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Missouri Southern State University

http://www.mssc.edu/

Contents

General Institutional Overview

1. Vision and Goals for Internationalization
2. Progress
3. Successful Strategies
4. Future Plans

General Institutional Overview

Located in Joplin, a city of 45,000 in the southwest corner of the state, Missouri Southern State University is a state-supported, comprehensive university with a fall 2001 enrollment of 5,899 (3,863 full time, 2,036 part time). Central to Missouri Southern’s mission is an emphasis on teaching and a strong commitment to the liberal arts and international education.

A faculty-led review and revision of the university’s general education requirement identified the need for students to become more globally aware in order to compete for jobs in the changing economy. In 1990, the Missouri Southern Board of Regents approved an international education focus for the university and, in 1995, Missouri’s governor signed a law that enhanced Missouri Southern’s mission by adding an international dimension to existing programs.

Overview of Internationalization Efforts

Missouri Southern was one of eight institutions selected for the ACE Promising Practices Project: Spotlighting Excellence in Comprehensive Internationalization.

I. Vision and Goals for Internationalization

According to Missouri Southern’s mission statement, "Inherent to our international approach to undergraduate education is the desire to prepare its students to understand world affairs, international issues, and other cultures, as seen through their history, geography, language, literature, philosophy, economics, and politics. Knowledge and understanding of other cultures of the world also promote better understanding of our own valuable cultural diversity."

Missouri Southern’s primary goal is to enhance all academic programs through an emphasis on international education. To that end, the university has identified five learner-centered objectives:

• Graduates will have an understanding of how cultures and societies around the world are formed, sustained, and evolve.
  
• Graduates will have empathy for the values and perspectives of cultures other than their own and an awareness of international and multicultural influences in their own lives.
  
• Graduates will be able to identify and discuss international issues and cultures other than their own.
  
• Graduates will have communicative competence in a second or third language.
  
• Graduates will have experienced or desire to experience a culture other than their own.

Missouri Southern also has established two additional goals relating to its international mission. The first, to heighten community awareness of international issues, cultures, and languages other than their own by using institutional expertise, includes the following objectives:

• The community will have the opportunity to attend a variety of international lectures and cultural events on the campus, at no charge.
  
• Students in grades K–12 will see an increased emphasis on foreign language instruction through the International Language Resource Center.
  
• Area organizations and individuals presently or wishing to become involved in international trade will be able to access consulting and research assistance through the International Trade and Quality Center.
  
• The community will have the opportunity to enjoy the best work of creative directors and performers from around the world.

The other goal, to develop international resource centers by using institutional expertise to serve targeted communities, maintains these objectives:

• To help Missouri’s immigrants, refugees, and other limited English-speaking persons smoothly transition into American society, through the Missouri Multicultural Network web site, an all-encompassing information clearinghouse (http://www.mssc.edu/missouri).
  
• To assist U.S. higher education institutions that wish to devise, implement, and maintain effective programs in international education through the National Center for International Education web site (http://www.mssc.edu/ncie).
  
• To provide weekly newspaper editors from around the world with a forum to improve standards of editorial writing and news reporting and to encourage strong, independent editorial voices, through the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors (http://www.iswne.org).
  
• To provide journalism students from throughout the world with a forum in which to exchange ideas, collaborate on special projects, and share articles and photographs through International Crossroads.
  
• To encourage educators, researchers, and postsecondary students to improve their teaching and study of South Asian history and culture through Project South Asia, a web-based digital library (http://www.mssc.edu/projectsouthasia).

II. Progress

The most distinctive aspect of Missouri Southern’s effort to internationalize the curriculum, and the one with the most tangible effect throughout the campus community, has been the designation of "themed semesters." Each fall, a particular region of the world is selected to become the focus of intensive study: Individual departments on campus incorporate relevant aspects of the chosen region in their courses, student journalists travel to that part of the world and write articles for a special edition of the college newspaper, The Chart, and special events are open to the college community and the public. The Harry and Berniece Gockel Symposium inaugurates the themed semester; top scholars in the respective field give insight into the problems and potentials of the region. Previous themed semesters havefocused on China (1997), Africa (1998), Latin America (1999), America (2000) Japan (2001), and India (2002).

