knowledge, and business practices. These exams are offered by international trade organizations such as the World Trade Center, the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Madrid Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Goethe-Institut. Additionally, we have compiled grade point averages of all of our students since 1989. The average GPA over these 16 years is 2.8 out of 4.0. This figure is remarkable given that in many countries like France and Germany, for example, the grading scale is much more rigorous than in U.S. institutions of higher education.

Academic internship opportunities in undergraduate business departments across the nation vary widely. Of the 100 top-ranked business departments in the U.S., we find that 42% award units to international business students for completing internships. Of the top 25 programs in international business, only 3 universities offer internship options, and only SDSU requires the internship in the curriculum. SDSU’s IB program offers an internship course that is integrated as an academic program within the major's curriculum with the intent to provide job experience that allows students to apply theoretical concepts in the global workplace. Operating since 1987, the internship course has enrolled over 3,000 students.

A soon to be published SDSU study (6) contends that student interns not only gain valuable work experience, especially in skills areas neglected by traditional academic institutions, but student interns have multiple and diverse opportunities to apply theory learned in classrooms to real world problems in business firms, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. The study investigates how frequently students achieve a measurable set of learning outcomes that include the development of career enhancing skills and on-the-job training that may lead to career positions. The study also tests to see if this set of learning outcomes is improved when students complete the internship abroad, as compared to those who complete their internship in the United States.

To measure multiple learning outcomes specific to an internship course that bridges the transition between classrooms and careers, the study utilizes positive trait analysis to develop a scoring rubric called the Index of Learning Outcomes in Transition (LOT Index). Of the 16 learning outcomes measured, 14 were drawn from a national study, undertaken by Bikson and Law (7) of the RAND Institute, investigating both university educators’ and multinational corporations’ judgments on the state of American university students’ academic preparedness to enter the global workforce upon completion of undergraduate degrees. The LOT Index developed in the SDSU study includes: Generic Cognitive Skills (decision making ability, self-managing ability, knowing how to learn); Social Skills (teamwork, ability to negotiate/compromise, written and oral communication skills, cooperation); Personal Traits (problem-solving skills/innovativeness, empathy, flexibility and adaptability, openness to new ideas, commitment to quality work); and Other Outcomes (ability to use a second Language, cross-cultural experience, computer skills, and research skills).

One way of scoring for assessment purposes is to directly evaluate attainment of specific learning outcomes that are in evidence in students’ written reports. To tabulate the LOT Index for the internship course, instructors read 425 randomly selected reports to determine which of the 16 learning outcomes were achieved. Of these, 219 were international business majors and 206 were economics majors. Reports were randomly selected from students who completed internships during the eight-year period from 1997 to 2004. Using the scoring rubric, each student was given a point for each of the skills acquired.

Results showed that students develop over half of the LOT success indicators in a typical internship and that the learning outcomes index is positively associated with internships completed abroad, hours worked, experience in the non-profit sector, and spring semester enrollment. Furthermore, skills in a second language and cross-cultural skills are improved by a majority of international business majors, while students majoring in economics do not develop these skills. In addition, they discovered that adding skills to the bundle acquired through an internship leads to a higher probability of a job offer for the students in their sample.

International educators are now finding themselves equipped with solid empirical data to verify what they have always assumed to be true – learning in an international/intercultural setting not only transforms students’ lives, it clearly enhances their career development. While the international business community has been capitalizing on this good news for some time now, the entire academic community can build on these models when attempting to internationalize other disciplines. If the benefits of study abroad and international internships become more clearly defined in terms of learning outcomes in other knowledge domains, a wide array of academic departments can better justify the resource costs of staffing and providing study abroad and internship courses as part of their majors’ curricula.

(1) William D. Hunter,“Got Global Competency?” published in Volume XIII, No 2 of NAFSA’s International Educator (Spring 2004).

(2) Darla K. Deardorff, “Internationalization: In Search of Intercultural Competence” published in Volume XIII, No 2 of NAFSA’s International Educator (Spring 2004).

(3) Howard A. Berry, “Breaking New Ground: The Impact of International Service-Learning Programs on the Study Abroad Field” published in Volume I of AIFS Foundation Series: Study Abroad: A 21st Century Perspective (2003)

(4) Humphrey Tonkin, “Study, Service and the Self-Transformed” published in Volume II of AIFS Foundation Series Study Abroad: A 21st Century Perspective (2004).

(5) Steven J. Loughrin-Sacco and David P. Earwicker, “Thinking Outside The Box: Study Abroad In The Target Language At Business Schools Overseas”, published in Advances in International Marketing, Vol 13: Study Abroad, Perspectives and Experiences from Business Schools (2003).

(6) Renatte K. Adler, Cynthia Bansak, and Steven J. Loughrin-Sacco, "Learning Outcomes in International Business: The Effect of Taking Internships Abroad," working paper, Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), San Diego State University (2005). Will be submitted to the Journal of International Business Studies for publication in 2005.

(7) Tora K. Bickson and Sally A. Law, “Global Preparedness and Human Resources: College and Corporation Perspectives”, published in RAND Institute on Education and Training, RP-433 (1994).

