Best Practices Task Force

Minutes of the meeting on November 7, 2005

• Best Practices Projects
• Workshops
• Dissemination
• Initiatives

Present: Peter Bankhart (Wabash), Cathy Benton (Lake Forest), Elizabeth Brewer (Beloit), Roger Casey (Rollins), Elizabeth Hayford (Associated Colleges of the Midwest), Sue Mennicke (Southwestern), Blake Michael (Ohio Wesleyan), Michael Monahan (Macalester), Éva Pósfay (Carleton), Milton Reigelman (Centre), Daniel Sack (Associated Colleges of the Midwest), Ellen Sayles (Oberlin)

Dan Sack welcomed everyone and invited introductions. Since the Global Partners Project is officially concluding in December, the main task of the meeting, he said, would be reviewing the task force's work and discussing possible future steps.

Best Practices Projects

We have received reports from each of the projects funded in 2002; the task force reviewed the reports and discussed the work. Dan pointed out that the report on orientation and re-orientation (Birmingham-Southern/Centre/Rollins) was in draft form, with more detail and resources to come. Milton Reigelman noted that Centre and Rollins had created an orientation course, but that Anne Ledvina did most of the work at BSC. Roger Casey reported that Rollins had run the orientation class for two years, including student journaling during their time off-campus; student reactions were bipolar, either loving it or hating it. Milton stated that the most useful pre-departure programs are led by the faculty members who will be leading (and grading) the students; those sessions also require the faculty to think about cross-cultural issues.

The two symposia at BSC (June 2004 and 2005) evoked a good turnout and good exchange of ideas. Sue Mennicke appreciated the meetings' focus on creating outcome papers. Dan wondered how the paper could be useful to the colleges. Cathy Benton suggested that the paper (or papers) would remind people that there are models for orientation and re-orientation, that they don't need to recreate the wheel; ideally we should create a one to two page list of recommendations and things learned. Betsy Brewer thought it would be helpful to have a list of materials available on colleges' web sites. Éva Pósfay thought it would be useful for international student advisors to have a copy of the final paper. Other audiences suggested included area studies offices and deans/provosts. Ellen Sayles asked if we knew of new courses created because of this project.

Discussion then turned to the DePauw/Earlham/Wabash project on creating globally competent citizens. Betsy found the project interesting with the shadowing programs and the opportunity to visit other programs; it had the real potential to transform practice. Peter Bankhart said that the project encouraged faculty members to see how their work intersected with international education. Éva was impressed with the role of students, particularly the student conference. Betsy suggested that the project offered models for later work, including the cross-campus student symposium. Roger noted that the project demonstrated the potential for collaboration between small clusters of colleges within the consortia; funding and communication help, added Peter and Betsy, who wondered how this kind of collaboration could happen without money or the support of the consortial offices. Sue Mennicke argued that collaboration requires a central office to make it work. Elizabeth asked if this collaboration would continue after the end of the grant. Peter said he hoped so, but a number of the project leaders have left the colleges. Betsy said that deans and presidents need to hear that collaboration is good. Cathy suggested that we create a short summary of this model to share with other colleges.

Mike Monahan then reported on the Macalester project on Somalis in America. The jury is still out on the project's long-term impact, he said, but there are several follow-ups in the works, including a regular summer institute on migration issues, an off-campus program in the Netherlands looking at globalization, and an Institute on Global Studies and Citizenship at Macalester. All told, the project created thinking in new ways at Macalester. The challenge, he concluded, has been in bringing academics and practitioners together in one project. Elizabeth, who attended the conference, said it will be good to see how it all plays out, but regretted there weren't more students at the conference. The project generated significant interest from task force members, but Elizabeth noted that it would not be easy to disseminate the general model (i.e., engagement with local immigrant communities) to other campuses. Milton noted that it was a unique situation, with a discrete population immigrating to a given place. Cathy noted that we need a way to make the model available, to give people ideas. Sue saw a benefit in how the project nicely complicates the entire Global Partners Project with its model of globalization.

Dan turned discussion to the five workshops held over the last year. The topics came from surveying the campuses. The workshops were organized by teams that Dan assembled, or by people involved in ongoing Best Practices enterprises. They have generally attracted good attention and resulted in productive discussions, but their impact isn't clear.