The Japan Semester featured renowned experts speaking on such topics as "Modern Japanese Literature’s Ten Greatest Hits," "Degrees of Cultural Accuracy in Memoirs of a Geisha," "The Making of the Samurai: From Wild Warriors to the Way of the Warrior," and "Living Tradition of Japan Today Through Theatre Forms and Martial Arts," a lecture/demonstration on the Japanese tradition of tea ceremonies by a certified Japanese tea master, and performances by a Japanese dance company and a taiko drum ensemble. The title of the Gockel International Symposium was "Rising Sun, Looming Crisis: Japan Facing Reform and Transition in a New Millennium," with three scholars addressing the Japanese economy and Prime Minister Koizumi’s attempt to bring economic reform to the Japanese. In addition, five editors from The Chart spent two weeks in Japan producing stories and photographs on Japanese culture, media, the role of women, religion, cuisine, fashion, transportation, baseball, and sumo wrestling for a special 24-page section of the newspaper, while students from Ryukoku University in Kyoto, Japan, wrote stories on Kyoto, Japanese traditions, religion, art, and business for a 60-page edition of International Crossroads.

The international mission also is evident from changes made in the curriculum. The recently developed International Studies major allows both flexibility and structure for the student who desires an international career. Required courses include Introduction to International Studies, Contemporary World Civilizations, Comparative Political Economy, International Techno-Trends, World Humanities, and World Environmental Issues. Intellectual rigor is built into the program through the requirement of a senior thesis and an 18-hour foreign language requirement.

An important feature of Missouri Southern’s general education program is the block of courses known as Area 5, that is, courses with an international focus. All Missouri Southern graduates are required to have taken at least one of these courses, which include foreign languages, international geography, comparative cultures, intercultural communication, comparative religion, and international cultural studies.

Missouri Southern students can select from a wide variety of foreign languages, more than those offered by most public institutions of comparable size. Students may major in French, German, or Spanish; minors are available in those languages plus Chinese, Japanese, and Russian. The number of foreign language majors and minors has increased substantially during the past five years. The college offers beginning-, intermediate-, and advanced-level courses in each of the six languages in both spring and fall semesters. The 2001 fall course schedule also included such topics as Hispanic Drama, Latin American Literature, Advanced German Syntax, Francophone Literature, and Advanced Japanese. Except for the Spanish major and French and German minors, the other programs were all put into place after Missouri Southern set its international mission.

One indication of the manner in which the international mission permeates the curriculum is the number of courses with an international focus. The 2001­02 college catalog lists a total of 1,035 courses from the schools of Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, Technology, and the Institute of International Studies and honors program. Of that number, 125 (12 percent) are either international courses or courses with a predominantly international focus. The permanent courses that faculty have added in recent years reflect a similar trend: 9 percent of new courses added in 1999­2000 and 14 percent of those added in 2000­01 were international courses. Records of the proceedings of the academic policies committee indicate that 52 percent of the accepted course petitions in 1999­2000 and 22 percent of those from the 2000­01 academic year were international courses. These figures demonstrate the willingness of faculty to respond creatively by developing new courses that meet current interests of students or that support the institutional efforts to internationalize the curriculum.

Individual departments have initiated specific responses to international education. The education department provides students with extensive resources related to the themed semesters and offers the option to complete part of the student teaching requirement at a school in England. The nursing department urges students to take a foreign language and designs modules that focus on health care abroad, usually related to the themed semester.

