“Global Citizenship: Opportunities & Responsibilities
for All Students”

KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Delivered at the
USC Rossier School of Education
Higher Education Leadership Institute
Nov. 14, 2007

Introduction

Thank you for that warm introduction. It is a pleasure to be here to speak on an issue that is near and dear to me: global citizenship. I want to focus my remarks today on what one college, Santa Monica College, is doing to prepare students for the world in which they will live.

I will also emphasize why I feel that this preparation must include all students who come through our doors – and why it is intrinsic to the mission of the community college that we fulfill this new goal. I will also tell you what we at Santa Monica College are doing to embed global citizenship into the college culture. It is a campaign we are just beginning, and it’s exciting.

A New World

Our students today are facing a future far different than the one we faced. Advances in technology and transportation have greatly reduced the time and work it took to communicate directly with one another over a long distance or for one to travel across the vast oceans that separate the continents.

The rise of the market economy on a Global scale has also opened up national boundaries, which has eased the transfer of goods and people. We all know that geopolitical boundaries as we understood them in the 20th century are increasingly losing their meaning.

Our clothes and shoes are manufactured in China. Our credit card customer service representatives speak to us from India. Air pollution in Tijuana affects air quality in Southern California. Waves of migrants from Africa, Asia and other places – displaced by war and social injustice – create new communities in Orange County, or Minneapolis, or towns in Sweden. The Internet connects the world instantaneously.

The accelerated rates of economic development and instances of hyper-growth rates in different parts of the world have also brought forth worrisome issues of energy consumption, social equity, environmental deterioration and a host of other related problems. Some argue globalization has leveled the playing field and brought economic development to all corners of the world while others condemn the process for all the woes it brings to the modern world.

This phenomenon of globalization, as Nayan Chanda of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization pointed out, really began 60,000 years ago when the first migrants walked out of Africa. The startling effect of that today is the speed and depth with which this force is changing our way of life.

It also brings to our attention new challenges we must face in this increasingly global community. What is also obvious in this globalized environment is the interconnectedness of the parts that create possibilities with the speed and impact that human kind has never experienced before.

When my grandfather first set out from a little village at the mouth of the Pearl River Delta in the late 1800’s, it took him over three months to arrive in San Francisco.
In contrast, my wife, who is caring for her ailing mother, has made 4 round trips between California and Taiwan in less than two months, with a flight time of only 11 hours.

Dr. Susan Aminoff, professor of Social Science at Pierce College, pointed out that while our parents could look to our grandparents (and our grandparents to our great-grandparents) to figure out what their careers might roughly resemble, many of today’s college students will probably end up working in jobs that we have never heard of and in places we have never been to.
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Renowned anthropologist Professor Catherine Bateson observed recently (Salzburg 2007) that a confluence of events in the world has changed our global reality: the threat of global terrorism, challenges to U.S. domination, unprecedented transmission of diseases in the modern age, deepening disparity in wealth between nations and unchecked global warming. She also observed that there is virtually no coordinated worldwide response to these conditions. The situation that exists today parallels many of the conditions that led to the last major conflict around the world, the Second World War.

Many of you have likely heard of the so-called “butterfly effect.” It is a term that is commonly interpreted to mean that small disturbances in the atmosphere may become amplified to give rise to large – or even catastrophic – effects. It is derived from the title of a 1972 paper by scientist Edward Lorenz: “Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil Set off a Tornado in Texas?”

We could argue that the suggestion inherent in that title is a good example of hyperbole. And of course, there is no scientific evidence that a butterfly’s wings can have such far-reaching consequences.

But while such a notion might have seemed fantastical a few years ago, today it seems credible – at least, metaphorically. We need only to look at global warming to understand this. Or, we see the same idea popularized by Hollywood in such films as last year’s “Babel.”

The fact is, an individual act – or lack of action – can, indeed, have global consequences.

At the same time, developments in the world – whether it’s global warming, or trade with China, or the genocide in Darfur – affect all of us on this planet.

