January 14, 2021
Dear CIS community and stakeholders,
As 2021 kicks off — as students and faculty head back to class, and as our staff continue to plan for study abroad and for the provision of international student services – it would be an understatement to say we are in a challenging environment. In this post, I would like to share with you my basic sense of where we are and where we are going as a College — of what the terrain of international engagement might look like at OU in the months ahead.
I have three key messages in this rather long post.
First, the College and the people who make it up and whom it serves are under great stress. We have to face this squarely, and take care of each other.
Second, our mission remains more relevant and vital than ever.
Finally, we have begun rolling out a dynamic set of initiatives that will strengthen our resilience and help us to bounce back stronger. We commit to engaging with all of the College’s stakeholders throughout this year on these initiatives.
One mission, under stress
Any stock-taking must begin with a sense of who we are, what we do, and why we do — in good and bad times. We are above all a collection of people — students, faculty, staff, partners — who share a commitment to putting meaningful global engagement at the heart of our great university. To deliver on this mission, we engage in a wide range of programming — for study abroad, including at our study centers in Mexico and Italy; for international students across the university; and for the Department of International and Area Studies’ own undergraduate and masters students.
And our faculty and academic centers conduct research that advances our understanding of global interdependence and our sensitivity to language, culture, history and society. As I argued in an earlier dean’s blog, our mission has never been more relevant. From the global competition to secure anti-Covid vaccines (leaving whole swathes of the global south with next to no access throughout this year), to the governance crisis and breakdown of civil society on display at the US Capitol earlier this month, the need for “global fluency” has never been more compelling.
Yet everything about the way we deliver on our mission has been deeply affected by the environment around us. The stress of the pandemic, amplified by governance dysfunction and systemic racism that affects our society on many levels, has taken a serious toll on the College’s community. Consider a few examples, by no means exhaustive:
- International students have been on the receiving end of multiple adverse — some would say hostile and (in their differential effects on countries) discriminatory — regulatory actions in recent years.
- Everyone connected to study abroad has been on an emotional rollercoaster, gearing up and advising students for programs only to see them cancelled each semester due to the pandemic.
- Faculty have faced non-stop classroom management challenges, such as accommodating in-person and virtual students simultaneously; and of course, all of their research projects involving fieldwork have been completely disrupted.
- Many in our community struggle with logistical, personal and family challenges and even with the loss of loved ones.
Working through multiple zoom meetings each day against this background, Paul Simon’s American Tune sometimes comes to my mind: “I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered / don’t have a friend who feels at ease.”
The road ahead
We are far from being passive objects being acted upon by the pandemic. The College has been firing on all cylinders in responding to the complex situation we face.
Our College’s leadership team of deans, directors and our department chair has for several months now also been trained on a major strategy review. We began in the Fall by crafting a range of strategic priorities for the academic year ahead. These fall into a few different categories. One is managing pandemic-related decision-making. As our people and resources have come under strain, we have doubled down on providing services and outreach to those most in need, and in fostering our own community — no less real for being virtual at the present time. To give one example, CIS has led a cross-campus effort to raise funds for international students facing financial hardship, which has netted nearly $100,000 in much needed assistance a time when budgets everywhere are stressed. The well-being and safety of our students and staff will remain our number one priority going forward.
Another is conducting a comprehensive rethink of critical aspects of our work, such as in our overseas programming, so that as conditions permit we can bounce back from the body blow we have absorbed in this area stronger, more resilient, and more nimble than ever. We are also working to strengthen cross-unit capacities that support everything we do, such as communications, budget management, and our evolving approach to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work.
Rather than trying to polish a multi-year strategic plan in the middle of a rapidly moving pandemic, we have focused on turning these rolling priorities into operational “projects” led by cross-functional teams. These teams are given the mandate of gathering best practices across higher education, improving our information and analytics, and experimenting with “what works” in our setting. This is our framework for College- and unit-wide strategic thinking, action and learning, one that will be the sustained focus of our internal work throughout this year.
None of this work is easy. It is a call for innovation — always easier in theory and on paper than in practice, and never guaranteed in its success. Though hard, this work has already bearing fruit in some initial areas. It comes from a belief that the best path through the pandemic is to address short-term needs while planning for the recovery and expansion that surely lie ahead. The quality and commitment of our faculty and staff, and the enthusiasm with which they have taken up this challenge, give me a strong confidence that the best days of the College lie ahead of us.
Last week, at our first CIS-wide zoom meeting of the year, I shared our leadership team’s “resolutions.” Our values will be people-and mission-centered; and we will strive to live those values even when it is difficult. We are a community; and as a community, our fates are intertwined. Everyone matters.
We will stay committed to our mission, which is a noble one for the times we are living in, and critical to the value that a great public research university such as OU brings to our state, nation and the world.
And we commit to open and regular engagement with all constituents and stakeholders of the College, across all areas of our work and mission. I will be updating you in various formats throughout the year, and invite you personally to share your ideas and perspectives. You are always welcome to write me directly at sfritzen@ou.edu — I would truly appreciate hearing from you.
With that, let me wish you all a great start to the new year. Stay safe, stay hopeful, and stay in touch.
Warmly,
Scott Fritzen
Dean, David L. Boren College of International Studies