<DOC>
[109th Congress House Hearings]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access]
[DOCID: f:20781.wais]
INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES IN HIGHER
EDUCATION
=======================================================================
FIELD HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON SELECT EDUCATION
of the
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
AND THE WORKFORCE
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
April 22, 2005 in Columbus, Ohio
__________
Serial No. 109-10
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and the Workforce
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/
house
or
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______
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COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
JOHN A. BOEHNER, Ohio, Chairman
Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin, Vice George Miller, California
Chairman Dale E. Kildee, Michigan
Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, Major R. Owens, New York
California Donald M. Payne, New Jersey
Michael N. Castle, Delaware Robert E. Andrews, New Jersey
Sam Johnson, Texas Robert C. Scott, Virginia
Mark E. Souder, Indiana Lynn C. Woolsey, California
Charlie Norwood, Georgia Ruben Hinojosa, Texas
Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan Carolyn McCarthy, New York
Judy Biggert, Illinois John F. Tierney, Massachusetts
Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania Ron Kind, Wisconsin
Patrick J. Tiberi, Ohio Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio
Ric Keller, Florida David Wu, Oregon
Tom Osborne, Nebraska Rush D. Holt, New Jersey
Joe Wilson, South Carolina Susan A. Davis, California
Jon C. Porter, Nevada Betty McCollum, Minnesota
John Kline, Minnesota Danny K. Davis, Illinois
Marilyn N. Musgrave, Colorado Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona
Bob Inglis, South Carolina Chris Van Hollen, Maryland
Cathy McMorris, Washington Tim Ryan, Ohio
Kenny Marchant, Texas Timothy H. Bishop, New York
Tom Price, Georgia John Barrow, Georgia
Luis G. Fortuno, Puerto Rico
Bobby Jindal, Louisiana
Charles W. Boustany, Jr., Louisiana
Virginia Foxx, North Carolina
Thelma D. Drake, Virginia
John R. ``Randy'' Kuhl, Jr., New
York
Paula Nowakowski, Staff Director
John Lawrence, Minority Staff Director
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON SELECT EDUCATION
PATRICK J. TIBERI, Ohio, Chairman
Cathy McMorris, Washington Vice Ruben Hinojosa, Texas
Chairman Danny K. Davis, Illinois
Mark E. Souder, Indiana Chris Van Hollen, Maryland
Jon C. Porter, Nevada Tim Ryan, Ohio
Bob Inglis, South Carolina George Miller, California, ex
Luis P. Fortuno, Puerto Rico officio
John A. Boehner, Ohio, ex officio
------
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on April 22, 2005................................... 1
Statement of Members:
Hinojosa, Hon. Ruben, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Select
Education, Committee on Education and the Workforce........ 3
Prepared statement of.................................... 5
Tiberi, Hon. Patrick J., Chairman, Subcommittee on Select
Education, Committee on Education and the Workforce........ 1
Prepared statement of.................................... 2
Statement of Witnesses:
Hills, Dr. Stephen M., Academic Director, Office of
International Programs, Fisher College of Business, The
Ohio State University, Columbus, OH........................ 18
Prepared statement of.................................... 19
Ladman, Dr. Jerry R., Associate Provost, Office of
International Affairs, The Ohio State University, Columbus,
OH......................................................... 6
Prepared statement of.................................... 9
Nesbitt, Donna, Executive Director, Center of Curriculum and
Assessment, Ohio Department of Education, Columbus, OH..... 24
Prepared statement of.................................... 26
Unzueta, Dr. Fernando, Director, Center for Latin American
Studies, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH........... 13
Prepared statement of.................................... 15
INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES IN HIGHER
EDUCATION
----------
Friday, April 22, 2005
U.S. House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Select Education
Committee on Education and the Workforce
Columbus, OH
----------
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2 p.m., in the
Assembly Hall Auditorium, Fawcett Center, 2400 Olentangy River
Road, Columbus, Ohio, Hon. Patrick J. Tiberi [Chairman of the
Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Tiberi and Hinojosa.
Staff Present: Alison Griffin.
STATEMENT OF HON. PATRICK J. TIBERI, CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON
SELECT EDUCATION, COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
Chairman Tiberi. A quorum being present, the Subcommittee
on Select Education of the Committee on Education and the
Workforce will come to order. We are meeting today to hear
testimony on international education and foreign language
studies in higher education. I would like to formally thank Dr.
Karen Holbrook and Ohio State University for hosting this
hearing today. I appreciate the hospitality. I am really
pleased to be here.
I want to again thank Barbara Synder for her opening
remarks and her officially welcoming us today. I know that her
leadership is a critical factor in this university's success
and as an alum I certainly appreciate that.
I know we are both eager to hear our witnesses but, before
I begin, I ask that unanimous consent for the hearing record
remain open for 14 days to allow member statements and other
extraneous material referenced during the hearing to be
submitted in the official hearing record. Without objection, so
ordered.
Good afternoon and welcome. On behalf of the House of
Representatives, Committee on Education and the Workforce, it
is my honor to welcome everyone to my alma mater, Ohio State
University, for today's hearing entitled ``International
Education and Foreign Language Studies in Higher Education.''
I would like to especially welcome and thank my friend and
college, Mr. Hinojosa, for his participation in this field
hearing today, and to our witnesses as well and thank them. I
would also like to recognize The Ohio State University for
hosting this first field hearing that this Subcommittee will
have this year. We will be in Texas in a couple weeks in Mr.
Hinojosa's district and we are looking forward to that.
I have prepared a formal opening statement that I will
submit for the record but just let me say in preparation for
the authorization of Title VI of the Higher Education Act, we
are here today to learn more about a variety of programs
authorized and funded by and under Title VI.
Continued Federal support for these programs reflects the
significance and growing relevance of language and area
studies, diplomacy, national security, and business
competitiveness. I believe international studies are a national
priority and we must encourage institutions of higher learning
and higher education to be more responsive to this reality
today.
The reauthorization of Title VI presents the immediate
opportunity to set an agenda for these programs as a strategic
necessity that will appeal to congressional interest and
congressional support.
Today I would like to use this opportunity to gain more
information about the various programs that are authorized
under Title VI and learn about how institutions of higher
learning and the general public benefit from the programs
within Title VI. The Federal investment in these programs is
significant and that is why we must ensure that the programs
are fulfilling the purpose for which they were originally
created.
Thanks again to our distinguished panel of witnesses for
their participation. I look forward to your testimony. One of
the unique things about our Subcommittee is that both the
ranking member and myself have very good experience with the
international community. Mine having been my parents who
immigrated from Italy, me being the first person in my family
to graduate from not only high school but college, this being
the college.
The combination makes this experience of chairing this
Committee and being on the Subcommittee very important, very
relevant. I will say that my distinguished colleague has a
wonderful story to tell of his own as well.
At this time I would like to yield to my colleague from
Texas, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee, my friend,
Congressman Hinojosa, for any comments he may have.
[The prepared statement of Chairman Tiberi follows:]
Statement of Hon. Patrick J. Tiberi, Chairman, Subcommittee on Select
Education, Committee on Education and the Workforce
Good afternoon, and welcome. On behalf of the House of
Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce, it is my
honor to welcome everyone to my alma mater, The Ohio State University,
for today's hearing entitled, ``International Education and Foreign
Language Studies in Higher Education.'' I would like to especially
welcome and thank my friend and colleague, Mr. Hinojosa, for his
participation in this field hearing, and to our witnesses as well. I
would also like to recognize The Ohio State University for hosting the
hearing today.
This subcommittee has jurisdiction over Title VI in the Higher
Education Act, which provides federal funds to colleges and
universities to support area studies, international education, and
foreign language studies. Congress created Title VI in the National
Defense Education Act of 1958 to address a sense of crisis caused by
U.S. citizens' lack of knowledge of other countries and cultures. This
program remains the federal government's leading mechanism for
supporting programs that produce Americans with expertise in foreign
languages and international studies, including international business.
In preparation for reauthorization, we are here today to learn more
about a variety of programs authorized and funded under Title VI.
Continued federal support for these programs reflects the significance
and growing relevance of language and area studies, diplomacy, national
security, and business competitiveness. There is a great need for
institutions of higher education to provide American citizens of all
ages the opportunity to learn more about world languages, cultures, and
international business. Today's integrated world and global marketplace
underscores the importance of training these specialists who can
provide assistance to the government, the private sector, and who can
communicate across cultures on our behalf. In addition, we are more
aware than ever that America's security needs require advanced
international knowledge and effective foreign language skills.
I believe international studies are a national priority and we must
encourage institutions of higher education to be more responsive to
this reality. Ignorance, misconceptions and miscommunications between
cultures are serious concerns for our nation. The perception of Western
culture in the Muslim world, for instance, is a great obstacle to
intercultural understanding. Conflicts are sometimes ignited by
insensitivity to local cultures and a lack of respect to national
identities and customs. For these reasons, among others, we need
colleges and universities to effectively provide students with a
broader and deeper knowledge of foreign languages and cultures.
Today, we want to gain more information about the various programs
that are authorized under Title VI. I would like to use this
opportunity to learn more about how institutions of higher education
and the general public benefit from the programs within Title VI.
Our success in heightening the interest of the federal government
and encouraging private partnerships will require that we address the
issue of outcomes. The federal investment in these programs is
significant, and that is why we must ensure the programs are fulfilling
the purpose for which they were created. The reauthorization of Title
VI presents the immediate opportunity to set an agenda for these
programs that encourages effective programs and innovative ideas. Our
challenge is to frame these critical programs as a strategic necessity
that will appeal to congressional interest and support.
Thanks again to our distinguished panel of witnesses for their
participation. I look forward to your testimony.
At this time I would like to yield to my colleague, Ranking Member
of the subcommittee, Mr. Hinojosa, for any comments he may have.
______
STATEMENT OF HON. RUBEN HINOJOSA, RANKING MEMBER, SUBCOMMITTEE
ON SELECT EDUCATION, COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I want to
thank you for calling this hearing today in the great state of
Ohio. I am delighted to have the opportunity to visit Chairman
Tiberi's alma mater and would like to thank him and the
university for the warm and cordial hospitality that they have
shown me and my staff during this visit.
I would like to commend The Ohio State University for its
commitment to international education. The witnesses' written
testimony paints a vivid picture of an institution of higher
learning fully engaged in the international arena.
I would like to take a moment of personal privilege and say
that I, too, like the Chairman, come from Mexican immigrant
parents who had 11 children and I happen to be No. 8 and we
learned about the importance of education. We learned good
working ethics and we both enjoy the work that we do in
Congress as a result of that.
I would also like to commend the university for its
participation in the College Assistance Migrant Program known
as CAMP. CAMP is a college program that supports the students
of migrant and seasonable farm workers during their first year
of college.
The fact that The Ohio State University has sought to host
a CAMP program speaks volumes to its commitment to expanding
access to higher education.It is my understanding that further
congratulations are in order. This year there are 20 new CAMP
program students here at the university. Next year that number
will grow to 27 as a result of those who have already signed
up.
The National Migrant Student of the Year recognized that
the National Migrant Education Conference in San Francisco,
California, is part of The Ohio State University CAMP program.
That student, Jamie Gwahatival also hails from Texas in my
congressional district and I tip my hat to the Buckeyes of Ohio
for having such a wonderful student on your campus.
As we know from world events, international education will
continue to grow in importance for our economy, for our
security, and our relationship with and understanding of the
rest of the world.
The New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, has just
written a book titled ``The World is Flat.'' His thesis is that
globalization is creating a world level playing field and that
all of us are competing and interacting on a global level.
Living on the U.S. Mexican border I have seen firsthand
that what I am talking about is of great importance to us in
Texas as it is to Ohio and the rest of our nation. Our area
exploded with opportunities for the signing of the North
American Free Trade Agreement. Today many of those border
industries are facing stiff competition from China, from India,
and other Pacific rim nations, as well as Central America and
South America.
I am pleased that we have this opportunity today to focus
on international education programs funded under Title VI of
the Higher Education Act. Our Subcommittee will take the lead
in developing the reauthorization of the key international
education programs.
These programs include the International and Foreign
Language Studies Programs that funds centers for area and
language studies, the business and international education
program that funds centers to promote the nation's capacity for
international understanding and economic enterprise. It also
funds the International Institute for Public Policy that is
designed to prepare students from minority-serving institutions
for careers in foreign affairs.
I am particularly interested in ways that we can leverage
the expertise of Title VI programs to inspire a new generation
of internationalists. It is my hope that we can spark interest
in foreign languages and international studies starting with
our elementary and secondary school students and sustain it
through their college careers.
In closing, Mr. Chairman, I want to say that I am looking
forward to hearing the testimony of the presenters and I thank
them for being with us today. You have a great Congressman in
Congressman Tiberi, an individual who is highly respected in
Washington for the commitment and passion that he has for
education in the workforce and the many Committees that he
serves on.
He talks about Ohio State University as the best in the
world. I tell him that the University of Texas at Austin is not
far behind. We have 50,000 students compared to your 60,000 and
we will soon catch up with you.
I look forward to the continued hearing that we are going
to have and see what I can learn so that we can catch up with
you.
I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Hinojosa follows:]
Statement of Hon. Ruben Hinojosa, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on
Select Education, Committee on Education and the Workforce
I would like to thank the Chairman for calling this hearing today.
I am delighted to have the opportunity to visit Chairman Tiberi's alma
mater and would like to thank him and the university for the warm
hospitality they have shown me and my staff during this visit.
I would like to commend the university for its commitment to
international education. The witnesses' testimony paints a vivid
picture of an institution fully engaged in the international arena.
I would also like to take a moment of personal privilege and
applaud the university for its participation in the College Assistance
Migrant Program (CAMP). CAMP is a program that supports the children of
migrant and seasonal farm workers during their first year of college.
The fact that The Ohio State University has sought to host a CAMP
program speaks volumes to its commitment to expanding access to higher
education. It is my understanding that further congratulations are in
order. The national migrant student of the year, recognized at the
National Migrant Education Conference in San Francisco, is part of the
Ohio State University CAMP program. That student, Jaime Guajardo, also
hails from San Juan, Texas--in my congressional district. I tip my hat
to the Buckeyes!
As we know from world events, international education will continue
to grow in importance for our economy, our security, and our
relationships with and understanding of the rest of the world. New York
Times Columnist Thomas Friedman has just written a book, titled The
World is Flat. His thesis is that globalization is creating a world-
level playing field and that all of us are competing and interacting on
a global level. Living on the U.S. Mexican Border, I have seen this
first hand. Our area exploded with opportunities with the signing of
NAFTA. Today, many of those border industries are facing stiff
competition from China and other nations.
