How do you deal with a faculty member who refuses to grant credit to a student who wants to enroll in a particular program abroad? How about a professor who insists that all students must take his course as part of their major, thus limiting their opportunities to study elsewhere? And how do you evaluate the academic quality of a proposal for a faculty-led trip abroad?
These questions and more were raised at a session Wednesday on the challenges and opportunities of building programs overseas, at this year’s annual conference of Nafsa: Association of International Educators. They illustrate a common problem faced by many study-abroad officials—the tensions between their offices and professors.
The topic clearly hit a nerve among many in the room as they volunteered their own experiences. One participant asked about faculty members who act like “bullies” and refuse to grant credit for overseas work. He described it as akin to “walking across a minefield.” Others talked about dealing with professors who fancy themselves travel experts and get overly involved in the logistics of planning a faculty-led trip.
Joan Elias Gore, a senior academic-development consultant with the Foundation for International Education, who moderated the session, agreed that dealing with certain professors is one of the tougher challenges for study-abroad officials.
“How do you deal with someone who is disdainful and says, ‘No, we have to do this my way.’?” asked Ms. Gore, who is also director of adult-education travel programs at the University of Virginia. Or if faculty members want to vary the location of a trip they are running abroad each year, she asked, how do you know if they are doing that for their own benefit, or for the students? And is the course sustainable if the venue continually changes?
Participants agreed that officials should generally defer to professors when it comes to course content, but they noted that there is not always a bright line between faculty expertise and study-abroad administrators’ know-how. What may sound like a great idea for a short-term faculty-led trip to a professor could seem like a bad idea to someone who knows what it’s like to actually carry out a project overseas.
Several participants recommended establishing review committees, through which professors and others can evaluate faculty study-abroad proposals and other international-education issues.
Nicole M. Deming, an assistant professor of bioethics at Case Western Reserve University, said that if she is questioned about course content for a trip she is organizing in conjunction with another university, she suggests the questioner get in touch with the professor abroad who is teaching the course. Having professors talk directly to one another is one of the quickest ways to resolve conflict, she said.
Brian N. Stiegler, director of Salisbury University’s Center for International Education, noted that at his university there are clear rules for faculty members on how to run their programs once abroad, and they are expected to abide by those rules. “If they don’t play the game, they’ve lost the support of the university,” he said.
While participants posed more questions than answers, panelists noted that resources are available to help guide study-abroad officials.
Joël A. Gallegos, assistant provost for international programs at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, said that both Nafsa and the Forum on Education Abroad offer guidelines and “best practices” to help colleges negotiate some of these issues.
