December 11, 2007
The Division of Interdisciplinary and International Studies is celebrating its fifth year!
In 2001, Interim Provost William Scoones appointed a task group to consider the place of interdisciplinary study at Ithaca College and to propose an administrative unit in keeping with the College’s Institutional Plan. The recommendations contained in the Task Group Report and the goals of the Institutional Plan led the College and its Board of Trustees to approve the creation of the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies during the Fall semester of 2002. Our name was later changed to the Division of Interdisciplinary and International Studies to better reflect the College mission and the Division charge to advance “the preparation of students for the responsibilities of citizenship and service in the global community.”
The Division was envisioned as the creative wing of academic affairs, able to nimbly respond to student interest in new programs and to anticipate new curricular possibilities that foreground institutional strengths and prepare students for the dynamic challenges of the future. In addition, the Division was to serve as a voice for those academic units that hitherto had found themselves at a disadvantage due to their place outside of the traditional school-based structure.
The Division is a vehicle for faculty dialogue across schools and disciplines and encourages institutional creativity and curricular re-positioning for the quality of students we hope to attract. It is a sounding board for new ideas that do not quite fit into the disciplinary structure of school-based departments. Indeed, the Division has clearly benefited from the work of the faculty who bring new ideas, new course proposals, and new degree programs for Division consideration and implementation. We work from the premise that the Division is to complement the efforts of the traditional School-based degree programs, retain students who might otherwise leave the College in pursuit of interdisciplinary study elsewhere, and offer innovative programs and experiences that appeal to the forward looking student market.
Although no operational funds were available to develop a Division infrastructure, we have managed to draw on the talents of many dedicated faculty. Indeed, the willingness of faculty to lend their efforts to the work of the DIIS, with or without compensation, has been its greatest and most welcome strength. The DIIS has relied on the willingness of faculty from across the College to “pitch in.”
Progress and Accomplishments
Since 2002, the Division of Interdisciplinary and International Studies has advanced on a number of fronts. Over the course of five years, the Division has introduced two new degree programs, three new minors, developed a fourth minor, in Muslim Cultures, now before APC, collaborated with Student Affairs in the delivery of the MLK Scholars Program, and proposed the development of a new major in Global Studies. We have re-positioned the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival as an international and interdisciplinary event involving the entire campus community. Enrollment in our three degree programs (Aging Studies, Culture and Communication, and Legal Studies) has grown from two students in 2002 to 118 majors and 60 minors in Fall 2007.
Many offices, faculty, and staff have contributed to Division initiatives. As a willing team, we have brought national and international recognition to the College and offered shared academic experiences that have brought together the various constituents of the campus community.
The Gerontology Institute has revised its curriculum for a degree in Aging Studies, completed a comprehensive program review, and submitted an application for national recognition as a program of merit. The Gerontology Institute continues to bring in considerable external funds and currently has grants and funding commitments of over $500,000. Most recently the Gerontology Institute received a major gift to establish the Linden Center for Creativity and Aging and state funding to support the Enduring Masters Music Series sponsored in cooperation with the School of Music. In September, the Institute hosted and facilitated the first ever, state-wide Rural Aging Summit. Health and human service professionals from 30 rural counties as well as key state assembly members and senators gathered to develop policy recommendations. The Gerontology Institute receives a federal grant to provide practitioner training in some 20 upstate counties and is recognized as a leader at the state level. The Institute is now offering a new on-line certificate in applied gerontology and is on the cutting edge of on-line learning at the College. On November 1st, the Institute celebrated its 15th anniversary and recognized the accomplishments of Dr. Joel Savishinsky who introduced gerontology to Ithaca College.
The Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity, in cooperation with faculty from across the College, has annually offered a well received discussion series, hired two new faculty members, strengthened the intellectual voice of the Center on campus and in the community, and supported the academic component of the MLK Scholars Program.. APC approved two Center minors in African Diaspora and Latino Studies during the last academic year. The minor in Native American Studies was approved in 2004 and was the first curricular effort of the Center. This year, the Center organized a forum on the Jena Six and is sponsoring a year-long series on “The Prison Machine: Race, Torture, and the State.” The Center is planning its series for the 2008-09 academic year with an eye on the international legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and a consideration of his ideas beyond those contained in the ubiquitous “I have a dream” speech. We are also recruiting for a third faculty line in the Center.
The Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival is now a shared academic experience for students, faculty, and staff campus-wide. In addition, it has forged strong connections with the local and international community that spread the good news of Ithaca College. We have mounted a FLEFF Fellows Program in cooperation with the Office of the Assistant College Counsel to host graduate students of color in PhD programs from across the country. These FLEFF Fellows interact with our own students interested in graduate programs and interdisciplinary connections and take back to their own schools their positive perceptions of Ithaca College.
Last spring, we created a FLEFF internship opportunity open to students from any school. 75 students participated. More than 120 students turned out for the FLEFF internship application meeting last week; six of our returning interns will serve as team leaders in 2008. The support of the Library has enabled the FLEFF collection to be integrated into teaching and research as part of the permanent collection. This permits the benefits of FLEFF to reverberate throughout the academic year, if you will.
The audience for FLEFF events on campus totaled 3044 while 1635 attended FLEFF events downtown. The total attendance for FLEFF 2007 was 4, 679. We have even greater expectations for 2008. FLEFF will again in 2008 collaborate with the Bangalore Film Society in mounting India’s Voices from the Waters Festival Conference. FLEFF has generated interest in Latin America, Europe, and Africa because of its innovative interdisciplinary focus. FLEFF was invited to bring its Piazzola multi-media presentation to the Austin City Limits this semester, while the FLEFF co-directors have been invited to present at conferences across the country and abroad.
The dates for FLEFF 2008 have been set for March 31st through April 6th, 2008. In keeping with its interdisciplinary nature, the program streams for 2008 are Camouflage, Counterpoint, Games, and Gastronomica; the streams will embrace film screenings, lecture presentations, workshops, performances, digital media, art installation, and music involving faculty and students from across the campus. More information can be found on the FLEFF web-site.
Project Look Sharp has begun to realize its potential for positive impact not only on the national K-12 curriculum but also on the Ithaca College community. It has secured external funds to support the development of a number of curriculum kits on timely topics available for free on-line, developed a course in support of the Culture and Communication degree program, and provided internships and research opportunities for students in the Division and in the Schools. Project Look Sharp has developed very well received curriculum kits on The Media Construction of Presidential Campaigns, the Media Construction of War, the Media Construction of the Middle East, and Soviet History through Posters. The PLS team is now working on projects with a focus on Science and the Environment, our perceptions of Africa and its peoples, and the Native American Experience.
On the international programs front, the seed planted by Dr. Hector Velez of the Sociology department has begun to bear considerable fruit. In cooperation with the Office of International Programs, Dr. Velez developed a campus-based spring semester sociology course that offered a three-week travel opportunity for students in the class. In addition, he helped other faculty, most notably from Humanities and Sciences and the School of Health Science and Human Performance, to learn the ropes, if you will, of extended educational travel with students.
Because of positive student reception, Division support, and Dr. Velez’ successful example, faculty from across the College now offer freestanding or course- connected short-term travel to various destinations, including Ghana, England, Scotland, Antigua, Italy, the Dominican Republic, China, and Turkey.
These faculty- led programs are important to the College because they strengthen faculty and student engagement outside of the classroom, connect experiential learning to the curriculum, provide opportunities for faculty to refine their courses based on the experience abroad, and encourage internationalization of the curriculum within the disciplines.
More and more of our students are choosing to study abroad either for a semester, for short-term travel with faculty, or both. Our ALANA students were especially attracted to the short-term travel course offered by Dr. Hector Velez. We note that faculty-led overseas opportunities are more accessible to students of modest means and to those in degree programs that cannot accommodate a semester away from campus. Faculty-led programs also help the College to expand its offering of overseas programs without undue strain on the College budget.
The Office of International Programs has introduced a number of initiatives to connect study abroad to the campus sustainability initiative. These include the Global Footprint Grants, the Green Passport Program in cooperation with the Abroad View Foundation, articles published in Going Global, and a presentation at the CIIE Conference last month. Astrid Jirka is now editing the Abroad View magazine’s Spring 2008 Closer Look section entitled The Gift of Study Abroad:
Privilege, Responsibility and Sustainability. These efforts are also bringing positive national press to the College.
