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Collegial Conversations, December 2007
Through these conversations NAFSA hopes to target the best practices and experiences of some of international education's preeminent leaders. Every month the Chief International Education Leaders Network will ask one of its subscribers to answer the following three questions. Over the coming year we hope to see many unique and thought-provoking answers.
Norm Peterson
Norm Peterson is the Vice Provost for International Programs at Montana State University-Bozeman. In this capacity he is Montana State University’s chief international officer, and is responsible for all aspects of international programs including assisting academic departments in developing the international dimensions of the MSU curriculum, providing opportunities abroad for students and faculty, maintaining linkages with institutions abroad, advising faculty in developing international projects, and programs for international students and scholars at MSU-Bozeman.
In addition to his responsibilities at Montana State University, Peterson is actively involved in the international education community. Among his activities, he serves as the Chair-elect of the International Educational Leadership Team of NAFSA and was NAFSA’s Vice President for Public Affairs from 1999-2002. Prior to coming to Bozeman in the fall of 1994, Peterson served as the founding Executive Director of the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange, a coalition of more than sixty nonprofit organizations concerned with international educational and cultural exchange programs based in Washington, DC.
Peterson holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in philosophy from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he studied post-Kantian European philosophy. He wrote his dissertation, later published by UMI Research Press as Photographic Art: Media and Disclosure, on aesthetic issues raised by photography, film, and other new technological art media.
During the month of December, Norm answered questions and offered gems of wisdom. View the discussion now!
On the negative side, our programs do have a "carbon footprint" and sometimes not a small one. International air travel is a major factor in the environmental equation, releasing a huge amount of carbon dioxide into the environment. We need to be aware that when we put a professor on a plane with 50 students for a three- week study program, we are contributing to the accumulation of green house gases in the environment in a significant way. We need to start thinking about that issue as we plan and promote programs. For example, the comparative educational impact of a year of study on an academic exchange program is generally, I am convinced, much higher and therefore represents far more productive use of energy, so maybe we need to promote those programs more in the future as we seek to do "green" international education.
Of course, just analyzing international programs as an energy consumer is entirely short-sighted, so we need to put it into the context of the important learning that takes place. That brings us to the positive side of the impact of international programs, which is huge, multifaceted, and full of promise. Discussing this in depth takes us far beyond the scope of this conversation, so I will only mention a couple of major points here. International exchange programs provide the experiential base for a global perspective on environmental issues and, hopefully, the foundation for truly global solutions to the growing environmental challenges we face. We need policy-makers around the globe who understand issues more fully than from a narrow national perspective, whether it be that of the United States, China, Russia …. Further, international education programs can contribute greatly to the understanding of global environmental issues by sharing knowledge and working collaboratively across borders to understand the complexities of how we impact the environment on a global scale. Certainly there is far more we can do to promote international scholarship and research on environmental topics. These points only scratch the surface in defining the positive impacts international education can have on the environment.
With support from the National Science Foundation, Montana State is working with Bergen University and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology to provide some of our best undergraduate science majors the opportunity to do research internships in the laboratories of Norwegian scientists. Over the next several years, and, hopefully beyond, several of our junior and senior science students will spend their summers doing environmental research in Norway. Based on this early international perspective on their scientific work, we hope these young scientists will make positive contributions to the environmental challenges we face.
Equally excitingly, we are currently offering a joint undergraduate research seminar on the Implications of Global Climate Change, taking place simultaneously in Montana and at the University of Western Australia in Perth. With funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Montana State is using interactive video and the Internet to link up the two classes. Students in Australia and Montana hear lecturers from the other side of the planet and work with their fellow students in conducting undergraduate research on topics connected to global climate change and how we need to adapt in terms of agricultural practice and in other ways.
This course illustrates another aspect of the issue – the need to develop effective ways we can do international programs based on new technologies that provide students with international learning opportunities without leaving campus. There will, hopefully, always be opportunities for students to travel across borders for profound international learning experiences, and expanding these opportunities must be our primary goal. But we need to also dedicate ourselves to developing opportunities for all those who, for whatever reasons, cannot leave their homeland behind them. Looking at international education from an environmental perspective, these programs merit higher attention.
