Lincoln Fellowships Commission Set

Administration and Congressional leaders last week completed their appointments to the Commission on the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program, established to consider and recommend a program to greatly expand study-abroad opportunities for U.S. college and university students. The Commission will be chaired by Michigan State University President Peter McPherson, and includes three members of Congress.

The concept of a Lincoln Fellowship was created and championed by the late Senator Paul Simon (D – Ill.), who believed that a more internationally educated citizenry would make the United States “more understanding of the rest of the world” and would create “a base of public opinion that would encourage responsible action…” Senator Simon proposed a study abroad fellowship program that would provide 500,000 college students each year a stipend not to exceed $7,000, an ambitious target that would more than triple the number of American college students studying abroad. The cost of the program, if Senator Simon’s goals were reached, would be $3.5 billion per year – a figure that represents one-seventh of 1 percent of the federal budget. Senator Simon’s proposal was endorsed in the report of a task force on education abroad convened by NAFSA in 2003 and co-chaired by Senator Simon and former Education Secretary Richard Riley. Under legislation currently pending in Congress, the Commission will have until December 2005 to complete its work.

THE COMMISSION ON THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN STUDY ABROAD FELLOWSHIP CHAIR:

• M. Peter McPherson, President, Michigan State University

COMMISSIONERS:

• Richard J. Durbin, U.S. Senator, Illinois
• Mark S. Kirk, U.S. Representative, Illinois
• Louise M. Slaughter, U.S. Representative, New York
• John K. Andrews, Jr., Colorado State Senator
• S. Kerry Cooper, Executive Director of International Business Programs, Texas A&M University
• Mary M. Dwyer, President, IES: Institute for the International Education of Students
• James Edgar, former Governor of Illinois
• Brad R. Heegel, Director, Public Events and Marketing, Augustana College
• Lynette Boggs McDonald, Commissioner, Clark County, Nevada
• Mora McLean, President, Africa-America Institute
• Douglas Ohmer, Director, Center for Excellence in International Business, Northern State University
• John G. Peters, President, Northern Illinois University
• Lyn Bracewell Phillips
• Stevan Trooboff, President and CEO, Council on International Educational Exchange
• William E. Troutt, President, Rhodes College
• Christine Vick, Vice President, Cohen Group