ACE I-Lab Report

ACE I-Lab Report

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Introduction
I.  College Documentation, Commitment, and Initiatives
II.  International Programs and Students
III.  Revenue
IV.  Assessment
V.  Curricula
VI.  Scholarships, Grants, and Awards
VII.  Co-Curricular Activities and Student Life
References

Global Geneseo Report

Download the Global Geneseo Committee Report

INTRODUCTION

 

In the fall of 2013, the State University of New York (SUNY) Geneseo joined the American Council on Education’s (ACE) Internationalization Laboratory with the goal of strengthening our commitment to internationalization, “the process by which institutions foster global learning” (Olson, Green, & Hill, 2006, p. v). This initiative seems especially imperative given the most current findings about competencies and skills business and nonprofit leaders seek from college graduates (Hart Institute Associates, 2015). Among those highly endorsed are the ability “to solve problems with people whose views are different from their own” (p. 4) and having “intercultural skills and an understanding of societies outside the United States” (p. 4).

 

This initiative, which we refer to as Global Geneseo, involved a self-study conducted by a team initially comprising twenty-five members. The team was organized into a steering committee and three sub-committees that focused on (a) institutional structure and support, (b) internationalization abroad, and (c) internationalization at home (see Appendix 1). Each sub-committee collected and analyzed numerous forms of data in order to identify current internationalization efforts, understand existing challenges, and brainstorm opportunities for improvement and growth. In addition to the work of the steering and sub-committees, a Global Café was held on February 1, 2014 to encourage all members of the college community to give voice to this project. Nearly 100 people attended and attendees represented administration, faculty, staff, and the student body. The Global Café featured interesting and provocative conversation about goals, initiatives, experiences, and struggles related to internationalization (see Appendix 2).

 

The College has taken important steps to foster global learning. With this report, we seek to inform the reader about the valuable steps we have taken toward our goal and initiate a conversation about future directions. The report centers on seven key areas that emerged as significant to our internationalization efforts to date: college documentation and initiatives; international programs and students; revenue; scholarships, grants, and awards; curricula; co-curricular activities and student life; and assessment.  Within each area, we note strengths and challenges as well as opportunities and recommendations for enhancing our internationalization efforts. 

 

While this document cannot detail every step we have taken, challenge we face, or opportunity for improvement, it provides an overview of key areas of progress, struggle, and possibility. We realize that some of the opportunities and recommendations that are presented are optimistic. Our goal was not to offer a perfect plan of action, but rather to put forward a variety of possibilities for discussion and consideration.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Global Geneseo Committee

 

I. College Documentation, Commitment, and Initiatives

 

SUNY Geneseo has taken numerous steps in recent years that highlight the value we place on global learning. Perhaps most obvious is our participation in the Internationalization Laboratory. What follows is a brief list of other noteworthy initiatives:

 

 

  • In 2011, the Provost charged the General Education Committee with considering ways to increase global content and interdisciplinary study in the College’s core program.

 

  • In 2003, the College Senate endorsed and the President approved the College’s Statement on Diversity and Community (https://www.geneseo.edu/diversity/statement), which includes national origin, language heritage, and geographic background within the long list of areas of diversity we value.

 

  • The President’s Commission on Diversity and Community produced a comprehensive Diversity Plan that includes cultural competency and global perspectives as central to our curricular and co-curricular work (https://www.geneseo.edu/diversity/president).

 

  • As part of a review of general education policies and structure, the campus is developing a set of baccalaureate learning outcomes: Global Learning Outcomes for Baccalaureate Education (GLOBE). These recommendations include naming “cross-cultural skills and global engagement” (General Education Committee, 2014) as an intellectual and practical learning outcome that all SUNY Geneseo undergraduate students should have achieved upon graduation (see Appendix 3), which should be accomplished through the curriculum and co-curricular activities and experiences.

