Internationalizing the Campus Committee

“The process of integrating an international/intercultural dimension into the teaching, research, and service functions of the institution” (Knight, 1994)

 Mary Beth Kenkel, PhD, CoPLA, Chairperson  Randall Alford, PhD, Student Affairs  Monica Baloga, PhD, Institutional Effectiveness*  Judith Brooke, ISSS/Enrollment Management  Ali Faisal, Advancement  William Gabrenya, PhD, CoPLA  Tom Marcinkowski, PhD, QEP2  Korhan Oyman, PhD, CoA (Aug – Dec)  Henry Perez, PhD, CoB  Stephen Rice, PhD, CoA (Jan – May)  Muzaffar Shaikh, PhD, CoE  Wes Sumner, Marketing & Communications  Hamid Rassoul, PhD, CoS  Viviana Iduate, Administrative support

 Continue faculty and staff training on cross-cultural competencies  Continue including international content in university communications  Develop the Do You Know series for cultural learning  Encourage more study abroad  Add opportunities for domestic and international students to develop cultural competencies  Develop an International Living/Learning residence hall  Gather support and potential donors for a Center for Global Engagement  Conduct a survey of the international alumni  Consult on the development of a QEP2 focused on students’ cross cultural competencies

TrainingResults  Two trainings-December and March  Intensive 5 hour experiential training  29 front-line staff  Conducted by FIT’s Institute for Cross Cultural Management (ICCM)  Focus: cross cultural understanding and skills  Pre-training meeting with supervisors  “Loved the class – 5 hours felt like one hour!”  Participants rated the training very positively and felt it should be extended to faculty and students  Participants showed positive attitudinal shifts, and willingness to withhold judgment and utilize cultural cues in dealing with students  “I liked the self-awareness activity because it helped identify lenses that skew my perception.”

ICC Recommendations  Human Resources should incorporate cross-cultural competence training into the new employee orientation  Human Resources should develop a cross cultural competence online module that all current faculty and staff should be required to complete  Human resources should develop an online resource of FAQs related to cross cultural competence for use by staff and faculty  FIT’s ICCM would be an ideal partner for these initiatives

Lunch and LearnResults  Luncheon and Presentation for the College of Engineering Faculty  Approximately 75 attended  Brief presentations on ICC, ISSS, and international students in the classroom, and then Q & A.  47 participants filled out evaluation forms  Everyone was happy with the organization and setting for event.  While generally positive,, some participants indicated that they wanted more specific information/guidance for dealing with international students issues

Faculty’s Recommendations  Q1: Future luncheons of this kind need to include these additional topics:  More on cultural differences  How to deal with student cheating  More information about support services  More on how to resolve conflict when cultural standard clash  More on specific activities/programs  Q2: To better prepare faculty to teach international students, what additional faculty resources,do you think would be helpful?  Professional exchange programs with overseas universities  Additional instruction for faculty regarding legal requirements/documentati on  Lectures about culture – country by country  International movies

Faculty’s RecommendationsICC Recommendations  Q3: What additional resources would improve the academic success of international students ?  Testing element of the TOFEL are not working right, they pass but cannot communicate effectively  Resources to help improve writing/technical writing skills  Better language prep / more ESL  Better advising (that’s on us!) getting students to mix more.  More on the other aspect of internationalization  Cultural awareness programs  Hold two faculty trainings per year  Separate by college  Fall – CoPLA  Spring- CoB and COA together  Incorporate suggestions from the CoE faculty training

Faculty & Staff Training Recommendations Student Education Recommendations  Continue the faculty and staff trainings 2 trainings per year for each group Required funding  Promote viewing of new and acquired webinars on working with international students  Cultural Ombudsman  Add opportunities for domestic and international students to develop cultural competencies RAs training in Fall 2014 Increase international content in courses and research experiences Continue the Do You Know segments through multiple media