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Global Learning for All
College of Notre Dame of Maryland
http://www.ndm.edu
Contents
General Institutional Overview
http://www.ndm.edu
The College of Notre Dame of Maryland is dedicated to providing an
outstanding liberal arts education in the Catholic tradition. From its
earliest days, the College of Notre Dame of Maryland has been a leader
in identifying and responding to trends in education. In 1873, it was
one of the first institutions in the United States to offer young women
and girls the same secondary school coursework provided to young men and
boys. In 1895, the College of Notre Dame became the first Catholic
college for women in the United States chartered to offer the bachelor
of arts (B.A.) degree. Eighty years later, in 1975, the College of Notre
Dame of Maryland responded to the needs of adult men and women by
offering distinctive part-time undergraduate programs in an innovative
“weekends-only” format. Today, the College of Notre Dame of
Maryland educates a diverse student body, composed of women and men,
traditional aged and adult, who attend classes full time or just one
weekend per month.
The College of Notre Dame of Maryland’s commitment to educating
a diverse student population is evident in the institution’s
profile, based on fall 2002 enrollment figures. Students of color
represent 29 percent of the total student body, making the College of
Notre Dame of Maryland a leader among Maryland’s private colleges
in serving these students. Students over the age of 25 represent 60
percent of the population. Sixty-one percent of students are seeking
their degrees on a part-time basis. Additionally, more than 50 percent
of full-time students in last year’s graduating class were the
first in their families to complete the B.A. degree. The College of
Notre Dame of Maryland’s central mission is to serve students who
do not typically have access to private education.
The college is home to three degree-granting programs serving a
broad-based, diverse population of 3,154 students. The enrollments are
divided into three programs:
- The Women’s College serves traditional undergraduate
women ages 18 to 24 and women age 25 and older who are continuing their
education. In fall 2002, 689 residential and commuter students were
enrolled in the Women’s College.
- The Weekend College is a co-educational undergraduate program
for working adults who attend classes on a part-time basis in a flexible
weekend schedule. In fall 2002, 1,003 students were enrolled.
- The Center for Graduate Studies provides co-educational
weekend and evening classes leading to a master’s degree. In fall
2002, 1,462 students were enrolled.
The College of Notre Dame of Maryland also offers two distinctive
noncredit programs:
- The English Language Institute provides instruction in the
English language and American culture for international students,
professionals, and visitors to the United States. The majority of these
students are in their mid- to late twenties.
- The Renaissance Institute is a volunteer association of women
and men age 50 and older who pursue study of the liberal arts on a
not-for-credit basis.
The College of Notre Dame of Maryland’s small size and personal
attention to the needs of “new majority” students ease those
students’ transitions and ensure degree completion. The Weekend
College is based on the principle that adults learn best in an
environment that considers their needs and life responsibilities. To
most effectively serve these students, courses are scheduled for maximum
flexibility, administrative offices offer extended hours, and all
college services—the library, the counseling center, the career
center, the computer labs, and the fitness center—are available to
them.
Virtually all Weekend College students transfer to the College of
Notre Dame of Maryland having completed some college coursework.
Students may transfer up to 64 credits from accredited community
colleges. To facilitate this, the College of Notre Dame of Maryland is
one of six independent colleges participating in the Maryland
Articulation System (ARTSYS), an online program that provides community
college students with an assessment of the “transferability”
of their coursework to four-year institutions in the state. The college
has completed separate articulation agreements that facilitate admission
of graduates of community college honors programs into the College of
Notre Dame of Maryland’s Elizabeth Morrissy Honors Program.
New majority students are also drawn to the College of Notre Dame of
Maryland because a student-to-faculty ratio of 13:1 helps to build a
strong sense of campus community. On campus, all American-born students
are exposed to a diverse international student population, drawn from 13
foreign countries and Puerto Rico. Special relationships with five
junior colleges in Japan bring an average of 10 Japanese students to the
college every year. The newly opened Sister Kathleen Feeley
International Center represents tangible evidence of the College of
Notre Dame of Maryland’s commitment to internationalization across
the curriculum.
The College of Notre Dame of Maryland was chartered in 1895 by the
state of Maryland and is accredited by the Middle States Association of
Colleges and Schools, the National League of Nursing, the Maryland State
Department of Education, and the National Council for the Accreditation
of Teacher Education. The College of Notre Dame of Maryland offers 27
areas of study; the college also offers an undergraduate degree in
engineering through cooperative agreements with The Johns Hopkins
University, Columbia University, and the University of Maryland.