I am pleased that we have this opportunity today to focus on the
International Education Programs, funded under Title VI of the Higher
Education Act. Our subcommittee will take the lead in developing the
reauthorization of the key international education programs.
These programs include the International and Foreign Language
Studies Program that funds centers for area and language studies, The
Business and International Education Program that funds centers to
promote the Nation's capacity for international understanding and
economic enterprise, and the International Institute for Public Policy
that is designed to prepare students from minority-serving institutions
for careers in foreign affairs.
I am particularly interested in ways that we can leverage the
expertise of the Title VI programs to inspire a new generation of
internationalists. It is my hope that we can spark interest in foreign
languages and international studies starting with our elementary and
secondary school students and sustain it through their college careers.
I am looking forward to hearing your testimony and thank you for
being with us today.
______
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you, Mr. Hinojosa. Now you can see
why he gets elected with wide margins in his district.
We are really pleased to have the distinguished panel that
we have with us today, witnesses. I, again, thank each of them
for coming. What I will do is introduce all of you and then I
will call on each of you to begin your testimony.
Our first panelist, Dr. Jerry Ladman, is the Associate
Provost for International Affairs and Professor in the
Department of Agriculture, Environmental, and Development
Economics at The Ohio State University. During his career Dr.
Ladman has been involved in academic projects in the Dominican
Republic, Bolivia, El Salvador, Ecuador, and Mexico.
He has served as a consultant to the World Bank and the
United States Agency for International Development, and
currently sits on the Executive Committee of the National
Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges
Commission on International Programs. Thanks, Dr. Ladman, for
being here today.
Dr. Fernando Unzueta. Dr. Unzueta is the Director of the
Center for Latin American Studies at The Ohio State University
and Associate Professor and Department Chair in the
university's Department of Spanish and Portuguese. His primary
research interest includes 19th Century Latin American
literature and culture and Spanish American literature and
history. He is the author of numerous publications.
He also is the Director of the Center for Latin American
Studies. He administers the Latin American Studies
Undergraduate National Resources Center and Foreign Language in
area studies fellowships, a Title VI grant from the U.S.
Department of Education. Thank you for being here, sir.
Dr. Stephen Hills. Dr. Hills is the Academic Director for
International Programs in the Fisher College of Business at The
Ohio State University. In his position he administers Ohio
State's Center for International Business and Research grant
from the Department of Education.
He is the author and co-author of numerous books and
articles on international business, the labor market, and
public policy, and has lectured at universities in Russia and
China. Thank you for being here.
Ms. Donna Nesbitt. Ms. Nesbitt currently serves as the
Executive Director of the Center of Curriculum and Assessment
at the Ohio Department of Education. In this position she
coordinates the Department's international projects including
agreements with sister states in China and Japan.
Over the course of her career she has cultivated an
expertise in Social Studies, been involved in projects in
Russia, South Africa, Germany, and Japan, and served as
Director of the Ohio Global Institute. Prior to joining the
Department Ms. Nesbitt taught school in Ohio for 24 years.
Before the panel begins I would ask that each of our
witnesses today please remember that they limit their
statements to around 5 minutes and just a reminder that your
entire written statement will be included in the official
hearing record.
With that, I would like to recognize Dr. Ladman to begin
the testimony. Dr. Ladman.
STATEMENT OF DR. JERRY R. LADMAN, ASSOCIATE PROVOST, OFFICE OF
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, COLUMBUS, OH
Dr. Ladman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome, Mr. Chairman
and the Ranking Member, to The Ohio State University. My task
today is directed to talking about the importance and impact of
the legislation. My written testimony covers considerable
material dealing with need which is a very important reason for
the importance. Both of you have indicated that quite well. I
don't think I will go over that.
But I would like to focus my comments more on what was
suggested by you. That is to say, we can see what the impact of
this legislation has been on a university like The Ohio State
University which, I think, is somewhat typical of many of the
land grant universities in the United States.
Before I say that, the legislation that you mentioned
before for the area studies programs, the foreign language
programs, the CIBER programs, and so forth, is spread over the
whole United States.
For example, in the National Resource Centers there was 121
National Resource Centers dealing with area studies and 23 more
that had the opportunity to offer the foreign language and area
studies fellowships. These are spread on 27 different states
plus the District of Columbia. There are 30 CIBERs in 22
different states and we have 14 National Foreign Language
Resource Centers.
Ohio State has been very fortunate in having each of these
different units represented on the campus with Title VI
support. To begin, I would like to talk about the impact
perhaps measured in terms of numbers and then I would like to
continue with what I consider to be probably even a more
important impact in terms of what it does for the university in
our capacity to train the students that you are so interested
in training and to carry out our outreach programs to the
community.
My colleagues will follow up with some of the details and
the larger picture at Ohio State. We have three centers right
now with Title VI funding, Latin America, Middle East, and
Slavic and Eastern European.
Of these three centers, which are three of the five we have
in the period of 203, 204, 193 different faculty members that
were affiliated with those three centers, 169 different events
that took place in the academic year on the campus that year.
We offered 633 language and area study courses that serve some
32,000 students, and we contributed to 31 different study
abroad programs which served 353 students.
One of the most important parts of the programs is the
ability to train graduate students more intensely in language
and we offered 59 fellowships that year and many of these
students were taking what you call less commonly taught
languages, lectals as they are commonly referred to. This is
very important because at Ohio State University we have a wide
variety of these less commonly taught languages to offer and
they are very popular among our students.
I mentioned our outreach program as being very important.
We are very proud in particular of our P-12 outreach program
reaching in this particular year these three centers alone over
4,000 students and over 1,000 teachers through 38 different
training workshops and seminars for the teachers.
In addition to that we held some 12 events for the
communities, seven for the business community, and also to our
local and state government several different events that helped
them become better informed about international activities.
That's the area studies. Dr. Hills will tell you more about the
CIBER program.
Let me tell you about another very important program that
is not included as a witness today but is very important to our
campus and that's the National East Asian Languages Resource
Center. This center was established in 1997 under the Title VI
and it has quickly been recognized as a leading program in the
United States in pedagogy dealing with teaching and learning of
East Asian languages.
They have published during this period of time nearly 300
books. I just learned this morning that yesterday Dupont
ordered 18 copies of the book of ``How to Deal with Language
and Culture in China'' that was published by the center which
tells you the type of reach it has to the business community.
Last year at an international competition in Beijing 80
people from 63 countries came to Beijing to compete in language
proficiency competition. I am proud to say that an Ohio State
student won first prize. A second student was in the top seven
so we feel we are doing quite well in this particular area.
This is a very important part of our program in terms of our
language capacity particularly in that part of the world.
Now I want to address the concept of the leveraging or the
capacity building because I think one of the most important
things that Title VI does it allows us to take the funds that
are provided by the Federal Government not only to put on these
programs that we do during the year which, by the way, I should
say we do in combination with other units on the campus. We
take $500, they contribute another $500 and we get $1,000 worth
of programming. That is what I mean by leveraging on an annual
basis.
But even on the longer run we do this from the point of
view of building capacity. For example, speaking from the point
of view of a campus, if a center gets Title VI status, it
immediately gives it legitimacy and presence on the campus
which means that other units on the campus call us around that
to bring their resources and talents to that. That is very
important.
One of the things that we most importantly do is develop
new courses. We see those courses being with Title VI money but
then, after that, the particular department picks up the course
and carries it on into the future. This is the way we get
going.
Now, when Title VI first came to our campus in 1964 with
the Slavic and Eastern European Center, there were six language
courses taught on our campus. Now we offer 38. Most of those
courses were developed because of the presence of Title VI
centers that encouraged that development over time.
The same could be said about bringing faculty to the
campus. We need faculty to teach the courses. We develop the
expertise. One of the reasons they come to our campus, new
hires, is because of the presence of Title VI.
We had on the campus a very large number of faculty who
contribute to the international mission. In addition to that in
this leveraging thing, there's a lot in terms of program
development. We had a Title VI Center for International
Studies.
That center no longer exists but there is a very important
remnant of that center and that's our International Studies
Undergraduate Program. We have over 500 majors in that program
and Angela is one of them we are very proud to say. But,
anyway, that program is expanding and growing and we get some
of the best freshmen enrolled in that particular program.
In addition, the presence of the East Asian Study Center
that I mentioned was very important in helping us bring to the
campus another important language program by the Department of
Defense under the NESP program for Chinese languages and so
forth.
I could go on, the library capacity, etc., but, anyway, it
has made a very important contribution.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Ladman follows:]
Statement of Dr. Jerry R. Ladman, Associate Provost, Office of
International Affairs, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Chairman Tiberi and other members of the Subcommittee, I want to
express my appreciation to you for holding this hearing dealing with
the importance of international education. It is especially pleasing to
have the opportunity to discuss this not only in a national context but
also to tell you how important international education and foreign
language training is for institutions of higher education, such as The
Ohio State University, in fulfilling our international mission. To
begin I would like to put the need for international education into the
current context, then to show the role of federal support, and finally
to indicate the importance and impact of these federal programs on
campuses, such as at Ohio State, in fulfilling our international
mission.
The phenomena of commerce and immigration across international
boundaries have been on-going ever since those boundaries were
established. There is no question, however, that the pace quickened
rapidly in the last half of the 20th Century and especially in the last
few decades with the diffusion of satellite technology and high-speed
information technology, such that there is almost instantaneous
dissemination around the globe of all manner of information, whether it
be personal, newsworthy events, cultural, financial markets or business
production or inventories. Indeed, the term multi-national corporation,
which was in such vogue some forty years ago, is almost archaic, as it
is generally understand that businesses around the world have become
inextricably linked in production, marketing and finance. As a result
of the technological advancement the peoples, countries and cultures of
world are increasingly and rapidly become much more close knit. Such a
world requires that societies be much more aware and understanding of
each other, their similarities and their differences. This need is
brought home to us almost daily as we assimilate the news about
internal ethnic or political conflicts within countries and try to
understand them in the context of their local cultures. We now know
that national security is not just about armed forces and military
hardware, but also it depends on an intimate understanding of other
societies, their cultures and their languages. International relations
have become more complex and there is increasing recognition that
nations must work together to deal with issues, such as pandemic
diseases and climate change, that do not recognize borders. These
phenomena require that our country train more professionals who have
the in-depth knowledge of the different foreign countries, their
societies and cultures as well as the ability to function well using
their languages. Moreover, there is another pressing and broader need
to expand and enhance the understanding of international matters and
other countries among the general population.
There is no doubt that our nation's colleges and universities have
the moral responsibility to prepare their graduates to be able to
function well in this increasingly globalized world, both as
professionals and as informed citizens. As stated above, on the one
hand there is a need to train specialists who have in-depth knowledge
of other countries in terms of their culture, history, economy,
political systems and international relations. These persons must also
be competent in the languages of these countries, which in many cases
are the less commonly taught languages that are not offered regularly
or widely among our institutions. On the other hand, it is important
that the colleges and universities provide all of their students with
sufficient international content coursework and experiences so that
they, too, even though they are not trained as specialists, can
function effectively in their chosen careers and as citizens in the
globalized world. For both of these groups of students, the Federal
Government's Title VI Program plays such an important and invaluable
role.
As is often the case it is specific events that drive the federal
agenda. After fighting two World Wars and returning to a desire for
isolationism, the rise of the Cold War caused us to become acutely
aware of the need to have professionals and our citizenry trained in
understanding of other countries, their languages and their cultures.
In 1958 and after the Soviet launching of Sputnik, Title VI was created
through the National Defense Education Act and was administered by the
Department of Defense. At that time the emphasis was on foreign
language training, and special funding was made available for
fellowships for this purpose. In 1961 with the passing of the Mutual
Education and Cultural Exchange Act (Fulbright-Hays Act) the scope was
expanded to include cultural, educational and technical exchange
activities as well as to strengthen education in the fields of foreign
languages and area studies in the American educational system. That
same year Title VI was transferred to the Department of Education. In
1986 a new section to the act was added to provide funding for a small
number of national language and resource centers to improve the
capacity for learning and teaching foreign languages. In 1988 the
Centers for International Business Education Program (CIBER Program)
was added to better prepare business students with international
business skills and foreign language training. Now, with 57 years under
its belt Title VI has been a most successful mechanism for training
specialists with strong language capabilities in area and international
studies.
As was Sputnik and the Cold War, the events of September 11, 2001
were another milestone event. Probably nothing in our nation's history
has indicated to the population at large how important it is to have
numerous professionals within the public and private sectors who are
trained in area studies and foreign languages, especially less-commonly
taught languages, such as Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Pashto, and Tajik.
Whereas it is obvious that this is important for matters of national
security, it is also generally recognized as important for the United
States in business and other matters. Following this tragic event the
Federal Government has responded in several concrete ways. There have
been annual joint declarations by the Secretaries of Education and
State for the celebration of a National International Education Week,
which underlines the importance of this component of the curriculum
across our schools and in higher education. There were increases in
appropriations in Title VI for area studies and business, especially in
providing for more Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS)
Fellowships, which are designed to increase the foreign language skills
of graduate students. Just this year both the House and the Senate
passed Resolutions for the Year of Foreign Languages, for which we are
most pleased that Representative Tiberi was a co-sponsor. Only recently
the Department of Defense announced a Plan to Improve Foreign Language
Expertise among its military and civilian employees. On another front,
Senator Christopher Dodd and others have introduced legislation for The
International and Foreign Language Studies Act of 2005 for the purpose
``To increase study abroad and foreign language study opportunities for
undergraduate and graduate students.'' Based on findings that show the
short fall of undergraduate and graduate students with international
and foreign language training, the proposed legislation would provide
considerable more funding for the Title VI Programs in area studies and
languages, CIBER and National Language Centers.
It is unfortunate that there was an issue in most recent proposed
legislation for the Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act that
became controversial because of concerns of a small minority of
persons, inside and outside of academia, who did not believe that in a
few instances that instruction on international matters at all
universities presented an unbiased view of some world events and U.S.
foreign policy. The proposed solution was to recommend the appointment
of an Advisory Committee with oversight over the Title VI Program. It
is not the purpose of this testimony to enter into this discussion,
except to say that we must be very careful about establishing a system
for Title VI that is restrictive of open discussion of all points of
view.
The spread of Title VI across the United States is vast. For the
area studies programs there are currently 121 national resource centers
and another 23 that offer FLAS Fellowships located in 27 states and the
District of Columbia. Combined these programs offer more than 1,600
FLAS Fellowships per year for language training for graduate and
professional school students. In the case of CIBER the numbers are 30
universities in 22 states. In addition there are 14 National Foreign
Language Centers dealing with foreign language pedagogy and learning.
Each of the above listed centers carries out the mission of the
legislation and has a significant impact on training not only our own
students, but also those of our school systems, communities and
businesses through outreach programs. It is also recognized that these
programs contribute to important research on international topics by
means of facilitating faculty and graduate student research and by
helping build the international collections of our university
libraries.
