Globalization

1. Globalization James Hallmark Provost/VPAA West Texas A&M University

2. Realm of Discussion • Expansion of internationalization interests/International mission • Branch Campuses abroad • Partnerships/MOUs • 1/2/1, 2+2 etc • Online components • Study Abroad • International Students • Internationalizing curriculum

3. Outline • Benefits • Hazards • Branch Campuses abroad • Partnerships/MOUs • Distance Learning • Discussion

4. Benefits • “Our” students’ growth • “Their” students’ opportunity • Addressing real problems in the world (poverty, hunger, curable/preventable disease, etc.) • It is our responsibility to try • Gateways to new teaching strategies, research opportunities, arts exposure

5. Hazard—Branch Campus • Meshing/conflict with the culture • Academic Freedom • “The values that lie at the heart of our universities—freedom of inquiry, along with the freedom to teach and publish without censorship—are absent from Chinese education.” Peter Conn, University of Pennsylvania

6. AAUP 2009 • “…basic principles of academic freedom, collegial governance, and nondiscrimination are less likely to be observed. In a host environment where free speech is constrained, if not proscribed, faculty will censor themselves, and the cause of authentic liberal education, to the extent it can exist in such situations, will suffer.”

7. Emiratis/Abu Dhabi • Some specifics expressed regarding the Emirates (SohrabAhmari, NW Law School) • Prohibition against publishing “negative material about presidents, friendly countries, [and] religious issues.” (Similar issues have arisen in Thailand for those critical of the royal family.) • There will be no “Occupy Movement” • “apartheid” (American professors can do as they wish in the Emirates, but their Emirati colleagues and students cannot) SohrabAhmari

8. Academic Freedom • What are we free to pursue in our teaching/research? • What are we asking our students to learn? • Arrest and Imprisonment of Academic dissenters • Restrictions on media and internet use in China and other countries • Overt monitoring • Cameras in the classroom and laboratory • “Spies” in the classroom

9. Jeffrey Lehman, • Founding dean of Peking University School of Transnational Law, Past president of Cornell University • “universities as institutions have no general duty to speak truth to power. Silence in the face of government action is not endorsement.” (not sure I agree with that) • “their missions are in the realm of teaching, research, and public service; the general watchdog role belongs with individual members of their communities.” • “some forms of odious behavior by governments do call for a response from the university as an institution.”

10. Richard Brodhead, President Duke • Must be “faithful to their principles.” • Leaders in China “are looking to the west for ... interdisciplinarity, problem-based instruction, and seminar-style debate. They recognize…they must not only train people in technical subjects but also instill an understanding of psychology, public policy, history, and culture.”

11. Lehman’s continuum • Access to alcohol, pornography? • Access to Wiki-leaks? • Access to hate speech? • Access to criticisms of the host government? • Where is the line whereby we cannot sit idly by?

12. Peter Stearns, Provost GMU • Not clear where the boundary should be drawn. • Stearns: “the clearest boundary line involves the need to maintain an atmosphere in which critical inquiry is possible.”

13. Brodhead • “we must be aware that some of the countries we engage with do not share our attitudes toward open inquiry, freedom of expression, or free access to information. Our intellectual culture is founded on those values, and we must insist on them wherever we go.” • “…we should not let these legitimate concerns obscure the value of global expansion at the institutional level.”

14. Financially Driven? • Andrew Ross, Prof at NYU: We need to admit we are just chasing dollars, not engaging in mission work, helping the hearts and minds of people, etc. • “Do the economic benefits of competing in a growing global academic marketplace outweigh the moral and political perils?” (CHE, unattributed) • AAUP 2009 statement on rights of overseas employees. (based on UNESCO’s Recommendation Concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel, adopted 1997)

15. Peter Conn, Penn • “I have serious misgivings about the enthusiasm with which American university administrators are entering into partnerships with the Community party and Chinese government to establish branch campuses and to undertake collaborative research in China.”

16. Peter Brooks, prof at Princeton • Interesting contrast of the commitment to inquiry and the useless arts that drove the foundation of our great universities, contrast that with what appears to be market driven efforts of our modern expansion

17. Peter Stearns, Provost GMU • “I can’t imagine a financial incentive that would justify serious compromise of American academic values.” • Don’t “become too culturally self-congratulatory, too ready to condemn other contexts that are not the same as our own.”

18. Lehman continued • The best work may be behind the scenes. • Lehman: “That means silently withstanding the criticisms of those who demand public proof that the university is not being cowardly (or even complicit) in the fact of odious behavior, if public statements might undermind the effectiveness of private efforts that are under way.”

19. Should Seek Uncomfortable Partners • Al Bloom, Vice Chancellor NYU Abu Dhabi campus, former president of Swarthmore • “these campuses must be more than cultural replicas of the home campus and do more than offer enrichment opportunities. They must induce reflection on difference, invite interrogation of social, political, and ethical assumptions, and develop capacity to find and build on common ground.” • Stearn GMU • “it’s particularly attractive to seek settings where cultural differences exist. We’ll learn more in the process than we do through mirror images, and our activities may have wider benefit…”

20. Partnerships/MOU • Understanding the host country education system • Depth v. volume • University of Bagdad example • Analogous to Community College Partnerships • IUPUI’s experience • Sue Buck Sutton, former VC for International Affairs at IUPUI about signing MOUs “It seemed like a friendly thing to do but, after a nice dinner in Bangkok or in Paris or wherever, no one ever thought about what would be needed to sustain the MOU.” • IUPUI chose to only have three university partners but go DEEP with those partners

21. Online Partnerships • For profit partners • Hesitance internationally • Availability of technology internationally is uneven. • Security/academic integrity concerns • Opportunities are great. Just be careful. • My experience is that the international community is not as interested in distance learning as we define it as we are.

22. Discussion………