Internationalizing the Campus Committee (ICC)
2013-14 Activities, Findings and Recommendations
Report for the President’s Retreat
June 2014
What is Internationalization?
“The process of integrating an international/intercultural dimension into the teaching, research, and
service functions of the institution” (Knight, 1994).
The ICC, in its fifth year of existence, continued to work on the broad issues of internationalization at
FIT. The ICC members for 2013-14 were:
 Mary Beth Kenkel, PhD, CoPLA, Chairperson
 Randall Alford, PhD, Student Affairs
 Monica Baloga, PhD, Institutional Effectiveness*
 Judith Brooke, ISSS/Enrollment Management
 Ali Faisal, Advancement
 William Gabrenya, PhD, CoPLA
 Tom Marcinkowski, PhD, QEP2
 Korhan Oyman, PhD, CoA (Aug – Dec)
 Henry Perez, PhD, CoB
 Stephen Rice, PhD, CoA (Jan – May)
 Muzaffar Shaikh, PhD, CoE
 Wes Sumner, Marketing & Communications
 Hamid Rassoul, PhD, CoS
 Viviana Iduate, Administrative support
The ICC goals for 2013-14 were:
 Continue faculty and staff training on cross-cultural competencies
 Continue including international content in university communications
 Develop the Do You Know series for cultural learning
 Encourage more study abroad
 Add opportunities for domestic and international students to develop cultural competencies
 Develop an International Living/Learning residence hall
 Gather support and potential donors for a Center for Global Engagement
 Conduct a survey of the international alumni
 Consult on the development of a QEP2 focused on students’ cross cultural competencies
At the 2013 President’s Retreat, it was determined that the focus of the QEP2 would be on some
aspect of internationalization. As a result, the ICC members and the QEP2 developers discussed the ICC
goals that might more properly be taken on by the QEP2 planning group. Since the focus of QEPs is on
student educational outcomes, it was agreed that the QEP2 committee, rather than ICC, would take on the
goals of developing student global competencies through multiple means including the possibility of a
living/learning residence hall focused on internationalization. This report describes the activities, findings,
and recommendations related to the other ICC goals.
1
Staff Training
The ICC sponsored two (December and March) trainings for front line staff who work with
international students. CoPLA’s Institute for Cross Cultural Management (ICCM) conducted the
intensive 5 hour experiential training focused on cross cultural understanding and skills. Twenty-nine
staff members participated in the training. ICC members had a pre-training meeting with the supervisors
of the staff members to discuss the training and its value and garner their support and endorsement. Prepost measures of the participants’ cross-cultural skills and attitudes showed many positive changes,
including positive attitudinal shifts towards international students and a greater willingness to withhold
judgment and utilize cultural cues in dealing with students. The participants rated the training very
positively and felt it should be extended to faculty and students. Some illustrative remarks were:
“Loved the class – 5 hours felt like one hour!”
“I liked the self-awareness activity because it helped identify lenses that skew my perception.”
Based on the success of this pilot staff training program, the ICC makes the following
recommendations:
 Human Resources should incorporate cross-cultural competence training into the new employee
orientation
 Human Resources should develop a cross cultural competence online module that all current
faculty and staff should be required to complete
 Human resources should develop an online resource of FAQs related to cross cultural competence
for use by staff and faculty
 FIT’s ICCM would be an ideal partner for these initiatives
Faculty Training
The ICC sponsored a Lunch and Learn event on internationalization for the faculty of the College
of Engineering. Approximately 75 faculty members attended the luncheon presentations that discussed
the goals and activities of ICC, the functions of the International Student and Scholar Services, and good
practices related to international students in the classroom. A brief Q & A followed the presentations.
Forty-seven attendees filled out evaluation forms. Attendees were very satisfied with the organization and
setting for event. While generally positive about the presentations, some participants indicated that they
wanted more specific information/guidance for dealing with international students’ issues. The second
part of the survey consisted of three open ended questions and 53% of those faculty who completed
evaluations provided responses. Below are some of the key responses.
-
-
Q1: Future luncheons of this kind need to include these additional topics:
- More on cultural differences
- How to deal with student cheating
- More information about support services
- More on how to resolve conflict when cultural standard clash
- More on specific activities/programs
Q2: To better prepare faculty to teach international students, what additional faculty resources,
including workshops, etc. do you think would be helpful?
- Professional exchange programs with overseas universities
- Additional instruction for faculty regarding legal requirements/documentation
- Lectures about culture – country by country
- International movies
Q3: What additional preparation, resources, or activities would improve the academic success
of international students?
2
-
Testing element of the TOFEL are not working right, they pass but cannot communicate
effectively (a couple of similar comments)
Resources to help improve writing/technical writing skills
Better language prep / more ESL
Overtime is not acceptable
Better advising (that’s on us!) getting students to mix more.
More on the other aspect of internationalization
Cultural awareness programs
Based on the success of the faculty luncheon and learn sessions, the ICC makes the following
recommendations:
 Hold two faculty trainings per year, separately for each college
 Schedule CoPLA for Fall 2014 and CoB and COA together for Spring 2015
 Incorporate the CoE Faculty’s suggestions for topics
International Alumni Survey
The ICC Committee conducted a survey of FIT’s international alumni to assess their experiences
at FIT and to hear their opinions on how to improve the experiences of international students. 1237 emails
were sent to international alumni inviting them to take the survey; 375 opened (30%) the email; 99
clicked-through to the survey. At the time of this report, 91 surveys were completed. The respondents
were 78% male and 22% female; their graduation years ranged from 1974 to 2013 with a good spread
across all years. Thirty-nine (39) countries were represented, with the largest representations coming from
France (12), Canada (9), Thailand (5), Jamaica (3), and Venezuela (3). All the other countries had only 1
or 2 respondents.
90% of the respondents rated their overall experience as international student at FIT as “good” or
“very good.” In rating how their experiences at FIT help them to acquire different cross-cultural skills,
such as, understanding the US culture, understanding other nationalities, developing the skills to engage
people from diverse backgrounds, and the ability to work in an international context after graduation,
alumni’s mean ratings on each item fell between “some” and “great” effect.
When asked to check the items that would improve the experience of international students at FIT,
alumni indicated the following most frequently:
 More structured opportunities for international and American students to socialize (64%)
 More cultural events (49%)
 Residence halls that mix students interested in international learning (49%)
 Better contact with cultural groups in the community (41%)
 More cross-cultural awareness classes (38%)
 Space for international students to meet (34%)
Since graduating, alumni report that they are in more regular contact with alumni from their or
another country (including the US), while large percentages (50%- 60%) had had no contact with either
faculty or staff. When given options on how they might help FIT improve its international student
experience, 60% indicated their willingness to “talk with potential students in my country,” and 53% were
willing to “meet with other alumni in my country.”
The alumni wrote many comments about their experiences and provided many suggestions. In
general, the alumni greatly valued their time at FIT and had an interest in encouraging other students to
3
attend. The ICC Committee will be using these survey results to plan further activities and make
recommendations.
Did You Know (DYK) Campaign
Dr. Perez has a group of students working on this series which shows practices of different
cultures. The aim is to increase cultural understanding. Students have completed posters and video on
greetings and gestures. The posters will have a bar code that when scanned will connect you to “You
Tube” and play a video on the particular campaign. Each campaign will cost approximately $110 per
month which will include 15 posters and 250 flyers. The roll-out of the first campaign is expected to be
ready by the beginning of the new academic year.
Internationalization at FIT as Preparation for Life Beyond
4