A Cure for the Post Election Blues

NAFSA Region XII Luncheon
Sacramento
November 4, 2004

In the next three minutes I will attempt the impossible: to comment on current events, to share some feelings about those events, and to do what I was invited here to do as Chair of NAFSA’s Development Committee: to invite you to do something that is guaranteed to make you feel good. So wish me well. Hopefully, it‘ll all get done with seconds to spare.

At a time when many of us here in this room feel our dreams for brandishing a new image of America have been abruptly dashed by reality’s alarm clock, and our hopes for more enlightened leadership in favor of our planet’s future wellbeing are now challenged anew, we must pause to assess the course history is taking as it inextricably unfolds before us. Imagine, if you will, we are the world and we must do something about it.

Toward that end I propose we reflect on what it is that brings us together in this room today, to explore what it is that bonds us together as a community of learners and educators intent on building a better world, and to somehow hold whatever that is we discover close to our hearts and cherish it as one would cherish a child’s embrace during a storm.

When I look around this room I see hundreds of dreamers, hundreds of believers, and hundreds of doers; and I feel like I’m part of something really huge and really important and I know that together we are as powerful as the challenges we face.

Looking around this room, I feel inspired by being part of an association of educators who help send and bring tomorrow’s leaders to and from the far corners of our world so that perceptions and perspectives are exchanged in pursuit of understanding, ideas and aspirations are transformed into deeds that enrich the human spirit, borders become invisible, nations become people, stereotypes dissolve, tolerance triumphs, friendships flourish, and goodwill prevails.

Looking around this room, I feel empowered by being part of a network of incredibly knowledgeable and talented colleagues who serve as advisers, teachers, administrators, artisans, writers, researchers, trainers, facilitators, technicians, counselors, and mentors who are as eager to learn and discover new aspects of living together on our planet as they are willing to share and exchange what they already learned and discovered.

Looking around this room, I feel nurtured by being part of a community of deeply committed and passionately engaged volunteers whose concept of our life’s purpose and daily focus transcends the normal constructs of occupation, vocation, or even profession. We are truly a community of dreamers, a community of believers, and a community of doers with tremendous capabilities. We bring to our work each morning and take home with us each night an intrepid spirit of hope and a remarkable capacity for sustaining what Lawrence Ferlinghetti once called ‘a rebirth of wonder’. As such, we become indomitable in our pursuits and a formidable factor in changing the course of history. Imagine, if you will, we are the creators of history and we can do something about it.

Finally, when I look around this room, I feel tremendous pride in being part of NAFSA’s New Century Circle, for by doing so, I am helping to ensure a perpetual rebirth of wonder for generations to come. I would like to invite you to consider doing the same.

The New Century Circle is NAFSA’s deferred giving program. It doesn’t require you to do any thing now except make a pledge to include NAFSA in your future financial planning. There is no minimum amount needed to pledge. In fact, it is not even necessary to tell us how much you intend to give.

The New Century Circle is very easy to join. Read the brochure available at the NAFSA booth in the Exhibit Hall; talk to me or Will Philipp if you have questions, and when you get home, talk to your family or others who might be involved with your decision. When you are ready to join, fill out a pledge form and send it to the central office, and your name will be added to the community of more than 100 other NAFSAns who chose this way to support and pay tribute to the important work we all do.

It’s all very simple. And I guarantee that you will feel like you are doing something really, really good – for yourself, for NAFSA, and for our world. Thank you.

Making It Harder For International Students

The San Diego Union-Tribune
November 20, 2003
Opinion Section

In the global tug of war over the hearts and minds of future friends or foes, one of America's most effective strategic options is facing an uphill battle. Public diplomacy is one of the most formidable weapons we can use in the struggle to neutralize extremism and nurture allies, but it is not working properly, and we are losing ground in this campaign on several fronts.

U.S. public diplomacy programs provide foreign visitors access to our vast wealth of educational and cultural resources so that they can better understand and appreciate all the benefits that accrue from a free and open society such as ours. At a time when access to these programs should be at their peak capacity, we're discovering that our welcome mat is not as attractive as it used to be, and not as many people are showing up at our doorsteps.

The hallmark of America's public diplomacy for the past 60 years had been our openness to international students who serve long-standing foreign policy, educational and economic interests.
By hosting international students, we generate an appreciation of American political values and institutions, and we lay the foundation for constructive relations based on mutual understanding and cooperation. The millions of people worldwide who have studied here constitute an enduring reservoir of goodwill for our country, perhaps our most undervalued foreign policy asset.

For many Americans, college life provides their first personal contact with foreigners, and these encounters begin the process of enabling our young people to acquire the requisite global perspectives and competencies that help them become effective global citizens.

Last year, international students and their families represented our nation's fifth largest service sector export by infusing more than $12.8 billion into the U.S. economy, $1.9 billion into the California economy, and $185 million into the San Diego economy.

Despite these benefits, America's historic position as the leading destination for international students is actually eroding. The absolute numbers continue to increase, but the rate of growth is declining rapidly.
Last year's enrollments grew less than 1 percent, and of the top 20 sending countries, 13 experienced a decrease. Especially troubling are reports of large declines in the numbers of students from the Middle East, a region of vital strategic importance to the United States.

The long-term trends are also troubling: U.S. percentage of all internationally mobile students worldwide dropped more than 15 percent in the past 20 years.

