Short-Term Study Abroad -- for University Administrators

In a recent essay, University of San Francisco President Stephen Privett argues that sending university leaders on short-term immersion travel to developing countries can have big effects.  He suggests that this is just as important as sending students.

Some excerpts from his essay...

While the value for students of spending time abroad is widely promoted by many colleges, ours may be the only one in the country that sees those experiences as essential for college leaders as well.

and...

Everyone in a leadership position at the University of San Francisco has seen firsthand the immense human suffering, caused by deadly poverty, afflicting the majority of the people in our global village. It is essential that higher education prepares students, and those who teach them, to confront that global reality. Colleges must not narrow their educational horizons to student "success," as that term is often defined by popular culture.

and...

The underlying questions of higher education today should be: "How does what our institutions are doing with the 1 percent of the world who are our students affect the other 99 percent? (emphasis added). What is our role in helping our students be humanly in this world?" Immersion experiences give such questions an urgency and centrality that they would not otherwise have.

People often ask me, "What do you hope to accomplish with these expensive immersion experiences for the leadership team?'' I explain, first of all, that such experiences are not expensive; in fact, they are significantly less costly than an administrative retreat at any of a number of conference centers. Second, I do not expect that such experiences will lead immediately to new programs and significant changes in university requirements or policies.

What I hope is that university leaders will develop an increased sensitivity to the heartbreaking struggles of the 1.8 billion people whose daily struggle is simply to stay alive. Our experiences put us face to face with the gross global inequities that are the context of our educational efforts. The Spanish word for this is conscientizacion —a process of developing a deepening and profound personal awareness of our world, and of our consequent responsibility and capacity to change it for the better.

Immersion experiences reinforce the urgency and significance of that insight, and shape the decisions and direction that our vice presidents and deans set for their units. Starting next summer, we will offer immersion programs for some faculty members as well. We are also considering making such experiences required for students' graduation, instead of offering them as enrichment opportunities, as we do now.

Read his entire essay here.