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Comprehensive Institutions
Baldwin-Wallace College
http://www.bw.edu/
Contents
General Institutional Overview
Overview of Internationalization
Efforts
- Vision and Goals for Internationalization
- Progress
- Successful Strategies
- Future Plans
General Institutional Overview
Baldwin-Wallace (B-W) College is located in Berea, Ohio, and is an
accredited, independent, comprehensive liberal arts college affiliated
with the United Methodist Church. The 100-acre campus is 20 minutes from
downtown Cleveland, a port city on the shores of Lake Erie with a
multicultural heritage. B-W is a comprehensive, coeducational college
with a regional focus that awards five bachelor’s degrees and two
master’s degrees. B-W is one of the few liberal arts colleges in
the nation with an internationally respected Conservatory of Music.
John Baldwin, a deeply religious man who produced grindstones for
settlers of the Western Reserve, founded Baldwin University in 1845. In
1863 the university’s German department formed a second school,
German Wallace College, to serve the growing German Methodist population
in the area. The two neighboring schools shared curricula and students
throughout the 19th century and were united in 1913, marking the
official beginning of Baldwin-Wallace College.
B-W College was one of the first schools in Ohio to admit students
without regard to race or gender, and is also recognized as one of the
early leaders in adult education. B-W’s enrollment totals
approximately 3,100 full-time undergraduates, 800 part-time students in
evening and weekend programs, and 700 graduate students. B-W has 162
full-time professors and maintains a 14:1 student/faculty ratio, with an
average class size of 18. Eighty percent of the faculty have earned
doctorates or terminal degrees. B-W has recently enjoyed significant
growth in its endowment, which stands at $105 million. Among the
first-year class, 30 percent come from the top 10 percent of their high
school classes, with a mean ACT score of 24. The college competes in the
Ohio Athletic Conference, one of the nation’s oldest and most
competitive NCAA Division III conferences. B-W College is committed to
personalized education that stresses individual growth, community
service, and responsiveness to new ideas in a rapidly changing society.
Overview of Internationalization Efforts
I. Vision and Goals for
Internationalization
Baldwin-Wallace’s vision and commitment to global undergraduate
education stem from its mission statement, which includes assisting
students “in their preparation to become contributing,
compassionate citizens of an increasingly global society” and
encouraging “their pursuit of personal and professional
excellence.” The plan’s guiding principles and strategic
goals reaffirm B-W’s commitment to an intellectually and
culturally diverse learning community that enhances individual growth
and development of faculty, administration and staff. The Strategic
Planning Committee, headed by President Collier, was composed of
faculty, administrators, staff, students, trustees, and alumni.
Additional faculty input in setting internationalization goals was
provided by Judy Krutky, chair of the College International Strategic
Planning Process. Krutky worked with the faculty Global Issues Committee
to lead campus discussions and formulate priorities appropriate for B-W
College. She also conducted a faculty survey on campus
internationalization. Fifty-five percent of full-time faculty responded
and indicated a desire for curriculum reform, international student
recruitment, and sending more B-W students abroad.
II. Progress
The foundation for B-W’s current internationalization efforts
is rooted in a longstanding history of meeting the changing educational
needs of an evolving urban industrial community in northern Ohio.
Campus-wide internationalization for B-W students is especially urgent
because nearly 88 percent of undergraduate students come from Ohio, and
more than 60 percent of them are from the seven-county northeastern
region surrounding Cleveland. Many have never traveled outside Ohio, and
a large number are transfer students from area community colleges. The
increased campus-wide emphasis on internationalization in recent years
is helping to create a learning environment more likely to impact all
students, not just those in internationally oriented majors.
The basis for current internationalization efforts was established
when 12 B-W faculty participated in an East Central College consortium
grant from 1992-95 for internationalizing the curriculum. In 1997 B-W
established an exchange agreement with Beijing Administrative College in
Beijing, China, and began yearly faculty exchanges. Vice President for
Student Affairs Denise Reading authored a Cleveland Foundation grant in
1997 called “Helping Students Become World Citizens.” The
grant funded the establishment of an Office of International Support
Services to build bridges between international and American students,
and a two-year faculty development program emphasizing Brazil in 1998
and China in 1999. The culmination of each year’s activities was
an extended faculty-staff study tour to the target country. As a result,
B-W was able to complement the MBA’s joint certificate and degree
programs with Faculdade Catolica de Administracao e Economica (FAE) in
Curitiba, Brazil, and establish links with Sichuan International Studies
University in Chongqing, China, which brought a visiting Chinese scholar
to B-W during fall 2001.
