University of San Francisco: Educating Minds and Hearts to Change the World
Depth and Breadth of Institutional Commitment
Central to the mission of the University of San Francisco is the preparation of men and
women to shape a multicultural world with generosity, compassion, and justice. The
institution’s Vision, Mission, and Values Statement captures the essence of this
international commitment in the opening paragraph: “The University of San Francisco
will be internationally recognized as a premier Jesuit Catholic, urban University with a
global perspective that educates leaders who will fashion a more humane and just world.”
Since its founding in 1855, the University of San Francisco has educated the children of
immigrants, and for decades has hosted a large number of international students. For
several years, USF has been rated by U.S. News & World Report as among the thirty
most ethnically diverse national universities. Within the Fall 2009 student population of
9,036 students, 36.3% are Asian, African-American, Latino, Native American, or
Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and 9.7% are international. In Fall 2009, there were 878
international students from 75 nations studying at USF, representing a 48.6% increase in
international students since 2005. USF’s Office of International Student Services (ISS)
provides comprehensive advising to international students, scholars, and professors on
issues ranging from cross-cultural adjustment to immigration regulations. USF offers an
ESL program for international students that seeks to provide the necessary linguistic
skills to succeed at a U.S. university.
USF’s Center for Global Education advises study-abroad students about more than 50
sponsored programs. Representative of our commitment to a global perspective, we allow
students to use all financial aid (including institutional aid) when attending one of those
sponsored programs. The number of USF sponsored programs has more than tripled
during the past four years, and the number of students in these programs has increased 97
percent. The Center for Global Education also sponsors a wide range of programs during
the January intersession and the summer. These programs are designed to expose students
to professional work outside the U.S., or to apply their classroom work to service
learning projects. USF has over 40 institutional partnerships with other universities
throughout the world, including in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, China, El
Salvador, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New
Zealand, Nicaragua, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, the UK, and
Uruguay. These agreements include student and faculty exchanges, research activities,
and joint degree programs. In recent years, emphasis has been placed on non-traditional
locations in the developing world, such as El Salvador and Nicaragua, Zambia and USF
offers a 50 percent tuition discount, through the Pedro Claver Scholarship, to all students
who perform social service during short-term programs to countries where a significant
percentage of the population lives in poverty.
USF’s commitment to global social justice can be seen in international internships and
immersion programs. Architecture students have built a library for AIDS orphans in
Zambia and culturally appropriate houses in Mexico and Nicaragua. Students have
traveled to Thailand to understand human trafficking, and have returned to create a
grassroots movement to abolish modern human slavery and trafficking. Computer science
students and faculty provide support to schools in developing countries, and in 2008-09,
the Community Connections program conducted its sixth immersion trip to Tacna, Peru,
helping students and teachers at three schools bridge the digital divide. University
Ministry offers the Arrupe Immersion Experience, in which students build homes, deliver
meals to the sick, and seek to learn by living in poverty areas, including in Guatemala and
in Tijuana, Mexico.
The university also organizes short-term immersion trips to developing countries for
trustees, faculty, and staff, designed to sensitize them to USF’s mission to educate
students to create a more humane and just world. The leadership team, including the
president and executive officers (and on one trip, trustees), has traveled to Tijuana,
Managua, and San Salvador to better understand the university’s mission to educate
minds and hearts to change the world. During the summer of 2009, faculty and staff
traveled to El Salvador on the first of three annual all-expenses paid trips, to better
understand differences across cultures.
The schools and colleges comprising USF offer students and faculty a multitude of
international scholarly experiences that enrich the learning community and fulfill the
university’s mission. The USF School of Law, for example, through its Center for Law
and Global Justice, engages in the study and promotion of human rights and economic
development around the world. These programs for USF law students include internships
in El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, India, and Spain, and international human rights
clinics, wherein students prepare and present reports for the U.N. Human Rights Council
and the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women. The Law School also offers summer
study abroad programs at various international locations, including in Ireland and the
Czech Republic. The law school also offers two master of law degrees for foreign
lawyers: one in international transactions and comparative law, and the other in
intellectual property and technology law.