Since the inception of its international mission, Missouri Southern has realized an increase of more than 400 percent in the number of international students seeking admission. In numeric terms, this equates to a current total of 104 students, or roughly 2 percent of the university's fall 2001 enrollment. This increase is mainly attributable to the publicity on its international mission that Missouri Southern has received in print media around the world, the promotion of the international mission on the campus web site, and the low cost of its tuition compared with that of other midsize U.S. colleges and universities. Many students join the International Club, which also has attracted American students on campus. At the annual Food Feast, students from many countries prepare typical dishes from their region for about 700 guests. The Food Feast is a very popular event in the local community and enables the international students to raise money for travel.

Since 1995, the number of international faculty members on campus has increased from four to 12. International faculty are currently responsible for teaching and research in German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish language and literature, international business, economics, mathematics, sociology, computer-aided drafting and design, and manufacturing information management systems. Many of the programs central to the international mission are headed by international faculty.

The International Language Resource Center (ILRC) provides numerous services to the university and the surrounding communities. The center maintains a large collection of educational materials, including 140 audio items, 535 books, eight laser disks, 52 software items, and 836 videocassettes in 27 languages. Each year, the ILRC receives about 200 requests for materials from members of the university community and another 100 requests from local high school and middle school teachers. The ILRC also provides free tutoring services for students in each of the six languages taught.

Another area of outreach activities is after-school foreign language classes designed by the ILRC director and taught by Missouri Southern students. A dozen classes are offered each semester in area public schools, at the Joplin Public Library, and on the Missouri Southern campus. The languages taught include Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. Total enrollment in these classes is now more than 250 students per semester. These efforts have increased interest in language learning and provided a vital service for school districts that could not afford to introduce languages at the elementary school level. The ILRC also sponsors workshops for foreign language teachers in the area; these are available at no cost to faculty and high school teachers who wish to participate.

The Missouri Southern annual Modern Foreign Language Field Day has been attracting an increasing number of area junior high and high school students: from 500 in 1996 to 1,200 in 2001. The day’s events give local students the opportunity to participate in 36 competitions conducted in French, German, and Spanish, such as "culture bowl," a geography quiz, poetry reading, poster contest, reading comprehension, vocabulary recognition, and various skits. The results of all written competitions are available for area teachers, who use the results to compare their students’ performance to that of their peers. Teachers and students repeatedly express their enthusiasm for the event. To reach younger students and promote the early study of foreign language, Missouri Southern also offers a special summer immersion Spanish camp, Villa Española (Spanish Village), for children ages 8­13. The Village’s mission is to develop Spanish-language skills, encourage understanding of other cultures, and educate responsible citizens with a global perspective. Villagers have a great time learning the Spanish language, the geography of the Spanish-speaking world, and its cultures, crafts, songs, and dances. They also work on computers and communicate via the Internet with children in Mexico.

In six years, the Village has grown from 26 to 86 participants, more than three times its original size. The student publication, International Crossroads, also has become a means of acquainting Missouri Southern students with international perspectives. Students from universities around the world, often partner universities, are invited to submit articles. The purposes of the annual magazine are threefold: to dispel cross-cultural stereotypes; to glimpse the social nuances of varying world cultures; and to offer student journalists a broader audience with which to communicate. A group of journalism students from the University of Vienna produced the 2000 issue, titled "Very Vienna." The students and their professor then visited Joplin to participate in a weeklong International Conference on Multicultural Journalism, and most remained for an additional period to serve internships at local media outlets.

III. Successful Strategies

A key strategy implemented as a result of the 1995 mission enhancement has been development of and support for a number of study-abroad programs, giving students a variety of options while generating awareness of and enthusiasm for the international mission. As a result, Missouri Southern has realized a steady increase in the number of students going abroad. In 2000­01, 237 students, or roughly 12 percent of eligible students (those with a minimum 2.5 grade point average and full-time status), engaged in short-term study abroad, onsite classes in Costa Rica, student teaching in England, or long-term study abroad. Of those students, 158 received study-abroad grants averaging $1,729. Most of the grants were for short-term travel sponsored by individual academic departments.