Opportunities and Responsibilities

So, where do college students fit into all of this?

They are stepping into a global economy that is opening doors for them.
They are stepping into a world in which Russia, India, China and Brazil are emerging as the new economic leaders.

They are also stepping into a world in which global warming presents scenarios of horror, but where the spirit of “green” is capturing the hearts and minds of many.
In other words, they are stepping into a world of great opportunities but also sobering responsibilities.

Some of our students understand this. They are asking us about global career opportunities and about their roles in safeguarding a fragile world.

We as educators understand – and increasingly, our students instinctively know – that the rules have changed. And they continue to change almost daily, it seems. The old way of doing things is simply not going to work.

The Role of Higher Education in Global Citizenship

What is our role as educators?

First of all, it’s important to make a note that the term that Santa Monica College has picked for its institutional initiative is global citizenship and not globalization or internationalization. With this initiative the College aims to go beyond teaching matters of the world in world history and politics, foreign languages, international commerce – all of these have been an integral part of higher education for hundreds of years.

Global citizenship goes beyond this. And it takes on special meaning – even urgency – within the context of the realities of today’s world.

Here is a definition of global citizenship that our college has come up with – after much debate and discussion. This forms the foundation on which we are building our campaign.

“A global citizen

• is knowledgeable of peoples, customs and cultures in regions of the world beyond one’s own;
  
• understands the interdependence that holds both promise and peril for the future of the global community; and
  
• is committed to combining one's learning with a dedication to foster a livable, sustainable world.”

The term differs from more traditional approaches to globalizing or internationalizing the curriculum. It is more far-reaching and it addresses explicitly not only knowledge, comprehension and opportunity, but also to responsibility.

The Role of Community Colleges

All of our institutions of higher learning – whether four-year or two-year – have wonderful opportunities now to take up the banner of globalization and wave it high on our campuses.

But I believe that community colleges are uniquely positioned to make an impact on the globalization movement.

Why is this?

To begin with, the community college system has the largest number of students. In California alone, the system enrolls 2.5 million students a year – more than six times the 400,000 in the Cal State system and more than 15 times the 160,000 at University of California campuses.

The global context in which many of our students will find themselves, offers extraordinary opportunities for the culturally and linguistically diverse student population that is a trademark of our student body. Properly nurtured and supported, these students can expand skills they acquired growing up into globally marketable skills. Employers here and abroad are increasingly seeking employees who have the ability to work in multiple geographical locations and speak multiple languages.

Imagine, if you will, that the current global context can turn our view on students coming from outside of the mainstream cultures with home languages other than English into students coming to us full of potentials.

Not only should we encourage their continued development of their heritage language, we need to remind them that the cultural conflicts that they have personally struggled through while growing up are helpful exercise for them in the new global community where dealing with conflicting values will be a matter of fact in their normal life. What once were labeled as hindering characteristics that might have contributed to learning deficits for many community college students can now be viewed very differently.

The ‘open-door’ policy of the community colleges compels us to pursue this academic goal of Global Citizenship for our students seriously. As a uniquely American institution, and as the institution that has done more in educating the economically disadvantaged population of this country, there is a moral imperative for the community college to ensure that our students will benefit from the trends and opportunities of globalization.

At the same time, we must ensure that our students learn to contribute to the global community in no less a significant way than their peers have sought to contribute to this country. Moreover, our potential as a nation to fit into the global community and maintain our leadership position may depend on our success in nurturing our diverse students to become our leaders in the next few decades.

So, now, I would like to talk specifically about what Santa Monica College is doing in this area.

What We Are Doing at SMC

As mentioned earlier, we have embarked on an exciting campuswide campaign – maybe even a crusade – to prepare our students for the future world. It has become a priority for the college, from the Board of Trustees to the faculty to the non-teaching employees and to the student leadership.

Before the actions and plans of the College are outlined, it is important to state that Santa Monica College is not the only community college that has embarked on work in this area. Nor is it the first to put emphasis on this academic area.

