NAFSA Seeks Conference Proposals for 2010

Officials at NAFSA, the largest study-abroad professionals organization, say they're now taking proposals for sessions at the 2010 conference in Kansas City, Mo., next May 30 through June 4. The organization has a detailed set of instructions for proposers.

The deadline for proposals for workshops and sessions is Aug. 1 at 11:59 p.m. EDT, while proposals for poster sessions can come in as late as 11:59 p.m. EST on Nov. 14.

Cuba Policy Change Earns NAFSA Praise

President Obama’s decision to permit Cuban-Americans visit and send money to their relatives on the Caribbean island is getting praise from NAFSA, which hopes the move — characterized by the New York Times this morning as loosening restrictions “only a crack” — could ultimately lead to the restoration of educational-exchange programs.

The Bush administration virtually eliminated educational exchanges with Cuba earlier this decade — and, to be clear, the Obama decision does not immediately restore those exchanges. But NAFSA says it is heartened anyway:

NAFSA applauds President Obama for his action yesterday reversing the restrictions that the Bush administration imposed on family travel and remittances to Cuba and making it easier for families to send gift parcels to Cuba. The administration’s moves to open up telecommunications with the island also constitute a major step forward.

We now urge the administration to move quickly to rescind the rest of the restrictions on communications with Cuba that were imposed by the Bush administration — restrictions on educational travel. At a minimum, the Obama administration should restore the situation to where it was before the Bush administration: Americans should be able to study in Cuba and participate in educational travel to the island, and Cuban scholars should be permitted to attend academic conferences in the United States.

NAFSA further urges the administration to set a genuinely new direction in U.S. policy toward Cuba by reconsidering all of the limitations on travel to Cuba.

Cuba was a major destination of U.S. students and academics before the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power. According to Skye Stephenson, dean of the first-year experience at Landmark College and a member of the editorial board at Abroad View, says exchanges have ebbed and flowed since then.

Stephenson says that as many as 40,000 Americans were traveling to Cuba each year at the beginning of this decade under “people-to-people” exchange programs. More than 750 colleges had permission to carry out programs in Cuba by that time, and nearly 4,000 students studied in Cuba as late as 2002.

That changed with the Bush administration’s crackdown in 2003. Since 2004, there have been virtually no exchanges between American and Cuban students and academics.

Studying in Britain, Step by Step

Britain is the No.1 destination for U.S. students heading abroad, and NAFSA now provides a link to the United Kingdom’s new guidelines for student visa for U.S. passport holders. The changes went into effect on March 31.

Dialogue on NAFSA/Obama Initiatives

As reported here a couple of days ago, NAFSA is out with a new policy statement applauding President Obama’s push to renew American global leadership and describing a number of benchmarks by which that renewal can be measured in the coming years.

Andy Amsler, the media relations associate at NAFSA, tells me today that NAFSA is inviting comments on the policy statement and further dialogue on U.S. global leadership at the NAFSA blog. There’s already a number of contributions there, so give it a look.

NAFSA and Obama’s Agenda

With President Obama calling for a renewal of the U.S. relationship with the rest of the world, NAFSA has released its vision of what that global leadership should lead to.

The full statement is available at NAFSA’s site, but the specific calls by the organization include:

• Everyone who graduates from college in this country should have a basic understanding of the world beyond our shores and be proficient in a foreign language.
• At least one million American college students — four times the current number — should study abroad each year in high quality programs around the globe and for academic credit.
• International students and scholars who wish to pursue their academic objectives in our country should be able to do so, and we should ensure that they feel welcome in our midst.
• International exchange and volunteer-service programs should be significantly increased, and Americans should be challenged by renewed calls to international service for the sake of their country and the world, as President Kennedy did nearly 50 years ago.
  

NAFSA Honors 5 Schools

With NAFSA’s May conference starting to come over the horizon, the organization today awarded five schools and mentioned three others for their efforts at internationalization of their campuses.

The Sen. Paul Simon Awards for Campus Internationalization for 2009 go to: Boston University, Connecticut College, Pacific Lutheran University, Portland State University and the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities.

The schools will be spotlighted at the NAFSA annual meeting on May 29 in Los Angeles, and they’ll also be featured in a fall report from NAFSA highlighting efforts to internationalize higher education.

Three other institutions will be spotlighted in the NAFSA fall report: Berklee College of Music, Fairleigh Dickinson University and the University of California - Davis.