I would like to indicate to you the importance and impact of these
programs by telling you about Ohio State, which I believe is quite
typical of these programs at most other universities. I will be
concentrating on the bigger picture and several of my colleagues will
follow up with more details about the specifics of area studies, CIBER
and our K-12 outreach activities.
Ohio State currently has five area studies centers. The Slavic and
Eastern European Center was the first one established, and in 1964
received its first Title VI grant. Since then it has been followed with
Centers for East Asian Studies, Latin American Studies Middle East
Studies and African Studies. Each of these centers has or has had Title
VI support. Currently there are three: Latin America, Middle East and
Slavic and Eastern Europe. Our CIBER Program in the Fisher College of
Business has had continuous Title VI support since 1995. In 1997 our
National East Asian Language Resource Center was established with Title
VI support, and quickly became recognized as a leader in development of
pedagogy for these languages. Previously, there was an International
Studies Center that had a Title VI, but this has transitioned into an
Undergraduate International Studies Program, which is now one of our
most popular undergraduate majors. Therefore, we have a total of five
centers with current Title VI support and eight that have had it at one
time or another.
With respect to the importance and impact of Title VI support for
these programs, I would first like to share some facts that will
indicate the scope and depth of the program activities. I will limit my
remarks to some macro figures, since my colleagues will provide more in
depth detail and analysis. Second, and perhaps even more important, I
want to emphasize the impact that the Title VI Programs have had on the
University by ``leveraging'' the commitment of more resources, faculty,
programs and facilities that enable Ohio State to be much expansive and
successful in accomplishing both Ohio State's international mission and
that of Title VI.
In 2003-2005 our three funded National Resource Centers for area
studies had 193 affiliated faculty members; sponsored 169 academic and
cultural events at the University attracting over 6,000 participants;
contributed to 31 study abroad programs serving 353 students; offered
630 language and area studies courses with a total enrollment of some
32,000 graduate and undergraduate students; and awarded 59 FLAS
Fellowships, many for the study of less-commonly taught languages.
Outreach for the Ohio Community was very important. The P-12 programs
served over 4,000 lower, middle and upper school students by means of
classroom presentations; and the 38 teacher training workshops and
seminars reached more than 1,000 educators. The community program
featured 12 events serving 1,261 participants. Seven programs hosting
nearly 700 persons were held for the business community, seven programs
were mounted for the state and local government, which were attended by
242 participants. Professor Fernando Unzueta, director of the Center
for Latin American Studies, will provide more detail about a typical
center's activities and educator Donna Nesbitt will testify about the
importance and impact of the P-12 outreach programs.
The National East Asian Languages Resource Center is a national
leader in the development of pedagogy for teaching Chinese, Japanese
and Korean, which are considered among the languages that require the
longest time and most resources for Americans to learn. The Center's
approach is to teach the languages in a cultural context so that
students can function well in these countries, understand the media,
and use the languages to effectively delve deep into the understanding
of the cultures. A key component of the instruction is to spend time in
these countries through study abroad and internships. The Center
publishes widely circulated pedagogical books and other materials and
has an on-line site for exploring study abroad opportunities in East
Asia. From 1997-2004 it distributed more than 32,000 items to 49 states
and 140 countries. Its staff published 259 professional articles or
books. It has an extensive teacher training program, highlighted by an
intensive summer program. The Center was a catalyst in the development
of Ohio State's unique and state-of- the-art World Media and Culture
Center, which just opened this year incorporating the latest technology
for our teaching of foreign languages. A prominent feature is that
language students can watch real time television in many foreign
languages transmitted by satellite from the countries of origin.
The CIBER Program in the Fisher College of Business is another
example of international excellence. In 2004 it was ranked by the
Financial Times as 6th in the United States for international
experience and exposure within the MBA program. My colleague Professor
Stephen Hills, Academic Director of International Programs in the
Fisher College, will provide more information and detail about these
expansive and exciting activities. Suffice it for me to emphasize that
this program offers a wide range of programs serving the MBA and
undergraduate students and the business community.
As I stated above, it is not only the annual activities that our
centers carry out with Title VI support to train students in area
studies, business and foreign languages that are important, but also it
is the ``leveraging'' role which this support provides that enables the
University to build considerably even more our capacity to carry out
this mission. The fact that any one of the above centers was successful
in obtaining Title VI support immediately gave the program legitimacy
and a presence that was recognized on campus and opened the doors to
additional support from within the overall budget or with funds made
available by other academic units who partnered with the center. It is
best to illustrate by examples.
At the level of the individual event or activity, it is rare that
the sponsoring center uses only Title VI resources. In most cases, it
partners with other campus or off-campus units and receives support
from them, thus spreading the resource base and extending the scope of
persons served by the activity.
At the macro level the funding from Title VI is regularly used to
seed the development of new courses that bring additional area studies
or international content to the curriculum. Once these courses are
seeded and successful, then in the future the University picks them up.
It is no small stretch of the imagination to say over time, that Title
VI has been responsible for progressively adding a large portion of the
new international content and language courses to the curriculum. When
the first Title VI funds came to Ohio State there were only six foreign
languages taught, now we offer 38, including many of the most important
less-commonly taught languages from the Middle East, Asia and Eastern
Europe. At that time the international content course offerings were
sparse, now we have over 840. Certainly some of this would have
happened without Title VI, but it is clear that funding provided by
Title VI was a principal catalyst to bring it about. The recent
awarding of a National Education Security Program (NESP) grant by the
Department of Defense to the National East Asian Language Resource
Center is another example. If the foundation established by Title VI
had not been in place, it is very unlikely that this grant would have
come to Ohio State. The role of this Center in leveraging the
development of the World Media and Cultural Center is another case in
point.
The same can be said for study abroad. Each of our area studies
centers, CIBER and the National East Asian Language Resource Center are
active in promoting and developing new study abroad programs. For
example, each summer we now offer three to five language-focused study
abroad programs in China. Other centers offer similar programs. This
past year the Slavic and East European Center began a new Russian
language program in Tomsk, Siberia and the Latin American Center
instituted an intensive Portuguese course in Parana, Brazil. As part of
our P-12 outreach the centers have developed programs to take teachers
abroad in the summer. These are not only for language and culture, this
last year there was a program in Costa Rica for science and math
teachers and one is planned to study the ecology of the Amazon River
basin.
The funding from Title VI spawned the development of our
Undergraduate International Studies Program, which offers tracks for
each of the area studies programs as well on several thematic topics.
It is one of the most popular programs with over 500 majors and takes
pride in recruiting students whose SAT scores are considerably above
the average of the freshman class. There is now a proposal that
students following an area studies track can get a double major by
adding a second track, for example Homeland Security and Middle East
Studies, which will provide depth in both a region and a language as
well as the theme.
The area studies centers also contribute immensely to the
International Affairs Scholars Program, which is designed for a select
number of incoming freshmen across all disciplines but who have a
passion for international matters. Each of the centers presents
programming throughout the year for this group. Without the area
centers, this program would not have been established.
As the international and language curricula have expanded, it has
been necessary to add faculty to teach the subject matter. A presence
of a robust center that fosters an expanded curriculum creates
incentives for academic departments to hire additional faculty with
specializations that serve the center's need for instruction but also
increases the research capacity in international subject matter. More
than two-thirds of Ohio State faculty members have significant
professional experience overseas and they bring this knowledge into the
classroom. It should be noted that the presence of a center, especially
one with Title VI funding, is very attractive to bring outstanding
faculty who are being courted. For example, the Title VI status of
Latin America was essential in recruiting a new faculty member in
Geography several years ago. Just last week she received the
outstanding teaching award. The same center can take credit in helping
recruit a prominent senior faculty member in Latin American History.
There is no doubt that the centers can take credit for bringing some of
our best internationally-oriented faculty members to the campus and
helping to retain them and others.
The area studies centers play a key role in promoting
interdisciplinary research, not only within their respective regions,
but also across regions. Each year the centers collaborate, by bringing
the expertise of their region, to do scholarly activities on the theme.
For example, after September 11, there was a series of programs that
analyzed terrorism around the world. This past two years they have
examined Americanism and Anti-Americanism in different parts of the
world. Each center contributes to our major interdisciplinary research
programs on Climate Change and on Identities in a Changing World.
The University Library provides another example. Using Title VI
funds the centers contribute to the building of the collection. To
support area studies the library has hired bibliographers to help build
the collection and maintain reading rooms. The Library will undergo a
major renovation beginning next year. It should be noted that it will
devote one floor to the international collections and reading rooms,
which makes a major statement about the commitment of the Library for
the international collection.
Finally, I want to stress the importance of our outreach programs,
especially to the P-12 Community. Ohio State's Academic Plan lists P-12
outreach as one of our key objectives. The area studies centers, CIBER
and the National Resource Center for East Asian Languages all have
outreach to schools and educators in their mission. The University
takes great pride in using the vast resource base of expertise provided
by these centers to carry out this component of outreach. Without the
centers, and the Title VI support therein, it would not be possible to
be nearly as effective.
In closing, I hope that I have demonstrated the ever increasing
need for international education for our nation and its citizenry and
the role of the universities in the training of specialists with in-
depth skills in languages, area studies and business. The programs
offered by Title VI have been and continue to be critical to providing
this training to students in the classroom, through special events and
activities, and by offering the FLAS fellowships for language training.
It is important to realize that impact of this support goes much
further than this group of students. Many other students also take
advantage of the courses, languages, and programs offered by the
centers to become better informed and prepared for understanding
international matters. Moreover, the funds are leveraged to build
greater international capacity. In the short run we leverage the funds
with partners on campus and on-campus to carry out these activities. In
the long run the funds are leveraged to build curricula and facilities
and to attract faculty to our respective campuses.
There is much more to be accomplished within and across our
institutions of higher learning in properly preparing our students for
understanding and functioning well in our rapidly changing and
globalized world. Title VI has come a long way, but it is clear that
more resources could be most effectively used to help meet our nation's
needs for strengthening our national security and in preparing our
citizenry. I encourage the Congress to strongly consider the possible
means to bring this to reality.
______
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you for your testimony.
STATEMENT OF DR. FERNANDO UNZUETA, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR LATIN
AMERICAN STUDIES, THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, COLUMBUS, OH
Dr. Unzueta. Thank you, Mr. Chairman Tiberi, Ranking Member
Hinojosa. It is a pleasure to testify before you. The mission
of our Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) is to promote
the teaching, research, and intellectual interests of faculty
and students in all matters dealing with Latin America
including its languages and cultures.
In addition, we carry out meaningful outreach programs to
enhance the public's knowledge and understanding of the
region's politics, business, economics, culture, languages,
literatures, and arts.
Title VI funding has been crucial to help CLAS accomplish
its lofty mission in the four basic areas of curriculum,
programming, support services, and outreach.
In recent years, curricular contributions include new
courses such as Business Culture in Latin America,
Globalization in the region, and Brazilian Politics, to give a
few examples. To support language studies, we are developing a
new computer-based program in Portuguese individualized
instruction. Enrollments have jumped by 50 percent in the first
quarter this program has been implemented.
In all cases we use grant funds to seed courses which are
later fully supported and regularly taught by the departments.
About 20 percent of our grant funds in all go to enhance the
Latin American Studies curriculum.
Thanks to the FLAS fellowships, besides advanced Spanish
and Portuguese, several students learn Amerindian languages.
These fellowships account for about 50 percent of a typical
Centers' funding (about 30 percent in the case of our Center).
In an era with shortages of language specialists, the
contributions of universities with National Area Studies and
Foreign Language Resource Centers to meeting national needs can
not be underestimated.
Nationwide we provide 80 percent of all instruction in the
less commonly taught languages. Many of these languages would
simply not be available to U.S. students without Title VI
funding. Ohio State alone offers close to 40 languages and all
of those considered critical by several Government reports
including Arabic, Korean, Chinese, Persian, Russian, and
Portuguese to name a few.
But our contributions go way beyond the teaching of
languages. Our colleagues write textbooks, prepare teaching
resources, and conduct research on language acquisition that
are used for different teachers around the country. Plus
enriches students' educational experience and provides them and
the faculty with additional scholarly opportunities by
programming lectures, conferences, and other activities.
These events are free and open to the public and they are
usually the result of collaborations with multiple units across
campus. In other words, grant funds are used to leverage
resources from Departments and the university at large. About
10 percent of the grant funds this type of programming.
CLAS also supports the development of new study abroad
opportunities, fosters research in language and area studies,
and contributes to the library to improve its Latin American
holdings. About 300 OSU students and teachers go to Latin
America every year choosing from a range of different programs.
Approximately 20 percent of grant funds enhance the library
collection and research and study abroad opportunities.
The centers are fully engaged in outreach activities for
all of our constituencies. For preschool and elementary
children and their care givers, CLAS sponsors a Spanish story
times program in five public library systems in Central Ohio
and provides a traveling museum exhibit about the art and times
of Diego Rivera which is shipped to schools around the state
and as far as Alaska.
For the community at large we offer a book club, and film
series and other cultural events about Latin America. Much of
our outreach is directed to K-12 teachers who, in turn, will
take their experiences back to their students.
In the Global Hotspots program, CLAS collaborates with the
other Area Study Centers to run workshops for teachers that
provide background information and expert analysis about
countries presently in the news.
We have also been offering a Summer Seminar Abroad for
Spanish Teachers for the last 14 years. Last year this very
successful program was adapted to other disciplines and the
Mesoamerica for Teaching Math and Science program was launched
in collaboration with the College of Education. These are but a
sample of our outreach activities.
We aim both for breadth to reach a large number of
participants, and for depth, to allow smaller groups, teachers
in particular, to have a more thorough contact with a specific
aspect of Latin America or its languages and to help them
produce high-quality materials that they can use in their
classrooms. About 20 percent of grant funds are invested in
outreach activities.
In sum, I am convinced that the programs under Title VI of
the Higher Education Act are running well and that it is doing
great things through the Centers at Ohio State and around the
nation. We are meeting our mandated goals of enhancing the
quality of post-secondary education as well as the teacher
training priority of the program.
In particular, we are training language and area studies
specialists and our graduates are servicing the strategic needs
of the U.S. in private organizations, nonprofits, and public
agencies. Since many of our graduates go on to teach in
schools, colleges, and universities across the country, we are
also producing the next generation of teachers who will
continue expanding the field.
