Transcript Document

Globalization
James Hallmark
Provost/VPAA
West Texas A&M University
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
Outline
• Benefits
• Hazards
– Branch Campuses abroad
– Partnerships/MOUs
– Distance Learning
• Discussion
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
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
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.”
Emiratis/Abu Dhabi
• Some specifics expressed regarding the
Emirates (Sohrab Ahmari, 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) Sohrab Ahmari
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
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.”
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.”
Lehman’s continuum
•
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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?
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.”
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.”
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)
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.”
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
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 selfcongratulatory, too ready to condemn other
contexts that are not the same as our own.”
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.”
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…”
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
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.
DISCUSSION………