Messenger - Vol. 1, No. 1, Page 14
Fall 1991
U.D. receives $1.5 million international development grant

     The University has received a $1.5 million grant from the U.S.
Agency for International Development (A.I.D.) to teach leaders in
Bulgaria about the workings of a free market economy.
     The funding, announced in July, is part of an $18 million
program, sponsored by A.I.D. and the U.S. Information Agency, called
Management Training and Economics Education for Central and Eastern
Europe.
     According to Lawrence P. Donnelley, the University's acting
associate provost for international programs and special sessions,
Czechoslavakia, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Romania also are
targeted for assistance under the program. In all, 32 U.S. educational
institutions, plus a number of contractors, are working with
counterparts in Central and Eastern Europe to administer the
government program, he said.
     The University of Delaware received the second largest grant of
the program's educational participants, according to Stephen P.
French, an A.I.D. technical adviser.
     The University's one-year grant, which began June 1, is being
administered by the Office of International Programs and Special
Sessions, and is staffed by faculty from the College of Business and
Economics and the English Language Institute (ELI), in conjunction
with a coalition of universities, government agencies and media
organizations in Bulgaria, University President David Roselle said.
     Kenneth R. Biederman, dean of the College of Business and
Economics, said the University program uses instructional technology
and seminars, both in Bulgaria and in Delaware, to train qualified and
interested Bulgarian economists, business persons, government leaders,
teachers and journalists about free markets.
     "It will likely be a slow process," Biederman said, "but with the
help of Sofia University, our counterpart institution, we believe the
University of Delaware can help Bulgaria to eventually compete with
success in the global economy.
     "In the next 10 months, we hope to leave a foundation for
learning that will serve Bulgarians long after our program ends,"
Biederman added.
     Roselle noted that the A.I.D. grant builds on a tradition of
University involvement with educational institutions in Bulgaria.
     For two years, starting in 1989, the University had a student
exchange program, which was funded by a grant from the U.S.
Information Agency, with the University of Sofia, Roselle said.