Korean Ministry Program Students Put On Mock Summit

On May 4-6, students enrolled in a special program with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea will put on a mock summit as a culmination of their year-long program. The program, which is designed to develop the English language skills required by diplomats, has involved participants in graduate-level and EAPP coursework along with classes set up through Custom Language Services that were tailored to their specific needs. EAPP students will act as members of the press in this simulation, which includes all the elements of diplomatic correspondence, protocol, and conflict resolution as the participants seek a negotiated resolution. The topic of this mock summit is the Six-Party Talks, with Korean Ministry students acting as officials from China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, North Korea, and the U.S. For details on the mock summit, please contact Lisa Donohoe at lisa.donohoe@miis.edu.

Commencement and Inauguration Plans Announced

Dear Members of the MIIS Community:

We are now just three weeks from one of the most exciting times of the year – commencement.  This event represents the culmination of years of work and study for hundreds of our students, and is a chance for family members and guests to celebrate with us this momentous time in our students’ lives.

This year’s spring commencement will include all of the customary celebrations – the garden party reception on Friday, May 15, the commencement ceremony itself on Saturday, May 16, and the commencement reception afterwards.  In addition, the commencement ceremony will include my formal inauguration as president of the Institute.

The decision to join the two events offers a wonderful opportunity to showcase the amazing work our students and faculty are doing both locally and around the globe for a wide audience encompassing the campus community, our Board of Trustees, and our friends and supporters.  The day before commencement, on May 15 from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm, we will convene an inaugural symposium titled “Being The Solution: Building Leadership From Monterey To Mumbai,” which will feature sessions and stations spotlighting a variety of student and faculty projects, accomplishments, and disciplines.  In that way, the symposium will provide rich context for family members and guests in particular to understand the scope and significance of our graduating students’ achievements.  All MIIS community members – students, family members and guests, alumni, faculty and staff — are invited to attend the symposium.

The schedule of events for May 15-16 is as follows:

Friday, May 15

1:00 pm – 5:00 pm   Inauguration Symposium – Irvine Auditorium
(Agenda attached)

5:00 pm – 7:00 pm   Graduation Garden Party –  Holland Center Courtyard

Saturday, May 16

1:00 pm – 3:30 pm   Commencement and Inauguration  – Colton Hall Lawn

3:30 pm – 5:30 pm   Commencement Reception – Samson Student Center

I look forward to sharing with you two days of celebration of the Institute, our important mission, and the students who are our reason for being here.

Best regards,
Sunder

Critical Issues Forum (CIF) Spring Student Conference

— U.S., Russian High School Students Present Research On Nuclear Disarmament

More than 70 students and teachers from 10 U.S. high schools and 10
schools in Russia’s closed nuclear cities gathered to present their
research on “Nuclear Disarmament: Challenges, Opportunities, and Next
Steps” at the spring 2009 Critical Issues Forum (CIF) conference April
23-24 in Monterey.

The conference is the culmination of a semester-long program designed to increase
students’ awareness of nonproliferation and disarmament issues and enhance
critical thinking skills.

All the students’ presentations were very creative, enjoyable, and
well-researched.  Presentations included student-produced movies, NPT
Review Conference simulation, skits revolving around nuclear weapons
history, current events in nuclear development, and interactive activities.

With the still-lingering excitement of President Obama’s historic speech
on April 5th in Prague calling for a world without nuclear weapons, many
of students’ presentations at the conference featured recent developments
in nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation issues.

Dr. Patricia Lewis, Deputy Director and Scientist-in-Residence at the CNS,
and former director of the UNIDIR, gave a keynote presentation with a
title of “Passing the Nuclear Baton: Nuclear Disarmament and the Next
Generation.”

This year marks the 20th anniversary of CNS.  Over the past two decades,
CNS has dedicated itself to training the next generation of
nonproliferation specialists and raising global public awareness. The CIF
is one of the flagship educational outreach programs the Center has
established to accomplish its mission.

In addition to high school student presentations, MIIS students
specializing in nonproliferation, and junior CNS staff members who also
study nonproliferation, shared their experiences on how they ended up
studying nonproliferation issues, and inspired the CIF high school
students to pursue their dreams.