We are here for the long term. Training international and
language specialists takes years. I know this is our shared
goal and I hope you continue to let us help you achieve this
goal. Thus, I urge you to reauthorize and to enhance this
program. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Unzueta follows:]
Statement of Dr. Fernando Unzueta, Director, Center for Latin American
Studies, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member, for the opportunity to
testify. My name is Fernando Unzueta, and I am the Director of the
Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS), a National Resource Center
with Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships at Ohio State. I am
also Chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
The mission of our Center is to serve, facilitate, and stimulate
the teaching, research, and intellectual interests of faculty and
students in all matters dealing with Latin America. In addition, we
carry out meaningful outreach programs to enhance the public's
knowledge and understanding of the region's politics, business,
economics, culture, languages, literatures, and arts.
Over two dozen OSU Departments and other units teach and/or conduct
research on Latin America and Spanish and Portuguese languages. Title
VI funding has been crucial to help CLAS accomplish its lofty mission
in the four basic areas of curriculum, programming, support services,
and outreach.
CLAS supports the development of Latin American-content courses. In
recent years, CLAS'' curricular contributions include new courses such
as Business Culture, Globalization in the region, and Brazilian
Politics. To support language studies, we are co-sponsoring the
development of a new computer-based program in Portuguese
individualized instruction. This was launched in Spring of 2005 and
enrollments in that language have jumped by 50%. In all cases, we use
grant funds to seed courses which are later fully supported and
regularly taught by the Departments. We use about 20% of our grant
funds to enhance the Latin American Studies curriculum.
Thanks to the FLAS fellowships, besides advanced Spanish and
Portuguese, several students learn Amerindian languages in summer
programs with other Centers from around the country. These fellowships
account for about 50% of a typical Centers' funding (about 30% in our
Center). In an era of growing global competitiveness and with
increasing shortages of language specialists, the contributions of
Universities with National Area Studies and Foreign Language Resource
Centers to meeting national needs can not be underestimated. It is safe
to say that many of the less commonly taught languages would whither or
simply not be offered to U.S. students without Title VI funding. Ohio
State offers over 30 languages and all six ``critical'' languages
according to the 2002 GAO report of the United States Army (Arabic,
Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Persian, and Russian) as well as other
languages considered critical in different recent reports (such as
Portuguese, Urdu, and Pashto).
But our contributions go way beyond the teaching of languages. Our
colleagues write textbooks, prepare teaching resources, and conduct
research on language acquisition. Here in Columbus, we don't only put
our Spanish majors in contact with heritage speakers to develop their
skills, but a colleague is publishing on how best to use heritage
speakers as language resources. Similarly, at the same time Portuguese
individualized instruction is being developed, colleagues and a
graduate student working in computational linguistics are assessing how
students can best learn the language using technology.
CLAS enriches students' educational experiences and provides them
and the faculty with additional scholarly opportunities by programming
lectures, conferences, and other activities on Latin American topics.
These events are free and open to the public, and they are usually the
result of collaborations with multiple units across campus. In other
words, grant funds are used to leverage resources from Departments and
the University at large. In the past two years, all of the Area Studies
Centers have collaborated with the Mershon Center to organize
conferences on Violence and Conflict, and on Cultural Americanization
and Anti-Americanism. This year we held our Fourth Annual Ohio
Latinamericanist Conference, with 70 presenters (and 130 participants),
primarily from across the state. We feel it is incumbent on the only
Latin American National Resource Center in the state to provide a forum
to foster collaborations and the exchange of ideas among scholars from
the area. CLAS uses about 10% of its grant funds to support these types
of programming.
CLAS supports several other Latin America-related activities as
well, including the development of new study abroad opportunities,
fostering research in language and area studies, and contributing to
the Library. CLAS provides close to 10% of its grant monies to the
Library alone to improve its Latin American holdings. These resources,
in turn, are available to over 80 colleges and universities throughout
the state through the Ohio Link service, which ships books among
academic libraries within 72 hours. It is also worth mentioning that
about 300 OSU students and teachers go to Latin America every year
choosing from 40 different programs. These include language programs in
Cuernavaca or Quito, a NAFTA program outside Mexico City, others in
development and nutrition in the Dominican Republic, a service learning
experience in Nicaragua, teaching opportunities in Chile, and medical
rotations in several countries. Approximately 20% of grant funds
support contributions to the Library, research opportunities, and study
abroad activities.
Like all area study centers, CLAS is fully engaged in outreach
activities for all of our constituencies. For preschool and elementary
children and their caregivers, CLAS cosponsors a Spanish story times
program in five public library systems in Central Ohio, aiming to
promote the language and literacy at an early age. This program has
received corporate funding and a grant from the State Library of Ohio,
which also selected it as one of five ``exemplary programs'' in the
state. It reached over 3,000 participants last year, and Title VI
funding accounts for less that 15% of this program's expenses, which
has grown to $40,000 per year. Another successful initiative for
schools, reaching about 4,000 participants, is our Traveling Museum: an
exhibit about the art and times of Diego Rivera which is shipped to
schools around the state and as far as Alaska. CLAS also sends
international students to speak at schools and community events, either
as a function of its Speakers Bureau or in collaboration with the
Office of International Affairs' similar Global School Bus program. For
the community at large, we offer a Book Club of Latin American
literature in translation as well as a film series and other arts
events.
Much of our outreach is directed to K-12 teachers who, in turn,
will take their experiences back to their students. In the Global
Hotspots program, CLAS collaborates with the other ASCs to provide
background information about any of the regions' crises that is in the
news. This past year 45 teachers participated in the 5 session workshop
to receive support producing lesson plans for their courses. We have
also been offering a Summer Seminar Abroad for Spanish Teachers for the
last 14 years, where teachers can take graduate courses in a Latin
American country. This past summer, this program was adapted to other
disciplines and the Mesoamerica for Teaching Math and Science program
was launched in collaboration with the College of Education.
Participants took two graduate courses in Mexico and studied the
advancements of pre-Columbian civilizations and developed teaching
materials as a result of their experiences. These are but a sample of
our outreach activities. We aim both for breadth to reach a large
number of participants, and for depth, to allow smaller groups,
teachers in particular, to have a more thorough contact with a specific
aspect of Latin America or its languages and to help them out produce
high-quality materials that they can use in their classrooms. About 20%
of grant funds are invested in outreach activities.
I have also been asked to include recommendations as you consider
the reauthorization of Title VI of the Higher Education Act. I do so
with some hesitation, since I know this is a politically charged topic.
First of all, I am convinced the program is running well and that
it is doing great things through the Centers at Ohio State and around
the nation. We are meeting our mandated goals of enhancing the quality
of and access to postsecondary education as well as the teacher
training priority of the program. In particular, we are training
language and area studies specialists. And since many of our graduates
go on to teach in schools, colleges, and universities across the
country, we are also producing the next generation of teachers who will
continue expanding the field. We're here for the long-term. And that's
the way it has to be: training international and language specialists
takes years. I know this is our shared goal, and I hope you continue to
let us help you achieve this goal.
Since you are considering changes to the program, and an
international advisory board in particular, I will stick out my neck to
suggest that this board, with broad investigative powers, may not the
best solution. It is expensive, its origins and composition invite
politization, it hints at federalizing education, and it is ultimately
unnecessary. We welcome accountability, and the programs and Centers we
run are extensively and regularly evaluated. The personnel of the US
Department of Education provide appropriate oversight and receive our
detailed reports. At Ohio State, each Center has its own advisory board
or committee and prepares annual reports for the Office of
International Affairs. The OSU Research Foundation, which handles our
budget, makes sure all of our grant expenditures meet the award's
guidelines and requirements as well as the University's. As it is
common in all academic institutions, at Ohio State every course is
evaluated by students; several are assessed by peers, and you don't
really want to know how many internal and external evaluators examine
everything you have written and your students' comments of your classes
when you come up for promotion.
If you want to implement changes in the program, I would suggest
the best and most reasonable way to go about it might be by changing
the priorities (both absolute and invitational) and guidelines of the
grant competition. The grant proposals are what shape our programming,
activities, and our expenditures. Those proposals, as you probably
know, are evaluated by a team of area and language specialists, under
US Department of Education supervision. If we receive the award, our
revised budgets have to be approved by the able staff of the US DE
before the beginning of the funding cycle. In addition, before each
annual renewal, we have to submit, as mentioned, reports detailing our
activities and justifying any departures from the original proposal, as
well as another revised budget for the following year.
In closing, I would like to state that I deeply appreciate the
Congressional leadership in support of these programs and respectfully
urge you to continue this valuable and widely-supported investment in
the nation's future. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to
testify.
______
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you, sir.
STATEMENT OF DR. STEPHEN M. HILLS, ACADEMIC DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS, FISHER COLLEGE OF BUSINESS, THE OHIO
STATE UNIVERSITY, COLUMBUS, OH
Dr. Hills. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Hinojosa. I am
pleased to provide this testimony about the OSU CIBER funded by
the U.S. Department of Education funded by the U.S. Department
of Education through Title VI. The OSU CIBER currently receives
about $370,000 in funding per year and is in its 10th year of
continuous support.
Since 1995 9,600 students, faculty, or business
professionals benefited directly from the OSU CIBER. Those
benefiting indirectly (i.e., students in classes taught by
faculty who have received curriculum development support or
joint partnerships with other CIBERs) are difficult to count
but no doubt number in the many thousands.
Seven totally new and ongoing courses have been developed
from the initiative of the CIBER and many more have been
globally enhanced. More than 100 faculty members from OSU and
other Ohio institutions have received teaching and/or research
grants.
The OSU CIBER is known nationally for its focus on
assisting foreign language faculty from across the country in
understanding more about the language of business. An annual
summer development workshop hosted at the OSU CIBER has trained
more than 150 foreign language professionals.
The OSU CIBER has also introduced a series of language
tutorials for MBA students in 1997. These tutorials have been
taught in nine languages. The objective of this program is not
to impart language proficiency but rather to reduce the
hesitations that students often have when they begin to acquire
language skills.
For more advanced proficiency, these students are
encouraged to continue their study through Title VI funded
Foreign Languages and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships. OSU also
offers individualized instruction, as Fernando and Dr. Ladman
have mentioned, in several languages, including those less
commonly taught. Development of the Japanese individualized
instruction program was funded directly by the CIBER.
Projects co-sponsored with other CIBERs, other Title VI
centers at OSU, other Ohio higher educational institutions or
businesses increased and leverage the impact of the OSU CIBER.
Since the CIBER initiated its activities in 1995, collaboration
with government agencies, including the U.S. Department of
Commerce and The Ohio Department of Development's International
Trade Division, have increased significantly.
As evidence, the OSU CIBER received the Ohio Governor's E
Award for Excellence in Exporting award in 2002. There are
currently 30 National CIBER centers in the United States. Each
of the CIBER centers has as its goal to increase international
competitiveness of American business.
CIBER programs at The Ohio State University have been built
around the broad theme stated in each proposal. In its first 3
years, CIBER activities emphasized the emerging markets of the
world and their critical importance to the U.S. During its
second 4-year grant, the CIBER promoted a wide set of
activities designed to benefit and learn more about the
globalization of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). The
current grant for 2002 to 2006 is focused on managing global
strategic alliances.
Prior to the mid 1990's, no one person in Fisher College
was solely responsible for the college's international program
development. CIBER has facilitated the appointment of a faculty
director and a full time professional staff director.
The Office of International Programs at Fisher College is
now supported by four other part or full-time staff members and
several student assistants. Such growth in support of global
programming is directly attributable to the CIBER.
The OSU CIBER has supported significant research projects
within the Fisher College, at OSU, and across the region.
Fisher College's faculty are now ranked #1 in the U.S. for
management research on China and are also highly regarded in
terms of managerial research on Eastern Europe.
This represents a very significant change from the mid
1990's. Fourteen of the Fischer College faculty now have
predominant global research interests. The presence of the
CIBER at OSU has helped attract internationally oriented
researchers to the college.
Title VI funds have been used effectively through their
support of the OSU CIBER. Its impact on the university, the
state, and throughout the region has been significant and
cannot be underestimated. We strongly encourage the U. S.
Committee on Education and the Workforce to continue its
support of Title VI programming, and in particular that which
funds the national Centers for International Business Education
and Research, the CIBER.
We strongly endorse the Title VI reauthorization
recommendation sent to your Committee by the Coalition for
International Education, a group of 35 national higher
education associations.
I might add that I have been at Ohio State for 30 years now
and I have seen all this happen. I also have been the co-
principal investigator for the CIBER since its initiation so I
am very proud of the progress we've made and we have done that
very much in collaboration with you. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Hills follows:]
Statement of Dr. Stephen M. Hills, Academic Director, Office of
International Programs, Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State
University, Columbus, OH
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:
My name is Stephen M. Hills. I am Academic Director for
International Programs at the Fisher College of Business and Co-
Principal Investigator for the OSU CIBER.
Thank you for your presence here today at The Ohio State
University. We are pleased to provide this testimony about the Center
for International Business Education & Research (OSU CIBER), funded by
the U.S. Department of Education through Title VI. The OSU CIBER
currently receives $370,850 in funding (September 2004 to October 2005)
and is in its 10th year of continuous support.
IMPACT
The OSU CIBER, funded since 1995, has had a critical impact on the
internationalization of The Fisher College of Business. Its impact, in
addition, has been felt across the OSU campus, among the many
institutions of higher education in Ohio, and through the business
community in Ohio. Also, through its partnership and affiliation with
other national CIBER centers, its programmatic efforts have had
national impact.
Since 1995, individuals (students, faculty, or business
professionals), directly participating or benefiting from the OSU CIBER
number more than 9,600 (see Appendix 1). Those benefiting indirectly
(i.e., students in classes taught by faculty who have received
curriculum development support or joint partnerships with other CIBER)
are difficult to count but no doubt number in the many thousands.
Totally new (ongoing) courses developed from the initiative of the
CIBER are seven, and many more have been globally enhanced. More than
100 faculty members from OSU and other Ohio institutions have received
teaching and/or research grants.
One of the things for which the OSU CIBER is particularly known
(among national CIBERs) is its focus on assisting foreign language
faculty from across the country in understanding more about ``the
language of business''. An annual summer development workshop hosted at
the OSU CIBER has trained more than 150 foreign language professionals.
Understanding that business students need more training in foreign
language, the OSU CIBER introduced a series of language tutorials for
MBA students in 1997. These tutorials have been taught in nine
languages. The objective of this program is not to impart language
proficiency but rather to reduce the hesitation and challenges these
students often have to begin to acquire language skills. For more
advanced proficiency, these students are encouraged to continue their
study through Title VI funded Foreign Languages and Area Studies (FLAS)
fellowships. OSU also offers individualized instruction in several
languages, including those less commonly taught, and the Japanese
program's development was funded directly by the CIBER. Projects co-
sponsored with other CIBERs, other Title VI centers at OSU, other Ohio
higher educational institutions or businesses within Central Ohio
greatly increase and leverage the impact and reach of the OSU CIBER.