How did we let this happen?

These declines are the result of many factors, but the most significant remains the absence of a comprehensive national strategy for promoting international student access to U.S. higher education. In this strategic vacuum, our competitors -- Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and other forward-looking countries -- launched aggressive recruitment programs that now challenge our position as the world's international education leader.

Before Sept. 11, 2001, our national priorities never included a comprehensive international education policy. Our complacency was seemingly based on the assumption that international students will always come because they always have.

After Sept. 11, 2001, homeland security dominates U.S. public policies on international education. Long overdue reforms were implemented within a staggeringly compressed technological gestation period, and the outcome is a sophisticated student tracking system that better secures our borders. Accompanying that system, however, are numerous glitches and a few unintended consequences.

The immediate fallout involves the visa delays that students encounter at our consulates overseas, preventing many of them from entering the United States in time to begin their programs. Eventually, as these glitches get resolved and visa processing becomes more efficient, such setbacks should disappear.

The more enduring problem, one that is beginning to rally political momentum in Washington, D.C., is the perception that some of our well-intentioned security measures may have inadvertently gone too far. While competing nations worked to remove disincentives to study in their countries, our policies actually exacerbated the disincentives to study here.
The time has come for America to put out a new welcome mat, one that tells the world that while we work to secure our borders, our educational doors are open, and students from every nation are welcome on our campuses and in our communities.

Leaders in government, academe, business, the arts and all who care about our nation's future, must step up to the task of ensuring that we continue to renew the priceless resource of international educational exchange. America had a strategic need to enhance this option before Sept. 11. The need is only stronger no

Bazaar del Mundo Revisited: NAFSA and the Global Workforce

Back Page, International Educator
Volume XII, Number 3, Summer 2003

Global workforce development (GWD), a concept foreign to many people in the field of international education, is beginning to make waves within some professional associations, particularly NAFSA. While refreshing NAFSA's Strategic Plan last March, the board of directors added a phrase to the mission statement: NAFSA serves its members, their institutions and organizations, and others engaged in international education and exchange and global workforce development. Since then several members have asked board members, "What is GWD and why is it in our mission statement?"

As one who once wondered what the heck GWD was and what it had to do with NAFSA, I can appreciate the concern some may initially have about its heightened profile. But as one who has worked intimately for the past 30 years with thousands of students and countless programs that directly contribute to GWD, I can testify to the ubiquitous role it now plays in the whole arena of international education.

While GWD may appear as a new addition to the NAFSA lexicon, its centrality to NAFSA's mission has been with us from the beginning. Some members may challenge the appropriateness of NAFSA supporting such a focus, concerned that higher education is becoming more and more a commodity of the marketplace while educating the whole person for the advancement of the common good within a civil society undergoes renewed erosion. But creating such juxtaposition assumes a battle between mutually exclusive forces. Imagine, instead, the academy as a dynamic worldwide bazaar of dialectics continuously vying for prime currency: pure versus applied research, theory versus practice curricula, inductive versus deductive learning, intuitive versus empirical knowledge, interactive versus didactic pedagogy, qualitative versus quantitative assessment, personal versus professional development. In this context, GWD becomes just one more brick in the wall, and on many campuses, an increasingly prominent cornerstone.

In the 60s and early 70s many NAFSAns saw their roles as "agents of change" in reversing the "brain drain." Such programs as "Return of Talent" and "Home Country Employment Registry" enabled many members to perceive themselves as partners in developing workforces for other nations. A measure of pride was taken in thinking we were aiding other nations in their development efforts by training their teachers, their doctors, their engineers, their scientists, their business and government leaders until their educational infrastructure reached the capacity to meet their own workforce training needs.

In the mid 70s and 80s, concomitant with the growth in study abroad programs, our roles evolved. There was an emphasis on the processes as well as extended outcomes of an international education. The sundry byproducts derived from cross-cultural living and learning were identified and appreciated. And students, both inbound and outbound, were promoted as value-added graduates who carried with them the distinction of possessing priceless multilingual and multicultural assets.

Now, within the last decade, with the full barrage of the "globalization boom" making its presence felt in almost every nook and cranny of the academy, it has become impossible to avoid the obvious: GWD is on everyone's plate. The vernacular for GWD on my campus, San Diego State University, is Global Skill Set (GSS)-the prerequisites for succeeding in a global economy and workforce acquired through cross-cultural living and learning. The demand for their acquisition here has propelled our international programs to the forefront of national prominence, as evidenced by NAFSA's recent Internationalizing the Campus 2003 report. Ever since students discovered having a GSS significantly increases their competitiveness in most job markets, we've had our work cut out for us. As SDSU President Stephen L. Weber was quoted in the report, "our faculty and staff are running as fast as they can to keep up with students' demands for international education."

While the literature now abounds with studies on what constitutes "global literacy" or "global competencies" or "global skill sets," it is perfectly clear to students what it's all about. Anyone with a college education who can adjust to constantly changing circumstances, navigate between various cultural norms and taboos, communicate in languages other than English, and create new solutions to meet new challenges in unfamiliar environments, can often select the employer they want. GSS are highly valued in any field of study, and imparting GSS has been at the heart of our study abroad initiatives. They have been specially honed in the many academic programs that now require, or emphasize, an international learning component. Examples include: International Business, International Security and Conflict Resolution, Hospitality Management and Tourism, Theatre Arts, Foreign Languages and Area Studies.

