CNS staff members Liviu Horovitz and Gaukhar Mukhatzhanova wrote a letter to the editor of the International Herald Tribune regarding the West’s negative response to Tehran’s recent launch of its first domestically developed satellite into orbit. Horovitz and Mukhatzhanova cite President Obama’s pledge to “extend a hand to hostile nations if they are willing to unclench their fist” and suggest it is now time to introduce a more nuanced approach to Iran. Read the full version of the letter at http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/19/opinion/edlet.php.
Day: February 23, 2009
MONTEREY INSTITUTE & NPS HOST AWARD-WINNING CYBER-ACTIVIST
–Founder of MideastYouth.com Harnesses Internet to Promote Human Rights–
The Monterey Institute of International Studies will host award-winning activist and writer Esra’a al Shafei beginning at 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 24, in the Institute’s Irvine Auditorium in the McCone Building at 499 Pierce St., Monterey. The event is being co-sponsored by the Naval Postgraduate School.
During her “Activism 3.0” presentation, Shafei will discuss her experiences as founder and executive director of Mideast Youth, and how cyber-activism can help to combat human rights abuses and foster peace. Her accolades include the Harvard University’s 2008 Berkman Award, and her live podcasts and blogs from Gaza during the recent conflict there were featured on CNN.
This event is free and open to the public. NOTE: Photography and videotaping will not be permitted at this event. Audio recording is permitted.
Planning Retreats Generate Ideas for GSIPM, GSTILE
Seventy faculty staff and students met on Friday morning at La Playa hotel in Carmel to discuss ideas for ensuring academic excellence through the merger of the policy and business school, and their collaboration with a new office of advising, career and student services. They were joined for lunch by an additional 50 faculty, staff and students representing translation, interpretation and language education progrms. The latter group stayed on for their own afternoon retreat to develop ideas for the new graduate school encompassing all language-related programs.
After hearing briefly from President Ramaswamy and the new academic leadership team — provost Amy Sands and deans designate Renee Jourdenais, Tate Miller, and Yuwei Shi — about the vision for the reorganization and the goals of the retreat, each group spent most of the allotted four hours in break-out sessions discussing questions designed to elicit ideas for exploiting synergies between programs within and across schools, and for developing strong relationships between academic programs and the new advising function. Notes from the retreat are posted in an online Reorganization Resource Center and members of the community are invited to comment or add their ideas.
You can either read the notes directly on the site, at the links above, or scroll to the bottom of the page to download a Word file. Please note that the notes are numbered by group in the order in which we received them, not by the table numbers at the retreat.
A third retreat devoted to the new Office of Advising, Career, and Student Services is planned for Friday, February 27 from 1-5 pm (preceded by lunch from 12-1), also at La Playa. There are still spaces open in this retreat, although there is very limited availability for the lunch. Contact Amy McGill if you are interested in attending.
Akaha Appointed to New Role as M2 Program Coordinator
As the M2 integration process has unfolded over the last two years, we at MIIS and our Middlebury colleagues have focused our attention on the legal and infrastructural issues – finance, HR, information systems, advancement, and communications – that need to be resolved in order for our two institutions to become one on June 30, 2010. Throughout this period, we have never lost sight of the broader purpose of our efforts: to realize the exponential power of M2 to prepare global professionals to be the solution to the world’s most critical problems.
As we begin the bridge-building process, I have asked Tsuneo Akaha to take on the role of M2 Academic Programs Coordinator effective March 1, 2009. In his new role, Tsuneo will report to me, and will chair an M2 Academic Program Committee that will include the Monterey Institute’s academic leadership and faculty from across the Institute. The entire membership will be announced shortly. Tsuneo will be responsible for developing productive relationships with the Academic Programs group at Middlebury, and will begin the process of exploring the best ways to build on shared strengths in the academic realm. The Middlebury Academic Programs group is chaired by Michael Geisler, Vice President for the Language Schools, Schools Abroad, Graduate, and Special Programs, and includes academic leaders from throughout the Middlebury community.
Initial priority areas for the M2 Academic Program Committee will include developing programs that build on established strengths — languages and linguistics, international policy and management, and international environmental policy.