The Office of International Support Services has led several
initiatives to build bridges between international and American
students. In 1997, American undergraduate students began to serve as
International Student Ambassadors to help new students make a smooth
transition to campus and American life, and to provide students the
opportunity to learn from each other. The first Chinese New Year
celebration was held in 1997 to create a cultural learning opportunity
for the campus. Culture Night, featuring the cultures represented by
B-W’s international students, began in 1998, and American cultural
offerings such as Urban Dance and Gospel Choir have been added as well.
In 2002, weekly coffee hours were initiated to bring international and
American students together. Most recently, a multicultural housing
option was added through the efforts of faculty and the Office of
Residence Life and International Student Services. Multicultural housing
allows students representing a variety of cultural backgrounds to live
and work together. A study table facilitated by student ambassadors on
weekday evenings is one of the programs being offered to these
students.
In recognition of the increasing need for coordination among the
varied campus offices involved in working with international students,
the International Retention and Recruitment Committee was formed in late
2001. This committee brings together representatives from both academic
and student affairs who work together to serve the needs of current
international students. They also formulate and implement a recruitment
strategy designed to ensure that B-W meets its commitment to
multicultural and international diversity.
Further evidence of increasing commitment to campus
internationalization was the expansion of B-W’s Study Abroad
program in 2000, and its enlarged mission to promote off-campus travel
for students, faculty and staff. The program was renamed
Explorations/Study Abroad and is now under the direction of a senior
faculty member, Margaret Brooks-Terry. The number of students studying
abroad is about 6 percent of full-time day students (184 students in
2002-03) and includes both B-W–sponsored study tours and students
enrolled individually in other programs. During the past five years,
there has been a 42 percent increase in the number of students spending
a semester or year at a university abroad. We have added several new
faculty-led study tours, ranging in duration from one week of geology in
Iceland to a full semester studying language and ecology in Ecuador.
To promote further campus internationalization, the college was able
to build on a number of existing strengths:
- Core Curriculum: B-W’s core curriculum has a
longstanding international studies requirement that all students take at
least one internationally-oriented course. The requirement is now three
courses, which students can satisfy by completing courses approved by
the faculty as containing significant international content, by taking
three foreign language courses, or by participating in an approved study
abroad program.
- International Studies and Foreign Language Majors: The
interdisciplinary International Studies (IS) major, which includes a
foreign language competency requirement, is composed of
internationally-oriented courses emphasizing political science,
economics, sociology, history, religion, geography, and foreign
language, with elective courses from other departments. An IS major
curriculum revision and the adoption of a required interdisciplinary
Introduction to International Studies course in 1997 has increased the
visibility of the program, which now has about 50 majors. B-W also
currently offers majors in French, German, and Spanish (plus two
semesters each of Elementary Italian and Chinese), and about 10 percent
of the undergraduate student body enrolls in a foreign language course
each year.
- Master of Business Administration in International Management
Program: B-W was the first Ohio college to offer an International
MBA (IMBA) focused on global management. During the past 20 years, this
program has graduated students from 45 countries. Recently these
international students have added diversity to the graduate classrooms
and enriched the campus by serving as student ambassadors in the Office
of International Support Services, as research assistants to faculty,
and as office assistants in other support functions. In addition, the
IMBA faculty have developed regular study abroad options in Japan,
Thailand, Vietnam, Europe, Central America, and Brazil to fulfill course
requirements. They have also established domestic and international
internship possibilities in Korea, Thailand, and Germany. The experience
gained by faculty, administration, and staff in working with the IMBA
program translates into benefits for undergraduate students as
well.