It is evident, from the forces at work on many campuses, GWD will be one of the primary engines moving international education forward on the national agenda for some time to come. It's not a passing fad, it's not the tail wagging the dog, and it's no longer outside the box as far as NAFSA is concerned. It is central to what students seek, to what faculty profess, to what international educators do every day. GWD is at the core of framing U.S. commerce and trade policies, driving much of what Congress votes for in keeping U.S. competitiveness alive and well in an increasingly complex and interdependent marketplace. GWD is also one of the most compelling reasons why companies will want to strengthen their alliances with NAFSA as they develop new products and services that meet the diverse needs we will inevitably encounter as the profession advances and constituencies grow.

All of us-policymakers, educators, practitioners, and vendors-can find common ground in the mission to shape and support the vanguard of the twenty-first century global workforce.

 

The Merits of An International Education

The San Diego Union-Tribune
November 22, 2002
Opinion Section

Amid the quickening drumbeats of war, worldwide economic recessions, heightened threats of terrorism and enhanced scrutiny of foreigners, America's colleges and universities are witnessing something quite remarkable: record numbers of students are crossing borders in pursuit of an international education.

Despite increased risks, costs and hurdles, more students than ever are routinely embodying the once lofty ideals of international understanding and global perspectives. No longer satisfied staying bound within familiar classrooms or traveling vicariously through virtual sights and sounds, students are demanding - and getting - a taste of the real world.

International mobility on U.S. campuses is nothing new. Our schools have always been an educational beacon for students from every country in the world, as well as a launch pad for our youth exploring new academic and personal frontiers. But just as desktop computing accelerated office productivity in the '80s, and internet access revolutionized communications in the '90s, international mobility is profoundly changing how we view education's mission at the dawn of the 21st century.

Most educators strive to prepare their students for a global future, helping them acquire the knowledge, skills and vision for leadership in an increasingly complex and interdependent world. Forward-looking educators enable their students to acquire such assets while living in another culture. It's a lot like swimming lessons. Learning the basic strokes on dry land is a good starting point, but you can never really learn to swim until you actually get in the water.

International students have been swimming all over the world for decades. In the United States, they used to flow predominantly one way: inbound. Since World War II, no other educational system in the world could compete with the quality and payback of a U.S. degree. Consequently, enrollments grew slowly but consistently, reaching the quarter-million mark in 1978 and the half-million mark in 1999.

This year an estimated 560,000 visiting students are earning a first class education, providing campuses with unparalleled opportunities to foster cross-cultural learning and building lifetime friendships with Americans. They also constitute the nation's fifth largest service-sector export, contributing over $11 billion annually to our economy.

But international education is a two-way process, and outbound growth rates are rapidly outpacing inbound rates. Study-abroad programs nationwide experienced double-digit growth in each of the past four years, and enrollments now exceed 150,000 students a year. At San Diego State University, for example, 700 students are studying abroad this year compared to 200 just three years ago.

On most U.S. campuses, study abroad has moved from the "exotic" or "boutique" mindset directly into the mainstream, becoming part of the institutional culture. At SDSU, two factors converged to initiate this transformation.

First, students discovered a global skill-set significantly increases their competitiveness in most job markets. Students who can adjust to unfamiliar circumstances, navigate between cultural norms and taboos, communicate in languages other than English, and create new solutions to meet new challenges, can often select the employer they want.

Second, ever since international education was identified as one of five core institutional values during a recent "Shared Vision" process, faculty, staff and students have been implementing plans to ensure one-third of each graduating class has an international education as part of their college experience. Innovative, award-winning initiates such as binational dual degree (MEXUS) and trinational triple degree (CAMEXUS) programs have helped make SDSU's international business program the largest in the nation.

Hundreds of other campuses are developing or strengthening similar internationalization efforts, and the record number of students demanding greater mobility suggests we still have a lot more work to do.

At a time when our nation's traditions of openness and freedom of movement and inquiry are under renewed scrutiny, when it might be tempting to allow the imperative of security to brush aside other priorities, campuses are voicing an important lesson from the American experience: our nation's leadership and security depend on our continued engagement in the world. International education must be a key component of the national effort to strengthen our ties with, and knowledge of, the world. Now more than ever, information and commerce - not to mention political upheaval, health issues, cultural and social trends and environmental concerns - know few boundaries.

Fortunately, our national leadership recognizes the importance of a global education for Americans. Secretary of State Colin Powell, declaring his agency's support for this year's International Education Week (Nov. 18-22), said: "As we work to end the scourge of terrorism, let us also work to increase peace, prosperity and democracy. People-to-people diplomacy, created through international education and exchanges, is critical to our national interests." His counterpart at the Department of Education, Secretary Rod Paige adds, "International education not only promotes mutual understanding and cooperation among nations, it can also strengthen national security, foreign policy, and economic competitiveness."