• Betsy noted that the Beloit workshop in fall 2004 was on international education for science students. About twenty-five people participated. The organizers invited teams from colleges, and found that colleges were at different places on these issues. Ellen found the workshop very productive, with a variety of ways to encourage international study for science majors. Success is dependent, however, on advising and on science faculty encouraging students to go abroad. The faculty participants understood the issues, and hoped to fix the curricular features that often keep students from going abroad. She noted that most of the participants were lab and environmental scientists.
• Fifteen people attended the January 2005 workshop on disability issues and off-campus study at Oberlin. Dan noted that it was good to have off-campus study officers and disability service providers in the same room. Ellen said it was also good to have the perspective of a program provider. The key lesson for her was the importance of providing services for all students, disabled or not. Sue noted that ADA regulations don't translate internationally; Dan added that the absence of accommodation in another culture was itself a cross-cultural lesson. Blake observed that dealing with physical disability is easier, but psychological issues were the most challenging. A few of the participants have created an instrument for advising that the colleges might find useful. Dan will find ways to distribute it.
• The workshop on preparing faculty to take students abroad in April focused on sharing lessons from St. Olaf's experience. Milton said that St. Olaf does a good job since off-campus study is part of the college's culture. Dan noted that faculty members came away feeling that they were capable of leading students. Ellen asked if there were printed materials; Elizabeth suggested that we could put together a packet based on St. Olaf's materials. Twenty-eight people participated.
• Sue reported that the discussion of liberal arts and international education at Southwestern in August was very rich. Sue and Andy Law sent the fifteen participants a collection of articles for a discussion focused on global warming. The goal was getting the participants to think broadly about the intersection of international education and the liberal arts, and to think about international education as an intellectual enterprise instead of just a logistical issue. Dan observed that one participant suggested that the same model could be used for the consortial meetings of international program directors.
• The recent workshop on cross-cultural studies at Carleton drew twenty-four largely international education and international student administrators, with a few faculty. Éva said that the focus was on how the Carleton cross-cultural program began and has changed. Dan observed that a highlight was a panel of students. Éva noted that the courses are a work in progress, and that staffing remains an issue. Mike said that bringing international students and off-campus returnees together was a great idea.

Dan also noted that there will be a roundtable for international student advisors at the College of Wooster, February 16-18. Ellen said that participants will discuss issues including tax advising, SEVIS, and issues unique to liberal arts colleges. The main goal is building a network for international student advisors, who can often feel isolated.

The next issue was the difficult topic of dissemination. Best Practices has supported good work over the last six years, but it's not clear how to share the fruits with the colleges. He offered various project leaders as consultants to the colleges via web and brochure, which has been used some. Rick Warner (Wabash) went to Monmouth to talk about global citizenship, and Milton Reigelman (Centre) went to Monmouth to talk about faculty taking students abroad. Margit Johnson and Éva Pósfay (Carleton) are going to Ripon to talk about cross-cultural studies/pedagogy, and Joe Brockington (Kalamazoo) is going to Colorado to talk about their orientation/re-entry program. Ellen asked how aware the deans are of the project's work. Roger noted that many of the deans have participated in Strategic Briefings, and that there have been reports at consortial dean meetings.

Mike observed that it is easier to do things yourself, and colleges need an incentive to collaborate. Elizabeth agreed, and noted that through the project lots of individuals have learned lots of things, but institutional change is harder. She suggested that dissemination should focus most on campuses where internationalization is a major need. Roger suggested two potential initiatives-a way of sharing evaluations of off-campus programs so they can be shared, and a uniform method of accounting for the cost of off-campus study. Efficiency might be difficult, he added, but sharing data should be possible. Mike suggested that collecting information about off-campus study would require someone in a consortial office.

Dan noted that there were several initiatives for the closing months of the project. He has been working with a few international program directors to create the model for a "buyers' cooperative"-a arrangement whereby the forty-two colleges of the project would promise to send their students to a particular off-campus program provider in exchange for reduced fees and special curricular opportunities. Several faculty members are working with Kalamazoo to develop a shared program to teach Kiswahili on multiple campuses. People at Rollins are considering a self-funded faculty development seminar, similar to previous Global Partners seminars, but supported by the colleges and consortia rather than with project funds. A team run out of the GLCA office is working with chief academic and chief financial officers to analyze the true cost of off-campus study. Elizabeth also reported on a tri-consortial proposal to the Teagle Foundation (not yet funded) to look at ways to assess the impact of off-campus study.