Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter announced today (July 12) that University Outreach and International Programs will transition over the coming year to a refocused mission and a new name as of July 2014 — International Education and Engagement — in keeping with the campus’s strategy to increase the global impact and internationalization of UC Davis.

Hexter

The changes come as Hexter prepares to launch a national search for a successor to Bill Lacy, who announced earlier this week that he will step down a year from now as vice provost of University Outreach and International Programs. See separate story.

Hexter said he will work with Lacy and his team over the next year to ensure that UC Davis is well positioned to support the rapidly increasing internationalization of the campus. Likewise, over the coming months, he will work with UOIP and the campus community to determine how best to ensure that the unit’s “University Outreach” functions remain fully and optimally supported.

Hexter outlined this change and several others in his recent response to last year’s report from the International Advisory Committee, chaired by Jeanette Money and Cary Trexler, associate professors or political science and education, respectively.

As noted in the report, the campus sees growth ahead in every dimension of international activity, including growth in international experiences for domestic UC Davis students, an increasing number of international undergraduate and graduate students enrolled on campus, and increasing faculty participation in research addressing global issues and involving international partners.

The provost noted that each of these areas of internationalization will require focused attention over the coming years, but that equally important will be effective integration of efforts across the entire campus, given the multiple academic and administrative units responsible for each area.

In his response to the committee, the provost noted many actions the campus is already taking to prepare for internationalization, and agreed with the committee on several additional steps. Among the new actions he proposed:

• An effort to break down barriers and increase domestic students’ participation in international experiences, by coordinating advising at every level, working with the Academic Senate to reduce curricular barriers and redoubling efforts to increase philanthropic support for student experiences

• Creation of a provost-chaired work group that will meet regularly to ensure that academic and administrative units work together in an efficient and integrated manner on internationalization efforts that transcend unit boundaries

• Establishment of up to four “global centers” to create a physical presence for UC Davis in key international regions where the university is most keen to expand its engagement, including Asia, Europe and South America. 

As the 2020 Initiative progresses, Hexter anticipates implementing more proposals from the reports of the International Advisory Committee and the Blue-Ribbon Committee for Enhancing the Undergraduate Student Experience.

“The Vision of Excellence commits the university to ‘Embrace Global Issues’ as one of our explicit goals, and Chancellor Katehi has spoken eloquently and frequently on the importance of our campus’s becoming more international so that we can adequately prepare our students to live and work in our world today,” Hexter said. “Opportunities for international collaboration and connection are practically limitless. We are already making rapid progress in this direction, and I look forward to the work of the coming years that will accelerate the process.”

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