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Global Learning Profiles
California State University Stanislaus
http://www.csustan.edu/
Contents
General Institutional Overview
http://www.csustan.edu/
California State University Stanislaus (CSU Stanislaus) is a
7,500-student university located in a rapidly urbanizing region of
California’s agricultural Central Valley. The area’s produce
and related agricultural technology are marketed around the world.
Equally powerful in shaping local life are global forces that have made
the 10,000-square-mile service area one of the most ethnically and
linguistically diverse in the world. The CSU Stanislaus service region
is home to large communities of Spanish, Portuguese, Hmong, Punjabi,
Khmer, Lao, Basque, and Syriac speakers, as well as descendents of the
Northern Europeans who settled the valley at the turn of this century
and families who fled the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.
The primary mission of CSU Stanislaus is the delivery of high-quality
academic programs taught by faculty who are dedicated to student
learning. In 1999, CSU Stanislaus was awarded the highest level of
reaccreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges
(WASC). The WASC accreditation report strongly endorsed the campus
strategic goals and described a campus climate characterized by respect
for a diverse student body.
CSU Stanislaus clearly demonstrates its commitment to access for all
eligible students through the composition of its student body. Students
are full time, part time, first-time freshmen, transfer students, and
reentry students of all ages, economic levels, and ethnic backgrounds.
Minority students make up 50 percent of the student body, adult learners
46 percent, and part-time students 38 percent. CSU Stanislaus
demonstrates the reality of the term “new majority
student.”
Recognition of CSU Stanislaus’ reputation as an institution
committed to serving the new majority student reaches beyond the region.
Hispanic Outlook lists CSU Stanislaus among 100 U.S. colleges
that are particularly hospitable to Hispanic students, and the U.S.
Department of Education has granted CSU Stanislaus the designation of
Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), which is defined as an institution
that has at least 25 percent Hispanic full-time enrollment, with 50
percent of that enrollment qualifying as low income.
CSU Stanislaus enumerates the following strategic goals in
Pathways to the Future: Our Vision and Strategic Commitments:
- Creating a campus climate conducive to excellence in teaching and
learning.
- Maximizing student access throughout the region.
- Addressing the needs of a highly diverse population.
- Internationalizing the curriculum.
- Promoting research activities of faculty and students.
- Providing the appropriate academic support services.
- Promoting and rewarding continuous professional development of
faculty and staff.
- Creating dynamic co-curricular programs and services in support of
the academic mission.
- Expanding and creating new partnerships throughout the region.
- Creating the institutional processes necessary to accurately assess
progress.
Aggressive recruiting efforts and expanding financial aid programs
have made CSU Stanislaus increasingly accessible to new majority
students, many of whom are the first in their families to attend
college. Part of this accessibility means that academic programs must be
available in nontraditional times and ways. Since 1999, CSU Stanislaus
students have been able to take a full general education program and
complete many majors in classes offered after 4:00 p.m. For two decades,
the university has offered courses to students in remote locations by
instructional television on flexible schedules, including many evening
and weekend courses.
At CSU Stanislaus, vigorous pursuit of access and diversity goes hand
in hand with the highest attention to student retention. The university
has developed a variety of support structures designed to promote
advancement of students of varying ages, experience levels, and ethnic
and language backgrounds. The Educational Opportunity Program and
Student Support Services provide academic advising, support, and
assistance with study skills for low-income, first-generation college
students. The Faculty Mentor Program provides students from historically
underrepresented groups in higher education with their own personal
faculty mentors and a year-long program of activities and workshops
designed to ensure retention and graduation. The Reentry Program
provides similar assistance in a supportive environment for adults who
have deferred their education for five years or more.
CSU Stanislaus enjoys strong partnerships with its neighboring
institutions. Eighty percent of transfer students are community college
transfer students from Modesto Junior College, Columbia College, Merced
College, and Delta College. CSU Stanislaus has longstanding articulation
agreements with these schools, under which any community college student
who completes the lower division transferable coursework requirements of
the California State University System is guaranteed admission to any of
the partner institutions. CSU Stanislaus and the local community
colleges have formed the Higher Education Consortium of Central
California, which serves as a regular forum for discussion of joint
projects and collaborative efforts.
