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The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) has announced that the University of Delaware is one of 10 colleges and universities competitively chosen to participate in its newest initiative, “Liberal Education and Global Citizenship: The Arts of Democracy.”
The national initiative is a curriculum and faculty development project supported with $609,497 from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education in the U.S. Department of Education, representing 62 percent of the total cost of the project. The remaining 38 percent is funded by AAC&U.
In addition to UD, institutions chosen to participate are Albany (Ga.) State University, the American University of Paris, Beloit (Wis.) College, City University of New York-Brooklyn College, Heritage College of Toppenish, Wash., John Carroll University of Cleveland, Pacific Lutheran University of Tacoma, Wash., Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Representing a wide variety of institutional types, these schools have all committed to developing new courses within undergraduate majors that will encourage students to think about global issues, diversity issues from an historical perspective, questions of justice and equality and democratic practices and principles, according to a representative of the AAC&U.
“I am very pleased that the University of Delaware was selected to participate in this project, which I believe will enhance the efforts of our students and faculty in generating new knowledge on global studies and its relationship with social responsibility and civic engagement,” Bobby Gempesaw, vice provost for academic programs and planning at UD, said.
The UD project calls for implementation of global citizenship education through a multiyear threaded curriculum that will integrate courses, international discovery and service learning opportunities, technology, general education and major study.
UD students will be able to select one of three global citizenship tracks and will be able to accumulate credit toward a global citizenship certificate at graduation:
• “Enacting Democracy,” which will focus on the challenges facing the establishment, evolution and operation of democratic forms of government;
• “Global Community,” which will focus on similarities and differences across communities and highlight local and individual issues and community responses; and
• “Transnational Issues,” which will focus on the transnational forces that shape global actions, such as technology, environmental degradation, population growth and migration, the arms trade and international human rights standards.
“The University of Delaware proposal to integrate global citizenship in our general education initiative is a unique way to provide students with the experiences they need in order to function productively and responsibly in a global society,” Gempesaw said.
The UD program was developed by William Frawley, director of the Office of Undergraduate Studies; Bahram Rajaee, director of International Projects in the Center for International Studies; Lesa Griffiths, director of the Center for International Studies; Edward Freel, research policy scientist for the Institute for Public Administration; Ralph Begleiter, Rosenberg Professor of Communication; and Lalita Manrai, professor of business administration in the College of Business and Economics.
“Liberal Education and Global Citizenship” is the first funded project in AAC&U’s ongoing initiative, “Shared Futures: Learning for a World Lived in Common.”
It aims to prepare future college graduates to become more informed, socially responsible and engaged citizens of the nation and the world. The project will assist institutions as they provide students with a sophisticated understanding of their increasingly interconnected but unequal world.
The three-year project will support faculty and administrative teams with a series of activities: a four-day faculty institute, an online faculty development seminar, grant funds to support campus-based faculty development activities and working forums at AAC&U’s regional and annual meetings.
“This project will be one small way of beginning to work toward another kind of global community than the fractured, violence-ridden one represented by the kind of heinous acts committed on Sept. 11. Our students can and should become part of a wider positive force committed to working in community with others across cultural, religious and national borders to create socially responsible, peaceful and equitable societies,” according to Caryn McTighe Musil, project director and AAC&U vice president responsible for diversity, equity and global initiatives.
April 9, 2002
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