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Meeting notes from September 22nd

New faces:
Jenny Rhodes is the new intern for the Study Abroad program. Jenny comes from OSU and hopes to focus on study abroad in the future. Will also be presenting at NAFSA in Boise, Idaho.

Kristin Engelbretson is the new assistant/scheduler for Gil. She is very happy to be here.

Judy Van Dyck - Summer is almost over and is very happy. Had a great summer. Nobody died. Fall is starting up and orientation went well. Akiko Ota is the new GA. OUS is doing an audit of all international programs. They asked questions they already know so it went well.

Blythe - Has been promoting Education Abroad to Science and Engineering. They are updating website to find things easier and to search for specific topics of interest.

Christina Luther - Orientation had 250 students - 317 F1 and J1 students. Fourth week data should show biggest Fall enrollment ever. Success of orientation is 100% due to Jill. Jill deserves high praise.

Josh - Is working on the presentation for orientation. Is reviewing ISS scholarships.

Debra - Is working on Fulbright. There are 10 people who are valid. She will be calling on people to interview. On October 9th a representative of NSEP is coming to talk about UG & GR scholarships and she would like to put this in the Vanguard. Teach Africa is coming December 9th. This program is to help teachers learn to teach about Africa. There is a meeting on the 29th. She is busy training Kristin and working on budget. If you have appointment letters get them in ASAP.

Jeff - Finished busy summer season of 3 and 6 month programs. There are 5 new nurses here for Fall.

Martha ISP - Is working on logistics. Will be gone for 2 weeks in beginning of October. She is working on the Jilin group now.

Jason Isbell - This summer he has been doing web updates. Is getting ready for registrations. He wants all new updates by Fall term, Intl.pdx.edu will move to OIA.pdx.edu automatically. Let him know if your blurb is not there. Let him know what you think would be easy for students.

Katherine - Hosted 110 IIE Fulbright scholars. Had two 1 week orientations. She is supervising 5 students. Crimes committed against newly arrived Asian females is increasing.

Jean Campbell - John Damis is in Saudi Arabia. There will be a PSU Gulf alumni reunion in March in Riyad.
On October 4th there will be a program report on Mercy Corp in the West Bank 7:30 in the Vanport room. There will be an Aladdin puppet show the last weekend in October. There will be a Saudi Arabia exhibit in SMSU November 13-17.

Abeer - is moving but keeps pushing the date back because she is working on logistics in order to have a smooth transition. Perhaps mid-October. Will be UN refugee public relations officer in North Africa and Middle East.

Andrea - The new GA Emily Minty will be doing what Nathan did - help with marketing. Will be sharing room with Martha. NAFSA conference is in Mid-October and is going to Spain in early November for CIEE conference.

Ron -PSU submitted the highest number of registrations for the NAFSA conference October 18-21st. NCSA conference at PSU will be November 3, 4, & 5. He will be going to Spain with Andrea for the CIEE conference in November.

Audit- the international programs being audited are OSU, U of O, PSU, and they moved quickly. They were looking at three main things here in OIA:
1. Determine whether new and existing university and system programs are adequately reviewed and approved to ensure they are meeting university goals and objectives.
2. Determine whether the university is complying with applicable federal regulations for international student/scholar visa requirements.
3. Determine whether the university is adequately monitoring international programs fiscal operations outside of the U.S.
Dee Wendler is point for auditors. Ron is point for OIA. Final report will be finalized by December 22 - (Generic report). Each campus will get own report.

Rachel - Just got back from Spain for Spanish immersion. Gave her a perspective of what students go through.

DJ - We have a new underwriter and a new provider network. Twelve workshops are given routinely each term. She gave a brief overview of the past academic year moving to the automated system (after 8 years of doing it manually), and the success of working through many challenges, and continuing ideas for improvement.

Patrice - Honorary Council of Iceland gave $5,000 for two scholarships for winter term for International Studies majors ($2,500 each). The deadline is October 31st.

Martha H.- is working on website internally and externally on both OIA and CLAS websites. She is working on international lecture series in dorms.
Shawn Smallman is working now as Interim Vice Provost for Curriculum and Undergraduate Studies. Steve Frankle will be joining us.

Alyse - Students are coming in to tell about their trips abroad. Next Thursday from 4-6 in the Multicultural Center there is an event for all students who went abroad. October 12 is the Education Abroad Fair from 12-3 p.m. Int'l photo contest for students who studied abroad is up on website. This year they are submitting the photos digitally.

Gil - A new recruiting scholarship, totaling $50,000, has been created for use by International Admissions; it will be announced this academic year and available in the 2007-08 for entering international students. The awards will be merit based.

The recent field course on conserving historical urban and rural landscapes in Tuscany was a success, with 14 students. This is the third year of a joint venture between the Office of the International Affairs and the PSU Geography Department.

Progress in discussing international learning goals is being made with University Studies, thanks to their invitation to Duncan Carter and Gil to speak to the Freshman Inquiry faculty and PSU's invitation to be including in a new FIPSE grant, coordinated by the American Council on Education, that aims to assess international learning.

The budget situation this year will once again be tight, in part due to continuing disinvestment by the legislature and the impact of last year's faculty and staff raises