Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Past As Prologue Past a s P r o lo g u e T NAFSA: The First 10 Years hree years after the end of World War II, international education as it was previously known was experiencing significant changes in the United states and other countries as educational institutions, governments, nonprofit and private-sector organizations adjusted to the realities of the post-war world. shifting global political, economic, and military alliances in the 1940s and 1950s resulted in a new spirit of internationalism that was manifested in new initiatives in the worldwide education movement. 60° National Association of Foreign Student Advisers (NAFSA) is formed First Ford Foundation grant to NAFSA First NAFSA Newsletter First NAFSA staff member hired 30° 1948 • 4 9 • 5 0 • 5 1 • 5 2 • 0° First participants in U.S. Fulbright program go abroad. U.S. Congress passes U.S. Education and Educational Exchange Act (Smith-Mundt Act) Marshall Plan is enacted in U.S. International Association for Exchange of Students for Technical Experience 30° is founded. 20 People’s Republic of China established American Friends of the Middle East established the first grant for travel abroad through NAFSA 5 3 • The National Association of Foreign Student Advisers One of the most significant developments occurred in May 1948 at a Conference on International Student Exchange, held at the University of Michigan. Attendees came from colleges and universities across the United States, from Peru, India, and Canada, and from government and independent agencies interested in international education. Building on efforts initiated as far back as 1903 to create a national organization on behalf of foreign students, and in response to concerns during the war about foreign students stranded in the United States, academic institutions, government agencies, and private organizations combined at the Michigan conference to form the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers (NAFSA). Its mission was to promote the professional development of U.S. college and university officials responsible for assisting and advising the 25,000 foreign students who had come to study in the United States following the war. NAFSA’s first officers were President Clarence Linton, then foreign student adviser at Teachers College, Columbia University; Vice President Allen Blaisdell, director of the Berkeley International House; Secretary Harry H. Pierson, with the Division of Cultural Relations at the State Department; and Treasurer Joe Neal, director of international programs at the University of Texas-Austin. As Pierson recalled 40 years later: “Our first office was a card table in Clarence Linton’s living room.” The initial NAFSA budget called for an income of $9,570 to come from membership dues. The Institute for International Education (IIE), one of the oldest (founded in 1919) existing organizations in the field, offered free rent, light and office equipment. The Carnegie Foundation gave NAFSA $12,900 to help it get started. When the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, leaving most of the 3,800 Chinese students in the United States without funds and facing a questionable future, NAFSA was called NAFSA Celebrates 10 Years of “Exchange of Persons,” in Ann Arbor, Michigan NAFSA opens office on New York University’s Washington Square campus 60° U.S. Congress passes National Defense Education Act English Language Section organized 30° • 5 4 • 5 5 • 5 6 • 5 7 • 5 8 1959 • Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act Launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union U.S. Commissioner of Education designates Hindi-Urdi as a critical language to be taught and learned, with Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Portugese and Russian. 30° J A N. + F E B . 08 InternatIonal educator 0° 21 Past As Prologue Past a s P r o lo g u e upon to help resolve the crisis. The fledgling organization enhanced its identity with university administrators and high-level government officials by the role it played in raising financial aid and its demonstration that it could be counted on to act in an emergency. Subsequently, the association established special committees to deal with other international situations that caused emergencies among foreign student constituencies. They included the financial crisis facing Iranian students in the early 1950s because of changes in regulations governing currency transfers and the influx of Hungarian students to the United States following the 1956 uprising in their country. Meanwhile, to handle the increasing burdens of a growing organization, NAFSA strengthened itself internally. In 1951 it received the first of three grants from the Ford Foundation to help fund its operations. In 1952 it hired Linda Vogel, former foreign student adviser at Stanford University, as its only paid executive, with the title of administrative assistant to the secretary. Also in 1952, the American Friends of the Middle East established the first grant for travel abroad to be made available through NAFSA. In 1954 the association opened a separate office on the Washington Square campus of New York University. InternatIonal educator J A N.+ F E B .08 Fulbright, Marshall, IAESTE, and More 22 As NAFSA planted its roots, other events were setting the stage for the growth of the international education movement in the years and decades ahead. In 1946, the Fulbright Act, authored by Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, had mandated a peacetime international educational exchange program. Congress strengthened the Fulbright Act in 1948 when it passed the U.S. Education and Educational Exchange Act, referred to as the Smith-Mundt Act, which attempted to connect American foreign policy with educational and cultural exchange. In the same year, the International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience (IAESTE) was founded in London with representatives from ten European Countries. American involvement began with participation by MIT. Also in 1948, the first participants in the Fulbright Program went overseas. “The Fulbright program ushered in an era of international education exchange that ultimately extended far beyond those who were chosen to learn or teach under U.S. government sponsorship,” said William W. Hoffa. “Because it involved graduate students and faculty, its impact on individuals influenced campus thinking about the rest of the world and lent support to international education endeavors.” Hoffa wrote about the Fulbright program and other developments of the period in A History of US Study Abroad: Beginnings to 1965, a special publication of Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad and The Forum on Education Abroad. Other postwar legislation that boosted international education included the Marshall Plan, enacted in 1948 to provide emergency assistance to stabilize Europe. It ended in 1951 but a wide range of other federal initiatives followed, including several linked to international education. Hoffa cited as an example the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954, which allowed other countries to finance purchases of U.S. agricultural surpluses in return for allowing foreign currency in U.S. possession to be used to support educational exchange, American studies abroad, libraries and community centers, and the translation, publication and distribution of books abroad. By 1956 the International Educational Exchange Service in the State Department alone involved an annual interchange of about 6,000 people between the U.S. and more than 70 other countries. Geopolitics Spurs National Actions While the global geopolitical climate after World War II mandated a need for international experts in many fields, there was a short supply of individuals trained in less commonly taught foreign languages. This spurred federal funding in the U.S. to build foreign language and area studies programs at U.S. universities through Title VI, “Language Development,” of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA), which Congress