Meeting held: December 5, 2003 from 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. at the office of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, Chicago, Illinois

Participants

Attention then turned to the upcoming faculty seminar in Russia, focused on the arts. We received 41 applicants, representing all the consortia and 26 colleges. There were 20 men and 21 women-6 in art, 10 in music, 4 in theatre/dance, 13 in the humanities, 4 in the social sciences, and 4 others. The selection committee (Barclay, Marty, Joe, and Dan) ended choosing fifteen-eight ACM, five ACS, and two GLCA (proportionate to the size of each consortium's applicant pool). There are eight women and seven men-five in art or art history, two in music, four in the social sciences, three in the humanities, and one in communications. Joe presented his draft schedule, which focuses on experiencing Russian culture, especially visual art, and allows for a good deal of group discussion time. It will be based in St. Petersburg and Moscow. The task force agreed that a pre-departure meeting is helpful, to get participants acquainted and to discuss issues like security. Group readings help prepare participants, as might a discussion board on a Blackboard site.

Several recipients of travel grants described their work and urged their continuation. Task force members were interested in the mini-seminars supported by the East Africa Task Force, and asked that such an option be included in the call for applications. There was some discussion of including service-learning opportunities in the call, but the task force eventually decided against it. We do want to support student-faculty research, but since there is a good deal of institutional money for student research, we want to concentrate our money on faculty members. Task force members would like to see more geographic diversity among travel grant applicants; the call will specifically mention Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States. Dan will remind previous seminar participants about these grants.

The remainder of the meeting focused on future plans. The task force agreed to offer travel grants again in 2005, but not to organize another faculty development seminar. Instead, they proposed a symposium sometime in 2005, focused on ways to continue engagement in the region after the end of the Global Partners grant. Such an event would strengthen inter-consortial connections. The program will include panels, roundtables, and poster sessions, with both content and pedagogical topics. Participants would include travel grant recipients and seminar alumni, as well as other faculty and administrators (and maybe students) interested in the region. It should kick off with a keynoter of reputation, and should introduce participants to resources like the Soros Foundation. The task force proposed holding the event in Washington, which would allow for advocacy with the departments of State and Education. The Smithsonian's Kennan Institute (led by Blair Ruble) might be a good base for the event. Dan will draft an announcement for the task force to discuss.

The task force would also like to support the visits of people from Central Europe or Russia to our campuses, for lectures or short courses. We had initially thought of having the task force initiate such visits, but realized that would be logistically complex. Instead, the project will publicize and provide funding for visits coordinated by one or more consortial campuses, as long as the visitor can be shared by more than one campus. Again, Dan will develop an announcement.

The task force agreed to meet again in the spring of 2004 to plan the symposium.