Norm Peterson
Norm Peterson
In addition to his responsibilities at Montana State University, Peterson is actively involved in the international education community. Among his activities, he serves as the Chair-elect of the International Educational Leadership Team of NAFSA and was NAFSA’s Vice President for Public Affairs from 1999-2002. Prior to coming to Bozeman in the fall of 1994, Peterson served as the founding Executive Director of the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange, a coalition of more than sixty nonprofit organizations concerned with international educational and cultural exchange programs based in Washington, DC.
Peterson holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in philosophy from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he studied post-Kantian European philosophy. He wrote his dissertation, later published by UMI Research Press as Photographic Art: Media and Disclosure, on aesthetic issues raised by photography, film, and other new technological art media.
During the month of December, Norm answered questions and offered gems of wisdom. View the discussion now!
There is a growing international awareness regarding global environmental issues and their implications for human society. Do we need to consider the environmental impact of international student mobility programs?
This is a profoundly important question for international education and one we need to take very seriously. With millions of internationally mobile students, we should be concerned about the environmental implications of our activities. There are clearly major impacts of our programs, both negative and positive.On the negative side, our programs do have a "carbon footprint" and sometimes not a small one. International air travel is a major factor in the environmental equation, releasing a huge amount of carbon dioxide into the environment. We need to be aware that when we put a professor on a plane with 50 students for a three- week study program, we are contributing to the accumulation of green house gases in the environment in a significant way. We need to start thinking about that issue as we plan and promote programs. For example, the comparative educational impact of a year of study on an academic exchange program is generally, I am convinced, much higher and therefore represents far more productive use of energy, so maybe we need to promote those programs more in the future as we seek to do "green" international education.
Of course, just analyzing international programs as an energy consumer is entirely short-sighted, so we need to put it into the context of the important learning that takes place. That brings us to the positive side of the impact of international programs, which is huge, multifaceted, and full of promise. Discussing this in depth takes us far beyond the scope of this conversation, so I will only mention a couple of major points here. International exchange programs provide the experiential base for a global perspective on environmental issues and, hopefully, the foundation for truly global solutions to the growing environmental challenges we face. We need policy-makers around the globe who understand issues more fully than from a narrow national perspective, whether it be that of the United States, China, Russia …. Further, international education programs can contribute greatly to the understanding of global environmental issues by sharing knowledge and working collaboratively across borders to understand the complexities of how we impact the environment on a global scale. Certainly there is far more we can do to promote international scholarship and research on environmental topics. These points only scratch the surface in defining the positive impacts international education can have on the environment. Are there ways that our programs could contribute to addressing global environmental challenges?
There are, I am convinced, exciting approaches we can take to the vexing problems of global climate change. Two new programs we are doing at Montana State illustrate how we can make important contributions.With support from the National Science Foundation, Montana State is working with Bergen University and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology to provide some of our best undergraduate science majors the opportunity to do research internships in the laboratories of Norwegian scientists. Over the next several years, and, hopefully beyond, several of our junior and senior science students will spend their summers doing environmental research in Norway. Based on this early international perspective on their scientific work, we hope these young scientists will make positive contributions to the environmental challenges we face.
Equally excitingly, we are currently offering a joint undergraduate research seminar on the Implications of Global Climate Change, taking place simultaneously in Montana and at the University of Western Australia in Perth. With funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Montana State is using interactive video and the Internet to link up the two classes. Students in Australia and Montana hear lecturers from the other side of the planet and work with their fellow students in conducting undergraduate research on topics connected to global climate change and how we need to adapt in terms of agricultural practice and in other ways.
This course illustrates another aspect of the issue – the need to develop effective ways we can do international programs based on new technologies that provide students with international learning opportunities without leaving campus. There will, hopefully, always be opportunities for students to travel across borders for profound international learning experiences, and expanding these opportunities must be our primary goal. But we need to also dedicate ourselves to developing opportunities for all those who, for whatever reasons, cannot leave their homeland behind them. Looking at international education from an environmental perspective, these programs merit higher attention.
