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Nonviolence advocate Maya Soetoro-Ng will address Institute students, faculty and staff on the topic “Conflict Resolution, Peacebuilding and Education” on Thursday from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm in the Irvine Auditorium.  In addition to her work on nonviolent conflict resolution, last fall Soetoro-Ng spoke at the Democratic National Convention in support of her half-brother Barack Obama’s candidacy for president.  Soetoro-Ng serves on the International Advisory Board of Global Majority, a nonprofit organization started by former Institute students and faculty that is dedicated to promoting nonviolent conflict resolution education, mediation and advocacy.

All Institute students, faculty and staff are invited to attend.  A question and answer session will follow, and a podcast of the event will also be posted to the Institute’s iTunesU site afterwards.

Dear Staff Community-

Several weeks ago you had the opportunity to vote on your preferred format
for the new Staff Council. 56 responses were received, and the Advisory
Team format stood out as preferred. We are now calling for volunteers to
express interest in being part of the new Advisory Team. Interested staff
members should submit emails to Amy McGill per the instructions below:

Eligibility: Any staff member is eligible to volunteer except for senior
administration (members of the President’s Staff, Deans, JMCNS Director).

Volunteer statement:  Each volunteer will express his or her interest by
submitting a personal statement that describes the issues that s/he would
hope to address as a member of the team. Volunteer statements should be
submitted to Amy McGill via email (mcgill@exchange.miis.edu) by March 23,
2009.

Selection: The first team will be selected from among the volunteers by
the current working group.  Each team will be responsible for selecting
the following year’s team through the same process. The goal of the
selection process will be to keep participation voluntary, dynamic,
diverse, and flexible.

We have also attached the approved proposal which we encourage you to read
which provides more information about the background, vision, process,
etc.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact any of the Working
Group members listed below:

Karen Weiss, Dean’s Assistant GSTI
Priscilla Lorenzo, Office Services Coordinator
Toni Thomas, MBA Academic Advisor and Program Coordinator
Lynn McDonald, Postgraduate Fellow in Organizational Development
Susan Wolfe, Manager of Foundation and Corporate Relations
Erika Johnson, Acquisitions Librarian
Kenley Butler, CNS Senior Project Manager, Executive Officer

The IT department would like to pass along to faculty and staff some information about discounts available on the purchase of Dell computers through the end of March:

For more information, visit www.dell.com/eppbuy and use the following MEMBER ID: KS60572387

Guest speakers include doctor from Darfur refugee camp, former refugee camp resident

The Monterey Institute will host a public symposium exploring the effects of war on children this Friday at 7:00 pm as the American Red Cross presents its Children of War Symposium in the Institute’s Irvine Auditorium.

The Children of War Symposium is a public service offered by the American Red Cross which examines the psychological and physical effects of war on children through the eyes of five renowned international speakers.  These speakers will share their firsthand experiences of living and working in war zones around the world:

Michael Khambatta, International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), Deputy Head of Delegation, US & Canada.

Dr. Ashis Brahma, Sole doctor for Darfur refugee camp in Chad for two years

Dorothy Sewe, Tracing specialist and former refugee camp resident

Dr. Marc Sommers, Associate Research Professor of Humanitarian Studies, Institute of Human Security, The Fletcher School, Tufts University; and Research Fellow, African Studies Center, Boston University.

Meghan Frank, Senior at Granby High School, Norfolk, VA, daughter of a US Navy Captain, and creator of Operation Pen & Pencil, collecting school supplies for Afghan teachers to use in their classrooms in Kabul.

Over the course of two days, the Children of War Symposium will travel to several locations in the area, including the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Santa Cruz area high schools, the University of California at Santa Cruz, Stanford University, and Santa Clara University.

JD Yuan has published an op-ed article in the Asia Tmes entitled “New US tone, same old issues,”  in which he comments on Hilary Clinton’s Asia trip.  Read it here.

The Fisher Graduate School of International Business has been profiled by The Aspen Institute in their recently published “Guide to Socially Responsible MBA Programs:  2008 – 2009.”  The Fisher School is currently ranked 40th among the Global Top 100 schools for demonstrating significant leadership in integrating social and environmental issues into its MBA curriculum.

Since 2003 The Fisher Graduate School of International Business has been consistently ranked as a socially responsible MBA program by Beyond Grey Pinstripes, a biennial research survey looking at how well social and environmental issues are incorporated into the training of future business leaders. The Aspen Institute Center for Business Education, a program of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program, published the data from the 2007 Beyond Grey Pinstripes survey for the first time ever in a guide marketed to both prospective MBA students and the business education community at large.

Invitations to participate in the 2007 survey were sent out to over 600 internationally accredited business schools with in-residence, full-time MBA programs. Schools receive an overall ranking, and are also ranked on four main categories:
–    Student Opportunity measures the number and enrollment of courses with social and environmental content;
–    Student Exposure is a measure of teaching hours dedicated to considering social and environmental issues;
–    Course Content is a breakdown of selected courses that highlight the role of mainstream business in improving social and environmental conditions; and
–    Faculty Research notes relevant articles published in leading academic journals.

The Fisher School ranked 40th overall in the survey, and received special recognition for Course Content (13th), Student Opportunity (26th) and Student Exposure (35th).

According to The Aspen Institute Center for Business Education, The Fisher School “….offers an excellent number of courses featuring relevant content, and does a truly extraordinary job in those courses explicitly addressing how mainstream business improves the world.”