Since the CIBER initiated its activities in 1995, collaboration with
government agencies including the U.S. Department of Commerce and the
Ohio Department of Development's International Trade Division, have
increased significantly, thereby increasing the efficacy of the CIBER
and increasing the economic benefit to students and the business
community. As evidence, the OSU CIBER received the Ohio Governor's
``E'' Award for Excellence in Exporting award in 2002.
BACKGROUND
The Center for International Business Education & Research (CIBER)
at OSU's Fisher College of Business was established in late 1995. Its
home is The Ohio State University, a university with a long and rich
history in areas of international learning and understanding. Following
rounds of competitive evaluation, it was refunded in 1998 and in 2002.
The OSU CIBER will compete for this national center of excellence
designation again in 2006.
There are currently 30 national CIBER centers in the United States,
each committed to enlarging the sphere of teaching, research, and
outreach undertaken on their campuses and in their communities in the
area of international business development. Each of the CIBER centers
has at its core the goal of increasing international competitiveness,
business language acumen, global trade expertise, and area studies
competency. Programs are directed to undergraduate, graduate and Ph.D.
students within colleges of business as well as elsewhere on campus; to
faculty from throughout the university, and to executives and
professionals within business communities.
CIBER programs at The Ohio State University have been part of an
envelope of activities encompassing a broad theme stated in each
proposal. In its first three years, CIBER activities were connected to
an overarching theme of ``Emerging Markets'', and the OSU CIBER was one
of the first to propose a broad set of programs targeted to gaining
knowledge and expertise about these dynamic and expanding economies of
the world. During its second four-year grant, the CIBER promoted a wide
set of activities designed to benefit and learn more about the
globalization of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). With a
majority of Ohio's businesses classified as SMEs, understanding more
about how these organizations become active within the global trade
community was meaningful and important. The proposal written for 2002-
2006, while continuing to promote learning in each of the first two
areas renewed its commitment to international activity under the theme
of ``global strategic alliances''. This was and is an area that was
broad enough to bring all facets of the business school and university
area studies expertise together, and one that would leverage some of
the distinct competencies of the Fisher College of Business.
KEY PROGRAMS
Several ``hallmark'' programs have been developed in the area of
curriculum, research, and outreach at the OSU CIBER, including some
collaboration with other CIBERs around the country. A few of these
include:
Outreach and Collaboration
Summer Development Program for Foreign Language Faculty. The OSU
CIBER has been host for the past six years for a program called,
``Inside the MBA Classroom: Business Concepts and Pedagogy for Foreign
Language Faculty and Professionals''. This program seeks to assist
foreign language professionals in gaining further understanding of the
ways in which professional and business students are used to learning,
so that they can be more effective in the classroom with these
students. Many foreign language faculty have never taken business or
professional classes themselves; they understand that the ``language of
business'' is different. This program seeks to bridge the gap between
foreign language and business classrooms. This program is co-sponsored
with six other national CIBER centers.
University of Illinois National Security Conference. The OSU CIBER
was a key co-sponsor of the IU CIBER National Security Conference in
2003. The two-day conference included panels and speakers addressing
both applied and academic topics. Attendees numbered more than one
hundred. The OSU CIBER continues to develop its own agenda in the area
of national security as well as partners with other national CIBERs in
national security initiatives.
National Trade Policy Forum. The OSU CIBER is one of several that
sponsor the CIBER National Trade Policy Forum. First held at UNC-Chapel
Hill in 2003, the National Trade Policy Forum brings together state
government officials to discuss new international trade patterns and
how to implement adjustments in local markets to maintain and increase
national competitiveness. The National Trade Policy Forum is scheduled
to be hosted in Columbus by the OSU CIBER in 2008.
National CIBER Language Conference. This national conference has
been hosted and financially supported by nearly every CIBER for the
past several years. Bringing together foreign language faculty from
across the country, the conference seeks to develop new ways to make
language, especially less commonly taught languages, accessible to
business and professional students across the country. The conference
is attended by faculty from throughout the U.S. Many faculty from
institutions that do not have CIBERs are sponsored by CIBERs within
their regions to attend. The National CIBER Language Conference is
slated for Columbus at the OSU CIBER in 2007.
TARGET. Begun in 1998, TARGET is a business networking group for
executives representing small and medium sized companies wanting to
grow their international revenues. TARGET groups meet every two months
to discuss challenges in the global marketplace and to hear from
experts about ways to make the most of international opportunities. In
2003 the OSU CIBER partnered with Wright State University to launch a
TARGET group in Dayton and with OSU's Mansfield campus to launch a
group there. This year, TARGET will begin in Cleveland, in partnership
with Cleveland State University. TARGET, which stands for ``To Aim and
Realize Global Expansion Together'' has involved more than 75 Ohio
companies as participants or as guest speakers.
Mid-Ohio Faculty International Network (MOFIN). MOFIN is a group of
nine Ohio colleges and universities formed by the OSU CIBER to provide
impetus for increased global program development. The MOFIN group
creates a vehicle for the OSU CIBER to push its resources out to
college students throughout the state of Ohio. The CIBER awards MOFIN
institutions small grants at least once during the CIBER funding cycle
to create new curriculum or outreach projects on their campuses.
Current MOFIN members, who meet once each year as a group at OSU to
discuss their programs and progress, include Ohio Northern University,
Hocking College, Cleveland State University, Columbus State Community
College, Wright State University, Ashland University, Ohio Dominican
University, and Otterbein College.
Curriculum
The MBA Emerging Markets Field Study (EMFS) course. This course
began in 1995, and proposed to teach students about the historic,
political, business, and economic environment of one of the world's Big
Emerging Markets. As students were learning, they would also be charged
with the responsibility of communicating with a business operating in
that market for purposes of establishing a site visit for the class.
Following the winter quarter offering, students would travel to that
market over spring break, spending one day in each of the site visit
companies, talking with managers and executives about the opportunities
and challenges of doing business in that market, with particular
emphasis on its global trade and competitiveness positions. To date,
nearly 400 Fisher College MBA students have participated in EMFS
courses, traveling to more than 20 countries around the world including
China (three times), Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa
(twice), Namibia, Argentina (twice), Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Chile
(twice), Panama, Costa Rica, Poland, Hungary (twice), Czech Republic,
Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, and Turkey. Many of the companies visited on the
EMFS trips are ones that commonly recruit Fisher College students for
permanent positions (i.e., Ford, P&G, Coca-Cola) while others have been
much smaller, local businesses striving to become part of the global
economy.
The EMFS course expanded from one to two sections in 1998 in order
to better meet student demand, and a section for undergraduate students
was added in 1999.
The Export/Import Management course, for undergraduate honors
students, was begun in 2000. The course ``matches'' a class of Fisher
College students at OSU with a similar class of students at an
international partner school. The class is team-taught between Fisher
College faculty member and one at the partner school. Local companies
are recruited to participate as case studies. The students at OSU then
work on behalf of the local companies to learn about the intricacies of
exporting and to act as ``export agents'' for the local companies, all
of whom have expressed interest in learning more about the market of
study. Students at the partner school act as ``import agents'' helping
the companies find local distributors, suppliers, or customers for
their products and learning first-hand about the challenges associated
with doing international business. Students meet and learn to work with
one another through regular video conferences. The Export/Import
Management class has been taught using partner classes in both South
Africa and Mexico.
The Distinguished International Speaker Series offers a wide
variety of options for MBA students to hear from individuals whose
primary vocation is global business, or who represents a foreign
company or government. The informal, lunchtime CIBER-sponsored series
has brought more than 60 presentations to Fisher College. Presentations
and speakers are often co-sponsored with one or more of OSU's area
studies centers, in order to leverage costs and widen the scope
students who are able to participate.
Fisher College Faculty Seminar in South Africa. In June 2005 a
group of 10 Fisher faculty, including the CIBER faculty director and
Dean Joseph Alutto, will travel to Cape Town and Johannesburg, South
Africa. The purpose of the trip is to continue to provide international
exposure for faculty from several different departments to areas of the
world with which they are less familiar. The University of Cape Town
and its business school faculty will be prominent partners in this
agenda, and discussions will center on ways to deepen and extend
collaboration between the two institutions.
MBA Foreign Language Tutorials. Recognizing that an exposure to
foreign language and culture is critical for future business leaders,
the CIBER introduced foreign language tutorials for MBA students in
1997. Offered to groups as small as four students and utilizing
instructors from OSU's many and diverse foreign language departments,
the tutorials are offered every quarter. The one-quarter, non-credit
tutorials offer students an opportunity to gain initial exposure to a
new language and culture, and also to highlight the rich capabilities
at OSU in language and area studies. Foreign language tutorials have
been offered in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese,
Japanese, Polish, and (new this year) Hindi.
Research
The Global Competence Awards, established for Fisher College of
Business faculty, are offered by the CIBER on an annual basis. Faculty
and Ph.D. students in business are invited to submit proposals for new
research in the area of international trade and competitiveness;
research that could lead to publication within peer-reviewed journals.
Since the inception of the GCA awards, more than 30 research awards
have been distributed leading to 15 publications and many more academic
presentations. Projects have included the support of design and trial
of a global logistics simulation, and the support of a new textbook
written by Professor Oded Shenkar, ``The Chinese Century.''
Faculty Research Conferences. A Global Strategy Conference and a
Conference on Organizational Learning, among others, have been
sponsored by CIBER. In the Global Strategy Conference, twenty of the
world's leading researchers in the area of global strategy were invited
to OSU for a two-day academic seminar. New research was debuted and
discussed, and an official proceedings was distributed. Several of the
papers presented at the Global Strategy Conference (2002) have been
published in top-tier journals in that field. Similarly, the
Organizational Learning conference brought more than a dozen faculty
from multi-disciplinary areas together to discuss organizational
learning in an international context. Papers were selected, presented,
and published in a proceedings and the conference provided faculty from
across the area to meet and discuss this shared research interest.
Academy of International Business Global Frontiers Conference. The
OSU CIBER is an active participant and sponsor of the AIB Global
Frontiers Conference, which is held every year and develops new
directions for research in international business. Faculty from Fisher
College, including Professor Mona Makhija and Professor Mike Peng, have
been among the key presenters at these research conferences.
Cross-Cultural Language and Negotiation Simulations have been
sponsored by the OSU CIBER, allowing faculty and students at all levels
to learn more about international business and negotiating in different
cultural settings. Simulations are written so that participants can
learn through role play. The OSU CIBER has funded a Chinese simulation,
while other national CIBER have funded others in different languages
and/or cultural settings.
New Programs in 2004-2005
Several new initiatives are taking place in the 2004-2005 academic
year. These include:
Learning the ABC's: Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. This day-long
seminar in September 2004 brought 75 business executives and experts
together to discuss the dynamic business markets in Argentina, Brazil,
and Chile. The program was held at Fisher College in collaboration with
the Ohio Department of Development's InternationalTrade Division and
the U.S. Department of Commerce Export Assistance Center in Columbus.
Department of Commerce officials in each of these three countries
``ATTENDED'' the seminar via live video conference and participated in
panel and other discussions with executives interested in learning more
about the export opportunities in these countries.
The First Annual CIBER Case Challenge. Twelve teams of
undergraduate students from throughout the U.S. and the world came to
Fisher College to compete in this first annual event. Executives and
alumni from OSU served as judges WHILE teams of students analyzed and
presented TO THEM a new business research case. The event offered an
opportunity for business students to apply classroom learning in a very
real sense and to receive feedback from corporate executives about the
accuracy of their perceptions and conclusions. The event, taking place
in November 2004, was won by the team from Brigham Young University.
The next CIBER Case Challenge will take place in October 2005.
You Can Go Global! A Program for OSU Minority Students. On April
22, 2005 a morning panel discussion and luncheon keynote will offer
minority students from across campus the opportunity to learn more
about the advantages of having an international experience while a
student at OSU. A morning panel of executives will offer students a
snapshot of the advantages of having a second language, undertaking
study abroad, participating in a short term global study project, or
doing an international internship. The panel will be followed by a
keynote luncheon speaker, Ms. Donna Alvarado, former U.S. Deputy
Assistant Secretary of Defense and current member of the Ohio Board of
Regents. The program is sponsored by the CIBER, the Office of Minority
Affairs, the Office of International Education, the Center for Latin
American Studies, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the Center for
Slavic and East European Studies, and the Fisher College Minority
Student Services office. A small grant for the program was provided by
NAFSA.
Additional CIBER Impact
Study Abroad. In the first few years following OSU's CIBER
designation, an effort was undertaken to provide MBA and Undergraduate
Fisher College students with high quality options to study abroad
around the world. As of 1999, no MBA students from the Fisher College
engaged in study abroad activity and the college had no ongoing global
partners with international ranking. Now, 18 MBA partners and 13
undergraduate partners, all considered among the best business schools
in the world, are actively engaged with Fisher College. Between 10 and
20 percent of all full time MBA students now complete a study abroad
within their two year programs, and nearly 75 MBA students have lived
and studied abroad since 2000.
Prior to the mid 1990s, no one person in Fisher College was solely
responsible for the college's international program development. CIBER
has facilitated the appointment of a faculty director and a full time
professional staff director. The Office of International Programs at
Fisher College is now supported by four other part or full time staff
members and several student assistants. Such growth in demand and
supply of global programming is directly attributable to the CIBER. Its
long term impact on the college and across the OSU campus should not be
underestimated.
As mentioned above, CIBER has supported significant research
projects within the Fisher College, at OSU, and across the region.
Supporting faculty as the work and travel abroad in global business
arenas is an important function of the center. Fisher College's faculty
are now ranked 1 in the US for management research on China and are
also highly regarded in terms of research on Eastern Europe. This
represents a very significant change from the mid 1990s. We now count
among the Fisher College faculty 14 members as having predominant or
strong global research interests. The presence of the CIBER at OSU has
helped attract internationally oriented researchers to the college.
Student demand for new programming in international areas continues
to exceed supply and pushes the OSU CIBER to new heights. Working
together with other OSU Title VI centers; nationally with other CIBERs;
and within the US with other higher educational institutions, the OSU
CIBER looks forward to creating and implementing significant projects
to assist US business in maintaining competitiveness across the world.
In Conclusion
Title VI funds have been used effectively through their support of
the OSU CIBER. Its impact on the university, the state, and throughout
the region has been significant and cannot be underestimated.
We strongly encourage the U. S. Committee on Education and the
Workforce to continue its support of Title VI programming, and in
particular that which funds the national Centers for International
Business Education & Research.