Since 1995, when money became available to support faculty study abroad, 53 percent of Missouri Southern faculty have traveled outside the United States. Overall, faculty have a very positive attitude toward the international mission and study-abroad programs, as well as toward international education in general. Faculty who have traveled are significantly more positive about the mission and programs than those who have not. Faculty study-abroad grants enable faculty to accompany groups of students abroad, attend international conferences, or visit sites related to their research projects. For the 2000-01 academic year, faculty travel grants totaling $90,795 were awarded to 38 faculty. By internationalizing the curriculum grants, faculty can enrich courses with international perspectives or materials. Some of the projects funded during the past academic year include developing international internships for students, purchasing Asian religion and philosophy materials for the library, acquiring items for the university's collection of African art, bringing an elementary teacher from Brazil and an education professor from Costa Rica to the campus for a week, developing a "Survival Japanese" multimedia CD, and generating a series of seminars on international marketing.

IV. Future Plans

Missouri Southern has constantly refined its approach to internationalization. While the original goal was to send as many faculty and students abroad as quickly as possible to generate enthusiasm for the international mission, the university has begun to emphasize semester-long study-abroad opportunities. The grants committee that determines which faculty and student study-abroad applications will be funded each year closely examines the applications to eliminate those with insufficient academic substance. The committee is also asking how the study-abroad experience will help the university meet its goals and bring long-term benefits to students. Although students who have studied abroad are expected to share their experiences in the classroom upon their return, little else has been required of them. They must submit a "full and comprehensive report" to the Institute of International Studies within 30 days of their return. Oftentimes, however, these reports are brief and contain only the sightseeing details of the trip rather than how the student’s life was changed and enriched. The university would like to develop a more formalized accountability measure and require the students who received grants to make on-campus or civic presentations. Additionally, if students who studied abroad could be designated with an "SA" on class rosters, instructors could make better use of their experiences in the classroom.

In its five-year mission enhancement plan to the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education, Missouri Southern has indicated that 7 percent of its full-time students will study abroad each year. Even when that measure of progress is met, roughly 70 percent of all full-time students would not go abroad during their academic careers. In order for the international mission to have its desired effect, the entire curriculum must be infused with a global perspective. Progress is sometimes difficult to measure in this area, and officials recognize that there remains much to accomplish. Some faculty have indicated that they need assistance in seeing the connections between their discipline and the university’s international mission. And while Missouri Southern has established 16 bilateral agreements with universities in Chile, China, Costa Rica, Finland, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, and Taiwan, these have been used exclusively for student exchanges. The university believes it is imperative that it begin initiating faculty exchanges, collaborative research, and an organization of mutual courses and common conferences. Certainly the university must make better use of its videoconferencing classrooms, for example, to share information with universities around the world.

Missouri Southern remains committed to the continual assessment and reassessment of its international programs. By surveying incoming freshmen and graduating seniors on an annual basis, the university can determine whether graduates are meeting the five objectives associated with enhancing all academic programs through an emphasis on international education. One analysis of the 2001 results focused on the degree to which study-abroad experiences led students to engage in on-campus activities to broaden their international understanding. The results were encouraging. Students who had traveled outside the United States engaged in significantly more non-travel activities on campus than students who had not—in fact, all students who had traveled outside the United States engaged in at least some other activities. Moreover, they rated the international mission and study-abroad programs significantly more positively than students who had not traveled outside the United States.

In just a decade, Missouri Southern has taken a fledgling international program to well-developed and successful status. The fabric and culture of the campus has changed to one dominated by discussions of foreign languages, world affairs, and global markets. Students are majoring and minoring in Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish in record numbers; Missouri Southern’s new International Business major is its fastest-growing one; schools and departments are planning activities for themed semesters and negotiating bilateral exchange agreements with universities around the globe; faculty are writing federal and private grants and competing for opportunities to internationalize the campus curriculum; and the number of students and faculty who study abroad every year continues to climb. While these advances are satisfying, they remain as yet incomplete. It is with enthusiasm and vigor therefore that Missouri Southern now moves forward with a vision of even greater international accomplishment.

Last updated: April 27, 2005