Overview of Internationalization Efforts
The foundation upon which international knowledge, attitudes, and
skills for all CSU Stanislaus students will be built has been developed
in a thorough, thoughtful, and systematic manner. In 1998, the CSU
Stanislaus University Educational Policies Committee—a faculty
governance body charged specifically with oversight of the curriculum
and other academic issues—organized a Globalization Task Force
composed of faculty representing all three colleges of the campus and
chaired by the director of the Office of Global Affairs. This effort
launched university-wide discussion and planning regarding how to ensure
the effectiveness of CSU Stanislaus curricula and programs in preparing
students for the challenges of the 21st century. The Task Force’s
mandate was to assess the current state of internationalization on
campus and to chart a course for the future. This effort included the
development of goals for international learning, defined as the Building
Blocks of Global Literacy. The next step was the development of a
university-wide implementation plan that serves as a large-scale map by
which the campus may arrive at its ultimate goal of
internationalization. Since the steps to internationalization carry
curricular and resource implications, the work of the Globalization Task
Force, including the implementation plan, has proceeded through required
channels for consideration and is completing its review by appropriate
curricular committees and the Faculty Senate, assuring buy-in from all
constituencies.
The university has made substantial progress; more than 20 faculty
members recently undertook a curriculum review project, in which they
have reviewed curricula and instruction and developed new or revised
syllabi to promote internationalized learning outcomes, supported by
appropriate faculty development. The process has initiated formal,
university-wide discussion regarding the establishment of a foreign
language requirement for graduation. The campus has received a $440,000
grant from the Keck Foundation for the creation of a state-of-the-art
language laboratory that will assist students in developing usable
language competency. Language faculty members have developed the STAN
Language Assessment. Based on the Interagency Language Roundtable
examination, the STAN Language Assessment establishes language
proficiency standards that can be shared across colleges in languages
not supported by the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign
Languages assessment guidelines. The STAN Language Assessment is adapted
to local language needs and is currently available and used in Spanish,
Portuguese, Hmong, and Lao.
The following three achievements are particularly noteworthy:
- Establishment of the Faculty-initiated Office of Global
Affairs
Serving as a catalyst for the campus internationalization plan, the
Office of Global Affairs is a fully institutionalized campus entity
charged with ensuring the ongoing globalization effort. Begun in 1984
with a U.S. Department of Education Title VI-A grant, the office became
an official institution in 1999. The six staff members report directly
to the vice provost for Academic Affairs. The Office of Global Affairs
demonstrates tangible evidence of CSU Stanislaus’ commitment to
internationalize and guarantees the requisite staff time and resources
to continue the effort. This office has garnered more than $3 million in
support of international education projects.
- The BRIDGE
The BRIDGE, a community outreach and field research center jointly
sponsored by CSU Stanislaus and Modesto Junior College, serves an
ethnically diverse neighborhood of Modesto that is home to a large
population of Southeast Asian refugees. Scores of CSU Stanislaus
students have gained an authentic cross-cultural and linguistic
immersion experience without leaving the CSU Stanislaus service region
by participating in service learning in their majors at the BRIDGE.
Faculty members have revised more than 20 course syllabi to incorporate
cross-cultural projects.
- Establishment and Maintenance of Critical Languages Program
The Critical Languages Program provides CSU Stanislaus students
access to language learning opportunities not normally found in other
universities of similar size and location. Adhering to the format of the
National Association of Self-instructional Languages Programs, the
Critical Languages Program offers elementary and intermediate levels of
instruction in Arabic, Hmong, Japanese, Lao, Mandarin, and Russian. The
format is flexible and allows for the addition of new languages as
students demand and regional needs dictate. (Faculty members teach
Hmong, Lao, and occasionally Khmer in direct response to local
needs.)
Internationalization and the New Majority Student
The internationalization strategies outlined in the Globalization
Task Force Implementation Plan meet the needs of the new majority
student in the following ways:
- By focusing on the curriculum. The implementation plan requires the
university to ensure that international content is embedded in the
curriculum in both the majors and the general education program, so that
all students will have access to the knowledge, skills, and values that
make up the building blocks of global literacy.