passed in August 1958 and President Dwight Eisenhower signed into law the next month. The legislation followed the launch of Sputnik, a small satellite, by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957. The NDEA made clear that the U.S. government understood that meeting the Soviet aerospace challenge required a major investment in U.S. education at all levels, including language study. Before passage of the act, according to an official in the U.S. Department of Education’s International Education Programs Service, few of the languages spoken by more than three-fourths of the world’s population were being offered in the United States and not enough scholars were available to perform research in those languages or to teach them. For example, although India was the world’s largest democracy and leader of the Nonaligned Movement of approximately 120 countries, only 23 students in the United States were studying Hindi in 1958, according to the U.S. education official. In 1959 the Commissioner of Education, on the basis of a report prepared by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), designated Hindi-Urdu as one of six critical languages requiring primary emphasis. The others were Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Portugese and Russian. As the decade ended, 171 students were studying the six priority languages on fellowships and 20 research projects were funded to study how to improve the teaching and learning of foreign languages in American schools. Meanwhile, 600 NAFSA members assembled in New York in 1959 for the association’s annual conference, with session topics including social adjustments and academic counseling of foreign students. The NAFSA Board urged leaders of industry to offer more trainee jobs to foreign students, making the argument that benefits would accrue to the United States in many different ways. IE ALAN DESSOFF is an independent journalist in Bethesda, Maryland. Past As Prologue Pa st a s p ro lo gu e 1960-1969: From Kennedy’s Inspirations to Fiscal Realities By Alan Dessoff he election of Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy as President in November 1960 launched a decade of intensive involvement by the United States in international relations that included significant moves that fostered the development of international education. 180° 150° 120° 90° 60° 30° 60° NAFSA begins Field Service program. 30° International Educator m a r . + a p r . 08 1960 24 • 6 1 • 6 2 • 6 3 • 0° U .S. President John F. Kennedy is elected. U .S. Peace Corps is established and first volunteers go to Ghana and Tanzania. (Stamp released in 1966.) U .S. Congress passes Fulbright-Hays Act. 30° P resident Kennedy assassinated; Lyndon B. Johnson becomes President. 6 4 0° 0° 30° One of them was creation of the Peace Corps, which Kennedy proposed in the fall during a campaign stop at the University of Michigan and, after his election, authorized by executive order. Congress approved the Peace Corps as a permanent agency within the State Department in 1961 with stated goals that included promoting better understanding “of Americans on the part of people served and of other people on the part of Americans.” On September 22, 1961, the first group of Peace Corps volunteers left the United States for Ghana and Tanzania. “There was a tremendous push by the Kennedy administration for the Peace Corps. It dominated the Kennedy years,” said Joe W. Neal, who was NAFSA’s president in 1961–1962 and recalled attending “a lot of meetings in Washington where they talked about it. There was a lot of gung ho over it.” 60° 90° 120° 150° “The Peace Corps was a terrific idea at the right time that has stood the test of time. It created a whole cadre of many people who have contributed in different ways to advance international education,” added Jon Booth, executive director of Syracuse University Abroad. His own career in international education began as a Peace Corps volunteer in India in the late 1960s and included numerous leadership positions later with NAFSA. Editor’s Note In honor of NAFSA’s sixtieth anniversary year, each issue of IE in 2008 will cover one decade of the history of international education and NAFSA’s role in advancing the field. Jim Davis Leads Exchange Effort Following his election but before his swearing-in, Kennedy was moving to further explore international education opportunities. Jim Davis, NAFSA’s president at the time, later recounted a phone call he received in the fall of 1960 from one of Kennedy’s key advisors, Theodore Sorensen: “Senator Kennedy 180° 60° NAFSA changes name to National Association for Foreign Student Affairs. Resolution to encourage greater participation of foreign students is tabled at NAFSA conference. 30° • 6 5 • 6 6 • 6 7 • 6 8 1969 • U .S. Congress passes International Education Act. U.S. President Richard Nixon is elected. 30° m a r . + a p r .0 8 International Educator 0° 25 Past As Prologue Past a s P r o lo g u e wishes to set up a task force on the International Exchange of Persons. He asks if you will be willing to serve as chairman.” Davis accepted and immediately began to fulfill “a broad assignment to explore the entire subject…and recommend needed changes.” It all had to be completed in the seven weeks remaining before Kennedy’s inauguration. Davis recalled that at a IIE conference shortly after in San Francisco, “I suddenly discovered that I was being courted” by federal agencies and other organizations, all offering help and suggestions. “It was pretty heady stuff,” Davis stated. The task force completed its work on time, with a report and numerous recommendations that it presented to the Presidentelect. As Davis related it: “Kennedy received us cordially, smoking his cigar….He was a speed reader and went through our report quickly. The only change he recommended was the deletion of our very cautious words on China. He feared this would be the one item the press would sensationalize…Otherwise he accepted the entire report and congratulated us on a job well done.” Introducing Private Sector Security Overseas Seminar for Study Abroad Administrators and Faculty InternatIonal educator m a r .+ a p r .08 National Foreign Affairs Training Center Arlington, Virginia May 22-23, 2008 26 The Foreign Service Institute invites you to further develop your skills as a study abroad program administrator/leader through the U.S. Department of State’s acclaimed Security Overseas Seminar. This invitation is open to any administrator/ faculty member from an academic institution covered by the Overseas Security Advisory Council, a free government/ private sector partnership consortium. This two-day primer offers the State Department’s expertise to enhance your study abroad program success. You will identify security risks and develop strategies for dealing with them in the context of your international program needs, including: • • • • • • • International Personal Security Overview Current Trends Threat Analysis Assisting Victims of Crime Overseas Environmental, Living, & Transportation Hazards Leveraging Cross-Cultural Competence Crisis Management Services Available to American Citizens Register now at www.osac.gov. For more information, contact Angie Witte ([email protected]) Presented by the Foreign Service Institute and the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC). Davis continued to work with Sorensen, who became counsel to the president, and with Sen. Fulbright’s staff in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to implement the task force’s recommendations. That led to passage in 1961 of the Fulbright-Hays Act, which provided the basis for expansion of government-sponsored exchange programs. “We did not get all we recommended but we did move ahead significantly,” Davis declared. Further, he said, NAFSA’s Field Service program, launched in September 1963, “probably had its genesis” in the task force report. Starting in 1963, a series of continuing grants to NAFSA from the educational and cultural affairs offices of the State Department helped NAFSA build the Field Service program as the centerpiece