International and Domestic Off Campus Studies Committee
Minutes from September 13, 2006 IDOCS Meeting
Members Present: Jeane Delaney (Chair), Katherine Baker, Dona Freeman, Roseanne Galegher, Eric Lund Bruce Hanson, Karil Kucera, Cate Redmond, (student representative) Solveig Zempel (ex officio – Dean Representative).
The meeting was called to order and the minutes of April 25, and August 31, 2006 were approved.
Eric Lund suggested to the committee that the job of note taking at the meetings should be rotated amongst the members as is done in other committees. It was agreed upon that the notetaker shall send the draft of the minutes to Roseanne Galegher who will continue to distribute information to the committee and also post the minutes on the webpage. Eric briefed the committee on the International and Off-Campus Studies program review. The bulk of the writing was done this summer by Eric with the student evaluations and concerns for the future still to be done. Eric proposed that some student focus groups be organized to help clarify student perspectives on IOS and that members from IDOCS facilitate the information gathering sessions. The focus groups of 8 – 10 students may be divided into those who have or have not traveled abroad, 1 st year students and multicultural students. There will be 3 outside reviewers on the review team, from Beloit, Augsburg and Amherst Colleges, all liberal arts colleges like St. Olaf, but also representing different perspectives. The on-campus reviewers will be on campus December 6 – 8. IDOCS should plan to meet with the review team during that time frame.
Eric also reported on the year long college focus on the Global Citizenship theme. The fall subtheme, Fostering a Global Perspective, correlates with the designation of this year as the Year of Study Abroad. A variety of campus organizations have collaborated to plan activities. A master calendar has been posted on the college website. Consideration is being given to some additional activities such as a possible symposium at which students who have studied abroad could share what they learned with the wider community. Plans are underway to encourage each department to reflect on the degree to which it is ‘fostering a global perspective’ and connected to the off-campus study program.
All the first semester programs are successfully launched. The search for a new field supervisor for Term in Asia 2007 is still in process. The Term in Asia task force report will be distributed amongst the committee for their review.
The need to revise and update the IDOCS webpage was addressed. New and more consistent wording is needed with regard to the application process for new and repeated off-campus Interims.
Meeting was adjourned at 5:00pm.
