Reminder!

FirstClass email will cease to be used next Tuesday, September 15, 2009, as the Monterey Institute completes its transition to Exchange email hosted by Middlebury College.  If you are still using FirstClass to send email, you should plan to transition to Exchange today. Contact the Helpdesk (ext. 6656) for assistance in accessing your account and setting up your client (Outlook for Windows, Entourage for Mac).

Beginning on Tuesday, 9/15, all email addressed to name@miis.edu will go to the Exchange server at Middlebury.

Unwanted books? Donate them to the library book sale!

If you just moved your office, or cleaned out your closets, you may find yourself with a stack (or boxes!) of unwanted books that you would like to be rid of. Please consider bringing them to the library so we can add them to our annual booksale, scheduled for late October. This way, you can be sure they reach people who really want and need them. And our students really enjoy and anticipate this event, so you’ll be making a real contribution to the MIIS community.

Of course, any books that are suitable for the library collection will be kept and added – another way that you can contribute to making more resources available to students and faculty alike.

Any questions, please contact:

Christie Tam
Reference Librarian/Language Specialist
William Tell Coleman Library


Check out the new web site!

The web strategy team is pleased to invite the MIIS faculty and staff to preview our work in progress. We expect to be ready to launch the site publicly on approximately September 15.

Between now and then, we would like you to be the first to experience some of the new features of this site:

* Language pages (linked from the home page) offer an introduction to MIIS along with relevant dynamic content for eight languages.

* Constituency pages provide lists of the pages most often needed by specific groups.

* “Theme Pages” offer a way to navigate the site by broad area of interest. For example, the Environment page provides links to degree the MBA and MAIEP degrees, as well as to the shorter Conservation Leadership Practicum, offers a list of Environment-related news items, and lists Career resources, employment statistics, etc.

* The “sky” theme of our header photos both celebrates our beautiful location and invites people to shift their focus beyond place to a more global viewpoint… the sky touches everyone, everywhere. We are particularly grateful to Eduardo Fujii, who shared some of his wonderful sky images with us.

* The site is constantly changing and the number of possible contributors is limitless. Many places on the site invite participation in social networks, and there are many examples of content fed dynamically from a blog or twitter account, or from tagged content elements on the site itself. See the bottom of the main Careers page for an example of a twitter feed.

* The search box at the top of each page allows you to go straight to the information you need, including directory information (Just type all or part of a person’s name.)

* On the faculty page, and the offices and services page, you can simply begin typing what you are looking for, and you will be offered options from which to select.

You can access the site at http://miis2.middlebury.edu/

You can only access it from on campus right now.

We want to emphasize that THE SITE IS NOT FINISHED! You will see mistakes, omissions, empty pages, spaces where photos or videos need to be inserted, and placeholder text that needs to be rewritten. Rest assured that the web strategy team is still working hard on content, and Middlebury colleagues remain engaged in fine-tuning the CSS and the content management system. If you notice something amiss with the site, and would like to report it, please do not use the comment feature of this blog to do so. Instead, contact the individual on the web strategy team who represents the department in whose section the problem occurs. The team members are all listed here:

You can also help by contributing stories to the site. You will find some there now, but we need many more to convey the incredible diversity of interests and experiences represented within our community. Please send your stories and images to the appropriate strategy team member as well.

Online Directory Enhancements

You will soon be seeing some minor changes in the online directory. Instead of a single name field, you will see separate fields for first and last name, and you will also be able to filter your search by type (faculty, student, etc.) The new version also allows you to browse a list by letter of the alphabet.  If your search returns multiple options, you will be able to see all of them in a compact list, rather than having to scroll through a series of full entries.  If you click on the name you are looking for, you will then see the full entry.

Office Moves Demystified!

As many of you know, a series of office moves occurred over the summer, to concentrate the majority of faculty in McCone, the IIRC, and Casa Fuente. Attached are  maps for the McCone and IIRC buildings and portions of Casa Fuente and McGowan that show where faculty and staff affected by the move are now located. In some cases, entire departments were moved, such as the Intensive & Custom Language Programs (main office now located in Suite 103 of the McGowan Building) and the Advancement Office (now located in Suite 300 of the McGowan Building).

Please note that staff in many other buildings on campus were not affected by the moves and as a result, are not included in the document.

What’s Ahead for our Web Site

As we look forward to a “soft” launch of the web site (visible only on campus) on September 1, you may be interested in knowing how you can customize and personalize the new site.  Here is a post from Middlebury’s web makeover blog that clarifies the options that will be available.  (As Middlebury develops these functionalities, they will be applied to the MIIS site as well.)

MIIS Shines at Globalization Conference

logoErnie Scalberg, Jeff Woods and Carol Johnson represented MIIS at a recent conference on Globalization at UC Berkeley, sponsored by LISA (the Localization Industry Standards Association).  Scalberg’s session, “The Opportunities and Challenges of Integrating Global Business Strategy Development and Multilingual Online Marketing Communication” was the second highest rated plenary session.

