Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

2010-2011 internationalization activities

Fall 2010 and Winter 2011

• At the New Faculty Institute, for the first time, three faculty from the Steering Committee presented to the group on day three, the final day held at Rock Creek Campus. Sarah Bentley (Spanish – Sylvania), Usha Ramanujam (Business – Rock Creek) and Bryan Hull (English – Sylvania) presented on how each of them have internationalized their courses.
• On November 18, 2011, a group of faculty and staff racked their brains for the answers at the second annual “WorldQuest for Grownups” Trivia night at Oaks Amusement Park. This year’s PCC participants included: Sarah Bentley, Bryan Hull, President Preston Pulliams, Bonnie Starkey, David Stout, Takako Yamaguchi and Jane Zunkel.
• The IEP Focus Group grew out of conversations with David Rule relating to negotiations made with St. Thomas College (Pala, Kerala, India) by Michael Sonnleitner as a Fulbright Scholar working at St. Thomas College (STC) during 2009-2010. These negotiations for a student exchange program between STC and PCC were undertaken in collaboration Principal K.K. Jose of STC and in consultation with Jean D’Arc Campbell, Director of International Programs at PCC. It became clear that many obstacles existed for which PCC has no standard policies. Several meetings during the Fall Term of 2010 helped to clarify issue areas as well as people interested in working together to propose a “template” of policies relating to these issue areas. Collectively these policies may help with decisions regarding a PCC relationship with St. Thomas College, but (more importantly) may also streamline consideration of international exchange proposals with other educational institutions in the future. Committee members included at this time, Michael Sonnleitner, David Rule, Kendra Cawley, Jean D’arc Campbell, Walter Morales and Marlene Eid. Throughout the academic year, members met to create a framework for twelve different sub-points that have to do with exchanges.
• Community College Humanities Association (CCHA) in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) sponsored two international Summer Institutes: “The Cultural and Historical Development of Modern India”, New Delhi, Agra and Varanasi, July 4-29, 2011 and “Re-visioning the Maya World: New Directions in Scholarship and Teaching”, Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, June 12- July 19, 2011. Three PCC faculty were selected to attend one of the two Institutes: Bryan Hull (India); Cynthia Kimball and Alan Cordle (Maya World).
• On February 24, 2011, Internationally renowned activist and author, Vandana Shiva spent the day at PCC. In the morning, she gave a public lecture at Cascade campus, Moriarty Auditorium. In the afternoon, Dr. Shiva met with faculty and staff for lunch at Sylvania campus, where she spoke. Following lunch, she met with students assembled in a classroom, also on Sylvania Campus. For a video recording of her morning lecture, and more details on Vandana Shiva, check out Vandana Shiva at PCC.
• One week later, on March 3, Reza Aslan, Associate Professor of Creative Writing, UC Riverside, came to PCC to speak on recent events in the middle east, as well as on literature and religious studies. He spoke in the afternoon at the Sylvania campus before a packed audience in the PAC lobby. For a video recording of his talk and more details on his visit, click on the following link: Reza Aslan speaks at PCC.

Spring 2011

• For spring in-service, the Internationalization Coordinator developed a flier updating the college about recent events, distributing to all SAC chairs college-wide. The flier asked that the chairs make an announcement about the International Initiative to their respective groups.
• On April 19, Sanho Tree, a representative for Witness to Peace Northwest spoke to a packed audience at Cascade on “Addicted to Failure: U.S. Drug Wat Policy in the Americas”. Sanho is a Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and Director of its Drug Policy Project. A former military and diplomatic historian, his current work focuses on policies concerning international drug control, counterinsurgency, and counter-terrorism. Charma Boesche, Spanish instructor at Cascade campus, was the lead organizer for this event.
• Wednesday, April 27, Bryan Hull met with two representatives from PSU’s East Asian Studies Program, Katherine Morrow, administrative assistant, and Sharon Carsters, Faculty director of the program. In this initial meeting, we talked about ways that the two schools could work together in the future.
• On May 3, Assistant Professor of Spanish, Portland State University, Fernando Sanchez spoke at Sylvania campus on “The Few of the Masters: and Overview of Mexican Cinema in Seven Films”. In addition to his responsibilities at PSU, Dr. Sanchez is one of the organizers of the film festival of Cine-Lit, a biannual conference devoted to literature and film that takes place in Portland, Oregon. In the future, Sanchez indicated interest in partnering with the PCC Internationalization Initiative in connection with Cine-Lit, perhaps bringing a film director as part of Rock Creek’s annual “Semana de la Raza” celebration in 2013.
• May 2011, the steering committee submitted a proposed annual budget to the Deans of Instruction at all the campuses. During a meeting to discuss the budget, Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs, Christine Chairsell offered to cover the proposed budget for both Asian Studies and the Internationalization Initiative. Deborah Sipe (Asian Studies) and Bryan Hull (Internationalization Initiative) represented the two committees.