Strategies for the Future

On August 19, 2008 the School of Languages, Cultures and World Affairs gathered at the Charleston Aquarium for a day of planning, celebration and self-evaluation. Presenters included President Benson, Provost Elise Jorgens, Dr. Phil McKnight, Al Thibault, Dr. Jack Parson, Hilton Smith and Dean David Cohen. The focus for the discusssion and development, based on the work of the prior semester, was a draft report that established a direction and related actions that faculty and administrators will take over the next two to three years to further define LCWA.

Presentation by Dr. Phil McKnight:
What Students Need: Languages and Professional Competencies for the Global Workplace

Dean's Report

First, I want to thank you, the faculty of the School of Languages, Cultures and World Affairs, for an exciting and successful year. Much has been accomplished during 2007-2008.

• Spanish has successfully implemented its curriculum for the introductory and intermediate sequence
• Classics received a visiting line to support the First Year Experience
• Luci Moreira was named the Director of the prestigious Middlebury Summer Program for Portuguese
• Sarah Owens will publish her book, Journey of Five Capuchin Nuns, with the University of Toronto Press
• Marty obtained a million dollar gift to support rotating visiting faculty in Jewish Studies.

You are a productive, resourceful group!

My sense, when I came to this position a year ago (and it hasn't changed), was that the Provost, President Higdon, Sam Hines, and especially our donor, the Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust, along with the Trust leadership of Hilton C. Smith, Jr. and William E. Murray, have given us an opportunity to do something distinctive-something that will have real meaning in the lives of our students and in your professional lives. And over the past year, building on the work of faculty and Dr. Hines, I have sought to outline where the School is going-you have in your hands the LCWA report on future directions, based on dozens of interviews, on a faculty survey and on the work that many of you undertook in various taskforces on the future of the school, on internationalizing, etc. Some of you talked about oral proficiency testing; some about study abroad; many mentioned the desirability of new interdisciplinary degrees-everyone talked about resources; everyone talked about support (or the lack of support) from Randolph Hall.

The report continues work that began in 2004 to shape and define the School of Languages, Cultures and World Affairs so everyone inside the College and out will understand what we are trying to do-ultimately the report identifies nine key directions for the future:

• To enhance faculty incentive and research grant programs
• To increase the number of roster faculty within the School
• To implement external proficiency testing for modern language majors
• To make Latin American and Caribbean Studies a stand alone major
• To establish an Asian Studies major
• To require one semester study abroad for majors
• To recognize teacher/scholars across campus who support the vision of the School
• To continue to develop the School’s organizational structure
• To develop an information technology strategy for the School

The report also speaks to other defining initiatives such as new majors in Jewish Studies and International Studies, the partnership with the Global Studies program, school-wide involvement with the First Year Experience, and the need for additional cultural studies endeavors.

Identity issues often occupy new organizations and the School of Languages, Cultures, and World Affairs is no exception. Over the course of the last academic year, the necessity to contend with issues of identity and, more significantly, to realize the mission for the School as outlined by Provost Jorgens, President Higdon, Dean Hines and the School leadership in 2006, this has been my focus. It surely will take the next few years to successfully implement these initiatives as we further delineate for ourselves and others what the School is all about. What IS singular about our effort is our recognition that language, literature and culture form the foundation for an internationalized curriculum. We have done this work and done it well for many years-witness our CHE commendations. Now with significant new funding in hand and with the opportunity of the organization of the School, this effort will prove even more valuable as it is knits our work together with the work of others from across campus studying religion, social issues, politics, history, international business and the arts. Our job is to continue to strengthen existing programs and build new ones that provide our students with a deep understanding of the world, cultural literacy in the widest sense, and thereby prepare them to function most effectively in the increasingly societies of the 21st century.

Thank-yous are in order. President Benson and Provost Jorgens, thank you for your ongoing support and for joining us today. Advisory Board member, Ronald Scheman, provided the impetus for the draft report with his insistence on external review of our plans and his willingness to help finance that review. Nancy Nenno, Michael Phillips, Rene Mueller, Frank Morris, along with Rick Throckmorton, a management consultant, all joined me in drafting the report. Nicole Kennedy, Amanda Weingarten, Sabine and Marilyn saw to this day's logistics. Thanks also to the faculty who led the afternoon discussions.

And finally Hilton Smith. Hilton is something special. The School is the beneficiary of a new gift from the Freeman Trust which has provided $600,000 to be used over the next five years to help put into operation the plans that we discussed today. We have the "seed" money we need for our initiatives. And if that is not enough, thanks to Hilton's leadership, soon we expect to announce a brand new gift, a privately supported Chair in the School-our first. This is truly fabulous news. These new gifts are directly attributable to Hilton's effort. Thank you Hilton.