For more information on the Fisher School’s profile in the survey, please visit http://www.BeyondGreyPinstripes.org

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.

The Office of International Services at MIIS and the Tax Office at Middlebury College provide support and resources to all international students and scholars in F, J, or H-1b who were employed in the U.S. in 2008.

California State Income Tax Workshop
The Office of International Services will hold a workshop on California State Tax Return Preparation on Monday, February 23rd at 5:00 pm in Irvine Auditorium. A representative from the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) will present on CA state tax issues for nonresident students and scholars.  In preparation for the presentation, please print the two Powerpoint presentations located on the OIS website at this link: http://www.miis.edu/ois/ois_social.html.

Federal Income Tax Information
This year MIIS and Middlebury are again making available the web-based tax preparation software program called CINTAX, available free for all students and scholars who are considered nonresident for tax purposes.  CINTAX allows you to easily prepare your federal income tax return from any computer connected to the internet.  The program should only take you twenty to forty minutes to complete your federal income tax return.  Once completed, CINTAX will produce (in PDF format) your completed federal income tax forms ready for printing, signature and mailing to the Internal Revenue Service.

You will be receiving additional information along with the password to CINTAX from Dr. Corinna Noelke at Middlebury very soon. Please note that the staff of the Office of International Services (OIS) cannot provide individual tax preparation information but there are a number of resources available to you on the OIS website: http://www.miis.edu/ois/ois_social.html

With the incoming deans of the Institute’s new Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation and Language Education (GSTILE) and Graduate School of International Policy & Management (GSIPM) now identified, our new leadership team has turned to its first major task: determining how the substructures of the two new schools will be organized.

After reviewing several conceptual approaches to this question, we have decided to make our current degree programs the focal points of the new substructure.  This will ensure a smooth transition to the new schools, providing students and faculty with the necessary continuity in terms of curriculum and degree requirements, while at the same time creating a strong specialized foundation for future initiatives and innovations.

Specifically, the substructure of the Graduate School of International Policy and Management will consist of the following four programs:

The Fisher Program in International Business (MBA)
Program in Public Administration for International Management (MPA)
Program in International Environmental Policy (MAIEP)
Program in International Policy Studies (MAIPS)

In addition to these degree programs, several non-degree GSIPM activities and programs — including DPMI, CLP, IPSS, CEAS, MonTREP, and the GLOBE Center – will be grouped together under “Special Programs.”  We will work to identify the synergies between some of these programs and, where appropriate, strengthen opportunities for collaboration.

Organizing the Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation, and Language Education around degrees offers a greater challenge given the multiple tracks available to students studying in our T&I program, as well as the supporting role played by the language program for both policy and business students.  To ensure external recognition of our key T&I degrees while also indicating the importance of our language studies curriculum, we developed a substructure for GSTILE that will consist of the following five programs:

Program in TESOL/TFL (MATESOL/MATFL)
Program in Translation and Interpretation (MATI)
Program in Conference Interpretation (CI)
Program in Translation and Localization Management (MAT/MATLM)
Program in Language Studies

Like GSIPM, GSTILE has several non-degree activities and programs, including CLS, SILP/WILP, ESL, and TI non-degree short programs (such as those run for U.S. or foreign governments or groups) which will be pulled together under “Special Programs.”  Eventually, there may be a more extensive consolidation of these non-degree efforts into a single center to ensure effective coordination and collaboration.

The next step in the assembly of the new schools’ structures will be the appointment of program chairs for each of the above degree programs.  These chairs will work with the two academic deans, faculty and staff to develop, enhance and promote the individual programs going forward.

The un book club met to discuss My Stroke of Insight by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. Dr. Taylor is a brain scientist who went through a stroke that impaired much of the left hemisphere of her brain.  Her story of the stroke and complete recovery was rich in detail and provided us with much to discuss.  The left brain is often considered the more rational, organized and responsible part with the right typified as its creative, unpredictable counterpart.

Dr. Taylor provided an in-depth analysis of the different yet complimentary functions of the brain as she took the reader through her healing process – an amazing and uplifting story. Any one reading this will be relieved to know that even as we get older our brains, thanks to neuroplasticity, continue to learn and fire new neurons or make new connections every day.   The point that we all took away from the discussion was that we have to be mindful or deliberate in using both hemispheres of the brain.    Feeling that we were heavy on left brain usage, the group considered ways to recognize and honor right brain functionality as well as achieve greater balance between the two.

The next book for the un book club is The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander.  The next meeting is on March 9, 2009 from 12:00 to 1:00 in Kade.  Remember, it’s not necessary to read the whole book to participate. Here is a TED Talk by the same author.

A $1,000 Rev. William Sloane Coffin cash prize will be awarded to the MIIS
student who writes the best anti-human trafficking essay. $500 will be
given to the writer of the second-best essay.  The award is named after
the late remarkable  civil rights and peace activist Chaplain at Yale
University and the money is donated by his close friend, Professor Peter
Grothe. The essay should be no more than
2,000 words.

The student should state what experiential and/or academic background
she/he has had in anti-human trafficking and what she/he has learned from
this. A major part of the essay should be devoted to what  motivates the
writer to go into the anti-human trafficking field. Further, what are the
most promising strategies for putting brakes on this affront to humanity?

The deadline for the essay is 5 pm Friday, March 13th. Essays should be submitted to Dr. Grothe or put in his box in the Student Affairs building. The judges  for the Rev. William Sloane Coffin Prize will be a panel of faculty experts.

Please share this opportunity with your students.