Our national, state and local leadership - in government, business, education, science, the arts and the nonprofit sector - must continue to support international education. There is still so much to accomplish: more and better sustained foreign-language and area study programs; more scholarships to enable more students to study abroad; more robust citizen and professional exchanges; and strong, proactive policies that ensure a continued openness to visiting students and scholars.

International education is essential to America's capacity to lead and thrive in the world and must be an integral part of the nation's response to today's global challenges. It is reassuring to know our students are leading us in the right direction.

 

Saudi Arabia: Tales of 1001 Enigmas

Lemon Grove Rotary Club
December 14, 1998

Good afternoon. I want to thank Barbara for her kind invitation to join you today. As a fellow Lemon Grovian or Grovite or Grovie or whatever it is we call ourselves, I have always counted as one of my more cherished blessings, the chance to be one of Barbara’s most ardent admirers. As you all well know yourselves, Barbara is a true civic treasuer, one who has graced our town with years of devotion and caring, one who has infused our locale with beauty and purpose and pride. I also know Barbara as a colleague who, over the years, has become a mentor and friend. You probably have seen her as the spokesperson for a too often maligned institution that sits atop Montezuma Mesa a few miles to our north. For those of us who toil there to make a good place great, we know her as the human face of SDSU, the person who artfully, eloquently, and effectively brings us together, motivating us, inspiring us, to advance our common passion for learning. Barbara is to SDSU what she has been to Lemon Grove, a welcome beacon of civility, cooperation, and goodwill.

Barbara asked me to join you today to share a few insights about a very important, and very misuderstood, region of the world, a daunting task that I had successfully avoided for several months, until Barbara’s call a few days ago. One does not readily say no to Barbara when she calls.

The task is daunting because I am no expert when it comes to politics or religion, because I am often swayed, temporarily, by whatever current wind prevails, and because the issues involved are so complex and confounding. My fear has been that by saying anything, I will say something indefensible, something that isn’t “true”, something that will not have conveyed the “true” story. I’ve wrestled with these head games for almost 9 months now, and Barbara’s wake up call was the biological equivalent of “delivery time”. So please pardon whatever noise may accompany my labor pains as I try to bring forth some clarity and light to a dark and fuzzy picture.

I visited Saudi Arabia last March on a Malone Fellowship in Arab and Islamic Studies. I was part of a 15 member delegation of university professors in the social sciences, including: politcal science, sociology, economics, geography, history, and journalism. I was the sole administrator. Our group consisted of 6 women and 9 men selected on a competitive basis. Our visit was sponsored by the National Council on US - Arab Relations, located in Washington D.C., and was funded by the Saudi Arabian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in the three cities we visted...Riyadh, Dhahran, and Jeddah.

Our intensive two-week program of briefings, lectures, and meetings with government officials, private sector leaders, and academic specialists exposed us to a broad range of critical issues facing the Saudi government and people, as well as the salient features of Saudi societv, history, and culture. We began each day at 6:30 am and most evenings ended at midnight. We traveled first class, stayed in four and five star hotels, and consumed vast quantities of great food. Our hosts were incredibly gracious and generous.

One of our ongoing tasks during our visit was to compose group reports on specific topics such as: the land and people, religion and politics, economic development, US - Saudi relations, and regional and world relations. These reports, packed with facts, statistics and glassy-eyed data were to serve as spring boards when we returned, as reference materials for speeches and articles we were expected to generate for public consumption. I first contemplated reading some of these reports to you today because that would have gotten me through this talk without much sweat. But judging from my wife’s reaction to these reports when I showed them to her, I decided I didn’t want to “feel your pain too”, so I opted for another, less tedious, kind of filler.

Throughout our visit we were instructed to keep a journal, and each one of us was responsible for writing one day’s entry into the group journal. By the draw of the straw, I was allotted the last day. Allow me now to share with you a more whimsical review of of my experience in Saudi Arabia...forgive me if it strays a bit from the beaten path; afterwards I would welcome, with your questions, a return to relative objectivity and explorations of a more substantial nature.

The journal entry is for March 21, a day that would last well over 36 hours. It begins in Jeddah, a port city on the Red Sea that is the gateway to the two holy cities of Medina and Mecca and ends in Washington, D.C. It is two weeks before the haj begins, when 2 million pilgrims from around the world will converge to pay homage to their spiritual origins. That day we visited several officials in Jeddah, then flew to Riyadh, changed planes, and finally embarked on the long journey home. If you sense a delerious tone to this entry, it is because it was written on that long ride home.

March 21...Jeddah...the last day.

As yet another dawn gently nudges us from our final field of dreams in this ancient portal by the sea, we each in our own way approach the waiting mirror, and pause to reflect upon what has come to pass within this fortnight, congealing us as roving nomads, this erstwhile tribe of self inflicted socioscribes and prophetcators. The day ahead looms large before us, challenging our stamina unlike any marathon yet encountered in this mysterious land of 1001 riddles. At its eventual end, we will lay prostrate in our familiar beds, nestled close to familiar limbs. But the mirror begs the question one last time: how will we have changed because we were here?

Lo and behold, the reflection reveals we have not only attained new levels of girthly abandon, but we have traversed new terrains of understanding of a place in time that retains its enigmatically seductive flavor as tenaciously as each of us clings to our own idiosyncratic cluster of blind spots. In the end, we may have shifted the compass bearing a few degrees, but the magnetic pull of our habitual clinging has a destiny all its own. So, enough with the mirrors and their reflections, and on with the day that defies a normal ending and promises a final passing on of this journal.