The April 24th Monterey County Herald carried a long story of the CIF
conference with three large photos.

The Russian students and American students also took advantage of
opportunities for cultural exchange, building friendships.

New Fact Sheets

Are you sometimes called upon to explain the many changes taking place at MIIS to prospective students, alums, members of the community?  We now have two fact sheets, developed by Jason Warburg, that summarize the major developments involved in Reorganization and Integration.

“Running One MIIS” Series Begins

Attend the first of a series of open sessions to imagine the reorganized MIIS and its integration with Middlebury. How will it all work? What will change? How will you be affected?

People all over campus are working hard to figure out all the complexities and opportunities inherent in the changes that are underway.  We need your perspective and ideas!

We lead off with a discussion of Advancement on May 5, at 12 noon in the Board Room.

Here’s the schedule for subsequent sessions:

HR – May 19 * Communications – June 2 * Admissions – June 16 * Accreditation – June 30 * Technology – July 14 * Physical and Financial Resources – July 28 * Student/Academic Information Systems – August 11

All sessions: 12-1:30 p.m. in the Board Room

Follow the progress of Runing One MIIS here.  If you can’t make a session, give your input online.

Outlook…Rules of the Road…Auto-Replies

When you go off campus for business trips, vacations and such, you may wish to set an auto reply on your Outlook (Exchange) email account so that persons sending you a message know you are away.   When you do this, please keep in mind the following rules of the road.

1.     Only activate auto replies for internal (inside) messages.

2.     If you must activate auto replies for external (outside) messages, only reply to persons you have in your personal Contacts list.

You may wonder why you should not simply reply to all messages.  This is because replying to most external messages tends to have you replying to every “spam” message that comes your way, which is something you would not normally do if replying by hand.   With the number of Web 2.0 services available now days, this also affects how you reply to “daily reminders” such as are sent out by Yammer, Twitter, FaceBook, etc.   You certainly do not want your auto reply to flood these services on a daily basis while you are gone.

To set up an auto reply under Outlook, you simply go to the Tools menu and choose Out of Office Assistant…., and then make sure you have checked My Contacts Only under the Outside My Organization tab (see below).

Note: The above screen may look different depending on your version of Outlook or Entourage, or if you are using Outlook Web (set auto reply under Properties when using http://mail.middlebury.edu ).

If you plan to be gone from your office for only a short period of time, and have access to your email while on the road, you should consider not turning on the auto reply for any outside mail at all.   In any case you should never choose Anyone Outside My Organization when auto replying to messages.   Happy trails….

Leslie Eliason Teacher of Excellence Award Ceremony

Please join us for the Leslie Eliason Teacher of Excellence Award Ceremony today, Tuesday, April 21 at 12:00 noon in the Samson Center Reading Room.  Faculty, staff, and students are invited to attend.   This award recognizes outstanding teaching and promotes the professional development of a teacher by a grant from the Payne Family Foundation.  This year’s award recipient is Laura Burian. For more information, please contact Dollie Pope at (831) 647-3545 or dollie.pope@miis.edu.

Provide Feedback on Pizza Ideas!

Intrigued by the possibility of donating online to fund MIIS student projects?

Think a MIIS bookstore is a good idea?

If you attended the Idea Fair last week (or even if you didn’t), there are some great ideas looking for community feedback!  It’s easy to weigh in.  Just go to http://miis.uservoice.com, sign up, and cast your votes for the idea(s) you think have the greatest potential to contribute to excellence at MIIS. Even more importantly, make comments on what you like or don’t like about each idea!

OR… Make up your own idea!

Idea Fair

Please join us the afternoon of Thursday, April 16th for a poster session where participants in the latest pizza process will share their ideas with the larger MIIS community.

Ideas include:

  • Coopetition
  • Entrepreneurship Incubator
  • Reconnecting Alumni
  • The Feedback Loop
  • Rebranding of the MPA Program
  • OneMIIS in CS
  • MIIS Bookstore & Information Bar
  • Micro-solutions

Following the event, the community will be able to provide feedback to the groups to help them reshape and improve their ideas.

Date: Thursday, April 16, 2009
Time: 12:00pm – 2:00pm
Location: Holland Center
Croce’s Pizza Provided!