It should also be pointed out that the institutional priority outlined here is different from efforts in many other colleges and universities in that we do not include multi-cultural education as it is commonly defined in institutions of higher education. The College dealt successfully with inclusion of multi-cultural contents and graduation requirements in this area several years ago.

It should also be noted that in the push for a more globally oriented curriculum and educational experience for students, the College does not include foreign student recruitment as a part of the college goal. The College currently enrolls about 3,000 international students, one of the highest of any community college in the nation. As can be seen later on, the college has established a sub-group to better integrate the foreign students with our domestic students.

Having said that, let me tell you what we have accomplished in our global citizenship effort so far.

Informal discussion began in the latter part of 2006. In 2007, our Board of Trustees adopted global citizenship as one of three academic priorities for the college.

Even before that, the College had begun to build up its capacity in anticipation of taking on this academic direction as a campus-wide priority. A campus-wide dialog was initiated with several groups of faculty members who were invited to attend events that promote discussion in this general area.

Here are the major steps we have taken so far in this culture-changing, campuswide campaign:

• In March, we sent a group of faculty, trustees and administrators to the Institute of International Education’s Best Practices Conference in New York. Over the summer, we sent an SMC delegation – which included a non-teaching employee – to the Salzburg Seminars in Austria. A group of faculty and administrators went to Beijing to confer with an institution interested in offering joint programs with us.
  
• In the summer of this year, the Academic Senate adopted global citizenship as a major area for development.
  
• Shortly following that it formed a Global Citizenship Task Force. This Task Force was quickly expanded to include administrators and non-teaching employees. I will come back to the work of the task force’s work in a moment.
  
  • The action of the College was supported by the Trustees when it set aside funds for three years in its budget to support the development of the academic concept of global citizenship. Funds can be used for a variety of purposes, including professional development, research into building infrastructure to support learning activities, creating special programs to integrate international students, conducting research on innovative study abroad programs, or creating a website clearinghouse on scholarships and other aid available to students for study abroad.
  
  • We launched in spring a Global Connections Lecture Series that is held every semester and covers a wide range of international topics.

The Global Citizenship Task force has taken the leadership role on this important issue. Specifically, it is concentrating on four areas: curriculum, study abroad, international students, and international commerce and education. Each of these areas is the responsibility of a subcommittee of the task force. Let me address each of these areas briefly.

Curriculum

In curriculum, the task force has introduced a new Associate in Arts degree requirement that will require every student to take an approved course. This requirement has been approved by the curriculum committee and will become effective in fall 2008.
While these courses will range in terms of academic discipline, they fall into three categories: cross-cultural awareness, ecological literacy, and global dynamics.

A student meeting the Global Citizenship A.A. requirement would develop an awareness of diversity of cultures and an appreciation for the interconnectedness of cultural, ecological, economic, political, and social systems of the contemporary world.

The subcommittee on this issue, which happens to be chaired by the chair of the curriculum committee of the College, will further examine courses and activities that may satisfy this new A.A. requirement.

International Students

In the area of international students, we want to better integrate our international student and domestic student communities. Each group has much to offer the other and we are not yet capitalizing on this to the extent we should.

At Santa Monica College, we know this well. We are consistently in the Top 3 of community colleges nationwide in international student enrollment. Currently, we have more than 2,800 international students from more than 100 nations. We have seen firsthand how these students enrich American students’ educational experiences.

Think of the Santa Monica College freshman from East L.A. who has had little or no exposure to a world outside his neighborhood. At SMC, he is now able to be part of discussions with students from Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Turkey.

Similarly, the perspective of the student from an upper middle-class home in Japan is enriched by interacting with a student from a housing project in South L.A.
Our students – American and foreign – can take advantage of other students’ backgrounds to compete in the international marketplace, to lead sustainable lives and to become great ambassadors of goodwill throughout the world.

Study Abroad

In the area of Study Abroad, SMC is revamping its programs, which, like most community colleges, are operated on a short-term basis – generally, three to six weeks.
Study abroad programs pose a particular challenge to community colleges, compared to four-year universities. On average, our students are poorer. They are more likely to have jobs and family responsibilities than traditional students. Taking a full semester off is daunting to many community college students.

