Category: News

MIIS news

Renovations of Apartment Building Completed

4plex Renovations have been completed on the Monterey Institute apartment building located at the corner of Van Buren and Franklin Streets.  This project, headed by Controller Steve Marino, has resulted in a completely remodeled building that will provide market-rate housing for Institute faculty and staff and a guesthouse unit for VIPs and other Institute visitors.  The apartment’s landscaping was designed and completed by Classroom and Grounds Supervisor Marty Goss and Classroom and Grounds Assistant Kirk Eckhardt and incorporates drought-resistant plants and drip irrigation.

Two units (Apartments A & B) will become available for rent immediately, under the following guidelines:

1.  These units will be managed internally and advertised to Monterey Institute regular faculty and staff.  Applications will be accepted and reviewed by Campus Services.  Please contact Jon Covell at 647-7175 or at  jonathan.covell@miis.edu.  Background/credit checks will be run.

2.  These units are two-bedroom, one-bath.  Maximum occupancy is three.  No smoking, no pets.

3.  Rent is $1,750 per month.  A security deposit of $1,750 is required.  Minimum one-year lease.  Rent includes washer/dryer,  PG&E, trash, water, & sewer.

Green Renovation

This building has incorporated the following green improvements in order to comply with new Monterey Green Building Codes, emphasize our commitment to sustainability, and provide a comfortable, healthy environment for those occupying the house.

• Plumbing:  Installation of high-performance, low-flow showerheads, low-flow faucets, insulated plumbing and pipes (to keep heat from escaping), and low-flow toilets.
• Energy:  The building will have 95% efficient furnaces,  a high-efficiency water heater, and a vent kitchen range hood to the outside (in order to keep pollutions and odors from contaminating the house).
• Flooring:

• Recycled-content tile and low volatile organic compound (VOC), water-based wood finishes.
• Recycled-content, non-toxic, tack-down carpet, padding and underlayment. (Recycled content: PET plastic bottles, recycled wool, nylon, or recycled cotton. Tack-down installation is easier to remove than glue-down, eliminates toxic glue chemicals, and allows the carpeting to be partially recycled at the “end” of its life.)

• Paint: The paint used in this building is low VOC.
• Reuse/Recycling: Construction and deconstruction waste was reused and job site waste was recycled to the extent possible.

Tsuneo Akaha Shares Experiences in Japan

MIIS welcomes back GSIPS professor Tsuneo Akaha, who has been teaching in Japan for the summer and fall semester.  We thought you would all be interested in his activities:

  • Tsuneo taught an MA seminar at Waseda University in Tokyo in the fall of 2008.  The topic was Asian Regional Integration, a very hot topic in the region.  His experience in the seminar included serving not only as the instructor but also as an interpreter for two of the students.  One was a Nepalese student with fairly advanced English language skills (despite the fact that he never used English until he enrolled at Waseda) but little or no Japanese language, and the other was a Chinese student with highly developed Japanese language proficiency but very limited spoken English.  Hence, when either of them gave their presentations or spoke up in class, Tsuneo served as their interpreter.

    • (more…)

MIIS Approved for iTunes U Public Presence

The Monterey Institute of International Studies was recently approved by Apple for inclusion in the public portion of iTunes U. This means that MIIS will now show up when people search for the Institute through the iTunes Store. iTunes U can be used to distribute media content to faculty, staff, students, and the general public in the form of podcasts. Audio and video podcasts are available to download free of cost, and can then be watched on a computer or portable device whenever, wherever.

Our iTunes U presence will serve as a valuable recruitment tool, offering an inexpensive way to explain the benefits MIIS has to offer potential students. With the help of the Digital Media Commons, we hope to create an army of podcasters across the globe. Visit MIIS on iTunes U and help MIIS gain recognition as we reach out and share our stories with the world.

Welcome to Newcomers, Visitors!

The torch has now been officially passed to our new president, Sunder Ramaswamy! While he has not quite unpacked all his boxes in the president’s office, he is settled in his new home in Monterey with his wife, Varna, and son, Srivats, and they are ready to “be the solution” with all of us at MIIS.

We’re also joined today by Jason Warburg, our new Executive Director of Communications.  Jason comes to us from the Sacramento area, where his career has included communications and public relations for EDFUND, a non-profit organization that administers student loan programs in California. Jason also served as the legislative director and senior policy and communications advisor for California’s Lieutenant Governor for a number of years. He has an M.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown, and a B.A. in Political Science from UC Davis.

Last, but far from least, we welcome some special visitors from Middlebury:

•    President Ron Liebowitz, his wife, Jessica, and their three children will be with us for the next two weeks, so that Ron can engage in some west coast development activities and attend the MIIS Board meeting.
•    MIIS Trustee and Middlebury Professor Russ Leng has returned, by popular demand, to teach his winter term course on War.
•    Mike Roy, Middlebury’s new Dean of Library and Information Services, will be on campus next week (January 12 and 13), learning about our library and technology resources and exploring possibilities for collaboration and integration.