Overview of Internationalization Efforts
Although the college has always focused on international education, a
rapidly changing global context caused the college to formally renew its
international emphasis in a 1991 vision statement. It called for the
educational experience to be student centered, holistic, and
international. This statement provided new energy to a longstanding
commitment, and during the past 12 years the college has worked
strategically to adopt policies and implement plans that reinforce the
college’s international vision and focus. It has been a time for
growing programs, removing barriers, and establishing key relationships,
both at home and abroad. The results have been concrete, wide reaching,
and significant:
- The president of the College of Notre Dame of Maryland established
the Office of International Programs in 1989 to serve as the center for
international services and international campus initiatives.
- The director of International Programs formed the Advisory Council
on International Education—composed of faculty, staff, alumnae,
community leaders, and colleagues at other institutions in
Baltimore—to assist in giving direction to international
initiatives.
- A Title VI grant in 1992 began a process that has brought about
significant curricular changes. Seven professors (nearly 10 percent of
full-time faculty) studied language, traveled abroad, and developed new
courses with an international focus in five disciplines.
- The college removed academic and financial barriers to study abroad
and implemented new “study abroad-friendly” policies.
- The faculty approved a general education requirement that all
undergraduates give evidence of global, cross-cultural, and
gender-sensitive awareness and attitudes.
- Longstanding agreements with higher education institutions in Japan,
England, and Australia, and a formal relationship with the Council on
International Educational Exchange, permit students to participate in 34
programs in 21 countries.
The College of Notre Dame of Maryland’s significant steps
during the past 12 years have brought focus to its international efforts
and are underscored by achievements in the following three areas:
1. Study Abroad
The College of Notre Dame of Maryland is committed to providing all
students with an education that is truly international, and encourages
all students to achieve this, in part, by study abroad. Recent policy
changes and program enhancements are making study abroad a reality for
an increasing number of students.
During the past five years, the college has added dramatically to its
study-abroad offerings through developing consortia arrangements and
exchange agreements. Financial aid, course credits, and grades for
study-abroad courses are handled in exactly the same manner as courses
taken on the home campus. In developing these agreements, the College of
Notre Dame of Maryland has removed the greatest structural impediments
to study abroad.
The distinct needs and concerns of part-time and adult students have
led the college to enhance its short-term programs abroad as well.
During the past five years, the college has increased short-term
study-abroad opportunities, diversified its destinations, added
language-learning opportunities, and provided generous amounts of new
scholarships for part-time students. Faculty-led tours to Egypt, Turkey,
Cuba, Guatemala, Ireland, Italy, and Israel demonstrate the diverse
destinations available to students. As a result, 20 percent of all the
college’s students who have traveled abroad during the past five
years have been part-time adult students.
2. Sister Kathleen Feeley International Center
The fall 2001 opening of the Sister Kathleen Feeley International Center
vividly illustrates the college’s commitment to international
education. A $2 million renovation project designed by Robert A. M.
Stern Architects, the center brings together many dimensions of
international education under one roof. The 20,000-square-foot facility
houses the faculty of the classical and modern foreign languages and the
English Language Institute, and the offices of Study Abroad,
International Programs, and Service Initiatives. A fully digitized,
state-of-the-art Language Learning Center offers unparalleled
opportunities for self-guided language study. The center also includes
common meeting spaces, classrooms, and a student lounge. Located in a
residence hall in the center of campus, this welcoming space facilitates
dialogue and fosters intercultural understanding across countries,
religious faiths, and ethnicities through lectures, roundtables, and
other programming for the campus community.
3. Faculty Professional Development Fund
One major goal of The College of Notre Dame of Maryland’s capital
campaign was to create a Faculty Professional Development Fund. The fund
will provide important support for faculty to increase expertise in
global issues, pursue research opportunities outside the United States,
and help build collegial networks with counterparts at home and abroad.
The faculty—in partnership with trustees and community
leaders—have made gifts and pledges in excess of $100,000 to this
new fund. Such a fund benefits current faculty and will serve to attract
additional faculty members who intend to pursue internationally focused
research.
Internationalization and the New Majority Student
Creative structuring of study-abroad policies now makes it possible
for all students to build an experience abroad into their program of
study. Students who are able to study abroad for a full semester or more
may now use all of their federal, state, and institutional aid to
finance the experience. This has been particularly helpful to those
students, often new majority students, who are most dependent on loans,
grants, and scholarships. The College of Notre Dame of Maryland also
participates in a number of work-abroad programs that permit students to
combine study and work, thus further reducing the opportunity costs
often associated with study abroad.
The college has developed a full range of short-term study-abroad
opportunities to meet the needs of part-time students and adult
learners. Here again, creative policy and institutional support combine
to provide students who, because of family, work, or other obligations,
find it impossible to spend a prolonged period abroad. All academically
eligible students receive a scholarship for three credits to be applied
to one short-term academic experience abroad. Additional institutional
aid is available to defray the travel expenses connected to these
courses. Six faculty-led short-term academic experiences abroad are
scheduled every year. Trips to London and Cuba are two innovative and
popular examples. The 10-day London program appeals to those interested
in literature and theater. For students who wish to see firsthand the
interplay of politics, development, and culture, the college offers a
unique opportunity to visit Cuba.