While support for the above activities continues, additional efforts
have been added to improve the campus community’s ability to
prepare students to become contributing and compassionate global
citizens. In fall 2001, B-W joined AsiaNetwork, an organization that
promotes Asian studies in a liberal arts setting, established a student
exchange agreement with Ewha University in Seoul, Korea, and began to
offer undergraduate Chinese language classes. In spring 2002, B-W was
awarded a Department of Education Title VI A Grant to support three
workshops on campus internationalization and introduce Asian studies and
Language Across the Curriculum (LAC). Five new courses, two revised
courses on Asia, and a semester-long Discover China Program have been
developed by the Asia group. In 2003-04, 12 existing courses will
introduce an LAC component, and several additional faculty have
indicated interest in integrating a language component into future
courses.
III. Successful Strategies
Internationalization efforts have been rooted in the desire to create
a campus culture that positively affects all students in some way. This
approach has required campus-wide involvement of the B-W community and
has been based on a three-pronged strategy that includes: (1)
institutional leadership and commitment to change, building on existing
strengths; coupled with (2) ongoing dialogue and planning, with faculty
interest as a driving force; and (3) leveraging external support for
funding of new initiatives. As a largely tuition-driven institution in
which internationalization is not the only goal being pursued within the
Strategic Plan, trade-offs are necessary.
One example of the commitment to change and continuing faculty
dialogue is the ongoing revision of the core curriculum. External
support provided by the Department of Education grant has already had an
impact on B-W’s curriculum offerings in the form of a new
statement of goals. These include: (1) developing students’ oral
and written communication skills, as well as their critical thinking,
problem-solving, and aesthetic appreciation abilities and their
understanding of information technology; (2) promoting breadth of
knowledge; (3) promoting understanding of diverse modes of inquiry in
the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, mathematics, and the
arts; (4) promoting inquiry into human diversity; and (5) encouraging
graduates to become healthy, active, and responsible citizens. A Core
Revision Study Group has proposed some alternative models for revision,
and the faculty has approved continuing the three-course international
studies requirement and adding two new liberal arts courses required of
all students. The first, LAS 150, will use inquiry into intercultural
differences to compare Western and non-Western responses to fundamental
human questions, and the second, LAS 350, has not yet been developed.
IV. Future Plans
Ongoing plans focus on four areas:
- Revision of the core curriculum. The Curriculum Committee
will monitor offerings of the LAS 150 course and oversee planning and
development of LAS 350, the upper-division required course. These new
course offerings will introduce students to inter- and intracultural
perspectives on human existence and to how behaviors are often shaped by
cultural influences.
- Faculty development activities. As part of the ongoing
Department of Education Title VI A grant, two groups of faculty will
work with outside consultants on courses related to Latin America and
Europe in 2003-04, and will plan and teach new or revised offerings in
2004-05. The Latin America group will work with the assistance of a
Fulbright Visiting Scholar from Latin America, who will also teach a
course on environmental issues in spring 2004. Both groups will travel
to the target region during summer 2004.
- Transformational Learning Center. Grassroots initiatives
developed by a group of junior and senior faculty committed to the study
and improvement of pedagogy across all disciplines have resulted in
efforts to create a Center for Transformational Learning at B-W. More
than three years ago, a group of faculty began to meet informally to
discuss their challenges and successes in teaching, and to share
effective strategies. This informal group has grown significantly and is
now actively involved in planning campus-wide teaching workshops and
other events in support of enhanced pedagogy. The college’s newly
approved core curriculum, with its focus on fostering both international
and intercultural understanding and sensitivity, has been an important
catalyst for these initiatives. The proposed center is envisioned as a
nucleus for communication, exchange, and consultation among faculty
committed to preparing B-W students to become engaged citizens and
effective workers in a global society.
- Career Services. Career Services at Baldwin-Wallace College
works with students to enhance and encourage their career development
through personalized career guidance, self-assessment evaluation tools,
weekly job search seminars, and an internship program. During the past
year, Career Services has focused on preparing B-W students to succeed
in an increasingly global society. New initiatives developed by Career
Services include an annual seminar on careers in international affairs,
promotion of international internships sponsored by the Washington
Center and the Institute for Experiential Education, and expansion of
resources and web links that provide exposure to international career
paths.
Last updated: April 27, 2005
| collaborative, Baldwin-Wallace College |
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