Currently, we have 161 F-1 and J-1 students enrolled at the College and expect to receive 9 new exchange students, including our very first student from Tasmania, at the start of the Spring 2008 semester. We have welcomed Dr. Eng Hoe Wee of the MARA University of Technology in Malaysia to campus. Dr. Wee is a Fulbright Scholar who is conducting research on successful physical education programs in Ithaca’s elementary and secondary schools. Dr. Raj Subramaniam, associate professor in the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance, is Dr. Wee’s host. In January 2008, we expect to welcome another visiting faculty member, Dr. XinXian Zou from Beijing Sports University who will work with Dr. John Wolohan to prepare our students for their work with the Beijing Olympics. We hope to expand the number of student exchange opportunities we offer our students and to develop the resources to invite more international visiting scholars to campus. International students and international scholars support our understanding of the connections between diversity and globalization.
We note with some gratification that among the accomplishments highlighted in the Ithaca Quarterly article about President Peggy Williams’ ten years of leadership at the College, many are the efforts of faculty and staff associated with the Division of Interdisciplinary and International Studies. Among those listed on the sidebar “to give a good idea of the broad scope of innovations and initiatives taking place during the tenure of President Williams” are the Division of Interdisciplinary and International Studies (listed first!); the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity; the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival; the Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholars Program for which the CSCRE collaborates with Student Affairs); the Partnership with Longview Retirement Community spearheaded by the Gerontology Institute; and Project Look Sharp. DIIS majors and minors are listed among the new academic programs indicative of the president’s “decade of progress.” In other words, during its first five years, the Division has been a successful contributor to institutional vitality, creativity, and advancement.
Challenges and Opportunities
The DIIS has built its foundation on the willing work of faculty in order to serve its students and to meet its institutional charge. We do not want to maintain the status quo, but to remain a nimble center of vitality, innovation, and curricular opportunity!! One might say that the challenges now before the Division are a function of its success!!
We have taken course release time and faculty volunteerism as far as it can go. With the number of students we now serve, two full-time faculty positions are needed as anchors for Legal Studies and for Culture and Communication. We recognize how fortunate we are in the faculty members associated with the two programs; they have been dedicated and amazingly tireless in serving both their home department students and Division students in order to keep the promises the College makes to all of its students.
We need to measure the ineffable value of a curriculum that educates students in domestic diversity, global citizenship, and the connections between the two. We must help our students to consciously understand the learning outcomes derived from their overseas experience and to know that globalization means the migration of resources, jobs, and people across national borders not only for others, but for US citizens as well. We have to create value for programs that prepare students for change, for the encounter with difference, and for active citizenship beyond our national borders. The Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity, the Office of International Programs, and the Gerontology Institute are three academic units with a campus-wide mission to help the College address diversity through the on campus curriculum, faculty-led travel tied to on-campus courses, and overseas experiences that emphasize the continuum along which domestic, multicultural, international and global issues lie.
Five years after its creation, the Division is ready to move forward in its next phase of development. We hope to develop the resources to better serve our students (majors and minors), bear our share of campus-wide faculty work (Ithaca Seminar Program, College Honors, and faculty and student engagement outside of the classroom), and to strengthen the core elements of each of our degree program.
Prospects for the Future
Global Studies – We spent several years developing a curriculum for a Global Studies major and minor and want to move ahead with both in response to student need and faculty interest.
More Faculty-led Programs tied to on-campus courses (student/faculty engagement; connecting classroom and experiential learning; internationalizing the curriculum)
Antigua: Study Abroad and Service
Overseas internships developed and coordinated through our alumni abroad
Increased student recruitment to DIIS degree programs with activities to advance student development through graduation
Conclusion
As the DIIS dean, I was asked to speak at one of the Campaign launches in Washington, DC. During that event, I outlined the “world of difference” I expected the Division to make in preparing students for global citizenship and service. The Division of Interdisciplinary and International Studies is a collaborative effort, involving academic and student affairs, and a network of dedicated faculty who bring the international and the interdisciplinary to the curriculum and connect both to experiential learning for our students.
We are already preparing for the next five. We expect to respond to the great ideas and opportunities that our faculty colleagues bring us, to continue to advance the institutional mission, and to serve our students to the best of our collective ability.
Five Year Report PowerPoint Presentation