 

Challenges, Opportunities, and Recommendations

As illustrated above, SUNY Geneseo has taken numerous steps toward increased internationalization. However, the college has not clearly articulated the connection between these individual initiatives. As a result, the commitment to internationalization varies across the campus community. Part of the responsibility may reside in the fact that our commitment to internationalization is not present in the College’s mission statement or list of values (https://www.geneseo.edu/about/mission-vision-and-values). Integrating internationalization into our mission statement or listing it as a value has the potential to unite many of the steps we have taken to date, serve as an impetus for new initiatives, and strengthen the commitment to internationalization throughout the college community.  While the institutional commitment to international education has increased significantly in the last decade, increased staffing would facilitate further development. We therefore make the following recommendations as steps we should take to improve our internationalization efforts:

 

                

  • Incorporate internationalization into institutional documentation such as our mission statement and list of values and include internationalization in the College’s next strategic plan.

 

  • Create structures for tracking and reporting international and global activities and events, including faculty and student research, alumni who live or work abroad, funding opportunities, and campus and local events.

 

  • Enhance the visibility of all campus internationalization efforts, perhaps by creating a tab on the home page of the campus website that links to all global activities and events, from study abroad, research, and funding to lectures, courses, and partnerships.

 

  • Create a Center for Global Engagement in order to centralize key globally oriented units and activities in a common space with high visibility and foster new initiatives and ideas.

 

  • State the value of internationalization in all relevant job postings.

 

  • Collaborate with national, international, and disciplinary organizations to encourage and enhance visibility and support for education as a global enterprise.

 

  • Reconstitute the Global Education Advisory Committee and broaden its mandate beyond study abroad to include coordinating internationalization resources and efforts and demonstrate our commitment to campus internationalization. 

 

  • Consider the potential benefits of increasing staffing in the study abroad office and in ESOL programs.

II. International Programs and Students

While many of our administrative offices and positions support the College’s efforts at internationalization, the Office of International Programs plays a critical role in this process. The Office of International Programs houses Study Abroad, International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS), and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). As a result of the College’s value for the work they do, our commitment to these offices has increased over the years with the addition of a number of positions. These positions include the ISSS assistant director and a new position for recruitment and advisement; Study Abroad’s faculty fellow, advisor, and assistant director positions; and a coordinator and two adjunct positions for the ESOL program.

Study Abroad

One of SUNY Geneseo’s major strengths is the number of students who participate in study abroad. Currently, approximately 40% of undergraduate students participate in exchange or faculty-led programs before they graduate (see Appendix 4 and Appendix 5). This number represents the highest percentage of students studying abroad within the SUNY system, reflecting the important steps the Study Abroad Office, members of the faculty, and other members of the College have taken to help students plan for this pursuit. One noteworthy initiative is the new Study Abroad Mentor Program (https://www.geneseo.edu/study_abroad/mentor-program), in which students who have studied abroad work with students who are considering or planning to study abroad. In the first two semesters of the program, more than eighty-five students applied for only twenty available positions. This high application rate suggests our students’ positive experiences when studying abroad. The Study Abroad Office has achieved noteworthy advances over the years. Twenty-four years after its establishment in the Office of the Dean of the College, it is now an independent office that administers or co-sponsors partnerships with eighteen institutions, including eight in Europe, five in Middle and South America, two in Africa, two in Asia, and one in Oceania.

 

Faculty-led programs play a substantial role in study abroad. During a ten-year span ranging from 2003-2013, forty faculty members offered one hundred twenty-eight faculty-led courses in twenty-seven locations educating more than eighteen hundred students. Many of these courses were versions of Geneseo's required general education Humanities course. Others targeted department-specific goals. Still other courses sought to create a transformational experience through service learning.

 

Challenges, Opportunities, and Recommendations

While the value of study abroad courses is clear, they are difficult to prepare, implement, and sustain. Faculty members spoke to the abundant time and energy it takes to prepare a study abroad course, the expense of leading a study abroad course, the difficulty of developing interdisciplinary courses, and struggles with low enrollment due to competition between courses and/or students not being able to use the course for curriculum requirements. Programs that do not meet a general education requirement are far less likely to attract students. Low enrollment can reduce faculty motivation and, in turn, deter future course development and implementation.