Provost's Comments

The School of Languages, Cultures and World Affairs and its Place in Our Academic Enterprise

I too am very pleased with the School's plans. I think you are well on the way as that distinctive, innovative School that President Benson described a few minutes ago. We created the School of Languages, Cultures and World Affairs at the College of Charleston three years ago to bring to the forefront exciting, contemporary programs in international studies, in cultural studies and languages education - and indeed in "world affairs." The vision for the School was that all its programs will be joined not just structurally or administratively but programmatically. As part of its inception, the School recognizes foreign language study as central to an internationalized curriculum. That was our innovation. But remember that that innovation has two elements - the centrality of foreign languages and an internationalized curriculum. If we do this well, we will provide College of Charleston students with a unique opportunity to study global cultures, social and political organizations, history and arts and gain a firm recognition that any effort to understand those facets of human endeavor outside our own borders must first recognize that language is essential for understanding how those things unfold. It is your task now to continue to build, to create programs that weave these elements together and provide our students with a deep understanding of the world outside our borders, preparing them to function in a global society. It is important to all of us, as citizens of a shrinking world - one in which the position of the United States is not always viewed positively - that we proceed with determination to do that. I believe it is nothing short of our obligation - our moral obligation, if you will - to do so.

Study abroad is obviously a part of this. I hope you will find time today to discuss the vital role that time spent in another culture, outside of their comfort zone, can play for our students. And I want to remind you that the College's Board of Trustees recently approved the reallocation of $190,000 annually to be available to all CofC students to study abroad. This was David Cohen's idea, by the way, strongly supported by Andrew Sobiesuo and endorsed by President Benson as well. A question for you today, though, is how the study abroad component will mesh with the School. I continue to believe that the tie needs to be close, but not restricted to those students who will major in LCWA disciplines. Think about it, please.

New majors are obviously a critical part of the continued development of the School. I am very supportive of the new proposal for International Studies. I look forward to other proposals in Asian Studies and in the cultural studies areas where our obvious strengths in Classics and Jewish Studies can lead the way. I recognize that these initiatives require resources-new lines, operating budgets and space- and I am committed to doing my best to provide these resources as the need for them develops. (Hilton, I also want to thank you at this point for your willingness to fund a new chair in International Studies-I know we are still working out details...)

But I would like to see you go further, and this is my challenge to you today. As most of you know, I am a great believer in the value of interdisciplinary study, and I think that value is especially apparent in global studies. My hope for today is that your planning will be far-reaching, creative and strategic. I would be delighted to see that you have envisioned some academic programs for this School that have a serious, academic focus on world problems. Should we not be preparing our students to tackle world hunger or the crisis of AIDS in other parts of the world, issues of human rights or terrorism or illiteracy or the challenge of global economics? What would it take to develop interdisciplinary programs that could do that? I see among you this morning representatives from Anthropology, History, Geology, Philosophy, English, Art History, Political Science and International Business in addition to the languages faculty from the School. Do we have a place as well for those in Neuroscience? In Biology or Economics or Finance? What about Education? Preparing students to have an impact on real world problems is a campus-wide endeavor that can have its focus in this School. You have the opportunity to establish programs that will make a difference - and that will put the College of Charleston's School of Languages, Cultures and World Affairs on the international map! I, in turn, would be eager to respond with administrative support for programs like these, to locate new resources or find good ways to reallocate to make possible programs that will shape international education at the College.

Speaking of administrative support, I want you all to be aware that your dean, David Cohen, has been downright ferocious at times in advocating for your School and its needs. I knew when I asked him to take on this role that he had the administrative savvy to do the job, but I could never have guessed that he would become one of you to the extent that he has. And with that in mind, I am pleased to announce to you today that I have asked David to stay on as dean through Spring Semester, 2010 - and I am removing the "interim" from his title. It is my firm belief that this will better enable him to lead you through this next critical phase of your planning and growth, and I am pleased to tell you that President Benson has concurred with that. David and I have begun to talk about some additional aspects of this appointment that will also allow him to focus his attention on the School during these two years, and I will be more explicit about that - and about conducting a search for his successor during 2009-2010 - at a future date.

David wanted me to list what I will do for the School, but I think you need to know that the list I am about to give you is really his. These are some of the things I hear regularly from your dean:

• We must establish a new Department within LCWA to house faculty in cultural and area studies as well as the less commonly taught languages (we are working on that).
• We need a policy that assures regular, predictable participation from faculty in other schools in interdisciplinary programs (we’re working on this too).
• We should have several joint appointments in the School of Languages, Cultures and World Affairs (and I will, in fact, announce several this Fall).
• We can explore the possibility of closer linkages between LCWA and the First Year Experience that might facilitate using some of the new faculty lines assigned to the FYE to support international education.
• The Office of International Programs needs more support, including more staff.
• We should review all requests for replacement hires to see if they might appropriately become joint appointments.
• We could brand and market the School through Admissions and Orientation as a unique feature of academic life at the College of Charleston.

These are do-able, and I am committed to providing the administrative facilitation implied in things like these. And frankly, I hope that your work this afternoon will lengthen the list. I hope that my legacy at the College is such that those who follow recognize that with the School of Languages, Cultures and World Affairs is not a flash in the pan but a deep and enduring commitment by faculty - and by our wonderful patrons and supporters from outside the College - to establish something that truly makes a difference. You can do it, and I can help.