Vice President's Message
Exploration
Robert A. Pastor
“EXPLORE.” THIS WORD CAPTURES the spirit and purpose of education. To explore is to look to new worlds, beyond one’s horizon and within one’s soul. A quality education, which is what we seek at AU, promotes exploration.
In times of fear and conflict, some people build or hide behind walls. September 11—no longer just a date—continues to haunt some people and cause them to seek security by staying home. We are proud that our students and faculty understand that our destiny is in the world, not behind walls or ivory towers. In recent years, more AU students have decided to study abroad and at new and different sites, which we have developed at an accelerating pace—from 20 to 94 in less then two years (see table below). The Institute of International Education’s 2004 Open Doors Report ranks AU twelfth among the country’s doctoral research institutions in the amount of students who are going abroad.
Our second issue of Premier Global University highlights important regions both near and far—North America and Africa—that AU students and faculty are exploring in-depth. As you will read in the stories that follow, AU has many connections with each part of the world and is working hard to expand its ties.
Many people do not think about the United States’ relationship with its closest neighbors; however, no two nations affect the United States more, and no two nations Number of AU Sites Abroad are affected by the United States more, than Canada and Mexico. While some universities focus on U.S.-Canada or U.S.-Mexico studies, AU has the most extensive Center for North American Studies with dozens of courses, prominent Canadian senior fellows, and Canada’s Killam Fellowships Program.
AU has opened new study abroad sites and established summer language immersion courses at some of the best Canadian and Mexican universities, including the Universidad de las Americas near Puebla where Owen Graham (School of International Service, MA candidate) studied intensive Spanish last summer. Kogod professors Frank DuBois and Richard Linowes recently conducted field research in Mexico to assess how customs policies impact trade.
This issue’s second region of focus, Africa, seems to be falling off the map, wracked by AIDS and poverty. And yet 12.9 percent of Americans have their origin in Africa. The ideals that guide our nation demand that we connect—not detach—from that continent. AU is opening new sites for our students to study in Kenya, South Africa, and Ghana. AU also has a five-year agreement to help build ABTI-American University of Nigeria (AAUN).
Members of the AU community have great expertise on Africa, and they have been eager to share it in our classrooms and in the world. Professor Peter Lewis of SIS is one of the world’s experts on Nigeria and he is guiding our efforts with SIS Dean Louis Goodman. Professor Charles Larson, Chair of AU’s Literature Department and a former Peace Corps volunteer in Nigeria, will be helping to develop a writing center at AAUN. AU’s Center for Democracy and Election Management is advising Nigerian civil society on needed electoral reforms. AU alumnus Kermit Washington (CAS/BA ’73) is inspiring our new study abroad program in Nairobi.
So AU has decided to extend its family to North America and Africa and, by doing so, offer our students opportunities for exploration, which they could not find in any other school.
Robert A. Pastor
Vice President of International Affairs