AACSB Accreditation News

Here is some good news, just in time for the holidays: In October, Middlebury president Ron Liebowitz submitted a substantive change request to AACSB.  This request described the planned academic reorganization at MIIS in the context of integration with Middlebury.  This week, we received notification from AACSB that that our re-accreditation process can continue as originally scheduled:

“Your letter and supporting materials dated 30 October 2008 were reviewed by the AACSB Maintenance of Accreditation Committee at its meeting on 8 December 2008. On behalf of the committee, we appreciate the thoroughness of the report on the integration of the Monterey Institute of International Studies into Middlebury College.  At this time, MAC does not see the need to change any of our plans regarding the next review of the business programs at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.”

This means that our next re-accreditation visit will occur in 2011.

Clara Yu Honored by City of Monterey and MIIS Colleagues

On Tuesday, December 16, the City of Monterey City Council honored MIIS President Clara Yu for her accomplishments over the past three years.  Later, at the annual faculty and staff holiday party, colleagues paid tribute to Clara and wished Clara and John a fond and regretful farewell.  Thanks, Clara, for everything, from all of us!

Staff Members Discuss Formation of Representative Group

Fifty staff members met Thursday afternoon in Irvine auditorium to initiate discussion about providing an ongoing and sustained voice for staff at the Monterey Institute.

The meeting was facilitated by Provost Amy Sands, but was quickly turned over to break-out groups of staff members who brainstormed possible approaches to representation.

There was broad interest in developing a vehicle analogous to the faculty senate that would represent staff perspectives and concerns in a constructive way that contributes to excellence across the institution.  A working group emerged from this meeting, charged with looking at next steps, such as:

1) Getting more info about who staff are at MIIS;
2) Looking at other institutions to see how their staffs are organized,
starting with Middlebury;
3) Talking to Jeff Wood and others who might have been directly
involved with previous MIIS Staff Groups;
4) Expanding the group of 6 to include 10-12 core members since several staff groups could not attend yesterday’s meeting.

The working group members are:

Karen Weiss
Priscilla Lorenzo
Toni Thomas
Lynn McDonald
Susan Wolfe
Erika Johnson

Beryl Levinger Visits Banda Aceh

IPS Distinguished Professor Beryl Levinger went to Banda Aceh for two weeks in October 2008 to work w/ Pete LaRaus, MPA ’04, deputy director of Save the Children in Banda Aceh.  The assignment was to help Save the Children develop a three-year strategic plan.  The primary challenge Save the Children faces is how to redirect the organization away from post-tsunami relief toward longer-term development programs that serve conflict-affected populations.  There was a long war for independence that has claimed many lives in the Banda Aceh region.

Beryl has been a consultant for Save the Children since 1977.  Notable among her numerous assignments is the annual State of the World’s Mothers Report.  The Report is a standard resource used by the US government and international organizations in setting policy and aid budgets for programs serving families in developing nations.  Beryl includes students and former students in her work on this major initiative.

Beryl says the biggest thrill of this latest project was the opportunity to work with Pete, her former student.  Prior to his current assignment, Pete was country director for Save the Children in Nicaragua.  Beryl  was also excited about two new collaborative technologies that she uses in her teaching, ZohoWiki and ZohoProject.  The assignment gave her the opportunity to bring to Indonesia tools and approaches she is teaching on campus and to bring back to campus real stories about how these technologies make a difference in the world of professional development practice.

Graduate Writing Center Receives Grant

The MIIS Graduate Writing Center has received a $50,000 grant from the Monterey Peninsula Foundation to expand and improve its services.

The center offers writing workshops to students to prepare them for academic and professional assignments, such as cover letters, resumes, CVs, policy memos, and op-eds..

With increased funding, the center will be able to:
•    Support French, Spanish, and Arabic tutoring sessions that began this fall;
•    Offer workshops on giving and receiving effective peer feedback;
•    Provide professional development opportunities for its tutors;
•    Develop print and online resources for students seeking help from the center.

The center is directed by Kelley Calvert.

MIIS Delegation Attends Beijing Trade Conference

Last week Tate Miller and former MIIS president Robert Gard returned from a successful whirlwind trip to Beijing.  The centerpiece of the trip was participation in an invitation-only, two-day conference on China’s world trade opportunities and relationship with the World Trade Organization.

The conference, sponsored by the Beijing-based WTO Affairs Center, was attended by 350-400 senior and mid-level Chinese government officials.

