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Meeting notes from December, 2006

New Faces

Kristie Al-Rashidi - Is a PSU alum. She lived in Kuwait for 15 years. She has been helping with books reviews, awards, and helping with Teach Africa. Kristie's time is split between the Middle East Studies Center and the Center the Institute for Asian Studies.

Patrice- She is working on the spring schedule. On Wednesday, January 17th, the Oregon Consular Corps will be honoring Martie McQuain and Lydia Beyoud at the Oregon Consular Corps Annual Dinner as the recipients of the OCC Scholarship. Mr. McQuain and Ms. Beyoud are International Studies majors who were chosen out of five finalists to receive $2,500 scholarships for the 2006-2007 academic year.

Dawn-She is gearing up for the 2007 year. There are new departments participating in the IVP next year. She was on the committee to find an Executive Director for AHA International. She will be offering two workshops this term regarding work opportunities for students called "Beyond OPT."

Alyse- Term is wrapped up. She is working on getting last minute students registered for winter term. Winter term they will have general informational sessions which will be country specific. Session times will be posted on the web. Jason designed a website for students which will be easier to search for a program. Jason Krebs will be putting information about all of the programs in the database during the winter break.

Todd- Is working on administrative things.

Rachel- Is wrapping up Fall term projects.

Josh- Is working on applications. He has received confirmations from everyone.

Anne-She went to Australia to visit study abroad sites. This will help with recruitment. She plans to put new material on website. She thanked Dawn, Christina and Josh for backing her up while she was away. While she was there her Frisbee team placed 7th in the world. Is working on welcome page in 5 languages: Korea, Thai, Two Chinese and Japanese.

Martha- There will be four evening roundtables in the Montgomery Hall dormitory. Omar Boum and Tia Thorton will lead this forum to talk about how foreign students and their countries view various things such as global warming, international conflicts, UN efforts, tsunami relief, etc. This forum will also introduce International Studies faculty to students. Fulbrighters will participate also. She will send a flyer regarding the dates and times soon.

Christina-We have somewhere between 1,000-1,700 students now.
She's working with Student Health Services to do a workshop in suicide prevention. She co-taught a college success class this Fall term. ICSP is going well and they have more applications than ever but not many scholarships. There are forms and text on the web for students so that they don't fall out of status.

Debra-Dec 2nd held Fulbright sessions. Twenty people from k-12 schools interviewed. The Teach Africa event on Saturday went well with a good turnout. Budget proposal time is rolling around. She has many journal voucher transfers to do before the holidays.

Jean- Thanked everyone who attended the Experience Saudi Arabia events. On the last evening event people from many universities came. This was a positive event for the Saudi students. The events exceeded expectations. She went with John to a conference in Boston. Got to see Harvard - saw where John lived and played football. She is now the President of Middle East outreach Council.
Teach Africa was fun. She did a workshop about living on the Nile. They are co-sponsoring the event "Sema Ceremony of the Whirling Dervishes" on Sunday, the 17th, 4:30 in the Ballroom. She is involved with the Portland Art Museum's Egyptian exhibit and will be accompanying one of the top archeologists tonight to watch Brazil and Egypt play soccer in a sports pub tonight. You are welcome to come along with them.
Please sign up for the holiday party.

Kristie- She helped with the book award; she taught 1st graders overseas so she gave Jean a perspective from a teacher's point of view. She is helping with press releases.

Martha K. - She is thinking about next summer logistics. If you cancel a meeting in EH 223, make sure to take it off the calendar so other people can use the room.

Andrea- She is working on a program called Pollution Carries No Passports: Sustainability in the US-Mexico Border Region - 4 credit class; on spring break the class will with go down to the U.S.-Mexico border.
She has two completed applications already for the Costa Rica capstone this summer. She is meeting with many students for the Fall of '07; they are planning early. She is working on billing and registrations.

Blithe- Is processing applications for next fall and last minute for next spring. She was on a panel for teach Africa regarding internships in Africa- it was great.

John Damis- John met Christie in Kuwait a few years ago. MESC is cosponsoring a presentation on "Palestine: Current Issues and Future Prospects," Monday, January 8th at 7:30 in SMC room 338. Planning continues for the next Gulf Arab PSU reunion in Riyadh this March. Dean Toulan will attend; he is very respected in Saudi Arabia. President Bernstine will also attend. Mayor Potter might attend also; John will meet with people from the Mayor's office soon.

Judy- Visitors from Jilin Province came last month for HR workshops. Finished up fall programs. Slow season will begin in January. Finishing up all bills. Took a group picture on the steps of the Benson House to send out with their holiday cards. She is working on budget. Jeff has big group coming in February.

Katherine- Clean up from summer is almost done. Small two student program is finished. Program from Korea is coming to study engineering in spring.

Ron-OIA and Summer Session resolved the summer pay issue for PSU faculty led programs. Forty-two percent of study abroad students did short-term programs. He thanked Kristin for her help with the Jeollanam-do Province/PSU MOU signing. This is a program where PSU alumni can go to Korea to teach English for a month in the summer. He worked with Marcus Ingle with the short-term program in Vietnam on urban issues - They are currently in Vietnam now.

Audit-will receive a draft report and then they will have the exit interview. PSU should be great.

OAA will send out Notices of Intent Not to Reappoint, but OIA won't be sending them out this year. We told OAA about it and haven't heard back from them yet.

Campus symposium on strategic planning decisions will be January 12th, from 8:30-1:30. Would like OIA represented. Go to OAA website to sign up to RSVP for meetings and lunch. Big topic will be budget and what directions PSU will be going. OIA should go and remind people about the international goals we have.

Should we move microwave? Breaker always goes out.

Next meeting TBA.