 

Moreover, although a high percentage of SUNY Geneseo students study abroad, challenges persist, preventing others from benefitting from this experience. The greatest challenge relates to funding. Although scholarships are available through the Geneseo Foundation, Study Abroad, and Financial Aid, some students are unable to participate in study abroad because they lack the financial resources. In addition to funding challenges, curriculum-related and registration structures are often obstacles for studying abroad. Based on these points, we make the following recommendations as steps we should take to improve our internationalization efforts:

 

To aid the development, impact, and sustainability of courses and partnerships:

  • Provide incentives for the development of study abroad courses, globally networked courses, and courses with a global focus; for the development of international research partnerships; and consider developing greater flexibility in counting study abroad courses in faculty teaching loads.

 

  • Strengthen the availability of technological resources to encourage the development and sustainability of globally networked courses as supplements for or alternatives to study abroad.

 

  • Increase efficiency and faculty involvement in study abroad by fostering the development of multiple courses at the same site, designing courses that can be taught by more than one faculty member, and creating templates for faculty-led study abroad courses that will help streamline the process of creating new courses.

 

 

  • Coordinate planning of rotation and sequencing of study abroad offerings to maximize student participation and minimize competition.

 

  • Develop high-quality partnerships that involve more than just student exchanges and that best match our mission as a public liberal arts institution. These partnerships could also include research, fieldwork, faculty exchange, and globally networked courses. A faculty survey on research and academic-related travel over the last five years suggests we might focus our attention on Germany, Ghana, Italy, UWI/Jamaica, and Nicaragua (see Appendix 6).

 

 

To encourage more students to study abroad:

  • Equip faculty advisors with relevant information to share with students; consider identifying study abroad liaisons in each department and developing degree program templates that identify the options for study abroad in the major. Post links to departmental study abroad programs on the department websites.

 

  • Increase the visibility of interdepartmental courses with a global focus through cross-listing, so students are aware of the requirements such courses can fulfill.

 

  • Encourage faculty members to develop blended study abroad courses that combine online learning activities with a shorter period abroad in order to reduce costs to students and ensure that in any given year there are lower-cost options for students.

 

  • Develop department-specific opportunities such as service-learning programs and internships with a study-away component for students who do not have the resources to participate in traditional study abroad programs.

 

  • Increase flexibility in program delivery models and the academic calendar, such as allowing courses to cut across registration periods in order to facilitate lower cost options for students.

 

  • Encourage more flexibility in transferring in courses taken abroad so that students who participate in exchange programs can continue to make timely progress toward graduation.

 

  • Develop and encourage ways for students studying abroad to connect with students on campus using digital tools and implement follow-up or debriefing experiences for students who study abroad to enhance the impact of their experience for them and their peers on campus.

 

International Students at SUNY Geneseo

The progress of the International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) office has been impressive. Since its creation in 1999 with the hiring of a director, the international matriculated student population has grown from two to one hundred fifty (see Appendix 7). The office offers comprehensive services extending from recruitment and admission to graduation and optional practical training (OPT). It supports approximately twenty-five exchange students a year, which is a drastic increase from two in 2008.ESOL has also advanced our internationalization goals by offering writing and oral communication courses for non-native speakers of English. Also important to note are the steps Residence Life has taken to support the experiences of international students. For example, they have created an International Student Mentor (ISM) program that provides international students with an immediate campus connection. An ISM is an experienced RA who lives in one of three residence halls with a significant population of international students. In addition, one of the residence halls, Dante House, is reserved for international and first year students as a living-learning community focused on global learning and citizenship. While a few residence halls have been open over breaks for international students for more than 15 years, Residence Life has recently allowed international students in any hall to stay in their rooms over breaks. Campus Auxiliary Services (CAS) has similarly worked in recent years to better meet the needs of international students by increasing the number of international cuisine offerings. In addition, CAS provides significant financial support by hiring international students. This spring CAS is undertaking a study on how to improve services for international students. The first focus group addressed adjusting to campus life, residence life, student employment, and dining and vending services (see Appendix 8).

Challenges,Opportunities, and Recommendations

Increasing the presence and visibility of international students on campus and in the community would be an important step to further internationalization at SUNY Geneseo. International students diversify our student population by offering a variety of perspectives and experiences. However, for various reasons, international students gravitate to certain majors, which means that students in other majors have less access to their perspectives. While international students spoke positively about Geneseo’s ESOL course offerings and support services, current resources do not allow for growth. International students also discussed struggles with miscommunication and perceived misunderstanding during interactions with faculty and staff. Anecdotal evidence suggests there has been a decrease in the number of domestic-international student roommate requests after freshman year. Based on these issues, we make the following recommendations as steps we should take to improve our internationalization efforts:

  • Expand recruitment of international students from underrepresented locations and areas of study.