The breakfast scuttlebutt centered around Chris’s missing passport and possible hazards associated with an identity crisis in a strange and far away place. Theories abound as to how it happened and what lays in store for a fellow pilgrim who falls from grace and suddenly descends into the ungodly realm of “undocumented alien”. Dennis offers to call in his buddies from Toledo, Guido and Luiggi, but Mohammed, our Saudi guide, saves the day while confounding the mystery. He produces the delinquent passport with a tale of two stories. 1) He recovered it from the police department. 2) He found it on the floor of his car. A sigh of relief dispels the addition of one more riddle to the pile and we rejoice in being legal once again.

Once again we find our extended family’s unification torn asunder along the line of gender persuasion. The women are sent off to visit a girl’s school while we men must remain behind cooling our heels at the starting gate of our five-star Hyatt. Finally, boarded on bus and enroute to what we believed was to be a rendezvous with our fair counterparts at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, we are asked to disembark in front of a platoon of Uzi wielding body guards who whisk us into the Governor’s mansion to meet His Royal Highness Prince Bin Majid Bin Abdulaziz.

The mansion was palatial and our reception was royal. The Price seemed genuinely pleased to be meeting us, inquired about our perception of the Kingdom and of Jeddah, and regaled us with his enthusiasm for the city’s vitality, diversity, creativity and synergy, and also for the plethora of looming challenges lurking just below the surface and around the next corner. Three months into his new role, he demonstrated a confident sense of place and purpose. He too gave voice to the same lament we have heard consistently throughout our sojourn - the hurt that comes from the unmet expectations of friends. He too uttered his mystification at the hypocrisy of US foreign policy and the double standards it engenders.

Our leader, Dr. Anthony took carpe diem to task and briefed the prince on the role, scope and activities of the National Council in a brilliant, concise, illustrated presentation that had a two-pronged advance: first, a fusillade of data and graphics staggering in their collective impact; second, a series of cruise missiles to the deepest corner of the heart where truth is kept. John is a master at play in the fields of our language, composing symphonies of words that resonate long after striking their first chord. John’s gift is a beacon in the dark, a trickle of honey to a parched throat. We end our visit with the Prince amid the flurry of photo ops. Carl, our journalist, once again proves he is the most photo-centric among us mere mortals.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to us mere males, our fair ladies were taking their turn cooling their heels at the Chamber’s headquarters. Finally reunited in body and spirit, if not mindfulness, our tribe entered a cavernous amphitheater and experienced a 15 minute multimedia extravaganza that was the proud production of Mohammed and his colleagues: 800 slides synchronized through 12 projectors in a frenzy of pomp and circumstance in a celebratory tribute to the Chamber’s 50 years of incredible growth and progress in the commercial and industrial arenas, and one more statement of the Saudi’s apparently innate impulse to outdo the perceived best of the best through the infusion of more and more levels of greater intricacy, complexity and multiplicity. Dazed and starstruck, we retreated en masse to the conference room where we met with our hosts and sponsors of our visit to Jeddah. They provided us with a brief overview of the Chamber’s role in the Saudization process.

Once again we were entreated to wrestle with the now familiar horns of the dilemma: an exponentially growing army of liberally educated job seekers pitted against an impacted public sector labor market, with their backs up against a societal wall of a welfare entitlement system that fuels only the antithesis of an industrial work ethic, and their vision fixed firmly on a future lifestyle that disconnects at all points of any contact save that of fantasy. The problems are real, the consequences will be staggering, and the chambers pilot programs to address the issues are commendable, but far too timid - a thumb in the proverbial dike. We were encouraged to ask questions. Surprisingly they were politely noted, and perhaps due to time constraints, there they remained… an assorted collection of questions. Perhaps their eventual transformation into answers or responses will find the light of another day. Add another riddle to the pile.

Instead, we departed the building for one final venture in our never ending journey towards culinary nirvana. It didn’t take us long to find another cornucopia of savory abundance - this time in an elegant Lebanese restaurant facing the pounding surf of the Red Sea. Assembled at one long table were the 16 of us and 20 of Jeddah’s most powerful movers and shakers, all US educated, all savvy to the tools and trends of globalization and all serving loyally to the common deity of assured mutual interests. We are lightweights in their everyday scales of power and influence, yet we remain connected somehow to their roots, to what shaped their formative personas. We represent that which they discovered in themselves because of who they once were in America, and so, in their own respectful way, they pay homage to us. We are humbled by this gesture, and I worry how I will find the means to balance the scales. My lunch partner promises to come to my campus next month to initiate discussions on developing a distance learning program. I thrill at the prospect of a seed planted in fertile ground.

Palettes satiated and synapses numbed, we journey onward to our last and final gig in our pilgrimage - to the shrine of our forefathers in absentia - the US Consulate. With extraordinary ease our bus is ushered into the compound with a customary mirror sweep of the undercarriage, and we enter into the comfortable abode and amiable hospitality of Steve and Holla Buck, the Consul General and his wife. We are cordially received and offered whatever we might want to drink since we were officially in “American Territory”.

