Internationalization Task Force Final Report

II. Northern Michigan University will provide a set of curricular options designed to impart globalized perspective in students as well as a sense of global citizenship.

The work of the Internationalization Task Force has been guided by a curricular mission statement adopted early in its deliberative process.

Mission Statement: An internationalized curriculum includes any course, program, or activity if it includes perspectives, issues, or events from specific countries or areas other than the Unites States. The curriculum with an international orientation in content, aims to prepare students both professionally and socially) in an international and multicultural context, and is designed for both domestic and foreign students.

Assumptions of Subsection II

The internationalization of the curriculum requires thinking about curriculum differently; it does not occur solely in a few courses or majors and does not serve as simply an additive to existing programs. It calls for an interdisciplinary and multifaceted process that will affect all faculty and students. These changes involve the following areas:

• Internationalizing Liberal Studies
• Infusing majors in a variety of disciplines with internationalized content and methods
• Creating majors or minors or certificates with an international focus
• Internationalizing professional school curriculum
• Developing foreign languages across the curriculum
• Developing policies and programs that encourage faculty to internationalize the curriculum

It should be noted that the Internationalization Task Force has not specifically concerned itself with issues and courses related to domestic diversity (minority groups in the United States), issues commonly addressed under the rubric of multiculturalism. This approach should not be construed as a lack of awareness or interest in domestic multiculturalism, but rather a recognition and an acknowledgement of the existence of the Ethnic and Cultural Diversity Committee whose important work will necessarily be integrated more fully into the University's future curricular plans and programming. Indeed, the members of the ITF recognize that the 21 st century is increasingly creating economic and social conditions where the global becomes local (known of late in the multicultural literature as "glocal"). An example of a "glocal" cultural creation occurs, for example, when newly arrived African refugee populations begin to merge in US urban areas with peoples of African origin whose arrival in the US dates from the colonial or ante-bellum periods. "Glocal" cultural blending also occurs as Hispanic US populations dating from the 16 th century Spanish conquest of the Southwest blend with groups or individuals of diverse nationalities from Central America . Such cultural blending across all ethnic groups promises to be a feature of the 21 st century and the study of attendant social, political, and artistic arrangements it creates are the subject of a number of sub-disciplines in Diaspora Studies. It is possible that the broad subject of domestic diversity studies could be considered in future reports seeking to merge internationalization and diversity.

Curricular suggestions are based upon the existing Liberal Studies structures and university requirements as extant in March 2005. These recommendations should not be interpreted as recommendations to alter any existing requirements. The existing World Cultures requirement and its current definition would remain unchanged at this time.

The International Task Force Implementation Plan contains details that will promote these goals. Highlights include:

1. Development of a Minor in Global Studies that offers more flexibility than the existing International Studies Minor.
2. Development of a Certificate in Global Studies.
3. Initiation of an interdepartmental process to create a series of interdisciplinary globally focused courses that could fit into the existing Liberal Studies Structure.
4. Initiation of departmental reviews of majors/minors designed to infuse internationalization into all/most programs. Initiation of departmental reviews designed to investigate the creation of new globally-focused majors/minors within existing programs or across departments.
5. Determination by the Global Advisory Committee together with the Administrative Academic Leader of a proposal to require a greater level of internationalized course content across the curriculum and to establish a time-line for these recommendations.
6. Provision of support in the form of workshops and demonstrations on ways to use multiple technologies available at NMU to internationalize the learning experience and provision of incentives for the use of these technologies in the classroom.
7. Provision of support for the addition of library resources in the broad areas of global studies including the purchase updated video/DVD resources.

Policy Recommendations: Internationalization of Curriculum

1. Departments are urged to include international experience/education as criteria in hiring new faculty.
2. Deans and departments are urged to assure that there is academic expertise on campus from all regions of the world: North America; Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Middle East; the Indian Sub-Continent; East Asia; Western and Eastern Europe; Central Asia; Australia and New Zealand.
3. Deans and Department Heads are urged to encourage faculty to begin thinking of ways to globalize existing majors.