Consequently, we are seeking new and creative ways to offer full-semester study abroad programs in new places so that the number of students increases. We will examine scholarship and financial aid opportunities for study abroad.

And perhaps most importantly, we are seeking ways to reach those groups of students who historically have not participated in study abroad: traditionally underrepresented students, socio-economically disadvantaged students, and students pursuing degrees in the sciences. We want to become a model for other colleges in the study abroad arena.

International Commerce and Education

In international commerce and education, we are working to establish new professional programs in the international arena.

For example, our office of Workforce and Economic Development has been active in providing career-training programs in the emerging field of logistics – the global movement of goods and services.

In addition, we are one of a handful of community colleges in California that is starting this academic year a degree program in logistics.

We also plan to encourage greater numbers of faculty to apply for Fulbright Scholarships, international faculty exchanges and similar international opportunities.

The committee on international commerce and education is also looking at setting up internships and service learning opportunities in a global context, and in creating film festivals, art festivals, seminars and other community connections.

Global Citizenship as an Institutional Initiative

Clearly, we have already taken a number of important steps in this global citizenship campaign. But as the process for institutional change evolves, there are a few important points to bear in mind.

The College has taken on this initiative to ensure our students’ learning will be relevant to their future. Yes, it is a challenge for our College, but a challenge that is timely and important. In carrying out this task, the College recognizes that this change must affect all students who come through our doors, regardless of which area of studies they will be focused on. I believe the work done by the Task Force in convincing the College change its graduation requirement goes a long way in pushing for success in this area.

It will have to deliver this new educational challenge with no additional funding from our sources of support: the Chancellor’s Office in the State or any other governmental agencies.

While academic courses may be changed to include a worldwide perspective without additional costs, other student activities that promote worldly learning – such as short-term overseas visits, semester abroad, and faculty and student exchange – are costly endeavors for which we must find funding. Moreover, these activities must not exclude our students, a majority of whom has to work over 25 hours a week while attending classes. To accomplish this goal, the programs must include all students, programs must be affordable and must deal with the lost of earnings.

Final Note

Earlier in this talk, I told you how our Global Citizenship Task Force defined good global citizens.

It is an excellent definition, but I want to leave you with an even more detailed vision of what our students can become.

For that vision, we turned to Jochen Fried, the Director of International Study Program of the Salzburg Seminar, an NGO located in Salzburg that seeks to develop creative ideas for solving global problems. Jochen recently spent several days on campus, brainstorming with our faculty and our Global Citizenship Task Force.

He said that if our students become global citizens, they will:

• Have a keener sense of ‘belonging to’ a wider community of humanity beyond L.A. and the U.S.
  
• Be more vigorous learners striving to combine the expansion of their knowledge with the expansion of their commitment to help preserve a livable world (local and global)
  
• See themselves no longer limited to a singular identity (American, Caucasian, black, Hispanic, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, etc.)
  
• Understand better the notion and the realities of INTERDEPENDENCE that holds both promise and perils for the future of the global village
  
• Know that we live in a precarious world where our life choices determine – and are determined by – the choices of those who share this planet with us
  
• Be more committed to ‘public reasoning,’ which is the essence of democracy
  
• Have a better understanding of the role of the U.S. in the world and turn out at elections, partly because they know that voting in the U.S. means influencing the lives of large populations outside the U.S. as well
  
• Become active on campus (student newspaper, student government, college committees etc.)

Conclusion

I would like to conclude by quoting Mahatma Gandhi, who gave us these simple yet profound words, “You must be the change you want to see in the world”.

What we at Santa Monica College are doing is the beginning of a long-term and long-lasting change. It should not be difficult to imagine, twenty years from now, all courses in our colleges and universities will be taught with the information that relates to situations and occurrences around the world. And the term citizenship alone, without the preceding adjective, will naturally be interpreted as behaviors and values proper for the global community.

Thank you.