USF’s College of Arts and Sciences offers a wide range of international programs that
help fulfill the institution’s mission. These include undergraduate majors in Asian
Studies, International Studies, French Studies, Japanese Studies, and Spanish;
undergraduate minors, concentrations, or certificates in African Studies, Asia-Pacific
Studies, Asian Studies, Chinese Studies, European Studies, French Studies, German
Studies, Japanese Studies, Latin American Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, and
Philippine Studies. The college also offers three internationally focused graduate
programs. The new M.A. in International Studies has received more than 60 applications
this year and will have more than 100 students in the program next year. The M.A.
International Development Economics, which requires its students to spend a summer
conducting research in another country, has grown from 5 students in Fall 2002 to 44 in
Fall 2009. The M.A. in Asia Pacific Studies, which provides varied international
opportunities for completing a graduate project, has grown from 21 students in Fall 2000
to 40 in Fall 2009. The college hosts two centers with an international focus, including
the Center for the Pacific Rim, and the Center for Latino Studies in the Americas
(CELASA). These two centers present international conferences, special lectures, and
seminars; sponsor research; produce various publications; and serve as community
forums. The Center for the Pacific Rim also includes the Ricci Institute for ChineseWestern Cultural History, an interdisciplinary research arm of the Center focusing on
China and the West. CELASA hosts The Pan American Society of USF that supports the
involvement of the San Francisco business community in Latin America. USF has
offered international graduate programs in cooperation with partner local universities
including the M.S. in Environmental Management in Manila, Budapest, and Xiamen; and
an M.S. in Financial Analysis in Bangkok.
The School of Education, in cooperation with the College of Arts and Sciences, offers
international immersion programs that sensitize prospective teachers to cultural, ethnic,
and linguistic differences. These are part of the Dual Degree Program for prospective
teachers wherein they live, perform community service, and engage in educational
activities at international sites, including most recently in Belize. The School of
Education also offers a master’s degree program for school leaders in Asian international
schools (taught in Asia) and a master’s degree and a doctorate in International and
Multicultural Education, and offers an intensive leadership seminar series in Austria.
The USF School of Nursing offers a clinical program for prospective nurses in
Guatemala. The goals of this project are to reduce infant mortality rates; to increase the
cultural competence of nursing students and faculty; and to help prepare nurses to
understand health issues in the growing global community. The school is working with
Vietnamese institutions to create a public health and global health curriculum and to help
train professional nurses for work in diverse environments. In 2009, the USF School of
Nursing established a partnership with two Nursing schools in Hanoi, Vietnam.
USF’s School of Business and Professional Studies provides numerous international
opportunities for faculty and students to develop a global perspective on business and
management, including a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in
International Business, and an Intensive One-Year MBA that requires international
experience. In recent years, USF business students have traveled and studied in Seoul,
Korea; Helsinki, Finland; Tallinn, Estonia; Santiago, Chile; St. Petersburg, Russia;
Mexico City; and in Beijing, China. In 2009, the School began an innovative Master in
Global Entrepreneurship and Management in partnership with FuJen University in Taipei
and IQS in Barcelona, whereby students from the United States, Spain, and Taipei spend
a trimester studying at each university and interning in multinational companies in
Barcelona, Taipei, and San Francisco. This new program, which in Fall 2009, already had
30 students, unites three continents, three Jesuit universities, and three groups of students
working for a graduate degree.
During the 2008–2009 academic year, 432 USF students earned academic credit in USFsponsored study abroad, exchange, internships, or social justice programs, or studied
abroad through cooperative arrangements with other American universities or
organizations, coordinated through the Center for Global Education. This represents a
47.9 percentage increase since 2003-2004. During the past decade, the university’s study
abroad students have consistently been surveyed regarding their overseas experiences.
Among the 2007 and 2008 study abroad students, more than 90 percent of those surveyed
agreed that their study abroad experience helped them to “appreciate the needs of
others”, “appreciate differences among people”, “develop a new sense of purpose”, and
“understand the interdependence of contemporary societies.”
USF’s co-curricular activities also reflect the institution’s commitment to the
internationalization of the campus. Currently, there are 15 student organizations, open to
all students that reflect an international focus and sponsor international cultural events,
such as CultureScape, International Education Week, and study abroad fairs. These
student groups include Kasamahan (on Filipino culture), the Asian Pacific American
Student Coalition, the Hong Kong Association, the Indian Student Organization, Japan
Club, the Korean Student Association, the Latin American Student Organization, the
African Alliance, the Southeast Asian American Student Alliance, and the Vietnamese
Student Association, among others.
