From the Desk of the Chancellor, March 21, 2011

Chancellor Charles R. Bantz View print-quality image

Congratulations to all of you who have built IUPUI’s strategic partnership model for international programs! Thanks to you IUPUI is receiving the  2011 Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization. IUPUI was cited for having “capitalized on strong international exchange partnerships to create a campuswide strategic partnership model.” The strategic partnership model was championed by our international affairs team, but its implementation depends on hundreds of faculty and students committed to building deep and lasting relationships with our partners. In 2009, IUPUI’s approach was similarly honored by our receiving the Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Partnerships.

Our approach is receiving these accolades because we fulfill our role as an urban university to prepare students for global citizenship by developing international partnerships that promise a greater impact. This means fewer but more meaningful engagements with foreign universities across disciplines where we can collaborate for mutual benefit.

The result of our strategy: (1) IUPUI's study abroad programming is strongly characterized by service learning, internships, and other forms of reflective experiential learning spread across all of IUPUI’s schools; (2) IUPUI began its RISE to the Challenge initiative, which encourages each undergraduate to pursue at least two forms of experiential learning, including study abroad; and (3) The campus has moved forward on three core partnerships: Moi University in Eldoret, Kenya;  Sun Yat Sen in Guangzhou, China; and Autonomous University of the State of Hidalgo in Pachuca, Mexico.

In the past 10 years, the number of students studying abroad has almost doubled—from 209 to almost 400. The number of study abroad programs has nearly tripled—from 18 to 53. The number of international students has increased from 812 to 1,364—about half of which are undergraduates.

IUPUI and other Simon Award winners will be featured in NAFSA's report Internationalizing the Campus: Profiles of Success at Colleges and Universities, to be published this fall. NAFSA was founded in 1948 as the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers. The organization has since expanded its scope so that it is known as NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

As you may know, the search for a successor to Associate Vice Chancellor for International Affairs Susan Sutton is under way. To hear presentations by the final candidates for that position, see the schedule here.

Comments? Write chancllr@iupui.edu.