Postsecondary International Network Newsletter Fall 1999

A Message from John Scott, Conference Host and PIN President-elect

The Trans Tasman Organising Committee of PIN ‘Down Under?is working hard to put together a varied and exciting Academic and Social Programme straddling 2 countries over 7 days.

The draft programme you will find attached to the website (www.conference.co.nz) will be updated regularly as we finalise speakers and programme content. We promise to challenge delegates with some intellectual and educational issues based around the invasiveness of business into education and the place of information technology with the opportunities and threats it brings to providers and learners alike. Hear about what’s happening ‘Down Under?in postsecondary education ?you may be surprised how ‘on top? of it we are!

February is a very busy month in terms of numbers of tourists to both Melbourne and Christchurch so I urge you to make your airline bookings just as soon as you can. The conference website will soon have links and help for you to arrange a rewarding touring itinerary before or after the conference. We’re really looking forward to hosting you ‘Down Under? in February.

A draft of the programme can be found on pages 8-10. The registration fee for the conference is $750 (NZ). Each member college receives one complementary registration for the annual conference. Additional conference information is available on the website: www.conference.co.nz. On-line registration will be available after November 1.

Each delegate will be responsible for their own flight arrangements. This includes travel to Melbourne, Australia for the Box Hill College section, travel from Melbourne to Christchurch, New Zealand for the Christchurch Polytechnic section, and travel home. Hotel information will be available on the Website with the registration information.

Andrew Jackson, CEO of Boxhill College and President-elect of PIN, died of cancer on July 5, 1999. Andrew was a person who brought vision, enthusiasm and humor to each of the PIN meetings. We will miss his leadership, but pay tribute to his many contributions to PIN and education in general. It is highly fitting that Boxhill College will host the first half of the 2000 PIN conference.

Message from PIN President Cynthia Heelan

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

Thank you all very much for your terrific response to our voting for goals and priorities. Twenty people responded, and we sent out 45 questionnaires. We can feel that what we decide will be truly reflective of who we are.

In this letter, I will describe the response to our "top five" priorities since we agreed that 3-5 priorities were enough for the next few years.

This objective, intended to help implement the goal of working in partnership with other PIN members, received the highest number of "high" and "somewhat high" votes. It reflects the values of PIN in that we want presidents, particularly, to experience visits and exchanges with other PIN members.

The high priority for supporting those who wish to focus primarily on networking is good news for the entire organization. The fact that so many of our members support whatever it is a member of PIN wishes to do, i.e., get more involved or not get more involved in an international focus, is a healthy sign of our support and acceptance where each of us stands on this issue. We don’t need to worry about this issue dividing the members of the organization.

This highly rated objective will make it possible for each of us to observe programs, staff and results, and get a clearer picture of one another’s college campuses, and how we function. We will ask, as a result of this objective, that all members send to Bill their website addresses so we can share them with the membership. Websites are currently listed in the PIN Directory.

Objective 2a - Global Learning Outcomes Exist for Eight Program Areas. Colleges Will Involve Three Faculty in One of Eight Program Areas Identified for FITPIN Development: Natural Resources, Hospitality, Business, Graphic Design, Quality, Customer Service, Journalism, and Diesel.

The large number of people who voted for this priority indicates that we will continue to share programs across international boundaries. We will eventually have an international curriculum that allows us to prepare people for an international, global market where people understand one another and global impacts on various fields. This will also facilitate student exchanges in these fields, because the curriculum will be similar.

Only three people who turned in their questionnaires actually gave this a "low" or "somewhat low" priority or did not respond. It was gratifying to see that we are interested in providing financial support to our students so that they, too, may learn the skills involved in functioning in a global marketplace.

These are the top five priority objectives as identified by those having the "highest" and "somewhat high" votes. It seems to me that those priorities having an average number of votes could be included into this set of priorities. For example, keep in mind that John Skitt placed a very high priority on information sharing for Goal 6. He is so committed to this priority that he himself will develop the lists and the information for the 15 or so members of the organization who would like to share in that information.