Appendix 1
Statistics Used to Calculate Direct Impact of the OSU CIBER:
(Does not include co-sponsored programs)
Students:
MBA Foreign Language Tutorials, 135
EMFS MBA Students since 1995, 400
EMFS UG Students since 1998, 144
DISS Students since 1996, 2,880
Export/Import Management Class, since 2000, 150
Study Abroad MBA students since 2000, 90
CIBER Case Challenge 2004, 80
Faculty:
Global Competence Awards, 80
Foreign Language Faculty Development Program, 150
Faculty Research Seminars, 100
MOFIN Seminars, 15 faculty grantees
Business Community:
Ohio Global Trade Conference 1998, 150
Asian Financial Crisis Conference, 1997, 75
Argentina, Brazil, Chile 2004, 75
Second Generation China 2003, 75
Africa Trade Conference 2002, 50
Latin American Studies Center/CIBER Conference, 30
Ohio Governor's Trade Mission Briefing, 50
East Asian China Conference, 50
Ohio Governors Trade Mission Briefing, 50
TARGET Columbus, Dayton, Mansfield, 200 business professionals
Fisher Council on Global Trade and Technology (Bush, Sr.;
Gorbachev; Ford,), 4,500
Cullman Symposium 1997, 250
Total: 9,669
______
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you. So you were here when I was
here.
Dr. Hills. Yes, I was.
Chairman Tiberi. Thanks for your testimony.
STATEMENT OF DONNA NESBITT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CENTER OF
CURRICULUM AND ASSESSMENT, OHIO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION,
COLUMBUS, OH
Ms. Nesbitt. Good afternoon, Chairman Tiberi and Ranking
Member Hinojosa. On behalf of State Superintendent Susan
Zelman, I am pleased to have the opportunity to testify before
this Committee on the importance of international education in
the K-12 arena. K-12 also recognizes how international
education is critical to the United States.
Our economy, our security and our survival depend on
interactions with citizens of other countries. It is estimated
that one-sixth of the jobs in this country are tied to
international trade. Globalization, with both its positive and
negative impacts, is a reality.
Global competence of students in classrooms today is vital
if the United States is going to maintain its status in the
world of the 21st century. Within the last 4 years the State
Board of Education in Ohio has adopted academic content
standards in seven areas:
English, Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies,
Science, Foreign Language, the Arts and Technology. These
standards contain significant opportunities for making
international connections in the K-12 classroom and for
highlighting global issues.
Each content area also has model curricula which helps
educators gain a deeper understanding of the standards. Many of
the exemplar lessons in the model curricula which are available
electronically on our Instructional Management System have an
international focus.
In addition to that we have an assessment system in the
State of Ohio that measures student progress on the standards.
Our new Ohio Graduation Test in Social Studies contains world
history, something that was never measured by our former Ninth
Grade Proficiency Test.
Teachers currently in the workforce must maintain and
expand their expertise on international issues through
continuing education. Imagine the case of a teacher who
graduated from college just fifteen years ago. At that time the
Berlin Wall had just fallen and the Soviet Union was intact.
The world map at the time that this teacher attended
college is very different than the world map in classrooms
today. Not only has the map changed but the alignment of world
powers and our national security concerns.
This teacher needs opportunities to update content
knowledge in order to teach students about world events today.
As a teacher in a rural school district with few available
resources, I took advantage of opportunities provided through
Title VI centers to update my content knowledge because I
wanted to make sure that my rural students were aware of the
world beyond their county.
Language instruction has taken on a new importance in
recent years as the United States develops more social and
economic ties to the global community and deals with heightened
national security concerns. We are presented with new
opportunities to collaborate on matters related to health and
the environment as well.
All of these opportunities also include the challenge of
communicating across cultures in different languages. One
fourth of the world's population has competence in English.
Students who are proficient in more than one language have an
increased opportunity for exciting careers and they allow the
United States to be competitive in the world market.
In order to achieve high levels of competency in a
language, students must begin studying language earlier and
continue to study longer with qualified teachers who can be
trained through the work of the Title VI centers.
The Ohio Department of Education has a vision that every
school in Ohio will have a partner in another country in order
to broaden the experience of educators and students. In the
past year Ohio has initiated educational partnerships with
Hungary and with Saitama, our sister-state in Japan, and we
have recently signed a memorandum of understanding to encourage
partnerships between Ohio schools and schools in Hubei, our
sister-state in China.
There is also an effort to increase the number of courses
being offered in Chinese language. By helping schools to make
these connections we are underscoring the need for students to
learn about the world beyond our borders.
The Title VI centers provide resources and programs for
teachers updating their content knowledge and skills. In the
past the Ohio Department of Education has collaborated with the
Title VI centers to offer a summer Global Institute for
teachers in K-12. The personnel in the Title VI centers have
also made presentations for K-12 teachers at the Conference for
the Ohio Council for Social Studies.
These types of efforts reach a small but receptive
audience. In international education we have several challenges
and one is helping others to understand and be aware of the
importance of international education and also being able to
reach enough teachers in order to make a significant impact.
One project in the planning stages is a website that will
showcase international education in Ohio. There are many
initiatives that may not be widely known beyond those with
direct involvement such as the Federal program for the
Fulbright Hayes Summer Seminars Abroad or connections with
individual schools in Ohio have made with schools in other
countries.
We would like to use the website as a tool to provide
information about these programs and links to assistance for
educators who are interested in putting more emphasis on
international education. Plans include linking this website to
both The Ohio State University website and the Ohio Department
of Education Instructional Management System.
Teachers and students in Ohio benefit from programs of the
Title VI centers and the Ohio Department of Education supports
the continued funding of these centers.
Thank you, Chairman Tiberi, for this opportunity to talk
about some of the initiatives and benefits of international
education as it affects Ohio's students and teachers. I will be
happy to answer any questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Nesbitt follows:]
Statement of Donna Nesbitt, Executive Director, Center of Curriculum
and Assessment, Ohio Department of Education, Columbus, OH
Good morning, Chairman Tiberi and Members of the Subcommittee on
Select Education. My name is Donna Nesbitt, Executive Director of
Curriculum and Assessment at the Ohio Department of Education. On
behalf of State Superintendent Susan Zelman, I am pleased to have the
opportunity to testify before this committee on the importance of
international education.
International education is critical to the United States. Our
economy, our security and our survival depend on interactions with
citizens of other countries. Students in our schools today will have
even more connections to the world beyond the United States than
earlier generations. It is estimated that one-sixth of the jobs in this
country are tied to international trade. Globalization, with both its
positive and negative impacts, is a reality.
Global competence of students in classrooms today is vital if the
United States is going to maintain its status in the world of the 21st
century. International education includes the knowledge of world
regions, cultures and issues as well as skills in language and the
ability to interact successfully with people of different cultural
traditions both inside and outside the United States.
Within the last four years the State Board of Education in Ohio has
adopted academic content standards in seven areas: English language
arts, mathematics, social studies, science, foreign language, the arts
and technology. These content standards which detail what students
should know and be able to do contain significant opportunities for
making international connections and highlighting global issues. Each
content area also has a model curriculum, which helps educators gain a
deeper understanding of the standards. Many of the exemplar lessons in
the model curriculum which are available electronically through the
Ohio Department of Education's Instructional Management System (IMS)
focus on international content. Student achievement of the standards is
assessed through our statewide assessment system. The new Ohio
Graduation Test contains world history which was not a part of the
Ninth Grade Proficiency Test.
Teachers currently in the workforce must maintain and expand their
expertise on international issues through continuing education. Imagine
the case of a teacher who graduated from college just fifteen years
ago. The Berlin Wall had just fallen and the Soviet Union was still
intact. The world map at the time that this teacher attended college is
very different than the world map in classrooms today. Not only has the
map changed but the alignment of world powers and our national security
concerns. This teacher needs opportunities to update content knowledge
in order to teach students about world events today. As a teacher in a
rural school with few available resources I took advantage of
opportunities provided by higher education to update my content
knowledge because I wanted to make sure that my rural students were
aware of the world beyond their county.
Language instruction has taken on a new importance in recent years
as the United States develops more social and economic ties to the
global community and deals with heightened national security concerns.
We are presented with new opportunities to collaborate on matters
related to health and the environment as well. All of these
opportunities also include the challenge of communicating across
cultures in different languages. One fourth of the world's population
has competence in English. Studying other languages helps students
develop cognitive skills and improve their academic achievement.
Students who are proficient in more than one language increase their
career opportunities and allow the United States to be competitive in
the global market and provide for our national security. In order to
achieve high levels of competency in a language, students must begin
studying earlier and continue to study longer with qualified teachers.
Ohio's new content standards in foreign language help schools to
understand the need for early language instruction.
The Ohio Department of Education has a vision that every school in
Ohio will have a partner in another country in order to broaden the
experience of educators and students. In the past year Ohio has
initiated educational partnerships with Hungary and with Saitama, our
sister-state in Japan and signed a memorandum of understanding to
encourage partnerships between Ohio schools and schools in Hubei, our
sister-state in China. There is also an effort to increase the number
of courses being offered in Chinese language. By helping schools to
make these connections we are underscoring the need for students to
learn about the world beyond our borders.
The Title VI Centers in Ohio provide resources and programs for
teachers interested in updating their content knowledge and skills. In
the past the Ohio Department of Education has collaborated with the
Title VI centers to offer a summer Global Institute for teachers in K-
12. The Title VI centers have also made presentation at the Ohio
Council for the Social Studies Conference. These types of efforts reach
a small but receptive audience. There are several challenges that
programs in international education face: elevating awareness of the
importance of international education and reaching enough teachers to
make a significant impact.
One project in the planning stages is a Web site that will showcase
international education in Ohio. There are many initiatives that may
not be widely known beyond those with direct involvement such as the
Fulbright Hayes Summer Seminars Abroad or partnerships that individual
schools may have developed with schools in other countries. We would
like to use the Web site as a tool to provide information about those
programs and links to assistance for educators who are interested in
putting more emphasis on international education. Plans include linking
this Web page both to The Ohio State University Web page and the Ohio
Department of Education Instructional Management System.
Teachers and students in Ohio benefit from programs of the Title VI
centers and the Ohio Department of Education supports the continued
funding of these centers.
Thank you, Chairman Tiberi, for this opportunity to talk about some
of the initiatives and benefits of international education as it
affects Ohio's students and teachers. I will be happy to answer any
questions.
______
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you. Thank you all again for
testifying.
Let me just get into the questioning by asking Dr. Ladman,
who mentioned leveraging.
Dr. Ladman. Yes.
Chairman Tiberi. Can you expand upon that a little bit in
answering a question that I pose to you based upon not only
your written testimony but a little bit about what you talked
about? Do you think there should be a portion of Title VI funds
that are made available only for the purposes of trying to
partner or, I think you would agree, leverage additional
funding in the area of international education initiatives? You
think we should look at that?
Dr. Ladman. Yes, I think actually we did quite a bit of
that already because I think, as I indicated before, not only
on our campus we do that but by working at other units on the
campus and sponsoring different activities.
Chairman Tiberi. Excuse me. But do you think that we should
earmark solely for that purpose within Title VI?
Dr. Ladman. Are you speaking about leveraging with
organizations off the campus?
Chairman Tiberi. Yes. Yes.
Dr. Ladman. OK. I see possibilities for doing that. One
might be to work with, say, organizations like the Ohio
Department of Education because clearly as we are working with
them right there we are collaborating with them. They are using
their money and we are using our money to carry something out.
We also are able to work with other foundations or
Government programs for Federal grants to bring programs in
that we can use. I think really the real concept of leveraging
is what the presence of the Title VI program on the campus does
in helping us to work on the campus of the academic departments
in developing courses, attracting faculty, building our
capacity to do a better job of what you want us to do. By doing
that I think this is where the funds really get leverage.
In other words, for every million dollars you put in you
are getting a lot more out, several million dollars out in
terms of the output and so forth. I think that's important. It
might be a little difficult if you were to put a certain amount
of money into a program for purposes of going out and getting
additional money and getting matching aid and only using it for
that purpose.
Chairman Tiberi. OK.
Dr. Ladman. But we're the Title VI presence and when we
have the capacity we use that capacity to go out and get funds
to do additional things.
Chairman Tiberi. Dr. Unzueta, you in your written testimony
mentioned this concept as well. Can you give us your thoughts?
Dr. Unzueta. My response to that is that I think it is a
good idea but I don't know how it would be practically because
the grant proposal is to be written at the beginning of the
three or 4-year cycle and when would the leveraging occur?
I think as Dr. Ladman already mentioned, the leveraging
occurs anyways but it does in an indirect fashion. One way in
which the grant competition does encourage some sort of
leveraging is by targeting priority or competitional
priorities, invitational priorities they are called, for a
specific project.
That could be, for instance, and we would welcome that at
Ohio State, specific collaborations between area study centers
and CIBER, area study centers and the language resource centers
or area study centers and other specific units. I think that
would be a good idea and a welcome idea.
Chairman Tiberi. Just a follow-up on another area. You
mentioned in your written testimony that Ohio State offers over
30 languages and all six critical languages identified by the
General Accountability Office and which types of professions
are graduates employed? What are they doing using language
skills that they gained here at Ohio State? Have you tracked
that at all?
Dr. Unzueta. One indicator would be a call I received from
a colleague, the chair of the Station Department. She also
alludes to the sense of globalization many of you were
referring to at the beginning. The Monterrey Institute of
Technology in Mexico has called Ohio State looking for Chinese
and Japanese instructors. Our graduates with MA degrees in
particular so that's the one way of tracking how our graduates
are doing.
My experience in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese
and for Latin American Studies is that, indeed, our graduates
are being placed at very competitive institutions as well as in
high schools and smaller colleges around the country.
Chairman Tiberi. That's great. Thank you.
Dr. Hills, you talked a little bit about OSU's CIBER
program. Can you expand on that? Can you talk a little bit
about some of the initiatives that you are dealing with today?
Dr. Hills. Um-hum.
Chairman Tiberi. And how that ties into the international
education area.
Dr. Hills. Some of these things we do in collaboration with
other CIBERs. That's one way to leverage the funds. The funds
when you think about it in the larger scheme of things are
fairly modest so if you needed to do some big projects like
national conference, you really need to do that in
collaboration with others.
Some of the things that we've done, the University of
Illinois we have co-sponsored with a number of other CIBERs the
National Security Conference last year which was very
interesting. It was both an academic and applied conference.
The National Trade Policy Forum is moving about the country.
It started in North Carolina. I attended that conference.
It is a conference for state officials preparing them for the
challenges they face when changes in tariffs and free trade
agreements affect the workforce and the state. That's a very
interesting thing. We do some things on our own.
I mentioned the small or medium-size business outreach
program. We have initiated a program here called TARGET. I
don't remember what that stands for now but it is an outreach
program for small and medium-size businesses to learn from each
other and take the resources from the university by meeting
here once every month or once every 2 months. We've now
expanded that program to Dayton, the OSU Mansfield campus. Now
we're going to have a program like that in Cleveland so it is
becoming statewide.