When we assemble in the living room, the General Consul polishes off his domestic issues presentation and offers much of the same DOS speak we heard in Riyadh and Dhahran - oil prices going down, population going up, Saudiazation at the crossroads, succession steady as she goes - nothing new. What does raise some eyebrows is the somewhat jaded and cynical side-stepping Steve makes when it comes to foreign policy issues. It is obvious that he has been briefed by his colleagues in Riyadh and Dharan and he is reluctant to engage us. Not until Daryl drags him out on the dance floor does he offer any grist for the mill, and then only party line, DOS speak. Even his personal slant is a blanket dismissal of the issues and an adamant appeal to not fall prey to the “victimization” themes and “endless conspiracy theories”. He urges us to keep returning the ball to the Arab court - their failure to mount an effective lobby in the US is no-one’s fault but their own. His personal plea is for us to stop focusing on the negative issues and to put a positive spin on the “wonderful Arab people”.

At no time does he or his staff acknowledge the claims of the Saudis on behalf of the Palestinians, nor does he admit to seeing the clear image that Saudis hold of Uncle Sam speaking with a forked tongue when it comes to supporting UN resolutions. So endth today’s lesson in tactical capabilities.

With the sun setting in the west, we boarded the bus for home and beyond. What began as a mysterious enigma had evolved into series of inscrutible puzzles...

• how do we as westerners grasp the full picture of a society that was transformed from a nomadic tribe into a world power in just one generation ?

• how does one prepare for the transfer of power from the last ruling sibling of the original Saud dynasty to a younger generation of royalty wherein 22 of the current 24 cabinet ministers hold doctoral degrees from U.S. universities.

• how do we build economic and academic bridges with a country where 30% of it’s people are foreign workers who constitute 100% of the private sector and where 3 million Saudi college graduates will enter, within the next decade, the already impacted public work force.

• how will strict adherence to the Hanbali school of legal jurisprudence survive the onslaught of global telecommunications...how will a society that bans movie theaters, satelitte dishes, and the internet continue to survive within the global village ?

• how do we as westerners understand and respect the stagering differences in gender roles ?

• how can the U.S. be perceived as being evenhanded when it comes to building peace in the middle east ?

The list goes on and on, but I will stop here before it gets any more complicated. I appreciate your patience while I wrestled with my demons, and I welcome any guidance you may lend me in extricating myself from the mess I made up here. Thank you.

 

A Look Back at NAFSA: The 80's

NAFSA Association of International Educators
Region XII Conference, Monterey
November 1997

I am grateful to Marv for not asking me to rock through the 50's, tiptoe through the 60's, disco through the 70’s, or mash through the 90’s. Instead, he gave me the 80’s. At first, I was at a loss for a musical metaphor. But in compiling the data for this session, it soon became obvious that the only way to present a 10 minute review of the 80's would be to rewrite a song that hit the top of the popcharts during the very last month of that decade - Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start The Fire.” You may remember how it’s rythmic raplike lyrics flashed through scores of historical vingettes from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s accompanied by an increasingly accelerated beat. That was it - I would give you NAFSA history ala POP-RAP. When my staff learned of my intention to come here and sing to you this morning, they quickly jumped into action, unplugged my computer, pulled me from my office, locked my door, and instructed me to take a long walk. You now have them to thank for what will forever remain as a glaring gap in your personal collection of cultural incredulities.

The 80’s. They taught us many lessons. It was a tumultuous decade in which world events deeply affected the lives of our students, and because of the nature of the work we do, dramatically affected how we spent our days, and all too often, many of our nights.

The 80’s were tumultuous, and taught us life long lessons in crisis management and citizen diplomacy. We also learned of the couragous resilence of students as they tried to cope with unimaginable levels of stress, uncertainty and angst. They were the kind of lessons that inspired us then, the kind that keep us going now through tough times brought on by other, less sinister forces.

The 80’s also saw the planting of many seeds that did not always bear immediate fruit:

One wonders what other seeds were planted in those years that still lay dormant now, awaiting their time in the light. The 80’s also provided many lessons in global economics, especially in terms of how dollars fuel student mobility.

And so, as the world was turning, as the students were coping, and as we were facing more and more demands on our roles as international educators, one might ask, what was NAFSA doing?

For NAFSAns in Region XII, the 80’s were what many might consider the “golden age” for international educators. In retrospect, it was a time of relatively abundent resources and a sense that anything was possible. Eyes were on the future and the future was always growth oriented. Downsizing and streamlining were not part of our lexicon. Innovation was our trademark and whatever trends developed nationally, their origins could usually be traced to Region XII. The rest of the nation seemed to be looking to us in this region for leading edge ideas and models. One index of our influence on the national scene was our contributions to leadership: between 1980 and 1985, 5 NAFSA presidents were either indigenous or prospective Region XIIers. Charles Gay, USC; Stirling Huntley, Cal Tech; Dixon Johnson, Univ. of Tennessee, soon after USC; Robert Kaplan, USC; and Marv Baron, UC-Berkeley.