I have attached the actual analysis of the voting (See pages 11-13). Because we agreed to have only five or so top priorities, I’ve only included those five in the narrative. However, because there are almost 15 or 16 people who, in some way, support each of the goals and priorities, we should not be surprised to see people making connections with one another to achieve these objectives.

It is important that we now begin to find ways to implement our five top priorities. Our number one priority is easy because our attendance at PIN meetings and some of the exchanges that already occur, will be continuing to occur.

Our second priority will be easy to achieve because all we need to do is continue to be accepting and supportive of whatever level of involvement our members choose to select.

Our number three objective requires that we actually send our websites to Bill Warner. Could you please do that immediately? Bill’s e-mail is warne017@tc.umn.edu. Please send your website to Bill if it is not listed in the directory.

Our fourth priority objective - global learning outcomes exist for eight program areas - requires that our PIN website be up and running. We agreed that a faculty member at each of our colleges would initiate activity around the program area by contacting people through the website. I, for one, know that as the College responsible for initiating the natural resources discussion; know that our faculty member is excited to begin. We are waiting only for the website to be up and running, and for the names of the faculty members of the other institutions who wish to participate. This objective requires that each of us identify the names of faculty from our institutions who are interested in the discussion around Natural Resources, Hospitality, Business, Graphic Design, Quality, Customer Service, Journalism, and Diesel. I have sent a separate e-mail requesting this information.

The fifth priority objective is that presidents support student involvement in the Global Leadership Conference. All this requires is that when the next advertisement for student conference arrives on your desk, that you support the conference financially and encourage your students to participate.

As was mentioned earlier, many of the other objectives have quite a high number of votes. You can see by the graph below that Objectives 3a, 4c, 5, 7b, 4a, and 4b, also received a large number of votes. As a matter of fact, there wasn’t a single priority that didn’t receive a significant number of votes.

It is entirely possible that if we had a long discussion through which we attempted to achieve consensus, we would have a different set of top priorities. Perhaps in the future this discussion can occur before we establish the next set of priorities.

I look forward to our meeting in February and to discussing how we are doing at achieving these priorities.

Best wishes and I’ll see you in a few months down under.

Cynthia

PIN Conference Schedule

Mohawk College and Delhi College will co-host the 2001 conference. Mike Schafer, Mohawk College (US) president, is coordinating the conference.

Dudok College, Netherlands and Barnet College, England will co-host the conference.

Western Piedmont Community College, USA will host the conference.

During this past year PIN sponsored one full year faculty exchange and two college visits.

Sue Clyne, Personnel Manager at Stevenson College, visited Fox Valley Technical College for 5 days. The purpose of the visit was to examine the development planning process, particularly in relation to the measurement of performance against the college objectives. In addition, Sue explored the Student Employment Service, which uses comprehensive services to place graduates in employment.

Sue’s overall conclusion was that Fox Valley TC has much in common with Stevenson College in terms of size and curriculum areas; they work with quite different structures and are much better resourced. Their funding structure is much simpler and more accountable to the taxpayer than the Scottish system.

Carolyn Mewhorter, Director of International Studies at Fox Valley TC, hosted Sue and assisted in arranging interviews, tours, and meetings during the visit.

Pat Osborne, Barnet College, and John Lucarelli, CCAC, exchanged teaching positions for one full academic year. Pat and John exchanged houses, vehicles, and pets for the length of the exchange. Both were able to share subject matter, research, educational practices, evaluations, and working conditions with students and colleagues.

During the time of their visits they were able to take advantage of the local culture, and experience life in a new and stimulating environment.

Paul Harris, Quality Assurance Coordinator, Barnet College visited two Canadian colleges. Paul spent one week at Conestoga College and SAIT. The purpose of the visits was to examine, compare and evaluate the quality systems and practices between PIN members. Paul was able to interview and meet with a variety of colleagues to identify best practices and innovative approaches to quality initiatives.