On the curriculum side I've just come back with my students
from China with an emerging markets class. I take 18 students
every year and have for the last 10 years to a different
emerging market. They are in the process of writing cases as we
speak based on the firms that we visited.
This has created an entirely different sort of character to
their MBA training at Ohio State. We have now expanded that to
an undergraduate course also in emerging markets. Without the
CIBER funds we would not be able to support those very
expensive kinds of experiences that are extremely enriching for
students.
In June I'll be taking some of my faculty colleagues to
South Africa and we will have a seminar, a 10-day seminar
there. None of these five faculty members have ever been to
that part of the world or have had the possibility of thinking
about Africa so that's going to be a very fine opportunity for
them.
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you, Dr. Hills.
Ms. Nesbitt, can you speak a little bit about real life
experiences that children have who are exposed to international
education, foreign language both from the perspective as a
teacher, from your perspective as a teacher, and now a state
administrator?
Ms. Nesbitt. Well, I think that the research clearly shows
that students who are instructed in learning foreign languages
at early ages that it has a positive impact on their overall
academic achievement. Their knowledge of international issues
is just so critical in broadening their perspective. Even if
they never were to travel abroad or engage in that way, it also
helps them to understand the people that are going to meet
right here in Ohio as we become a more and more diverse state.
Chairman Tiberi. Very good. I am going to yield for some
questioning to my colleague, Mr. Hinojosa.
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased that in
the first round you asked such good questions that allowed the
panelists to expand on what they wrote in the materials that I
read prior to the hearing. I want to start with Donna Nesbitt.
I am glad to hear that Title VI centers here in Ohio are
working with the Ohio Department of Education to offer summer
global institutes for teachers in kindergarten through the 12th
grade. How effective are they and are the results available to
other states of education throughout the country?
Ms. Nesbitt. The global institute that I spoke about was a
program that we did several years ago. It is not currently an
annual program but our work with the Title VI centers has been
on a number of things over the years. I was using that as one
particular example. I believe the last one of those was several
years ago.
As the Department entered into the development of academic
content standards and some of our other initiatives, we didn't
have the staffing to continue that but we certainly would like
to move back in that direction.
Mr. Hinojosa. At what grade are you recommending that they
have foreign language to start a second language? If they are
English speakers at what grade do you all recommend that they
start a foreign language?
Ms. Nesbitt. In our academic content standards for teaching
foreign language we have written them so that they can be
accessed at a number of grades. We would recommend that it
happens as early as possible, as early as kindergarten. We know
that the reality in school districts with short funding and
resources is that is not always possible.
The standards are written so that if a student begins
foreign language instruction in the early grades, the standards
are there to show how they need to develop throughout their
academic career so that we are identifying more than the usual
2 years that maybe students would have gotten traditionally at
the high school level. We certainly want to encourage that.
Mr. Hinojosa. Let me tell you that earlier this week we had
a hearing in Washington on Head Start because Head Start will
be reauthorized. We saw the listing of the monies invested in
early childhood education in Ohio is at the very top in the
amount of money that is being spent in early education. They
put No. 2 and No. 3 to shame because they are head and
shoulders higher than the other states.
I think I saw a list of 25 states out of the 50 and I was
so impressed. So if that's the case, you need to help us get
other states to encourage that a foreign language be available
in the primary grades. I'll give you a specific example. I have
two young children. I have five all together but the two
youngest are 9 and 11 years old, third grade and 5th grade.
We moved them from the Catholic School where they were
attending in Washington to the Dual Language Program at Oyster
Bilingual Elementary School. When we arrived on that campus
they both crossed their arms and they asked, ``Daddy, what in
the world are we doing here? We don't understand the words they
are saying here.''
Within 2 years they have exceeded grade level of 3 and 5 in
reading in Spanish and writing and poetry and declamation and
all of that. As a result of some move that we made, we have
just moved to Virginia in Fairfax County which is one of the
best in Virginia, but they don't offer foreign language until
they get to middle school so there is a lack in grade programs
throughout the country where what you all are doing here is not
being implemented and we need it in order for this
international program. Every one of you have, in my opinion,
shown the importance of languages.
If you teach 30 languages, as Dr. Hill mentioned earlier,
there's no doubt that if we could just teach the top five that
are spoken the most which is Mandarin Chinese, English,
Spanish, and I don't know fourth and fifth, but for sure I know
those three rank as No. 1, two, and three. We need your help so
that Departments of Education throughout the country can start
talking about this and adding it to the program.
Dr. Hill, I was so impressed to hear that you have been
with Ohio State 30 years and have seen the improvements that
you all have made. Taking students to emerging markets such as
you did in China and maybe next year to South Africa I'm
impressed.
On our education Committee we've had opportunities to go
with Chairman Buck McKeon to China a month ago and we visited
seven universities while there. We were there for 8 days. We
were so impressed with the growth of China with a 9 percent
GDP.
With that 9 percent they are wanting to send their graduate
students all over the world but they complained about not being
able to send as many as they used to to the United States. They
said that the numbers have dropped 38 percent that used to come
to the United States to do masters and Ph.D. programs. Since 9/
11 we really tightened up on immigration and it has been very,
very difficult.
I was very pleased to hear your comments and your programs.
I wish that you could come to Washington and testify in one of
our Committees. I know that Chairman Tiberi and the Select
Education Committee would consider a request if some of us make
that so that we can get into the record what is being done here
at Ohio State with taking our students abroad as you seem to be
doing so well.
Dr. Hills. I would be happy to do that if you would like. I
would be very happy.
Mr. Hinojosa. Do you have any programs that seek to develop
expertise on the North American Free Trade Agreement or other
treaties that we just signed with the Pacific rim countries?
Dr. Hills. At the current time there are CIBERs who have
specialized in that but our collaboration has been largely with
the effects of the trade through the North Carolina conference
that I mentioned. We will host that conference here in 2008.
That conference will be hosted here. We will be ramping up for
that and a good bit of what we will be doing is examining the
effects of those international trade agreements on Ohio in this
region.
Mr. Hinojosa. When you do, look at the impact that NAFTA
has had on the winners and losers because there are winners and
losers under our agreements of trade. South Texas is a good
case study so that you can see what has happened there with the
movement of the agriculture laborious products that we use to
grow and third biggest in the nation. We have wiped that
industry out. And the textile that affected North Carolina
affected us. We lost 10,000 jobs in South Texas and 10,000 jobs
in El Paso because textiles just disappeared.
Dr. Hills. Yes. We heard a good bit about that in North
Carolina.
Mr. Hinojosa. That would be a good case study for some of
your graduate students. I enjoyed your presentation.
Dr. Fernando Unzueta, I want to say that your moving to
Ohio here the last 15 years, as I understand, is a big loss to
the State of Texas because I understand that you were running
Latin Studies at the University of Texas at Austin where I
graduated. I have a BBA and an MBA from UT Austin and that's
why I was kidding my Chairman that we are running and running
trying to catch up with Ohio State so we can buildup the
60,000. I see that we got behind when we lost you to Ohio.
Dr. Unzueta. I was a student there but I would like to
consider myself a bridge between Texas and Ohio and feel proud
for it.
Mr. Hinojosa. I would like to ask you, Dr. Unzueta, would
you please briefly describe some of the course work that your
students would take in Cuernavaca, Mexico, as it regards NAFTA
and are those courses offered both in Spanish and English?
Dr. Unzueta. The study abroad program in Cuernavaca is
really basic and intermediate language program. However, in
response to your question to Professor Hills, the Center for
Latin American Studies does offer a NAFTA program outside
Mexico City and Professor Ladman is actually the one who
started and implemented and directed that program for several
years. Since then he's moved on but the program continues very
strong.
In Cuernavaca the instruction is in Spanish for basic and
intermediate language courses. In the NAFTA in Mexico City, or
outside Mexico City, instruction is mostly in English for a
broad range of international study students and students from
the College of Agriculture.
Mr. Hinojosa. Let me see if I understand what you said. In
Cuernavaca it's in Spanish but in Mexico City it's in English.
Dr. Unzueta. Yes, because they are different programs. We
have basic Spanish programs where we send large number of
students. I'm talking about 100 every year to both Cuernavaca,
Mexico, and to Quito, Ecuador. We have the NAFTA program that
send about 15, 20 students every year and that course of
instruction is mainly in English.
We have over two dozen study abroad programs through Latin
America and some of them are more specialized than others. Most
of them are in Spanish. A few are in English.
Mr. Hinojosa. If you would give us after this forum is
completed, this hearing, the names of the universities that
you'll have collaborated with in Cuernavaca and Mexico City, I
would be interested because we have a lot of Congressmen and
even some senators for going into Mexico to study a week or 2
weeks in emersion Spanish trying to improve their command of
the Spanish language.
I was pleased to hear that there are programs in Mexico
City that Ohio State is collaborating with. I would like Dr.
Ladman, if both of you would give us those names. I'll share
them with our Members of Congress.
I also want to say to you that 2 years ago when my wife and
I decided to send our children to a dual language program we
went to Cuernavaca for 3 weeks in August of 2003. They began to
build a vocabulary in Spanish. They found it to be very
difficult but they enjoyed living in the home of a family in
Cuernavaca and it was just a wonderful experience and they want
to go back this year in 2005 now that they have such a good
command of Spanish. I was very interested in reading your
materials.
My last question to you, Dr. Unzueta, elaborate how your
summer language programs collaborate with the college of
education for the teaching of Math and Science which is very
important to us in Congress in our Education Committee.
Dr. Unzueta. This is a unique program in a sense. The core
of the program is that summer seminar abroad for Spanish
teachers that a colleague has been conducting for 14 years now.
He takes about 20 teachers from the State of Ohio and around
the country really to different Latin American countries. That
program is oriented toward Spanish instruction, Spanish
teachers.
However, since this was run through the senator and the
colleague who had been running and developed this program was
our outreach coordinator or Director of Outreach of the Center
for Latin American Studies we thought about the idea that it
would be good to promote the same type of model for teachers in
other disciplines.
We started that program for teachers of Math and Sciences
from the same basic population in coordination with a couple
professors from the College of Education who prepared packages,
instructional materials, designed the course, take the group of
15, 20 students to Central America or to Mexico and they
studied there the traditional ways of doing math by
Mesoamerican civilizations. They bring those into the present
on how to communicate that information to teachers across the
state.
The next step is another program we have designed on
environmental issues in the Amazon. Hopefully this summer, if
not this coming summer the following summer, we'll be sending a
similar group of social science and environmental studies
teachers on a trip to the Amazon with a faculty member from the
School of Natural Resources who specializes in soil
preservation and other ecological issues.
The model is the same. They take graduate level courses,
the high school teachers or elementary school or middle school
teachers do. Not only that but they also ask to produce lesson
plans. That's their homework. Instead of turning in a research
paper or essay they have to produce lesson plans that they can
then use in the classroom.
Mr. Hinojosa. I want to say that I'm very interested in
inviting Ohio State to collaborate with a program called HESTA,
Hispanic Engineering Science Technology which is by one of the
branches of the University of Texas at Edinburgh and they have
their fifth year of this program and they have been
collaborating with the La El Tecnologico de Mexico because they
produce so many engineers.
This particular program I'm looking for some--I'll find it.
I brought a copy of that 2005 program. From just listening to
what I just heard here, I think you would probably--the people
who make that decision would find it an enrichment to some of
what you all are doing to collaborate with somebody like UT
Edinburgh because that one has about 20,000 GEAR UP students
and you all have them here in Ohio, the GEAR UP program in
public schools, 7th and 8th graders.
They direct a lot of the students to look at that as a
career path at the 7th and 8th grade where they start taking
their algebra. We have found that there are more girls now in
it. We completed 4 years with HESTA and the fifth year we now
have more girls than boys getting started in that program
because they have found that it's interesting, challenging, and
it pays very well. We would like to invite Ohio to take a look
at that.
Dr. Unzueta. We would be happy to explore that possibility.
We just signed an agreement with East Tech which is an
engineering science and technology program out of the
University of New Mexico, another Title VI center, for
collaboration on technology across the Americas basically.
Mr. Hinojosa. The last thing I'll say to this and move on
to the next question with Dr. Ladman is that the students in my
area are 80 percent Hispanic so you can see why we are so
interested in the Math and Science because they find that to be
easier than almost any of the other fields even though they do,
of course, like other careers.
Dr. Ladman, I saved you for the end because I have some
very difficult questions for you. I congratulate you and the
university for developing such a broad and high-quality effort
using Title VI funding.
However, our national investments in these programs seem to
be, in my opinion, highly inadequate for our status as the
world's superpower and we have difficulty in getting the
appropriators to leapfrog those numbers so that we can get more
students into these programs. How can you and your colleagues
help us in bringing attention to the need for additional
financial resources from Congress?
Dr. Ladman. OK. I fully agree with you in the sense there
is a shortage of resources relative to the national need. I
think there are several ways. One of the most effective,
perhaps, is the coalition that was referred to earlier, 35
different organizations that are very interested in this.
One of the objectives is to try to promote that agenda, as
a matter of fact, to increase the amount of funding available.
I think by working with them and so forth we are able to try to
influence our legislators to move in this direction. Of course,
it's very difficult and times of short funds and how to spread
those funds around.
I really think what's happening, and this is something that
I think is very important, you know, first of all, it was
Sputnik and it was the cold war that got the Government really
interested in international education by sponsoring the Defense
Education Act of '58. Title VI came out of that.
Then it went into the 1961 Fulbright Hayes Act where area
studies got added. Then we had the language centers and the
business program later on. I think since 9/11 there has been an
awareness in this country about the importance of international
education and the importance of language education and the
importance of our people learning these less commonly taught
languages.
I think it's the ground swell of opinion out there whether
it be from people like us or people who are experts or business
people are demanding this that will cause the request to come
to Congress to help make this happen. And I am delighted that
we can say at Ohio State University that we are really
participating in this because of the fact that we've got all
these less commonly taught languages.
We are teaching people Uzbek, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, a number
of languages that are very important in the Middle East and
Central Asia. Some of the people, for example, we have in our
Slavic and Eastern European Studies Center Program an MA
program and we are training each year officers of the United
States military who are coming here to get that degree.
One of them right now is serving as military attache' in
one of those countries in that region. If we can show this is
the sort of thing we're doing, I think this will help our
cause.
Mr. Hinojosa. You mentioned that we should use the 30
colleges that are making that group are moving this
international studies forward. Are they prepared to support the
recommendation and reauthorization of international studies
that there be an advisory group that would probably put in some
type of accountability so that the appropriators can justify,
what I'm saying is leapfrog the funding to keep up with the
demand and the need that we have in our country to be the super
power?