of the association’s professional development and training activities. “The Kennedy administration was very friendly to international education because Kennedy himself supported it. I consider that as kind of a golden era of international education,” said Josef A. Mestenhauser, NAFSA president in 1987–1988 and later professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota and honorary consul for the Czech Republic in the Midwest. Johnson Sees International Education as Integral to National Security When Lyndon Johnson became president in 1963 following Kennedy’s assassination, he began a number of educational initiatives that included the International Education Act (IEA) of 1966. It was built, said writer William W. Hoffa, on Johnson’s belief that “the nation’s security depended in part on an awareness of other countries and cultures.” Johnson’s plan included assisting the educational efforts of developing nations and regions, helping U.S. schools and universities increase their knowledge of the world and its people, and advancing the exchange of students and teachers between countries. The IEA would provide funding to campuses and consortia to allow them to expand international aspects of the curriculum and scholarly research. It called for training faculty members in foreign countries, expanding foreign language courses, and creating work-study-travel opportunities for U.S. students, as well as programs for foreign students and faculty members at universities in the United States. As Hoffa recounted the period, Johnson also called for establishment of a National Advisory Committee on International Studies to provide annual reports on the status of the IEA’s provisions. Representative John Brademas, a former Rhodes Scholar, future president of New York University and staunch supporter of international educational exchange, chaired what became known as the Task Force on International Education. According to T.M. Vestal, cited by Hoffa as the primary historian of the IEA, U.S. higher education leaders enthusiastically backed the legislation. Columbia University President Grayson Kirk called it “the best and most comprehensive program of support for international education activities that has ever been devised.” With little debate or fanfare, Congress enacted the measure into law. But other factors, notably growing preoccupation with the war in Vietnam, served to block funding for the IEA and it never got off the ground. As disappointing as that was to its supporters who hoped for continued federal support for international education, it nevertheless inspired further attempts to secure federal backing for worthwhile international education initiatives. Some provisions of the IEA reappeared later in federal education programs. Meanwhile, organizations in the international education field were making their own progress. IIE established offices in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to meet growing needs for information about U.S. higher education. Even as it was growing, NAFSA experienced lean times financially in the late 1960s. Al Sims, vice president for international education at the College Entrance Examination Board and NAFSA’s president in 1967–68, reflected later on the association as it was preparing for its twentieth anniversary: “We debated cutting activities and organization because there simply wasn’t enough of a cash flow in prospect…We talked about the drastic possibility of increasing the individual membership dues by almost 50 percent to twentytwo dollars!” The association settled on increases of 20 percent for individual members and 50 percent for corporate members. The Ford Foundation provided a two-year grant of $70,000 but NAFSA had to match half of it with $35,000 raised from other sources, not including membership funds. The association created a Twentieth Anniversary Fund and, related Sims, “We learned the hard way about the difficulties of corporate fund-raising.” IE ALAN DESSOFF is an independent journalist in Bethesda, Maryland. NAFSA: A Name Change and a Broader Scope m a r . + a p r . 08 InternatIonal educator NAFSA continued its own development through the decade, including a change in its name. Recognizing that their interests and responsibilities had grown to embrace a number of other functions in the field of international educational interchange, members changed the organization’s name from National Association of Foreign Student Advisers to the National Association for Foreign Student Affairs in 1964. NAFSA’s activities throughout the decade reflected the association’s broader scope. In his address as the new NAFSA president in 1963, Werner Warmbrunn of Stanford University called for more emphasis on academic and intellectual themes at the annual conferences. Accordingly, the Pasadena conference in 1963 dealt with the contributions of anthropology to understanding people from other countries. Warmbrunn recalled later that the 1964 conference in Minneapolis focused on the insights psychology and counseling could provide for work with foreign students. For several years, NAFSA conferences also focused on understanding students from particular areas of the world: from Asia at the Chicago conference in 1966, from Latin America at the Houston conference in 1967, and from the Middle East at the San Francisco conference in 1968. At the 1969 conference in Boston, Harvard Professor Edwin Reischauer received a standing ovation when he pleaded for maintaining strong liberal arts in the U.S. college curriculum. In 1968, NAFSA’s governmental relationships were extended to include the Agency for International Development. 27 Past As Prologue Pa st a s p ro lo gu e From Cambodia to Iran / 1970-1979 by ALAN DESSOFF ith the U nited S tates engaged in an increasingly controversial war in Southeast Asia, and with students prominently engaged in opposition to it, the decade began with turbulence on many fronts, including NAFSA’s 1970 conference in Kansas City. While U.S. forces were bombing Cambodia, conference attendees at a lengthy and noisy business meeting debated whether to allow individuals, particularly students, to participate fully in the association. 180° 150° 120° 90° 60° 30° 60° NAFSA approves full student participation. NAFSA signs contracts for Cooperative Projects Program and start of Global Issues Project. International Educator M AY + J U N E .0 8 30° 26 1970 • 7 1 • 7 2 0° P resident Nixon visits People’s Republic of China (PRC). 30° • 7 3 • 7 4 0° The year before, in Boston, a resolution to encourage greater foreign student participation had been tabled. But the scene was far different in Kansas City, where hundreds of foreign and U.S. students had been brought to the conference by staff from their institutions. To minimize expenses, they shared hotel rooms, often with several in one room. At the business meeting, they cheered those who were rallying in their favor and booed those who were not. One resolution that ultimately was approved permitted every NAFSA member, including students, to participate fully, by voice and vote, in the association’s affairs. Another resolution that also gained approval charged NAFSA with developing the means for full and effective involvement of students in all the association’s activities, including those of the regions, sections and committees. 0° 30° 60° 90° 120° 150° Homer Higbee, NAFSA’s 1970-1971 president, wrote a week before his death in November 1987: “Student participation…reflected larger student concerns with the times. In my opinion, we overreacted, but with good will and without damage, to the students or to NAFSA.” Editor’s Note In honor of NAFSA’s sixtieth anniversary year, each issue of IE in 2008 will cover one decade of the history of international education and NAFSA’s role in advancing the field. Opportunities in China Meanwhile, NAFSA was looking ahead and abroad in other ways. At its 1971 fall meeting, the board authorized Gary Lowe, then foreign student adviser at the University of Pittsburgh, to develop a proposal he had conceived for a NAFSA group to travel to China. The intent was to develop initial contact with and awareness of Chinese institutions of higher learning in anticipation of increased potential for educational exchange opportunities. 