Events

The Global University: Challenges and Opportunities


Proposal Deadline:  September 30, 2006


As the President-Elect of AIEA and the 2007 AIEA Conference Chair, I am issuing this call for conference session proposals. Reserve the dates of February 18-22, 2007 for the Annual Conference of the Association for International Education Administrators (yes, this means the conference is being held over President's Day this year, with the conference starting on Monday, February 19 and ending Wednesday, February 21 with Advocacy Day on Thurs Feb 22). We will be meeting at the Marriott Metro Center in Washington, DC.


The theme for the 2007 program will be The Global University: Challenges and Opportunities.  We are planning a provocative, wide-ranging, and rewarding annual conference and we look forward to your participation.


The conference theme speaks to the challenges and opportunities facing us as Chief International Education Administrators (CIEAs) as we embark on a path to achieve global competence within our colleges and universities. Furthermore, as CIEAs, we also have many operational concerns. Therefore, this request includes opportunities for proposals to be submitted on operational issues related to our positions.


We want to encourage smaller group interactions and hope to receive proposals for roundtable discussions among members on issues important to CIEA positions. These small group interactions could be at different tables at lunch or during the regular program session times. We will also try to develop breakout sessions following specific plenary presentations. We also invite you to submit proposals for more substantive half and full day pre-conference workshops.   In addition, we will provide an opportunity for Instant Issues Sessions defined at the conference by those attending. So, come expecting to participate even if you are not giving a formal presentation.


Please provide proposals for sessions as outlined above.  These can take the format of pre-conference workshop, panel discussion, research presentation, roundtable discussion, or poster session.


The theme of the conference serves as the basis for proposals on:



1. Global Partnerships:  Establishing branch campuses abroad, global institutional partnerships/relationships including dual or joint degrees, and international internship opportunities.  We are particularly interested in presentations addressing the pros and cons associated with global partnerships.


2.  Rethinking the Relationship with Academic Units: Are there good models of working with deans, department chairs, and faculty to achieve the goal of internationalizing our campuses?


3.  Foreign Languages in the Global University: What are the best ways to ensure that all students regardless of their discipline have access to foreign language learning relevant to their educational and career goals? What are the pros and cons associated with foreign language departments overseeing the instruction of foreign languages to students not majoring in foreign language and literature disciplines?


4.  Study Abroad: Meeting the Lincoln Commission’s Challenge:  The Lincoln Commission report has called for a goal of 1 million college/university students study abroad annually by 2016.  To reach this goal will it require that our institutions abandon the model of assessing a study abroad user fee and move to a system by which the costs to operate a study abroad office and to provide study abroad fellowships come directly from tuition revenues or general student fees?  How are we to address the movement by some colleges and universities to restrict the numbers of students applying to programs operated by third party providers especially when it involves the use of an institution’s fellowship/scholarship funds for programs not directly operated by that institution?


5.  Global Competence and Assessment: The survey results from the 2006 AIEA conference indicated significant interest in exploring further the topics of creating and implementing comprehensive and coherent international plans for our campuses and developing means to evaluate and assess the extent to which are institutions are internationalizing.  We are particularly interested in presentations focusing on best practices.


As Vice President/President Elect of AIEA and the 2007 conference chair, I encourage you to organize presentations and/or sessions on the topics listed above or on any other innovative topics and issues related to international learning, leadership, and public engagement.


If you wish to have a pre-conference workshop or session proposal considered, please complete the proposal form and submit no later than September 30, 2006, earlier if possible (by July 1 is strongly encouraged), using the submission format which appears as a link on the conference website. We will then review all submissions and respond regarding acceptance or not. We will also ask for detailed information on final session plans including persons presenting or responding, as well as a final abstract.


To help guide your thinking and written submission, please review the information below.


Criteria for Selection:



--Quality of the proposed session (content, design, expertise of presenters)

--Relevance to the conference theme

--Significance of the topic to the general audience



Session Format



Sessions are 75 minutes long so please limit panel proposals to three presenters to allow time for discussion. Participants are encouraged to be innovative and thought-provoking in their design of the session and should consider alternatives to the traditional reading of papers and panel discussions as appropriate.



Submission Format



If you wish to submit a workshop or session proposal, please provide all of the information requested in the submission form.  Email submissions of proposals or other email correspondence should be sent to me, William Brustein at brustein@ucis.pitt.edu.


We look forward to receiving your proposals.



Sincerely,

William Brustein, Conference Chair

President-elect, AIEA

Director and Professor, University Center for International Studies
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Phone: (412) 648-7374
Fax: (412) 624-4672
Email: rwooten@ucis.pitt.edu