These efforts will not only help to build a strong integrated academic community between our two institutions, but will also result in exciting new opportunities for our students, faculty, and staff, such as strengthened program links with the Middlebury Study Abroad sites, Language Schools, shared faculty speaker series, more J-Term classes that leverage each of our strengths, collaborative faculty research projects, and additional internship options abroad. Tsuneo will also ensure that these programmatic efforts mesh well with infrastructural integration by coordinating with Amy McGill, who chairs the M2 Finance, Operations and Communications group here, and collaborates with counterparts at Middlebury.
Professor Akaha brings to these responsibilities extensive experience at the Monterey Institute, having been a faculty member here since 1989, and an active participant in many Institute and GSIPS initiatives and faculty committees. He also regularly teaches in our Monterey Model courses, collaborating with the language studies colleagues as well as offering content courses in his native language of Japanese. Professor Akaha established and has directed the Center for East Asian Studies which sponsors research, guest lectures, visiting scholars, and seminars, as well as internships and scholarships to students studying in this region. Reflected in all of these activities is his commitment to providing our students with the subject knowledge and skills required for critical analysis of international policy and area studies, particularly in the Asia-Pacific context, and to work collaboratively with his colleagues here and internationally on the central challenges of our time, ranging from peace and security issues to human rights and migration concerns.
Professor Akaha specializes in Japanese foreign and security policy, international relations of the Asia Pacific, international political economy, and international marine affairs. He came to the U.S. as an AFS student during high school, then was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Tokyo and Seikei University (Tokyo), and a Japan Foundation Research Fellow at Hokkaido University’s Slavic Research Center (Sapporo). He has served as President of Asian Studies on the Pacific Coast (ASPAC) and is on the editorial board of International Relations of the Asia-Pacific. His own publications include numerous books (such as The Future of North Korea; Politics and Economics in Northeast Asia: Nationalism and Regionalism in Contention; and co-editor of Crossing National Borders: Human Migration Issues in Northeast Asia; and articles in such journals as American Political Science Review, Journal of Asian Studies, Asian Survey, Peace Forum, and Brown Journal of World Affairs.
I am grateful to Tsuneo for accepting this challenge at a critical point in the integration process, and I am confident that his leadership will play a significant role in realizing the tremendous potential for collaboration and innovation that lies at the heart of the MIIS-Middlebury integration process.
All of the areas discussed above are, have been, and will be critical to the Institute’s success. As we move forward with our reorganization and integration activities with Middlebury, it is important to step back and acknowledge the hard work that each of these areas have done in support of the new academic organization and integration with Middlebury. These changes, along with those occurring in the academic programs, will create a revitalized organizational structure geared to address the professional graduate educational challenges of today, allowing us to remain flexible, dynamic, and relevant. It will also provide us a solid organizational foundation critical to a successful full integration with Middlebury College in the summer of 2010.
Additional Administrative Reorganization Decisions Announced
For the last few months, we have focused our discussion about the reorganization of the Institute on the creation of two new graduate schools and a new dean of advising. However, several other changes are occurring to facilitate a better flow of communications and services to our faculty, staff, students, and the external community. In some cases these will affect supervisory responsibilities and lines of reporting.
Last September, the Office of Alumni Relations was moved into the Institutional Advancement Office. A new Executive Director of Communications position was also established and subsequently, Jason Warburg was hired into that position. Recently, Anne Marie Steiger, the Institute’s webmaster, has been moved, so that she now reports to Jason.
We are also combining those activities related to a student’s enrollment at the Institute. As part of these changes, the Financial Aid Office will join with our Admissions Office and Enrollment Management Office to become the Office of Admissions, reporting to Jill Stoffers, Director of Admissions. These moves will become effective as of March 1, 2009.
Finally, in a move designed to strengthen the services provided to students during their time at the Institute, the Dean of Advising, Careers, and Student Services will oversee three areas: Records, Office of Student Services, and a new Academic and Career Advising Center. The goal of this consolidation, which will become effective as of June 1, 2009, is to provide our students with enhanced services, especially those involving academic advising and career assistance, so that students engage a seamless support system during their time at the Institute.