180° IIE initiates Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program. 60° U.S. President’s Commission releases report prompting universities to boost capacities for international studies. 30° • 7 5 • 7 6 • 7 7 • 7 8 1979 • Iranian students stranded in U.S. after Shah is deposed. F irst students from PRC arrive in U.S. 30° M AY + J U N E .0 8 International Educator 0° 27 Past As Prologue Past as p ro lo gu e That potential received a dramatic boost in 1972, when President Richard Nixon became the first U.S. president to visit the People’s Republic of China. Soon after the first students from the PRC arrived in the United States in 1978, NAFSA, in affiliation with the U.S./ China Education Clearinghouse, began publishing a series of books and papers relating to U.S.-China educational exchanges. That began institutionalization of the NAFSAChina connection to reflect what became an explosive growth of educational exchange between the two countries. International Educator M AY + J U N E . 08 Preserving Title VI 28 In the early 1970s, the Nixon administration made the first of several attempts to reduce funding for Title VI and ultimately phase out the program. Its rationale, according to an article written years later by Richard D. Scarfo of the U.S. Department of Education, was that Title VI had succeeded in meeting the urgent need for highly trained specialists and the continuing need would be filled by individuals sufficiently motivated to pursue studies in these fields without a special federal program, with institutions assuming the full cost. The academic community moved vigorously to counter these arguments, Scarfo reported, and academics within the Nixon administration—most notably Henry Kissinger and Daniel Moynihan—worked with university presidents to convince Nixon to change his position. Despite the administration’s attempts to eliminate it, Congress continued to appropriate funds for Title VI. NAFSA marked its twenty-fifth anniversary in 1973 by reorganizing its internal committee structure, boosting student participation in the association, and signing contracts for two major new programs. One— the Cooperative Projects Program, funded by the State Department—supported foreign student enrichment programs organized by campus and community groups. The other contract, signed with U.S.A.I.D.’s office of International Training, was designed initially to enhance the experience of A.I.D.-supported foreign students. It came to full fruition later in NAFSA’s Global Issues Project. New Emphasis on Education Abroad NAFSA experienced “a real breakthrough” in its federal government relationships in 1976, as recalled by Jon Booth, who worked with the association during that period and later became executive director of Syracuse University Abroad. According to Booth, John Richardson, then assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, decided to change the State Department’s interpretation of funding for NAFSA so that “in addition to funding activities that advanced foreign student issues, NAFSA could also advance study abroad issues.” “That was a key move in the ‘70s,” says Booth. “All of a sudden, the study abroad people who had been unfunded secondclass citizens in NAFSA gained status.”Don Nelson of Miami University, Ohio, remembered his NAFSA presidential year, 1977-1978, as a year of responding to various reorganization plans of President Jimmy Carter’s administration. The most critical was the shift of agency responsibility for the State Department’s educational and cultural exchange programs to the International Communications Agency (later renamed USIA). Reacting to expressions of concern from the academic community, the White House offered assurances that it was committed to “preserving the integrity of academic and cultural changes.” New Initiatives in the U.S and Challenges in Iran In 1978 IIE initiated the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program as a Fulbright exchange activity. Honoring the memory and accomplishments of the late Senator and Vice President and funded by Congress, the oneyear, non-degree program brought mid-career professionals in public service fields from developing countries and East Central Europe to the United States for a year of academic study and practical professional experience. The decade came to a close with the ouster of the Shah of Iran in a revolution in that country that reverberated elsewhere, including in the U.S. where 40,000 Iranian students “suddenly were stranded,” relates A. Lee Zeigler, who was teaching at Stanford University at the time and had been NAFSA’s president in 1971–1972. Iran had sent the students to the U.S. and others to Europe to earn scientific and engineering degrees and gain work experience in nuclear technologies to help Iran fulfill the Shah’s desire for a self-sufficient Iranian nuclear program. Before 1979, when the Shah was deposed, Iranians constituted one of the largest national groups in the United States because of the influx of students, “and suddenly it ceased,” Zeigler says. As Cassandra A. Pyle, NAFSA’s president in 1978–1979, stated the situation later for NAFSA’s fortieth anniversary remembrance: “…our concerns focused on the rapidly expanding numbers of Iranian students in the U.S. (it seemed almost as if they were going to overwhelm the foreign student population) and the concern for institutional placement, quality of programs, need for English language training, the visa check in Tehran, maintenance of legal status in the U.S., etc.” Meanwhile, NAFSA was dealing with another problem with Nigeria over payment to U.S. universities and the lack of response from Nigerian banks. To deal with both issues, Pyle appointed two national coordinators—a first-time model for NAFSA. The decade ended with a new national awareness of serious shortcomings in what American students learned about the world beyond U.S. borders. Prompted by the release in 1979 of the report of the President’s Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies, a number of universities as well as states reexamined their curricula and moved to boost their capacities for international studies and research. IE ALAN DESSOFF is an independent journalist in Bethesda, Maryland. Past As Prologue Past a s P r o lo g u e 1980–1989: From regulatory concerns to the emergence of a unipolar World by ALAN DESSOFF hortly after the 1980 election of ronald reagan as president, his administration, principally through U.S. information agency director charles Wick, moved to severely cut funding for federally supported international education programs. 60° 1987 U.S. Coalition for Advancement of Foreign Languages and International Studies (CAFLIS) is created. 1983 New INS Regulations create heavy burden on international student advisers. 1980 U.S. President Ronald Reagan is elected. 30° InternatIonal educator j u l .+ au g .08 1980 14 • 8 1 • 8 2 • 8 3 • 8 4 0° 1980 International Educational Exchange Liaison Group is formed. 1980 Title VI of U.S. NDEA is incorporated into Higher Education Act (HEA) and expanded. 30° 1986 Association of American Universities proposes creation of national foundation for foreign language and international studies. 