Associations Ask Secretary of State to Support Lincoln Study Abroad Program

Oct. 2, 2006

The American Council on Education sent a letter Sept. 29 to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice requesting the State Department’s support for the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Program, an initiative designed to foster global literacy among college students.

The letter asks Rice to allocate $50 million in the department’s FY 2008 budget request to launch the fellowship program.

Sens. Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Norm Coleman (R-MN) introduced legislation (S. 3744) in July to establish the program, which seeks to increase the number of college and university students studying abroad to one million in 10 years. Currently, fewer than 200,000 students per year participate in such programs.

The Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Program also seeks to boost the involvement of minority, low-income and community college students in international study, as well as increase the number of students studying in developing countries.

“We are approaching the point in where some type of international experience is becoming the expectation for undergraduate education,” the associations wrote. “This would go a long way toward internationalizing our campus. This is a goal that the Administration urged at the University Presidents Summit held last January. At this summit the importance of study abroad was highlighted by you and other leading Administration officials. We need a visible national effort to get this done and the Lincoln program is a very well thought out plan.”

ACE President David Ward sent the letter on behalf of the American Association of Community Colleges, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the Association of American Universities, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC).

The fellowship program stems from a report released last year by the bipartisan Abraham Lincoln Commission on Study Abroad, Global Competence and National Needs: One Million Students Studying Abroad, which defined the ability to better understand and appreciate the world outside our borders as vital to national security, economic competitiveness and global stability. The commission was chaired by Peter McPherson, president of NASULGC.