Dr. Ladman. As you may know, this is somewhat a contentious
issue.
Mr. Hinojosa. That's why I gave you the last question.
Dr. Ladman. Anyway, yes. I think basically we understand
the reason why in principle that they are Government-funded
programs, there can be a Government-appointed advisory group. I
think our biggest concern is the sense of how those people are
appointed, what their mandate is and so forth, and who they
report to because, you know, we are very concerned that this be
an advisory committee that keeps us on track and doing the
right things for international education and so forth.
I guess, as you know, initially there was considerable
reaction against it. We understand the reason why there should
be an advisory committee and we're just concerned that it have
the right sort of composition, the right reporting lines and so
forth.
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Dr. Ladman. Mr. Chairman, thank
you for being so generous in allowing me a little extra time to
ask questions. I had 3 hours at the airport in Washington.
That's why I got here so late so I had time to read all their
papers and ask a lot of questions. I've got in the second round
one question equally difficult as this last one that I asked. I
yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you. Just to follow up on Mr.
Hinojosa's last question, Dr. Ladman. Off the top of your head,
if we desire legislation, and I don't need all the specifics,
but let's say the Board would report to the Secretary of
Education, would that be something that you would support?
Dr. Ladman. Definitely.
Chairman Tiberi. Yes, as opposed to the way it's been
drafted?
Dr. Ladman. Um-hum.
Chairman Tiberi. OK. Let me ask a question to all four of
you just to get your thoughts. It kind of relates a little bit
to a question that my colleague asked. It's going a little
beyond that looking at the big picture. You all are exposed to
this in one way, shape, or form. Let me just answer part of it.
Money is part of the answer so let's take that off the
table. The other part I'm trying to get your insights on is how
can we engage all disciplines out there on the campus of Ohio
State University at all levels in gaining a greater global
awareness and realization of the world's culture and societies
beyond our own through the different disciplines whether it's
medicine or technology.
You mentioned technology before. How can we do a greater
job through Title VI if that's the way? Then the second part of
that question is how do we as policymakers and you as academics
do a better job of selling the importance of what we're talking
about today to the general public?
If you go out five miles from here into a neighborhood and
talk to people about this subject, their eyes glaze over at the
very best. How do we get more disciplines involved, No. 1,
through Title VI and how do we get the general public to
understand the importance of what we're talking about here
today? Let's just go down the line. Dr. Ladman.
Dr. Ladman. I might start with the first question and that
is the way we view our international education programs at Ohio
State University are that we are targeted through Title VI
centers to train specialists and we currently put focus on
that. But I should add that we are very concerned about
internationalizing the whole campus and that includes students
from all across the campus having the proper exposure.
One of the ways in which we are really putting a tremendous
amount of emphasis is study abroad programs because we feel
that this is one of the ways in which you get the most bang for
the buck in having someone have a realization of how different
other countries are and understand their own country much
better so we've put in a major effort there.
We are also working on ways in which we can integrate the
international education more effectively into the curriculum.
There's a study going on right now and the faculty committee
that's doing this and this is part of the agenda that we're
working there.
It's a tough agenda but one of the things I think is
important, you know, we think we see this as different clients.
There are a lot of these specialists in international like
Angela was for example. You've got the clients, for example,
people in law school that should know something about
international.
We've got the engineers. We've got to create programs that
allow each one of those groups to be able to relate to
international in a context which is meaningful to them. That
plus our general studies curriculum which allows them to do
that.
Another concept that I think is very important that offers
a lot of possibility is offering double majors where students
could major in a degree program, say, in history plus
international studies, engineering plus international studies.
That forces them into the language and so forth. I think
there's a lot of potential for doing things like that, too. In
answer to your first question, I think those are some ideas
that I would have to share with you on that.
Chairman Tiberi. How about the second question?
Mr. Hinojosa. How to sell the program.
Dr. Ladman. How to sell the program. OK. That is a tough
one because, you're right, the many people out there--I think
everybody, as I said before, after 9/11 has awareness. The
problem is they ask how to do it and should the Federal
Government be doing it is the question that they're asking
compared to other needs.
I think probably the most effective way is for us as a
nation from our leadership on down in representation to just be
talking about the importance of us in a global world and how we
interact with that global world and the importance of education
occurring.
You can see, for example, within the Department of
Education that Donna Nesbitt represents, they are wanting to
incorporate international at that point. We're going through
our outreach program and I should indicate to you that Ohio
State in its strategic plan, which we call our academic plan,
has P-12 education as a key point.
The Title VI centers, even the centers without Title VI
have the mandate within the university to do the international
part of that in combination with our language departments and
so forth. We are real proud of what we do in that area. As a
matter of fact, leveraging, I've got two people in my office
that aren't paid by Title VI funds that work with the Title VI
centers to carry out Title VI activities, plus each of the
centers have someone in their office, too. That's an example of
how important it is and how we believe in it.
Sorry, Donna. I must correct you on one thing. Even though
the Department of Education helped us get this program going,
when it wasn't possible for the Department to continue, we
picked it up and are doing it so we continue to do it every
summer and it's very successful.
Dr. Unzueta. On the first point I would say, at least at
Ohio State, the program as it is structured right now already
has a push toward doing languages and internationalize
education across the disciplines.
Let me give you an example. The CLAS fellowships tend to go
toward very advanced language specialists or toward
intermediate language specialists or in the professions, future
lawyers, future doctors, future veterinarians. That happens
perhaps a lot better at an institution so diverse and so large
as Ohio State as any professional school you can think of.
Priorities within the grant competition often in the past
have also tried to target nontraditional disciplines. Not the
language programs or not international studies programs. It's
not that we are going to abandon those but let's bring other
disciplines on board.
Engineering, for instance, has signed several study abroad
agreements with Latin American institutions over the last year
or two at Ohio State which is sort of unusual.
Two or 3 years ago there was not much going on, at least
nothing recorded or coordinated but the engineering school
named a new associate provost in their college precisely to
promote international issues.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that the university as a
whole is also aware of the need to internationalize all
education and not just the traditional language in area study
programs.
As to how to see the programs, I will also acknowledge that
is the tough job. I think continuity of programs certainly
helps. Once we have the continuity and you have the numbers
that we do year after year after year in, say, outreach
activities that go to the community and you see this is a Title
VI program funded by the U.S. Department of Education, that, I
think, should help. It's not something you get the next day but
it's a long-term process.
Dr. Hills. I think the legislation for the CIBER program
has been very well crafted by the Congress because it includes
a number of mandates that require each CIBER to collaborate
with other parts of the university.
In my testimony I constantly refer to the CIBER as the OSU
CIBER, not the Fisher College CIBER. The OSU CIBER is mandated
by Congress to do work with area studies, to do work with other
professional schools, and as a consequence in order to receive
the funding we have to demonstrate that we are doing that and
that we plan to do that. So congratulations.
The second, how do you sell the program? I came to this
testimony directly from a program this morning that we were
doing called, ``You Can Go Global.`` It was a program for
minority students at Ohio State who often feel that it's very
difficult to get outside the United States.
We found in today's program that there is absolutely no
substitute for experience. Getting the experience changes
people. We had a panel of businessmen and women today who gave
testimony to the fact that their experience had changed them
dramatically, permanently, and long-term by doing business
outside the United States, by having experiences with the Peace
Corps, by the Fulbright Program which I will take advantage of
next year actually.
All of these kinds of experiential types of things are
necessary to get people outside this very large and sometimes a
bit insular country to see that the world out there is quite
different than we might imagine.
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you.
Ms. Nesbitt. Chairman Tiberi, I would like to address that
from the K-12 perspective. As you know, we have competing
priorities trying to meet the requirements of No Child Left
Behind and educate our students in reading and mathematics. I
think that we can see international education and present it to
educators in a way that they see it not as an add-on but as
something that can be integrated in what they are doing on a
daily basis. When they are reading stories in the classroom
that they are reading stories about children in other countries
and, as we mentioned before, the early education in other
languages.
There is also a national effort to promote international
education that involves the National School Board Association
and others. One of the things that I think is really effective
is to have program models that show people instances of where
this is being done and how it can be done effectively.
I know that the Goldman Sachs Awards each year are
highlighting programs in international education at every level
from the early elementary, middle school, high school, and at
the college level. We are starting to build sort of a body of
what works in this arena.
I think as Dr. Hill said, those experiences are so
important and to hear about Math and Science teachers being
able to have those experiences that I had as a Social Studies
teacher to go abroad just hearing the media in another country
and knowing how events may be reported on differently. I
happened to be in Japan during the hand over of Hong Kong and
watched it on Japanese television. That's a very profound
experience seeing that from an Asian perspective.
As far as selling to the general public, I think that
really is a challenge but there has always been that challenge
with new ideas. A small but dedicated group of voices that are
continually heard over and over eventually becomes what people
are starting to refer to as the tipping point when at some
point it's going to be a more widely espoused sort of attitude
that I think we will look back and realize and think that maybe
there was never a time that we didn't think that way.
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you. That completes my questioning.
Now for the really tough questions I'll turn it over to my
colleague.
Mr. Hinojosa. Well, Dr. Ladman, being that you are the
highest ranking here for Ohio State University. My concern as
we have been going through the process of reauthorization of
higher education is that there is a question of some
legislation that would combine the definition of an institution
of higher learning into one.
Presently we have two definitions. One for the for-profit
colleges and universities, what you know as proprietary
schools. Then we have another definition for nonprofits such as
Ohio State University, our community colleges. Those are the
others.
The idea is to have one definition for all colleges of
higher ed. If that were the case then, of course, there would
be competition in the existing monies that were available for
Ohio State and all nonprofit colleges and universities.
What are you and others of your colleagues in colleges and
universities saying in talking about this legislation? What is
the feeling out there? What is the pulse?
Dr. Ladman. I will have to plead that I really haven't
thought about that particular issue so I'm not in a position to
respond because I've been thinking of it in terms of the
universities like our own. We do compete, obviously, with
private colleges, the Ivy League colleges and so forth, for the
competition.
One of the things about the competition is that the Title
VI program is purely competitive so you compete on your merits
and your capacity to deliver. I think if the program were
opened to schools other than the ones that are presently in
there, I think they would have to compete on their merits. I'm
guessing that would be the way it would work out.
Now, fortunately some of the universities like ours and a
number of others who built this capacity clearly have an
advantage but we would really have to work very hard to
maintain that advantage because for everyone of us that wants
this program, there's another two out there that are applying
that aren't getting it so it's a very competitive process. That
means that our universities have to make special commitments
and counterparts and so forth to do what we need to do to make
this happen.
Mr. Hinojosa. I appreciate your honesty that you haven't
thought about it but I want you to think about it because last
year the funding was $107 million for this particular program
that we are discussing to day. This year in 2005 the funding
went up $1 million to $108 million.
In the proposed budget for 2006 the administration wants to
level fund it at $108 million so it doesn't even take care of
inflation rate. So as we understand it, should the definition
change? It's not just going to be the colleges and universities
who have competed based on abilities. You are going to bring in
about some thousand proprietary schools and colleges that also
will have the right to compete for whatever Federal money is
available that they have not been able to compete in the past.
They simply operate their colleges and universities for a
profit and they have been growing by leaps and bounds. Give
that consideration.
I think my other question, Mr. Chairman, would go to Ms.
Nesbitt. You have also been talking about the idea that high
schools are antiquated, that they are not keeping up with the
changes that have occurred in globalization, international
studies, international competition, etc.
As a result of that, the graduation rate of our Hispanic
high school students and African American students has dropped
to about 50 percent based on studies made by Harvard and other
groups.
The idea is, I think it was Bill Gates and Melinda Gates,
gave New York City $50 million to do a pilot test and see if
they could take those very large high schools and have schools
within high school. If you had 2,000 students, possibly have
four with 500 students. How do you all feel about that here at
Ohio Education Agency?
Ms. Nesbitt. Were there are several issues related to that.
The State Board of Education in Ohio during the last year
convened a group which included representatives from the
business community, higher education, and others to study high
schools in Ohio. That group issued a report. I believe the
title is, ``Report on High Quality High School.''
They did identify that issue of smaller schools as one of
those issues and they laid out a plan for high school reform
that the State Board of Education has embraced and we will be
implementing over the course of the next few years.
In addition to that, I believe, and I would have to provide
for you at a later time, information about some of that money
from the Gates Foundation that is being implemented for the
same purpose here in Ohio in some of our urban settings where
they are looking at the smaller schools within a school.
I believe they are also collecting data as that is
implemented to see what effective that has on issues such as
dropout rate. We would be able to provide for you the current
status of that and where you might get further information at a
later date.
Mr. Hinojosa. I thank you for your response and we would
love to have your information. I would be indebted to you if we
could see that in writing.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
[The information referred to has been retained in the
Committee's official files.]
Chairman Tiberi. Thank you, Mr. Hinojosa. Before we wrap
up, I just want to make a few introductions, a couple of Ohio
State introductions. Dick Stier with the Government Relations
Program has been here--how many years have you been here,
Dick?--has been wonderful to work with as a member of this
Committee.
Dick and Stacy Rastauskas who is somewhere. I'm not sure
where she went. I want to thank you for helping put this
together today, getting the witnesses and the room and all the
other details. We really appreciate that.
Another gentleman who has played an important role in my
life and I think he's back in the back. He was a professor of
mine. Yeah, that is. I thought that was you back there. A
professor of mine in the Foreign Languages Department, Dr.
Luciano Forena. Please stand. A professor of mine. You can
imagine what he taught me. He also gave me my first communion
back here in Columbus more years than I will care to remember.
A long time ago. He has played a couple of important roles in
my life. Dr. Forena, very nice to see you here today as well.
Very distinguished man.
Again, thank you to the witnesses who are taking time out
of their busy schedules to be with us today. We really
appreciate your willingness to be part of this. We expect that
the higher ed reauthorization will be with us some time in the
fall and your testimony today, your written testimony, your
comments, your answers to the questions will help us formulate
what I believe will be a bipartisan bill that will hopefully
strengthen what you do on a day-to-day basis.
Thank you again to my colleague for coming to Columbus,
Ohio, Mr. Hinojosa, for your participation and your staff's
participation. We certainly appreciate your willingness and
your busy time away from your family and your constituents as
well.
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's been very
enjoyable. I look forward to hosting you and the staff in Texas
in about 2 weeks, or maybe less. Just as we are going to break
bread this evening at an Italian restaurant, I invite you to
break bread with us in South Texas with some of the finest
Mexican food you have ever eaten. We look forward to it.
Chairman Tiberi. I'll take you up on that. If there is no
further business before us today, with that this Subcommittee
stands adjourned. Thank you.
[Whereupon, at 3:51 p.m. the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
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