1987 INS eases regulatory burden due, in part, to efforts by NAFSA Task Force on Regulatory Reform. “He dramatically cut funding. It was very bad,” recalled A. Lee Zeigler, retired director of the Bechtel International Center at Stanford University and NAFSA president in 1971–1972. But a massive lobbying campaign for restoration of the cuts was successful and Wick and his staff came to recognize the value of the Fulbright program and other areas of support for international education. A need for closer linkages among educational associations with international interests was acknowledged in 1980 with formation of the International Educational Exchange Liaison Group, which took on major advocacy roles for its member organizations. NAFSA’s Works on Regulatory Issues NAFSA was active in its own right in efforts to change governmental regulations or resist changes. As Marvin Baron, NAFSA’s president in 1984–1985 recalled in an essay he wrote for the association’s fortieth anniversary, demonstrations by Iranian students in the early 1980s led some members of Congress to insist on tighter controls on foreign students. In 1983 the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) promulgated “complex and burdensome” regulations that “sent most foreign student advisers reeling under a heavy new workload,” according to Baron. Through its Government Regulations Advisory Committee and a newly formed Task Force on Regulatory Reform, NAFSA articulated “in very clear and concise terms necessary changes in the INS regulations,” Baron wrote. “Members responded, institutions were mobilized, members of Congress and their staffers were informed, and the attention of the commissioner of INS was gained.” After much negotiation, INS issued new regulations in 1987 without some of the most objectionable aspects of those it proposed four year earlier. Meanwhile, through continuing congressional reauthorizations, Title VI of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) opened new avenues of federal involvement in international education. EdItoR’S NotE: In honor of NAFSA’s sixtieth anniversary year, each issue of IE in 2008 will cover one decade of the history of international education and NAFSA’s role in advancing the field. 1988 NAFSA celebrates 40th year with Sen. J. William Fulbright as speaker at annual conference. 60° 1989 Berlin Wall falls. 30° • 8 5 • 8 6 8 7 • 8 8 1989 • 0° 1988 American Council for Education proposes expansion of international studies initiatives. 1988 U.S. Congress creates Centers for International Business Education. 1989 Students demonstrate in Tienanmen Square in Beijing. 30° j u l . + au g .0 8 InternatIonal educator 1988 U.S. President George H.W. Bush is elected. • presidentail portraits: wikimedia commons. berlin wall and tienanmen square: shutterstock 15 Past As Prologue Past a s P r o lo g u e InternatIonal educator j u l . + au g . 0 8 Title VI Reauthorization 16 In the 1980 reauthorization of the law, a new section was added that provided for grants on a matching basis for business and international education programs. According to Richard D. Scarfo of the U.S. Department of Education, this addition reflected a judgment that federal support for international education should address economic productivity and international economic competition as well as foreign policy and national security interests. Also as a result of the 1980 reauthorization, Title VI was incorporated into the Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965, further emphasizing a greater focus on the value of international studies as part of higher education rather than solely as support for U.S. government, military and security needs. The HEA reauthorization language reflected the increasing importance of international expertise to all aspects of modern life, including business, technology, education, media, health, and other professional fields. The cadre of Title VI programs was expanded accordingly to include Business and International Education (BIE), which provided matching funds to strengthen business education and services to U.S. firms doing business abroad. As Scarfo reported in an article on the history of Title VI, its reauthorization in 1986 further expanded its authority through a new program that called for a small number of national language resource and training centers to improve the national capacity to teach and learn foreign languages in an effective manner. Another new section added in 1986 authorized summer language institutes for advance language students and professional development of pre-service and in-service language teachers. Further, the 1986 reauthorization established a program for the acquisition of and access to periodicals and other materials published outside the United States. In 1988, under separate legislation, the Centers for International Business Education (CIBEs) were created to strengthen the international dimensions of business education and serve as regional and national resources to the business and education communities. The CIBE legislation was then transferred to Title VI. Education Associations Examine Challenges In 1986 the Association of American Universities drafted a legislative proposal to create a national foundation for foreign language and international studies. As the decade progressed, several other organizations, studies and reports singled out international education for special emphasis. As recounted in a 1990 article by Roch C. Smith, then associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, they ranged from Michael I. Sovern’s 1982–1983 presidential report from Columbia University, American Ignorance in a Dangerous World, to Richard D. Lambert’s International Studies and the Undergraduate, published by the American Council on Education (ACE) in December 1989. A year earlier, before the 1988 presidential election, ACE’s Commission on National Challenges in Higher Education proposed an agenda for the next president that would strengthen international studies and research, encourage student and faculty exchanges, expand the teaching and study of foreign languages, and assist U.S. colleges and universities in developing joint educational and research programs with foreign institutions. In December 1987 the Coalition for the Advancement of Foreign Languages and International Studies (CAFLIS) was created as a forum to help shape a national agenda in the U.S. on international education. More than 150 national disciplinary and professional associations joined CAFLIS and the Ford Foundation provided planning support. But CAFLIS as a movement fell apart within two years. In August 1988 the advisory Council on International Educational exchange stated that “if we fail to internationalize sufficiently our educational institutions, including expansion of student opportunities for study and work abroad, we will irreversibly diminish the world status of the United States.” NAFSA celebrated its fortieth year in 1988 with more than 3,000 participants in its annual conference in Washington, where Senator J. William Fulbright was one of the plenary speakers. Tiananmen, the Berlin Wall, and a New Unipolar World The decade came to a close in 1989 with several major international events. The suppression in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square of a fledgling “democracy” movement by the People’s Liberation Army created anxiety and anger in many of the PRC students and scholars in the United States. They staged protest demonstrations in front of PRC consulates and formed networks to continue the struggle for democratic reform at home. In response, NAFSA mobilized to help them, sending out “China Alerts” to keep its members informed, launching a search for financial aid, and asking the Immigration and Naturalization Service for work permits for the students. After vetoing a bill that would have granted benefits to the PRC students and scholars in the United States, President George H.W. Bush changed course, deferring their departure and making it easier for them to obtain work permits. Meanwhile, the fall of the Berlin Wall, disintegration of the power of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War signaled dramatic global political changes. The international political system that emerged was unipolar, with the United States the only remaining superpower. The beginning of an era of globalization would impact the rapidly emerging field of international education as well. IE ALAN DESSOFF is an independent journalist in Bethesda, Maryland. Past As Prologue P as t as p r o l o g ue 1990–1999: A Decade of Growth and New Initiatives by ALAN DESSOFF y 1990, as the number of foreign students in the United States approached 400,000 and increasing numbers of U.S. students were studying abroad, there were 6,400 NAFSA members on 1,800 campuses. NAFSA began the decade with a new name, approved at its annual conference: NAFSA: Association of International Educators. In the same year, the European Association for International Education was founded in Amsterdam. 