Foreign language acquisition and cross-cultural understanding are
essential to the development of literate global citizens, and they are
key components of the college’s internationalization efforts. The
study of foreign language and culture has always been an integral part
of The College of Notre Dame of Maryland’s liberal arts
curriculum. However, as new programs were developed to meet the needs of
a changing student population, the challenge of offering a complete
range of language-learning opportunities to part-time adult students
became evident. In response to this challenge, the college’s
foreign language department has developed courses that address the needs
of adult students, incorporate innovative language-learning
technologies, and provide foreign study opportunities.
In January 2004, the foreign language department will pilot a
short-term language study program in Cuernavaca, Mexico. In
collaboration with Howard Community College, the program will bring
together a diverse mix of students from both campuses. This program has
been specially designed for part-time students who wish to increase
their proficiency in Spanish as quickly as possible, while earning
credit at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland.
Recognizing that many new majority students come to college with
unique language abilities, the College of Notre Dame of Maryland has
tailored the language requirement of its general education curriculum to
honor these differences. The college encourages all of its students to
develop fluency in their mother tongue and in a second language. Where
that second language is English, students may use English to fulfill
their foreign language requirement. In addition to a full range of
English writing and literature courses, non-native speakers of English
may choose to improve their English skills in a course designed
specifically for second-language speakers.
All language instructors teach their courses using the resources of
the Language Learning Center and its digitized language lab. Free
tutoring in the Language Learning Center is available by appointment in
the evenings and on Sundays. Faculty members provide coursework on
Blackboard, a distance learning technology that provides access to many
materials and communication tools that formerly would have been
available only to students on campus.
With the guidance of the Office of Service Initiatives, other
academic departments are using community settings as learning labs for
students and providing, to some extent, cross-cultural opportunities at
home for those unable to go abroad. For example, faculty members within
the nursing department developed a course that includes a service
learning component to immigrant populations in Baltimore City. In a
public health course, RN-to-BSN students conducted a survey to ascertain
the health care needs of Hispanics in the area. These adult part-time
students partnered with full-time students in advanced Spanish-language
courses to conduct the interviews in Spanish. A second course includes a
service component to the elderly members of the local Korean community.
In both cases, adult students learned about the needs of another ethnic
group and experienced a real cross-cultural exchange. Service learning
clearly links traditional courses with study-abroad opportunities and
offers a rich, comprehensive program of study for all students at The
College of Notre Dame of Maryland.
International Learning Goals
The College of Notre Dame of Maryland’s General Education
Studies program requires that all undergraduates develop a global
perspective. Student learning outcomes require that all undergraduates
give evidence of global, cross-cultural, and gender sensitive awareness
and attitudes. This key international learning outcome informs the
development of courses in the majors, interdisciplinary courses,
opportunities for faculty development abroad, and the co-curricular
activities that enhance classroom instruction. This requirement helps
ensure that all students will develop the knowledge, skills, and
attitudes necessary to function effectively in a complex, multicultural
environment.
The importance of international learning is also evident in each
major field of study offered at the college. Academic departments are
required to incorporate scholarship by and about persons of diverse
cultural backgrounds. They also are required to include a study of
global issues and concerns into the coursework of each major field of
study offered. The 2002-03 catalogue explicitly identifies 59 courses in
seven departments as having a significant global component.
The general education curriculum also requires students to develop
proficiency in other languages and knowledge of other cultures. The
college offers courses of study in classical and modern languages.
Students may fulfill the general education requirement through studying
French, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Latin, and Spanish. In addition, the
curriculum includes a wide variety of thought and culture courses
designed to increase students’ understanding and appreciation of
cultural differences. Internship and service opportunities using second
language skills are available locally and abroad.
A third general education outcome with an international learning
focus requires the development of interpersonal skills and intercultural
competencies, which are vital to survival in a culturally diverse and
complex world. Courses in cross-cultural communication and intercultural
understanding, study-abroad experiences, and various co-curricular
activities help create a campus environment that is welcoming,
sensitive, and respectful of a diverse student population. The following
programs support this objective: The Friendship Family Program, which
links international students to American families; a conversation
partners program; a Global Issues floor in the residence hall; the
celebration of Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, and
International Women’s Day; the presence of international speakers
and guests; and daily interaction with English Language Institute
students.
Assessing International Learning Goals
The College of Notre Dame of Maryland is in the final stages of
implementing a campus-wide learning outcomes assessment plan. This plan
defines and assesses students’ global perspectives, both cognitive
and affective, as well as language proficiency and intercultural
competency. This aspect of the institution’s efforts will most
significantly benefit from the expertise offered through the Global
Learning for All project.
Last updated: April 27, 2005
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