 

  • Strengthen institutional connections to international alumni, for example, by combining recruitment trips with alumni events.

 

  • Develop interactive training workshops for faculty and staff focused on the needs of international students in order to improve students’ personal and academic experiences while on campus.

 

  • Increase services, such as ESOL courses and Speech Buddies, to better support international students.

 

  • Find ways to better integrate new international students with new domestic students as they enter Geneseo and throughout their college careers.

                    

  • Develop and enhance the marketing of community engagement and service opportunities for international students.

 

  • Host an annual reception for international students, faculty, staff, and allies, similar to the reception held for students and faculty of color, in order to forge connections between international students and faculty and staff.

 

III. Revenue

Financial support is essential for internationalization. At Geneseo, funding for internationalization comes from a variety of sources, including the Office of International Programs, the Office of Sponsored Research, the Provost’s Office, the Alumni Office, academic departments, and the Geneseo Foundation (see Appendix 9). For example, the most recent capital campaign, Shaping Lives of Purpose, targeted support for the expansion of opportunities in the college's global education program as a goal. Of the $23 million the Geneseo Foundation raised, $100,000 was designated to endow the Gouvernet Ambassadorship in French Language and Culture; $5,000 was designated for study abroad scholarships, and $14,700 was assigned more broadly to global education. Other donations to the campaign that could potentially support internationalization were made to academic departments; the Center for Inquiry, Discovery and Development; Scholarships; Roundtable Athletic Association; Academic Innovation; and Faculty Support. Also noteworthy is alumni support for internationalization. Over the last four years, the Study Abroad Office has worked with the Alumni Office to offer alumni travel programs. The funds generated by these programs are designated for student scholarships.

 

Challenges, Opportunities, and Recommendations

Despite the important financial contributions from a variety of sources, a lack of sufficient resources makes it difficult to sustain current initiatives and will prohibit substantial growth. The Study Abroad Office is largely self-funded through tuition and program fees. All tuition generated by students studying abroad through Geneseo-sponsored programs goes to an Income Fund Reimbursable (IFR) account that is used to support study abroad and other international programming. Program fees and tuition differentials are paid to the study abroad Campus Auxiliary Service (CAS) account. These accounts are used not only to fund office operations but also to support travel for exploring potential new sites and partnerships; for student scholarships; for compensating study abroad mentors, temporary student workers, and study abroad advisors; to host international visitors; to market and promote study abroad programs; and to support departmental international programming.

 

In addition, within the Geneseo Foundation, there are a few endowed funds specifically designated for such needs as scholarships for study abroad, for achieving language proficiency, and for international students. It is important to note that the Geneseo Foundation is a fund-raising agency, not a disbursing agency, and it looks to the rest of the College to decide priorities. While the recent capital campaign included global education, the current focus is on adding alumni donors; student scholarships are likely to be the focus of the next capital campaign. Based on these points, we make the following recommendations as steps we should take to improve our internationalization efforts:

 

  • Encourage forms of alumni giving that are tied to scholarships for students who wish to study abroad or study away. For example, ask alumni for a $150 donation to buy a student a passport, for a program scholarship, or a departmental study abroad scholarship.

 

  • Encourage forms of alumni giving that provide resources for ESOL and international student recruitment, in order to increase our international student population and improve their personal and academic experiences.

 

  • Explore ways to connect students studying abroad with alumni living or working abroad.

 

  • Encourage donor giving for faculty development focused on global learning.

 

  • Explore possible collaborations between the campus and members of the local and global communities, such as collaboration between Campus Auxiliary Services and Barilla Pasta to support study abroad in Italy.

 

  • Petition SUNY to add an internationalization/diversity fee to current student fees in order to generate revenue for internationalization and diversity initiatives.

 

  • Develop summer programming events and conferences on campus that could be used to generate revenue or give visibility to internationalization efforts.

 

  • Consider reinstituting a full winter term, which would not only facilitate student abroad programming, but could be used to offer classes to international students on campus as well as online courses for all students.