Faculty Engagement
During the 2008-2009 academic year, 149 full-time faculty members (out of a total of
380) went abroad for educational activities, including leading student groups, conducting
research, implementing curriculum, or presenting professional papers. During the past
five years, virtually all of the new faculty members hired at USF have come to the
institution with international expertise. In the past five years, two senior tenured faculty
members have also assumed important positions on the leadership team, reflecting the
university’s international focus. One of these positions is the Vice President for
International Relations, and the other is the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs.
Many USF faculty members have been involved in developing curriculum for our
international programs. During the past five years, these programs have included nursing
programs in Guatemala and Vietnam, financial analysis in Thailand, architecture and
design in Colombia, film studies in Hungary, and business in Spain, among others.
The Chronicle of Higher Education of October 18, 2009, carried an article on the
Fulbright Scholars Program, titled the “Top U.S. Producers of Fulbright Scholars, by
Type of Institution, 2009-2010.” USF made the list of only 22 national institutions to be
so honored, and was tied for 10th place on the list, having four of its faculty members
named as Fulbright Scholars for 2009-2010.
Many of USF’s on-campus programs also have a strong international focus, reflective of
extensive faculty involvement in international research, teaching, and service. USF’s core
curriculum, developed by the faculty, has an international dimension, and asks students to
“understand and value cultural and ethnic differences in a multicultural society and
globalizing world.” Every undergraduate student must complete at least one course in
cultural diversity to graduate. USF also requires most undergraduate students to study a
second language from a menu of 13 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, French,
German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and
Tagalog.
Outreach
The last nine years have seen the implementation of initiatives that support the Mission
statement and challenge students to become global citizens. These efforts have been
supported by a visionary leadership team, headed by the president, Stephen A. Privett,
S.J. USF’s international focus permeates all aspects of the institution: student learning,
curriculum design, program and degree offerings, co-curricular activities, alumni
relations, publications, and community outreach. In 2006, USF’s long-standing
commitment to social justice in the global community was recognized by the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which designated USF as one of 76
community engaged colleges and universities in the nation. Many of USF’s highlighted
programs were international in their focus. In awarding the classification, the Carnegie
Foundation said that USF’s community engagement programs were “exemplary” and that
the university demonstrated an “excellent alignment between mission, culture, leadership,
resources, and practices that support dynamic and noteworthy community engagement.”
Based in large part on the quality of its international social justice programming, USF
was also selected in 2006, 2007, and 2008 for inclusion on the Corporation for National
and Community Service President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll
With Distinction, one of only nineteen schools to receive this honor for three successive
years.
USF currently has 88,415 living alumni, including 3,497 international alumni, living in
112 countries, and comprising four percent of the total alumni population. USF’s
prominent international alumni include Alejandro Toledo, former President of Peru, and
Tom Hewitt, founder of Umthombo, who works with street children in Durban, South
Africa.
Reflective of USF’s international focus, 13 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates have spoken to
the campus community in recent years. These distinguished individuals have included
Bishop Desmond Tutu (South Africa); John Hume, Mairead Maguire, and Betty Williams
(Northern Ireland); Rigoberta Menchú (Guatemala), Adolfo-Pérez Esquivel (Argentina),
Oscar Arias Sánchez (Costa Rica), the Dalai Lama (Tibet), and Shirin Ebadi (Iran). Given
the university’s international and social justice focus, it is not surprising that USF has
sent 303 volunteers into the Peace Corps since that agency was founded in 1961, placing
USF among the top 25 institutions of comparable size regarding the average annual
placement number of Peace Corps volunteers.
The international commitment of USF is linked, in the words of the USF Vision, Mission,
and Values Statement, to a “culture of service that respects and promotes the dignity of
every person” and to a 469-year old Jesuit heritage of service to others and to the
promotion of justice throughout the world. Indeed, USF’s Philippines program, noted
above, was seen as a model of cultural and social engagement by the Association of
Jesuit Universities and Colleges (AJCU). USF’s international programs, recognized by
AJCU, the Carnegie Foundation, and by the Corporation for National and Community
Service, have been the result of bringing that Jesuit heritage to life, with the active
support of the faculty, the current administration, and our president. The past nine years
have revolutionized our ability to offer students a global perspective, and these changes
are only the prelude to even greater achievements.