180° 150° 120° 90° 60° 30° 1990 NAFSA changes name to: NAFSA: Association of International Educators. 199060° NAFSA/CIEE/ IEE task force recommends expansion of study abroad opportunities and participation for U.S. students. 1990 30° International Educator S E P T. + O C T.0 8 1990 12 • 1 990 European 0° Association for International Education is founded in Amsterdam. 1 990 President Bush extends protection of PRC students in U.S. 30° 1993 NAFSA launches International Educator magazine. 9 1 • NAFSA reports seven-fold increase in foreign students earning Ph.D.s in U.S. 9 2 1 991 President Bush signs legislation creating National Security Education Program. 1 991 U.S. President Bill Clinton is elected. • 9 3 • 9 4 1 991 U.S. Congressional reauthorization of Higher Education Act adds two new Title VI programs. 0 0° 30° In 1990 NAFSA launched a new magazine, International Educator, to raise awareness of international education issues that were becoming more prominent. Also in 1991, the U.S. Information Agency and the Agency for International Development offered significant help to students from newly liberated countries of central and Eastern Europe. Historically black colleges in the United States held a workshop in 1991 on international education, with A.I.D. financial support and guidance from NAFSA. In a 1990 report, “A National Mandate for Education Abroad: Getting on with the Task,” a National Task Force on Undergraduate Education Abroad established by NAFSA, the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) and Institute of International Education (IIE), recommended that 10 percent of all U.S. undergraduates should study abroad. It also called for greater diversity in the stu60° participate 90° in education 120° abroad150° dents who programs, in the foreign locations for the programs, and in the types of programs. Further, the task force said that education abroad had to be integrated into regular degree programs and campus-based attitudes, policies that inhibited study abroad must be addressed, and expanded funding from both private and public sources would be essential if the academic community was to diversify the types of institutions, students, and experiences involved in education abroad in the years ahead. Editor’s Note: In honor of NAFSA’s sixtieth anniversary year, each issue of IE in 2008 will cover one decade of the history of international education and NAFSA’s role in advancing the field. Differing Views on Achievements The task force set 1995 for the achievement of many of these goals. Comments sought that year from campus-based education abroad advisers and administrators revealed a variety of opinions on the impact, if any, of the 1990 report. There was confusion as to whether each campus should aim for the 10 percent 180°goal of if that was a national composite figure. There 60° 1999 NAFSA Executive Director/ CEO Marlene M. Johnson calls for comprehensive U.S. international education policy. 30° • 9 5 • 9 6 • • 9 8 1999 • 30° International Educator 1 999 British Prime Minister 0° Tony Blair calls for UK to recruit 50,000 more students by 2003. 1 997 CIEE forms Association for Studies in International Education. S E P T.+ O C T. 08 1 993 U.S. Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange cites economic benefits of exchange programs. 9 7 presidentail portraits: wikimedia commons 13 Past As Prologue P as t as p r o l o g ue were differences between what small and large, public and private institutions were doing with education abroad programs. Almost all respondents commented on the need for better national data on education abroad activity. Other studies and reports gave conflicting pictures of the state of international education. A Carnegie study of academics in the early 1990s (The Academic Profession: An International Perspective) found that U.S. faculty ranked very low in terms of their interest in forming international contacts and their belief that knowledge of international scholarship is important. NAFSA reported in 1993 that foreign students earning Ph.D.s in the United States had increased sevenfold in the previous years, to 8,000. The Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange cited benefits from more spending on exchange programs, including $6 billion per year that foreign university students brought into the U.S. economy. International Educator S E P T. + O C T.0 8 Federal Actions 14 Meanwhile, the federal government was moving on several fronts to expand education abroad opportunities for U.S. students. In 1990, as the People’s Republic of China imposed restrictions on scholars and students who wanted to study abroad, President George H.W. Bush extended his executive order to protect PRC students and scholars in the United States for four more years. In 1991 Bush signed the David L. Boren National Security Education Act (NSEA), which mandated that the Secretary of Defense create the National Security Education Program (NSEP). The program was established to award scholarships to U.S. undergraduates to study abroad in areas critical to U.S. national security; fellowships to U.S. graduate students to study languages and world regions critical to U.S. national security; and grants to U.S. higher education institutions to develop education abroad programs in and about countries, languages, and international fields critical to national security and underrepresented in U.S. study. The Title VI programs continued to expand during the 1990s to fit new international realities. Two new programs were established through the 1992 Higher Education Act reauthorization. One new section of the act authorized support to operate centers that consortia of higher education institutions had already established abroad to promote research and exchanges in language and area studies. Also, recognizing the value of a diverse government workforce, the Institute for International Public Policy was created with a goal to increase awareness of and interest in careers in international service among undergraduates who were members of underrepresented minority groups. But that program was never funded. Recognizing New Realities As the decade progressed, U.S. students’ interest and participation in studying abroad increased steadily, with double-digit growth in the late 1990s, and study abroad became a more commonplace part of the higher education experience. More foreign students also were coming to the U.S. In 1994, while overall enrollment in community colleges was down, foreign student numbers were up to an all-time high of 61,000, a six percent increase from the previous year. Other countries also were expanding their involvement in international education. In a 1995 article in International Educator, former NAFSA President A. Lee Zeigler wrote about Cuba’s intensive efforts to bring foreign students, particularly from developing countries, to its shores. In 1997, CIEE initiated an organization— the Association for Studies in International Education (ASIE)—that would contribute to developing research in international education. As global information, economic, and security networks continued to grow and expand and national borders became more porous, expanded area and language expertise was required in a variety of disciplines and professional fields. In its reauthorization of Title VI in 1998, Congress explicitly recognized these realities. NAFSA Calls for Comprehensive International Education Policy In November 1999, in a speech delivered at the CIEE conference in Chicago, NAFSA Executive Director/CEO Marlene M. Johnson called for creation of a comprehensive international education policy in the United States and said NAFSA was in the early phases of developing it. Johnson said past efforts to promote such a national policy had foundered and since 1966, “proponents of international education programs have never succeeded in moving our concerns high enough up on the list of national priorities to obtain significant funding.” She cited initiatives underway in other countries, including a British effort to recruit an additional 50,000 students to United Kingdom universities by 2005, a French program to lure international students to France, and a government/university marketing collaboration in Australia that was strategically recruiting international students to that country. “If international students, scholars, and faculty enrich our colleges and universities, and later U.S.