 

 

IV. Scholarships, Grants, and Awards

On campus, there is considerable support for faculty members and students applying for scholarships, grants, and awards to fund international work and experiences. For example, The College participates in the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE), which provides funding for faculty development and student scholarships. In addition, SUNY Geneseo utilizes the various funding databases to assist faculty and staff members with the identification of funding sources that will support international projects. This year the College has contracted with an external grant-writing firm which will assist the Office of Sponsored Research with identification of funding opportunities in several areas, including international partnerships and globalization of our curricula. The Office of Sponsored Research also has a subscription to the Foundation Directory Online. Both faculty members and students have taken advantage of opportunities to broaden their international experiences and global perspective through scholarships, grants, and awards. In fact, the Chronicle of Higher Education(2010) ranked SUNY Geneseo among the “Top Producers of U.S. Fulbright Scholars by Type of Institution, 2010-2011” (http://chronicle.com/article/Table-Top-Producers-of-US/125072/). With valuable support from the Office of Sponsored Research, thirteen active faculty members held or will shortly hold Fulbright Senior Fellowships for research and teaching. This number reflects substantial growth in the last two academic years, when twelve of the thirteen Fulbrights were named. Faculty members also have been awarded a Fulbright-Hays Research Abroad Award and have participated in Fulbright-Hays Summer Seminars Abroad. In addition, members of the faculty have taken advantage of the Council on International Educational Exchange’s International Faculty Development Seminar Award (https://www.geneseo.edu/sponsored_research/internal). Equally impressive is students’ success with scholarships and awards. Over the past four years, the Benjamin Gilman International Scholarship has been the most popular competitive fellowship for students, with eight Geneseo students having been awarded a scholarship. Among others, four students have been awarded Fulbrights since 2009, which shows a sharp improvement from years past. In 2014, six of the nine students who were awarded Student Ambassador Grants through the Center for Inquiry, Discovery and Development chose to use their awards for projects abroad. Additionally, three students have received a State Department Critical Languages Stipend grant (https://www.geneseo.edu/fellowships_and_scholarships/RecentRecipients).

 

Challenges, Opportunities, and Recommendations

As noted, SUNY Geneseo has offered valuable support for those interested in applying for scholarship, grants, and awards. Despite this support, many faculty members and students who might otherwise be interested do not apply. This may be because they are unaware of funding opportunities or because they do not have the time to apply.  Other obstacles that might limit applications, especially for awards to travel abroad, are the financial and personal impacts of international travel. Because of these issues, we make the following recommendations as steps we might take to improve our internationalization efforts:

 

  • Better publicize the faculty and students who have been awarded scholarships, grants, and awards to allow for peer-to-peer interaction about applications, experiences abroad, and managing personal life while abroad.

 

  • Use the College’s website to better inform faculty and students about the variety of scholarships, grants, and awards that support internationalization. 

 

  • Clarify and enhance institutional support for international grants or other opportunities that might affect salary levels, benefits, or progress towards continuing appointment.    

 

V.  Curricula

Both the general education curriculum and department-based curricula are important resources for advancing the College’s internationalization goals. During meetings with departments, several faculty members described the Other World Civilizations general education requirement (M/) as an excellent tool for bringing international and multicultural issues to the attention of students. Careful analysis of course descriptions posted in the Undergraduate Bulletin reveals that approximately half of all courses currently taught at Geneseo already include global content. Of those courses, 23.6% are primarily global in content while 27.26% offer some global content (see Appendix 10). As noted earlier, the recent recommendations by the General EducationCommittee for baccalaureate learning outcomes, GLOBE, include a requirement for cross cultural competence and global engagement, in order that every student has gained an understanding of global issues before graduation. Each year, Geneseo cancels classes for a day in the spring semester for GREAT (Geneseo Recognizing Excellence, Achievement, and Talent) Day. In 2014, fifty-eight of the presentations and fourteen of the posters had an international or intercultural focus (https://www.geneseo.edu/webfm_send/9645).