Applications are currently being taken for the 2000 Faculty/Staff Exchange Visit Program. The exchange and visit program is designed to facilitate faculty exchanges and visits among PIN member colleges. The exchanges and visits are designed to enhance the professional development of faculty and to further international understanding of two-year colleges. The colleges are expected to support and facilitate the exchange/visit process. The college and the faculty members develop the exchange or visit to meet their institutional and individual objectives.

PIN will award two $500 (US) stipends to facilitate faculty exchanges and visits to each country for the academic year. It is expected that the college will match the dollar amount of the stipend. The match will be cash or an in-kind contribution.

1. The Faculty Exchange and Visit Program Application Form should be used.
2. The program criteria must be addressed in the application.
3. The narrative should be no longer than 1000 words.
4. The college president/principal and the faculty member must sign the application form.
5. If there is a need for assistance in identifying a host college, PIN will assist in identifying appropriate host colleges.
6. Faculty Exchange and Visit Program Application are submitted to Executive Director, Bill Warner.
7. The Executive Committee reviews all applications.
8. The Executive Committee will identify the award recipients.
9. The PIN president will notify the successful and unsuccessful applicants by May 1.
10. The $500 (US) stipend check will be sent to the college president, who will make the award to the faculty/staff member.

1. All applicants must be PIN members.
2. The goals and objectives of the exchange or visit must be identified.
3. Activities that will be used to achieve the goals and objectives
   should be identified.
4. The benefits of the exchange or visit for the college, department, and the individual must be identified.
5. The exchange must be consistent with the goals of the PIN organization.

Forward your Faculty/Staff Exchange and Visit applications to Bill Warner, Executive Director.

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Melbourne, Australia is a new PIN member and is an international university. People come to RMIT University from all over the world, to study or teach at any level from matriculation through TAFE and undergraduate to research degrees and professional doctorates.

This year 21.5 percent of all Australian students applying for university courses in Victoria chose RMIT University as their first preference. This was an increase of 19.6 percent over the 1998 first-preference applications.

In 1998 over 5,000 international students enrolled at RMIT University's Victorian campuses, and another 5,300 studied RMIT courses in other countries. Twinning arrangements, distance education and on-line learning mean that RMIT University courses are available in a dozen countries--and all at the same high standard as the programs taught at RMIT's Australian campuses.

An important goal for RMIT University is to ensure every student has an opportunity to complete part of her or his course overseas. This international experience might be gained through an intensive study tour, a student exchange with another university, on-line collaboration, community service, a conference or a work experience placement.

RMIT University's international success was recognised in 1998 with the inaugural Governor of Victoria Export Award for Education, an impressive achievement against stiff competition from the state's five other universities. RMIT followed this award by winning the prestigious 1998 Australian Export Award for Education and in May 1999 won its second Business Asia News Magazine award for business and service excellence in the Asian region.

Find out more about RMIT by visiting their website at: www.rmit.edu.au.

Schoolcraft College, Livonia, Michigan, United States is a new PIN member. Schoolcraft College is a two-year community college with a student body of 28,000 credit and continuing education students of all ages and backgrounds. Schoolcraft is currently implementing the second U.S. Department of Education grant entitled "International Education and Training Initiative." The grant is designed to critically analyze and respond to the international needs and requirements of the Michigan small and medium-sized business community. The grant seeks to identify potential overseas markets and aid businesses seeking to enter those markets by offering an international trade certificate program including "country specific" seminars and workshops. Schoolcraft works closely with entrepreneurs already exporting and exploring new possibilities, and those willing to start the process for the first time. In addition, the project is designed to provide practical applications for potential exporters through project driven experiences and company partners.

Schoolcraft College has developed the Schoolcraft College International Institute. The mission of this group is to coordinate activities and offerings that promote cross-cultural understanding for the community, students, faculty, and staff. The goals of the Institute are to: integrate international education into the curriculum, create an international newsletter, provide professional development for faculty, and establish a cultural sharing group. Prepare students to work in a global society, establish a Sister Institution, and establish a study abroad program.

Find out more about Schoolcraft College by visiting their website at: schoolcraft.cc.mi.us.