- By broadening avenues to authentic cultural and linguistic
immersion. The BRIDGE currently provides such a venue. The
implementation plan calls for development of credit-bearing
opportunities in local heritage communities to simulate a study-abroad
experience for place-bound students.
- By providing recognition for languages other than English learned at
home and offering a way to certify competency in those languages.
- By conceptualizing study abroad as essential to the curriculum. This
means making study abroad accessible in terms of both cost and duration.
The winter term in Cuernavaca, Mexico, is a model of such accessibility.
The program provides a three-week, low-cost immersion experience.
Students take courses toward majors in nursing, teacher education,
psychology, and social work while studying Spanish and living in the
homes of Mexican host families. Students can make major progress toward
professional goals. For example, teacher education students can complete
the nine-unit CLAD (Cross-cultural, Language, and Academic Development)
requirement for entrance into the teacher credential program during the
winter term in Cuernavaca. In 2003, 19 of the 30 participants were new
majority students. Low-cost exchanges coupled with aggressive outreach
and financial aid assistance are also making overseas study accessible
to new majority students, who make up 25 percent of CSU
Stanislaus’ 2002Ð03 study-abroad students.
International Learning Goals
The Globalization Task Force has developed the following goals for
international learning:
Knowledge of:
- World history, philosophies, religions, and economics.
- World and regional geography, including ecosystems.
- The complex relationships among California’s Central Valley
and other national and world regions.
- Forces that are reshaping the world, including economic
globalization, population pressures, the information technology
revolution, religious/ideological conflicts, and environmental
strain.
- The relation among diverse interpretations of “universal human
rights” and government structures, economic policies, cultural
beliefs, current conflicts, and other issues.
- Relationship between individual majors and global issues faced by
students after graduation.
Values and perspectives that reflect:
- An appreciation for the diverse cultures represented in the local
community, and a respect for them as a source of information about the
larger world.
- A willingness and ability to recognize the roots and bases of
one’s own beliefs, perceptions, habits, customs, and behavior, and
the understanding that others may differ in these areas.
- A willingness to modify opinions when confronted with new evidence
and to recognize when one is making a judgment without adequate
information.
- A desire to act as a responsible, responsive global citizen.
Skills that demonstrate:
- The ability to express—in both written and oral
modes—the knowledge, values, and perspectives described
above.
- The ability to speak, read, and understand—at a minimum level
of proficiency—a language other than English.
- A capacity to see issues from more than one perspective, together
with a recognition of one’s own perspective and an understanding
of how culture influences perspective.
- An ability to place discrete events into their global context (e.g.,
historical, economic, cultural).
- The ability to critically analyze issues related to responsible
global citizenship.
Assessing International Learning Goals
CSU Stanislaus has begun an innovative means of assessing student
achievement of international learning goals. Under the auspices of a
U.S. Department of Education Title VI-A grant, the Office of Global
Affairs has established a Certificate of Language and Cultural
Competence available to students in all academic majors. To earn the
certificate, students must demonstrate competency in a foreign language;
knowledge about the history, current affairs, and culture where the
language is spoken; real-world experience in that culture either through
study abroad or through immersion in local heritage communities; and an
understanding of the global issues relevant to students’ academic
majors. Students earn the certificate not on the basis of coursework or
seat time, but by demonstration of skills and knowledge. They
demonstrate oral and written language skills by taking the STAN Language
Assessment. They demonstrate knowledge of the history, current affairs,
and culture of the world areas in which the language is spoken through
either a cultural competency assessment or a portfolio designed in
consultation with a certificate adviser. They work with a faculty
adviser to plan a project in which they demonstrate understanding of
global issues relevant to their major.
While a diploma attests to academic work accomplished, a competency
certificate means that a student has certain skills that are
transportable to the workplace. University representatives are
disseminating information about the certificate to the local business
community, who will find it a valuable tool for hiring purposes.
Although in its infancy, the Certificate of Language and Cultural
Competence has the potential to drive curricular changes in much the
same way as an authentic assessment instrument. This program will hold
CSU Stanislaus accountable to its goal of global learning for all
students.
Last updated: April 27, 2005
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