Yale Bulletin and Calendar

February 20, 2004|Volume 32, Number 19

New office to promote the University's international initiatives

To support the international activities of the schools and the academic centers of Yale, President Richard C. Levin has established a new administrative Office of International Affairs (OIA).

In addition to providing administrative support, OIA will also focus on promoting Yale and its faculty to international audiences and deepening the appreciation for Yale's international activities around the globe.

"The purpose of this new office is to help build administrative infrastructure to support the existing international programs at the schools, the Yale Center for International and Area Studies, and the other global endeavors at Yale," explains Levin. "In addition, it will work to promote Yale's visibility internationally."

The decision to create OIA was the result of several meetings that Levin held with deans and members of the Yale faculty. The Yale Corporation approved a plan to establish the office last year.

"It became clear that drawing together staff that has been dispersed in various administrative offices to support international activities could be helpful to advancing Yale's international aspirations," says Vice President and Secretary Linda K. Lorimer, whom Levin has asked to oversee the office.

Brett Gale of the Secretary's Office and John Longbrake of the Office of Public Affairs, who had been working on international matters, have been transferred to the new office. They join Sheila Cook, former director of finance and administration at the Association of Yale Alumni (AYA), at Betts House where the office is located. Fawn Wang, a senior program officer at the Yale-China Association, has also been engaged to focus on China.

One of the immediate concerns that surfaced during Levin's meetings was the need for assistance with housing international visitors.

"In every meeting, we kept hearing about the difficulties people were having finding accommodations for foreign visitors in New Haven," says Cook, who is coordinating housing opportunities for short-term international visitors. "We've already assumed the responsibility for leasing a number of apartments for special foreign scholars."

Cook has also negotiated special weekly and monthly rates at the local hotels for international visitors and is working with other property managers to fill further gaps in housing services.

Gustav Ranis, the Frank Altschul Professor of International Economics, director of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies and chair of the University Advisory Committee on International Education, welcomed the creation of OIA.

"The new office has already proven its value," says Ranis. "Several of the recommendations of the advisory committee were addressed quickly and effectively. The faculty has long known that the administrative infrastructure for supporting Yale's academic and other international activities has been historically underdeveloped. Linda Lorimer has a proven track record of supporting the faculty, and many of us look forward to what will be achieved to enhance all our international endeavors."

According to Gale, the Yale and the World website, launched last year and maintained by the new office, is an example of the kind of projects that OIA will pursue.

"The University Advisory Committee on International Education identified the need for a gateway to the global aspect of Yale," Gale explains. "We were able to marshal the resources and put together a comprehensive site."

The site (www.world.yale.edu) also contains a database of faculty research that Gale says OIA will update annually.

Lorimer envisions the new office working to assist faculty in developing international collaborations, developing a comprehensive list of all external international affiliations and working closely with the AYA to develop networks of Yale graduates abroad.

"President Levin has recognized that Yale's academic and intellectual assets in international and area studies make it a prime candidate for recognition as one of the world's truly great global universities," says Lorimer. "What has been needed is the administrative structure to leverage those efforts for the greater public recognition of Yale's prominence and for the greater intra-institutional support of burgeoning initiatives. We hope this office will help advance the network of necessary services to create the administrative platform that can propel Yale's international agenda."

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