-based firms, we need to act to ensure that the best of them continue to choose the United States for their education,” Johnson declared. She called on the international education community in the United States to “take the lead, raise the bar, and articulate to the nation why we do what we do, and what needs to happen to strengthen our capacity to create the leadership capacity for a global future.” IE ALAN DESSOFF is an independent journalist in Bethesda, Maryland. Past As Prologue Past a s p ro lo gu e 2000–2008: A Roller Coaster Ride by ALAN DESSOFF n the public and nonprofit sectors, a number of developments boosted international education as the new millennium began. President Bill Clinton, in his last year in office, gave NAFSA’s strategic objective of pursuing a U.S. international education policy a big endorsement when he signed an April 19, 2000 memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies calling for 180° such a policy. Clinton said it was the policy of the federal government to support international education, including a commitment to encouraging students from other countries to study in the United States; promoting study abroad by U.S. students; supporting the exchange 150° and scholars; 120° 90° 60° of teachers enhancing international 60° 30° International Educator N O V + D E C . 08 2000 18 2 004 U.S. has highest number of foreign students enrolled in colleges and universities. 2 001 Events of 9/11 sharpen focus on international expertise and prompt Congress to boost Title VI and FulbrightHays funding. 2 000 President Clinton calls for U.S. international education policy. • 0 1 • 30° 2 004 Foreign students make up higher percentage of enrollment in other G-8 countries. 0 2 • 0 3 • 0 4 2 003 0° 2 000 U.S. President George W. Bush is elected. 30° U.S. government implements Student and Exchange Visitor Information System SEVIS) to track international students and scholars at campuses in U.S. 2 004 U.S. Congress and President form Commission on Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program. 2 004 American Council on Education hosts meeting to discuss advancing international education research. 2 005 Lincoln Commission calls for one million U.S. undergraduates to study abroad annually by 2017. 0 programs at U.S. institutions; and expanding foreign language learning and knowledge of other cultures. In an address on international education delivered the same day that Clinton signed his directive, Education Secretary Richard Riley said nations across the world were keen on fostering greater faculty and student exchanges. He suggested a series of steps to re-energize the cause of international education in the United States. Dealing with New Realities After 9/11 0° 30° The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 helped to emphasize the importance of international expertise for national security and mutual international understanding. On the heels of the tragedy, Congress provided the first significant increase in Title VI and Fulbright-Hays funding since the 1960s. September 11 also spurred the government’s full implementation in 2003 of the Student and Exchange 60° 90° 120° 150° Visitor Information System (SEVIS), a computerized system to track the whereabouts and academic status of international students and scholars at campuses across the U.S, which the Immigration and Naturalization Service had been developing in one form or another since the mid 1990s. By February 2003, all schools and exchange visitor programs had to be enrolled in SEVIS and issuing SEVIS forms to new students and exchange visitors, and by August 1, 2003, all current students and exchange visitors had to have been entered into the SEVIS database. Under SEVIS, schools and program sponsors transmit information electronically to the Department of Homeland Security and Department of State throughout a student’s or exchange visitor’s stay in the U.S. DHS reports that “As of June 30, 2008 there were 1,052,694 Active nonimmigrant students, exchange visitors, and their dependents in SEVIS. Data on greater than 5.6 million nonimmigrant visa-type F, M, J visa holders and their dependents, schools and 180°EV programs can be found in SEVIS. 2 006 U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings co-host summit of university presidents on international education. Rice 60° 0 5 Note: In honor of NAFSA’s sixtieth anniversary year, each issue of IE in 2008 covers one decade of the history of international education and NAFSA’s role in advancing the field. 2 007 U.S. House passes Paul Simon Study Abroad Act. Spellings 2 006 President Bush launches initiative to boost number of Americans learning critical foreign languages. • Editor’s • • • 0 8 2009 • 0° Durbin International Educator 2 006 U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Norm Coleman introduce Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Act. Similar Paul Simon Study Abroad Act is introduced in House. 0 7 N O V + D E C . 08 2 006 U.S. Academy for Educational Development hosts colloquium on diversity in education abroad. 0 6 30° Coleman 30° wikimedia commons 19 Past As Prologue Past as p ro lo gu e SEVIS impacted the business practices of higher education institutions; it required institutions to comply with laws, procedures and government policies, which altered the status quo of how international student offices operate. Furthermore, SEVIS required that advisers (and immigration practitioners) be able to counsel international students and scholars on data contained in SEVIS that could impact their immigration status. Some international student advisers disclosed that implementing and maintaining SEVIS imposed a significant financial burden and notable workload increase on institutions, which had to invest in software, hardware and additional personnel to be able to issue visa documents for international students and scholars. Concern also rose about the impact of SEVIS on students and scholars themselves, who had to pay a $100 SEVIS fee in addition to their visa application fee. For students from developing countries, the SEVIS fee could be one month’s or even one year’s salary, Gang Wang, associate director of the Office of International Students and Scholars at Yale said. In April of 2008, the Department of Homeland Security proposed doubling that fee to $200. International Educator N O V + D E C .0 8 Expanding Study Abroad 20 In the middle years of the decade, Congress took further steps to expand participation by U.S. students in study abroad programs, starting with creation in 2004 of a 17-member Commission on the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program to be appointed by Congress and President George W. Bush. It was charged with making recommendations to the President on expansion of study abroad for U.S. higher education, including funding for study abroad scholarships. The Lincoln Commission was a vision of Senator Paul Simon of Illinois, who identified international education as an issue of crucial importance for the future strength and security of the United States. In his preface to a 2003 NAFSA task force report, Securing America’s Future: Global Education for a Global Age, Simon laid out his vision that with more college students studying abroad, the United States would be “more understanding of the world ... creating a base of public opinion that would encourage responsible action.” Simon died in December 2003. In November 2005 the bipartisan Lincoln Commission issued its report, Global Competence and National Needs: One Million Americans Studying Abroad. It called for boosting the number of American