MIIS was the “rock star” of the conference.  Companies and other schools were quite impressed with our “Globalization/localization” programs and the quality of our students.  Jeff and Carol staffed the MIIS table, where they met with many new companies and agencies promising to recruit our students. There were attendees who expressed interest in applying for admission to various of our programs.

GSIPM Launches New Semester with Retreat

On Thursday August 20th, the combined faculty and staff of the new Graduate School of International Policy and Management held their semester kickoff retreat.  Over 40 attendees discussed the reorganization and its impact on policies & procedures, reviewed proposals for new degree programs and specializations, and received an update from Dean Tate Miller on the new Center for Advising & Career Services. The retreat kicked off with a session designed to explore our “assests and aspirations”. The following statistics are a representation of the tremendous resources we have within the GSIPM:

-Over 920 years collective professional experience in our fields of expertise
-We have taught 554 different courses
-An amazing 66,264 students taught
2,024 clients and client organizations served by our faculty and staff

Collectively, an amazing impact on the world!

TOEFL iBT registration online

If you encounter students seeking information about TOEFL iBT, please share the following with them:

The Internet-based TOEFL (iBT) is administered monthly here on the Monterey Institute campus in our Pacific Lab (CF442). Administration dates for Fall 2009 are September 19, October 24 and November 21. The test begins at 9:30 am, and the cost is $170. All test takers register online at the ETS website: http://www.ets.org/toefl. Please note that we no longer process registrations on campus. Likewise, TOEFL score reporting is also done online. Due to the high demand for TOEFL iBT, we encourage test takers to register early. For further information, email english@miis.edu.

Jeff Langholz Reports on Sustainable Development Projects

Professor Jeff Langholz did several summer projects that combined business with policy in the form of sustainable enterprise development.

In June, he traveled to London to advise the CEO of sports apparel giant PUMA Inc. on a major “green business” initiative to be launched in October.  June also saw him writing an analytical report for the World Wildlife Fund that made recommendations on using sustainable enterprises to improve and expand the organization’s efforts. He involved recent IEP alumna and Fulbright Scholar (Brazil) Heather Zissler in this consultancy because of her in-depth knowledge of the subject.

Much of the summer was devoted to researching and writing a 120-page report on sustainable agriculture. Funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and The Nature Conservancy, the report examines the extent to which growers of spinach, lettuce, and other leafy greens in seven Central Coast counties have implemented a “scorched earth” policy on farms in an attempt to reduce food safety risks.

worldwatchLast, the WorldWatch Institute – which produces the annual State of the World reports — has published an article by Dr. Langholz in the current (Sept/Oct) issue of its award-winning WorldWatch Magazine. The provocative piece challenges the international conservation community to double the amount of biodiversity protected globally by investing in nature-based ventures.  Please click here for a copy of the article.

MIIS Website Update

websiteThe new MIIS web site is nearing readiness for its official launch. After consultation with the web team at Middlebury, we are planning the formal launch of the new MIIS website for September 15.

Dozens of people have worked very hard all summer to develop a framework  for the site that reflects our mission and vision for the future.  A special thanks to Kristen Byers, Lynn McDonald, and all the members of the web strategy team who have worked to assemble our core content, and our colleagues at Middlebury who have worked tirelessly to translate White Whale’s designs into working templates.

There will be a  “soft” launch (providing members of the community with access to the unpublished site) on September 1, to allow an opportunity to become familiar with the site and identify any errors, bugs or other issues. Please watch MIIS@work for instructions on connecting to the site on September 1, and for ways that you can add your voice to the site in the future.

A web site is a dynamic, ever-changing network of information and interactions, so don’t expect to see a “finished product” on September 1, or at any time in the future.  In fact, we ask for your participation in ensuring that the web site is never “finished” — but that it is alive with an ever-growing  collection of current and engaging stories.

Joshi Attends Summer Workshop on Security Studies

Sharad Joshi, PhD, Research Associate with the Monterey Terrorism Research and Education Program (MonTREP) and Visiting Professor, Graduate School of International Policy & Management, attended the 13th annual three-week Summer Workshop on the Analysis of Military Operations and Strategies (SWAMOS), held at Cornell University in July. The program is for junior scholars in the field of security studies.

Akaha Reports on Scholarly Activities This Summer

Professor Tsuneo Akaha’s “From Soft Power to Hard Power: Japan’s Evolving Security Policy” has been published in the Japanese book Japanese Foreign Policy In The Eyes of Japanese Researchers Abroad (Tokyo: Fujiwara Shoten).

He gave a talk on “Human Security in East Asia” at the Summer Institute, Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University, August 3-7, a training program for PhD students from around the world who are interested in Asian regional integration.

He also taught an intensive American Studies course “U.S. Policy in Northeast Asia” at the University of Shimane, Japan, July 25-28.

The most memorable experience of Professor Akaha’s this summer was attending the August 6 A-bomb memorial ceremony in Hiroshima, where virtually every speaker referred favorably to President Obama’s Prague speech on a nuclear-free world.

NOTE: We’d love to share the contributions of other faculty!  If you have achievements you would like to share, please send them to Amy McGill for posting on the blog.