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The activities most generally recognized as related to international education include:

• internationalization of the curriculum, including courses, majors, elements of courses, minors, graduate degree programs, objectives of courses of study, and evaluation instruments,
• study abroad,
• faculty exchange programs to and from international institutions,
• linkages and other relations among institutions across national boundaries,
• co-curricular programming that focuses on international issues,
• international research, grants, and contracts,
• international conference participation,
• international student recruitment and advising,
• training/courses in languages other than English,
• training/courses in English as a second language,
• scholarly, documentary, and reference materials, including electronic data bases, available on international subject matter in the library and elsewhere on campus, and
• assessment of the above.

The organizational infrastructure for such activities can be highly centralized or entirely informal and de-centralized. Cal Poly Pomona’s approach has been characterized by attempts to coordinate and consolidate some programs, while retaining a loose, laissez-faire overall quality. At various times in the history of the university, different units have claimed "states rights" vis-à-vis international activities, such as the College of Agriculture, the College of Environmental Design, and the Department of International Business and Marketing. Others have claimed centrality, such as the International Center, the College of the Extended University (formerly the School for Continuing Education), and others. At the same time, grants and contracts, faculty interest groups, exchange and travel programs, international development and research projects, international curriculum and co-curricular programs, and international information collections also were administered at other loci on the campus, either competitively or cooperatively with the "centers" and other programs. Ultimate responsibility for such activities lay with different officials of the administration, from the President (who signed all institutional partnership arrangements), to Associate Vice Presidents and Deans (who were charged with the supervision of specific study abroad or training programs).

We held several wide-ranging efforts to collect data, faculty/staff input or interpretation, and faculty/staff recommendations. The first segment of these efforts included the collection of the following documents: International Initiatives Report to the Vice President (available in the Team Room), International Programs Office Report on the Status of International Students (Appendix E1), Documents from the Brown Bag presentation of Director of International Center that was given last academic year for faculty and staff attendance, and materials from the College of the Extended University, International Business and Marketing Department, and other sources (Annex E1, E4). A second segment of these efforts included holding or attending on-campus activities in which faculty and staff participated.

The third segment included consultations, such as with Joseph S. Johnston, Jr. (Vice President for Education and Global Initiatives with the Association of American Colleges and Universities), Dr. Carlos Cortes (Professor Emeritus of the University of California, Riverside), and Dr. Laura Rendón (Veffie Milstead Jones Endowed Chair from Cal. State, Long Beach and Professor at Arizona State University). We were successful in obtaining input from regular meetings of campus groups such as Phi Beta Delta (the international honor society), the Cuba Project, Team Zimbabwe and other informants. The fourth segment of these efforts included in-depth interviews. These interviews were with: Jean Aigner, Director of the International Center; Dorothy Wills, former Interim Director of the International Center; Herbert Chimhundu, Dean of the Faculty of Arts visiting from the University of Zimbabwe (which receives some Cal Poly Pomona students and faculty on exchange); Innocent Pikirayi, the Zimbabwean counterpart head of a Cal Poly Pomona field school project; and Van Garner, director of Cal Poly Pomona’s College of the Extended University.

Cal Poly Pomona has had significant international activities in its past; however, in recent years there has been a call for more international activities and exchanges as well as a move away from a provincial identity to a greater cosmopolitan, "world citizen" identity. Calls have come in the form of President Suzuki’s and other officials’ speeches and memoranda. Faculty in the International Business and Marketing program have made clear the high standards they hold for their majors in cultural knowledge, language proficiency, field experience, and inter-disciplinary fluency, along with the thorough grounding provided in the traditional international business curriculum. Publications such as "Global Cal Poly" and our growing membership in Phi Beta Delta, the International Honor Society, also heighten campus international awareness.