undergraduates who study abroad to one million annually by 2017, saying such a move was critical in furthering U.S. interests globally. It also urged the President and Congress to make $50 million available annually beginning in 2006 to fund a Lincoln Fellowship Program under which funds would be made available for study abroad scholarships, primarily through colleges and universities, but also directly to students through a national fellowship competition. The Commission’s report set forth several other objectives for the fellowship program, including increasing student diversity in study abroad; increasing the number of students studying in nontraditional countries; and increasing the number of study abroad students from community colleges and institutions serving minority and low-income, first-generation students. In December 2005 a national poll commissioned by NAFSA showed that more that 90 percent of U.S. citizens believed it was important to prepare future generations for a global society. NAFSA cited the poll results three months later in a new statement calling for a U.S. international education policy. Important Allies for International Education Advancement Other educational organizations contributed to the development of international education during the decade. In May 2004 the American Council on Education hosted an invitational meeting of international education researchers in Baltimore to discuss the possible creation of a group devoted to advancing international education research. Similarly, the Academy for Educational Development began directing resources in 2005 towards a new education abroad initiative. In May 2006 it hosted a colloquium on diversity in education abroad. According to a study comparing the education system in the United States with systems in other Group of Eight countries, the United States had the highest number of foreign students enrolled in colleges and universities in 2004, although foreign students made up a higher percentage of enrollments in other countries. The study, conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, found that G-8 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom, in addition to the United States) hosted about two-thirds of the 2.7 million students attending a college or university outside their country of citizenship in 2004. The majority (22 percent) were enrolled in the United States, followed by the United Kingdom (11 percent), Germany (10 percent) and France (9 percent). However, as reported by the American Council on Education following release of the study in 2007, because of the large total enrollment in U.S. higher education institutions, the U.S. had among the smallest proportions (3 percent) of foreign student enrollment in 2004. Foreign students made up 16 percent of the total student bodies at institutions in the United Kingdom and 11 percent each in Germany, France and Canada. In 2005 Congress passed a Senate resolution designating 2006 as “The Year of Study Abroad” and extending the life of the Lincoln Commission. Based on the Commission’s recommendations, Senators. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a member of the Commission, and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) introduced the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Act in 2006 to establish the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program. A different version, the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act, which closely mirrors the Lincoln Commission recommendations, was introduced in the House in 2007 by Representatives Tom Lantos (DCalif.) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.). The bill called for creation of an innovative publicprivate partnership to administer a national study abroad program to ensure reading the one million student goal in 10 years. Senators Durbin and Coleman subsequently introduced a similar bill in the Senate. Earlier in 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings co-hosted a “U.S. University Presidents Summit on International Education,” with an objective to engage leaders of U.S. higher education in a renewed partnership to strengthen international education, emphasizing its importance to the national interest. At the Summit, President Bush launched a “National Security Language Initiative” to increase the number of Americans learning critical need foreign languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, and Farsi. Among other things, the president called for adding overseas language study to 150 U.S. Fulbright student scholarships annually, increasing support for immersion language study centers abroad and creating new State Department summer immersion study programs in critical need languages for up to 275 university-level students per year. In April 2007 the Coalition for International Education, an ad hoc group of 28 national higher education organizations including NAFSA, called on Congress to restore sufficient funding for international education programs including HEA-Title VI, Fulbright-Hays, the Institute for International Public Policy, and Foreign Language and Area Studies. The Coalition said funding reductions in previous years had taken a “significant toll” on these programs. It cited a drop over the past three years of 258 in the number of Foreign Language and Area Studies academic year fellowships. In June 2007 in what NAFSA called “a historic move to support the international education of U.S. college students,” the House of Representatives unanimously passed the Paul Simon Study Abroad Act. To respond to rising public concern about the management of education abroad, in January 2008 NAFSA released the report of its Task Force on Institutional Management of Study Abroad. The report, entitled Strengthening Study Abroad: Recommendations for Effective Institutional Management, is the work of a panel of university presidents and provosts convened by NAFSA to “recommend core principles, values, and behaviors for senior campus administrators to consider as they develop policies and practices to guide the management of the study abroad function.” The report urged campus leaders to confront a set of “specific challenges that virtually all institutions face,” setting out 14 criteria for the institutional management of study abroad in four major categories: institutional commitment; infrastructure; resources; and clarity and accountability. NAFSA set out policy proposals for the next administration on foreign students, study abroad, and exchanges in August 2008 in its report, International Education: The Neglected Dimension of Public Diplomacy. The report sets specific policy recommendations in the areas of attracting international students and scholars; internationalizing U.S. education, especially through study abroad; and bolstering educational exchanges and volunteer-service programs. Among the priorities outlined in the report are: passage and implementation of the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act; security and immigration policies that strike a better balance between control and openness; a proactive approach to attracting the world’s talented students and scholars to the United States; and expanding support for timetested educational exchanges and the Peace Corps. Central to the recommendations is NAFSA’s call for robust presidential leadership in support of “a major international education initiative designed explicitly to foster an America that knows, understands, and is able to communicate with the world, and to strengthen the relationships through which the American people and the world’s people can relate to, interact with, and understand each other.” IE Center for Study Abroad • Low cost programs since 1990 • Flexible arrangements • Open to all adults from all countries • Earn college credit in fully accredited programs EUROPE • ASIA LATIN AMERICA CONTACT PERSON: Ms. Alima K. Virtue, Programs Director 325 Washington Ave. S #93 Kent, WA 98032 (USA) [email protected] tel: 206-726-1498 centerforstudyabroad.com ALAN DESSOFF is an independent journalist in Bethesda, Maryland. 21