Challenges, Opportunities, and Recommendations

While many department members spoke about the importance of internationalizing their curriculum, they also identified obstacles that interfere with their ability to do so. For example, several faculty members reported that the budget challenges following the 2008 financial crisis hindered their efforts to further internationalize courses or sustain the global content of their curriculum. Discussion of the general education requirements also showcased concerns such as the Western orientation of the Humanities requirement, our relatively moderate language requirement (compared to our aspirational peers), and the absence of an international experience requirement. Also perceived as problematic was the uneven incorporation of global perspectives across majors. Based on these points, we make the following recommendations as steps we should take to improve our internationalization efforts:

 

  • Provide incentives for the development of courses with global content and clearly identify such courses in the Undergraduate Bulletin and course selection software; use cross-listing to identify interdisciplinary courses that can be used to fulfill requirements in more than one discipline.

 

  • Integrate global perspectives and/or international experiences into each major on campus.

 

  • Foster the innovative use of technology to facilitate the incorporation of global experiences in campus-based courses.

 

  • Create job descriptions for new hires that value global perspectives and international experiences and research.

 

  • Consider requiring study abroad or other global learning experiences as part of the general education program, expanding the current Humanities requirement to include more non-Western texts, and increasing foreign language programming and opportunities, in order to provide students with additional academic resources for global learning.

 

  • Encourage the development of interdisciplinary programs in which global issues are a central feature and in which a student’s international experience can be more fully integrated.

 

VI. Co-Curricular Activities and Student Life

SUNY Geneseo offers a rich variety of co-curricular activities to support our commitment to internationalization. Particularly noteworthy is our active engagement in service abroad. Geneseo currently offers eight global service opportunities that have been embraced by sixty-seven students and twelve faculty members over the past decade. Together, students and faculty have dedicated over 5,000 hours to these efforts. Recent student-run global service projects include the Haiti Relief Fund, Japan Relief Fund, Ghana Project, and El Sauce Project, which are assisted by Livingston CARES, a local nonprofit organization. Testament to the important work we have done in this area, SUNY Geneseo was named to President Obama’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction in 2012 and 2014 (https://www.geneseo.edu/news_events/geneseo-named-president%E2%80%99s-2014-community-service-honor-roll-distinction).  Beyond these global service initiatives, students have gained international experiences through other co-curricular opportunities. The department of Languages and Literatures sponsors two living-learning communities, La Maison Française and La Residencia Hispana, to foster language learning and intercultural experiences. Plans are under consideration for the development of a global living- learning community in Wyoming Hall. The Geneseo Chamber Singers tours Europe every four years and athletes have had opportunities to travel abroad for their sports. Also impressive is that approximately 35% of our current co-curricular clubs and organizations include an international dimension or component, which allows students to develop a global perspective while on campus (see Appendix 11). Significantly, these cultural groups have formed the Alliance for Community Enrichment (https://www.geneseo.edu/ace/), which collaboratively works to increase the presence of cultural and under-represented communities on campus. In response to the growing interest in international internships, the Office of International Programs shares with the Career Design Center the cost of Going Global, a job and internship search program for students and alumni. Finally, this spring Geneseo students were selected to present at the Clinton Global Initiative University, a program that engages students in discussing and developing solutions to global problems (https://www.geneseo.edu/news_events/seven-geneseo-students-present-solutions-world-challenges-clinton-global-initiative-univ).

 

Challenges, Opportunities, and Recommendations

Many student organizations at SUNY Geneseo have some element of internationalization but could do significantly better if assisted by faculty and the administration in a common effort. Other co-curricular initiatives similarly would benefit from increased support and visibility from faculty and administration. In addition, there is currently no mechanism for tracking co-curricular international experiences. Based on these points, we make the following recommendations as steps we should take to improve our internationalization efforts:

 

  • Provide student groups with marketing tools and channels, such as advertisement space dedicated exclusively to culturally diverse events, to better reach campus and community audiences.

 

  • Encourage faculty to expand the visibility of international co-curricular events by attending, announcing, and including them in their syllabi.

 

  • Consider incorporating an increased focus on campus internationalization efforts and global learning opportunities in First Year Programs.

 

  • Encourage the development and visibility of international internship and community service opportunities.

 

  • Develop a GOLD certificate program in global engagement and leadership.

 

  • Develop a system for tracking and promoting co-curricular international events and experiences, from lectures and brown-bag lunches to service and fundraising events.