NAFSA as an association during the 80’s was showing clear signs of maturation; membership jumped from 3,500 to well over 6,000, and our ranks were swelled by greater numbers of members from other countries. Our constituency was becoming increasingly global. OSEAS was formed as a special interest group and international educators in several countries developed their own associations in replication of the NAFSA model. We crisscrossed America several times to met in such locations as St. Louis, Nasville, Seatle, Cincinnati, Snowmass, Baltimore, San Antonio, Long Beach, Washington, DC, and Minneapolis.
NAFSA Central during the 80’s was also showing clear signs of maturation - the staff was growing too big for the building it occupied and plans were set in motion to look elsewhere for a facility with fewer wrinkles and a more ample girth. (it took ten full years to move headquarters 4 blocks from 19th St to Connecticut).

Along with this increase in size of membership and organizational structure, came a multiplicity of new issues, and a corresponding matrix of confounding new complexities.

Student issues focused primarily on the plight of Iranians and Chinese students on our campuses and those unable to return home:

NAFSA ‘s advocacy on behalf of these students, both with our government and their government representatives, was crucial in helping these students find more humane options for resolving their legal dilemmas.

NAFSA’s advocacy efforts in shaping federal policy were also greatly strengthened during this decade. NAFSA helped form the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange and together lobbied Capitol Hill for more effective regulations and less severe funding cuts. The NAFSA Task Force on Regulatory Reform helped construct the new F-1 regulations in 1986; and year after year NAFSA was at the forefront of the fight to reduce the draconian cuts in USIA funding regularily proposed by myopic congressional leaders.

There were a variety of other issues on NAFSA’s agenda:

and finally, as for Organizational issues:

That’s it. Time’s over. As they say, the 80’s are history. Next time I hope I get to sing. Thank you very much.

 

Living The Legacy: Celebrating 125 Years Of Gandhi's Truth

125th Anniversary of Mahatma Ghandi's Birthday
SDSU's Center for Asian Studies
San Diego, October 1994

Good afternoon and welcome to the 125th anniversary of the birth of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Today we are gathered to celebrate the birth of one of the world's greatest teachers and to pay tribute to the ever growing legacy of the lessons he taught us. In the span of his 78 years, Gandhiji succeeded in implementing one of the most revolutionary ideas of the 20th century: the inevitable moral truth and the indomitable political power of nonviolence. Experimenting with what he called "an idea as old as the hills", he was the first to prove that nonviolence could be used on a large scale to redirect society toward a more humane course. Today we will celebrate that great achievement and we will explore it future prospects.

It is a great honor for me to be welcoming you to such a joyous occassion. Many of you know me as the guy who enjoys the good fortune of serving the hundreds of students who come to this campus from all around the world. What most of you don't know is how Mahatma Gandhi got me here.

I can well imagine that each one of you in this room has nestled in some corner of your heart, a cherished story about how Gandhi played a role in the direction of your life, that each of you can trace a path that links his past with your present, a trail which brings there and then into here and now. To honor this wonderous gift that he has bestowed upon the course of all humanity, let me briefly share my story about my path.

As a young man coming of age in the tumultuous wake of the clashing countercultures of the 60's, evidence of Gandhi's influence on social and political change was impossible to ignore. Thousands of grass roots crusades rallied for civil rights, equal rights, and human rights, and hundreds of thousands of people joined resistance movements against the war, against the draft, against any type of institutional violence, and through it all, the power of nonviolent action in rectifying social injustice and dismantling rampant militarism became abundently clear to both friend and foe alike. As a graduating student of human behavior, the time was ripe to figure out my place in the scheme of things. The year was 1969 and I had just discovered the treasures of a man born 100 years before in a faraway land. The book was called "The Essential Gandhi: His Life, Work and Ideas" and its lessons still resonate in my heart and my work till this very day.

A year later, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that individuals could object to military service on the basis of personal moral grounds, I declined my teaching deferment and claimed such status, expousing Gandhi's tenets of nonviolence as the source of my personal beliefs. After 2 impassioned appeals, I became the first person in the history of my Pennsylvania draftborad to be declared a conscientious objector. I have Gandhiji to thank for my deliverance.

During those 2 years of alternative service, his teachings became even more compelling, and as you might expect, given the proclivities of young adulthood mixed with the intoxicants of newfound idealism, practicing nonviolent resistance became a daily part of life. When my service ended, I sought to learn firsthand of other struggles in other countries. The next two years were spent in East Africa as a volunteer teacher and in the Indian subcontinent as a writer, photographer and free lance pilgrim, learning what I could about Gandhi and about another teacher whose ideas had captured my heart, and my soul, Jiddu Krishnamurti. My time abroad was revolutionary to the core, and it only reaffirmed my original premise of the supremacy of nonviolent action. The imutable truth of means and ends was perfectly clear - There is no way to Peace: Peace is the Way.

When I returned to the U.S. and began graduate school in intercultural communications, it came as a great surprize to learn that they actually paid people to take care of students from other countries. It was then I realized, much to my parent's delight, that I had finally found my functional identity. It is a profession I have honored and relished each and every day since then because it allows me to teach peace to the world; and because it brings me close to so many wonderful people, including the one who invited me here today to welcome you, my very good friend Madu Madhavan. Thank you Madu.

It is now my very great pleasure to introduce Prem and Sheela Trikannad who will sing for us.