Dawei Cheng, a 2000 graduate of the commercial diplomacy program, arranged for the Institute’s participation.  Ms. Cheng is chief expert at the WTO Affairs Center.  The Monterey Institute was the sole educational institution invited.  Other international dignitaries included senior officials from the WTO headquarters in Geneva.  President Gard’s opening plenary address, on the topic of the US development of special zones for business such Silicon Valley, was well-received, and the WTO Center has commenced discussions with the Institute regarding future cooperation on trade research and training. While in Beijing, Tate and Bob also held an alumni dinner at a restaurant owned and operated by alum Clayton Noack in an historic ‘hutong’ neighborhood in the center of the city.

Holiday Food Drive Begins December 1

The Institute’s 4th annual Holiday Food Drive, benefiting the Monterey County Food Bank, begins Monday, December 1st.  Barrels will be located in the main lobby of the McCone building from Dec 1-10.
The campus goal is to raise 1 lb/0.45kg for every student, staff and faculty member, so approximately 100lbs/45kg per day for ten business days.  The donations will be weighed daily!

In 2007 we raised over 800 lbs during the ten day drive.  I hope our campus will continue to be generous with their donations (rice, beans, pasta, flour, peanut butter, etc are all great items to donate).  If you would like to make a cash donation, please contact Leah Gowron (ext. 3558).

Thank you for your support.

Website Changes

Our website is the main source of information on our programs for prospective students. Recruitment for these new students starts earlier and earlier each year.  Considering that our new students in Fall 2009 will be attending MIIS under a new administrative structure, it is important that our website best represent both our current programs and the future changes.  Beginning immediately, we will replace references to specific schools and their acronyms with program references and institute references where applicable.  In most situations, this is an improvement to our site, since prospective students rarely understand our alphabet soup.

The website will retain its structure and the content will remain the same, we’re just changing some titles.  This is quick fix to a website that is in need of facelift.  A more extensive re-design is currently planned to take place during the spring and summer of 2009.

We need your help! If you are adding content to the website, please refrain from specific school references.  When updating documents or PDF’s on the website, please scan the pages for graduate school names and make changes where appropriate.

If you have any questions, please contact Lynn McDonald or Jill Stoffers.

More News…

MIIS@work is just one component of a growing online community here at the Monterey Institute.  Check out  the MIIS Facebook page, where recent posts include an update on Our Green Thumb, the community garden project taking shape next to Morse, and an article on the podcasts posted recently to our iTunes U site.

Other MIIS and Middlebury blogs are listed in the “blog roll” in the left hand column of this blog.  Check them out!

Reorganization Planning Begins November 13

Monterey Institute faculty, staff, and students are all invited to join President Designate Sunder Ramaswamy for an initial discussion about the MIIS reorganization planning process on Thursday, November 13, 2008.

The agenda of the meeting will be to share guiding principles, expected outcomes, and indicative timeline with the MIIS community, including how the community will be able to participate in and contribute to the reorganization efforts going forward.  In addition, there will be a brief update provided on the current integration progress with Middlebury.

To enable more interactive, focused discussions, Dr. Ramaswamy will hold four one-hour meetings with faculty, staff, and students, one for each school. Administrative staff may join any of the four meetings of their choosing.  If faculty, staff, and students cannot attend their school’s session for any reason, they are welcome to attend another school’s session.  Please find the meeting schedule below:

Meeting Schedule
Thursday, November 13

12:00PM          GSTI                Irvine Auditorium

1:00PM            FGSIB             Irvine Auditorium

2:00PM            GSIPS             Irvine Auditorium

4:00PM            GSLEL            Irvine Auditorium

We look forward to your attendance and contributions as we begin this exciting process in achieving an even stronger, better institution for our future global leaders.

Trustees Approve Monterey Institute Reorganization

The following message was sent to the Institute community on Friday.

To the members of the Monterey Institute community,

At its meeting this morning, the Board of Trustees of the Monterey Institute of International Studies unanimously approved the following resolution regarding reorganization of the academic administration.

RESOLVED, the Board of Trustees approves the following academic administrative reorganization, effective Academic Year 2009/2010:

*  The Graduate School of International Policy Studies and Fisher Graduate School of International Business will become a single Graduate School of International Policy and Management.

*  The Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation and the Graduate School of Language and Educational Linguistics will become a single Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation, and Language Education.

In taking this action, the Board gave careful consideration to the thoughtful and constructive input it has received from the community.

Our intention in approving this reorganization is to reaffirm the commitment of the Board and the administration to pursue academic excellence as we look toward the process of reaccreditation by NEASC and AACSB.  We believe that the synergies within the new structure will enhance our programs and make the Institute a truly distinctive leader in global education.

As we proceed to develop the details within this basic organizational framework, there are many decisions to be made. We value the engagement of the whole Institute community in a collaborative and appreciative process, to be announced in a timely manner. 

William H Kieffer III, Chair of the Board of Trustees

Clara Yu, President

Sunder Ramaswamy, President Designate