 

  • Identify and promote opportunities to explore global issues that are manifested locally, such as immigration and migrant workers.

 

 

VII. Assessment

At SUNY Geneseo, a number of assessment strategies are used to evaluate current internationalization initiatives. For example, ISSS and Study Abroad are subject to administrative assessment and provide yearly reports that include enumerative data such as numbers of international students, numbers of Geneseo students studying abroad, and study abroad locations. Perhaps more noteworthy is the College’s recent decision to include the optional Global Perspectives module in our National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), which is the tool we use every three years to assess the experiences of first-year and senior students. According to NSSE (2014), the Global Perspectives module “probes the cognitive and social elements of a global perspective, asking about experiences with global learning and views on intercultural understanding” (para 1, see Appendix 12). Immediate results from this module will provide a cross-sectional comparison of first year to senior class as a way to gauge growth in this area. In three years, we will also have the ability to conduct a longitudinal comparison of change on this module.

Challenges, Opportunities, and Recommendations

While our current assessment efforts serve important purposes, they focus on students’ overall experiences. What appears to be missing is a set of global learning outcomes and a method for assessing such outcomes in study abroad programs. Moreover, faculty’s internationalization efforts are not recognized and assessed in a formal manner. Based on these points, we make the following recommendations as steps we should take to improve our internationalization efforts:

  • Develop global learning outcomes that are aligned with the proposed baccalaureate learning outcomes, as well as a tool to assess their effectiveness across the curriculum and co-curriculum. 

 

  • Consistently assess study abroad experiences and learning across all programs, including host institution and faculty-led programs.

 

  • Analyze study abroad participation by major and type of program; share the analysis with departments to inform their decision-making and advising.

 

  • Incorporate internationalization efforts into rubrics for contract renewal, continuing appointment, and/or promotion where relevant.

 

  • Count internationalization efforts and successes in decisions for discretionary salary allocations.

 

  • Add internationalization to the list of accomplishments supported each year through the award system, such as by adding a President’s Award for Excellence in Internationalization.

 

 

CONCLUSION

The time in the ACE Internationalization Laboratory has been informative, eye-opening, thought-provoking, and stimulating. Yet, we acknowledge that our work is far from done. Our most immediate objective is to begin drafting a strategic plan for internationalization that brings together many of the suggestions noted in this report. During this process, we will need to prioritize initiatives as well as distinguish the more immediately attainable goals from those that will require deeper conceptualization, structural change, reliance on others, and/or additional resources. It is our hope that our strategic plan for internationalization will, in turn, become part of the larger plan that incoming president Dr. Denise A. Battles creates for the college. Following its reconstitution, we suggest that the Global Education Advisory Committee spearhead the strategic planning process and serve as the connecting link between the administration, faculty, staff, student body, and local community. We believe internationalization is integral to the college’s mission to create “socially responsible citizens with skills and values important to the pursuit of an enriched life and success in the world” and acknowledge that fostering global learning will require the dedication of the entire college community.

 

REFERENCES

Hart Research Associates. (2015). Falling short? College learning and career success.

National Survey of Student Engagement. (2014). Topical module: Global perspectives—cognitive            and social. Global Perspectives Institute.

Olson, C., Green, M. F., & Hill, B. A. (2006). A handbook for advancing comprehensive internationalization: What institutions can do and what students should learn. American          Council on Education. 

 

Appendices

1. Committee Membership

2. Overview of Global Café

3. GLOBE

4. Study Abroad Numbers and Distribution  

5. Annual Report Charts

6. Research and Academic-related Travel

7. International Student Numbers

8. International Student Forum Report

9. Funding Stream

10. Undergraduate Bulletin Report and Department Survey

11. Student Organizations

12. NSSE Global Perspectives Module

 

Global Geneseo Peer Review Committee Report

 

Download the Peer Review Committee Report

 

Peer Review Committee Members

Elizabeth Brewer, Beloit College
Barbara Hill, American Council on Education
Susan Shipley, Shepherd University

This report is based on a visit to the State University of New York College at Geneseo (Geneseo) by an American Council on Education (ACE) peer review team on April 1-3, 2015. This report also draws upon several documents provided to the peer review team in advance: Global Geneseo Report, March 16, 2015 with all its appendixes and various other charts and publications.