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As one of several locations of international exchange, the International Center (IC) began to be perceived in the 1990s as of great importance in "community involvement" and "international activities"; the Center is the home for international student advising. Therefore, the WASC committee focused some of its study of internationalization on the International Center and found the following:

The International Center was opened in 1985. It was established to perform the following functions:

• procure and manage international development project contracts
• provide international student advising, including immigration
• offer support to international education and curriculum
• direct international exchange of students and faculty

These functions existed prior to the creation of the IC, but were carried out in a very decentralized manner.

In addition to sending students from Cal Poly Pomona to study overseas, there are several new burdens placed on the International Center such as monitoring and facilitating visa procedures for students and providing hospitality and reception for international visitors. The International Center pursues agreements with other countries and other institutions (so far, Cal Poly Pomona has signed at least 30 such agreements), so that, for example, when a faculty member travels to Egypt for a conference, he/she may be asked to meet with officials there to forge sister agreements of exchange or to report on the present status of our programs or students (other exchanges may be scholarly or social).

Regarding the program’s budget, there has been some flexibility with money when they had a shortfall, but the funding could be changed to funding on a "per head allocation" to fund services that the International Center provides. There has been some change in the area of student recruiting, and, in the past two years, recruitment has become a regular feature of the International Center’s budgeting process, resulting in 228 new FTES and 250 new international students. In 1992, the IC lost an underpinning of funding due to the controversial removal of the English Language Institute; from the students’ point of view, the prices were doubled and the institutional emphasis shifted to recruitment of students who could pay (rather than students’ academic qualifications), which some Cal Poly Pomona community members criticize as contrary to the aims and role of a public university. The 1200 international students are a "cultural group" without a cultural center, a lack they keenly feel, according to the recent survey (Appendix E1).

There is a need for greater awareness of the activities of the International Center. Sources such as the two informational articles in "Global Cal Poly" (a campus publication intended for advisors of international students) are useful and are part of a larger on-campus plan to raise awareness and support (Annex E1). We learned that when the budget is secure, the IC increases its student numbers, offers more programming for students (tax workshops, training for after they graduate, etc.), and encourages more student involvement on campus. Such activities as the excellent Study Abroad London program can be developed. The number of students participating in Study Abroad has tripled in the past two years. More faculty buy-in for these programs is essential for their continued growth. The need for a language component built into all areas, even the summer program, is also clear; perhaps it could be linked to other on-campus efforts for language learning.

The International Center’s handling of the student exchange program is remarkable. Even though the U.S. student numbers are small, the IC is good at getting these students (who often times are provincial and inexperienced beyond the reference points of their own neighborhoods) to go overseas. There is at present no state money to promote an International Center-style advising program for domestic students. As of now, the International Center sees few students who want to be away for as long as a year--approximately 20-25 go each year. However, 100-125 students per year participate in a shorter program. Disincentives to student participation include: loss of FTE, another language as a barrier, cost and other personal reasons (loss of work, family obligations).

In terms of the models posited at the beginning of Theme Four, Cal Poly Pomona practices the following self-reflective attitudes and intellectual strategies involved in a post-colonial model of travel and exchange: faculty and students involved in the Zimbabwe exchange (1993-present) make and have made extra efforts including specific discussions so as not to embark on a colonial project, but instead to craft ways of incorporating a post-colonial way of encounter. They did this by holding discussion circles, having topical speakers, and by asking Professor James Kamusikiri (History Department) to serve as a force behind the project. Professor Kamusikiri, a Zimbabwean national himself, teaches colonial/post-colonial history and political theory, was active in the nationalist movement, is conversant in theory, and added an important presence to the project.

The on-going research on international students at Cal Poly Pomona (cf. Appendix E1, International Student Survey, International Center and IRP) should enable the campus to provide increasing co-curricular support to this group of students, who are to be regarded as a significant cultural/linguistic resource to our educational program. We now have over 1200 international students, up from 500 in 1995. The companion survey of faculty interest, expertise, training needs, and activity level vis-à-vis international programs, also administered by the Center, should further enhance the university’s capability to engage in effective international education, on the base of a better appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses we possess. Figure 32 shows a piece of the research recently conducted on international student needs and level of satisfaction with services.