This meeting was held in conjunction with the San Jose conference of the Community College League of California and the California Colleges for International Education, at the Fairmont Hotel.

The joint meeting began with a Keynote address by Provost Carmen Sigler of SJSU, entitled “Educating Global Citizens in an Internationalizing University.”  A transcript will be circulated shortly and posted on our website. This was followed by a spirited panel discussion of int’l education challenges facing postsecondary schools, organized by CCIE.

The steering committee convened its fall meeting at the Saint Claire Hotel. Present were: Pres. David Schmidt, president-elect Chuck Powers, secretary Mike Conniff, Robina Bhatti, Riad Bahhur, and Stephen Payne. Special visitors were Rosalind Raby (CCIE), Jill Heffron (City College of San Francisco), and Anne Fountain (SJSU).

Mike distributed a table showing the current budget. We had $5917.20 in revenues this year, minus $3756.56 in expenditures, leaving a balance of $4731.45. The main expense was $3000 awarded as three minigrants. Mike noted that next month he would ask Rajat to send out dues invoices. He explained why the funds had been moved to the SJSU Foundation, where they will be assessed a 5% charge for each check. Chuck asked if 5% would be assessed if we move the acct elsewhere?

Rosalind noted that Erin Murphy, in comparative ed at Berkeley, may become active in NCAGE, and Mike said that Ed West at Ohlone will probably become active as well.

Robina distributed a sheet indicating how her minigrant project, developing a Global Studies fieldwork course, is proceeding (see attachment). Riad also noted progress on the Sac City conference on women in development, which will be held next spring. Joan Berezin was unable to attend, so we will ask her for a current report on the Berkeley City College project.

David began the meeting by describing a visit he and Gary Rhodes paid to the State Department of Education in Sacramento on 20 Sept 2007. They met with David Long, Scott Hill, and Vincent Stewart to propose ways the department could strengthen int’l education in postsecondary schools. They presented a number of possibilities that were warmly received.  Given the likelihood that the state budget will not be robust next year, they all agreed that any initiative would be undertaken with shifting resources rather than new ones. The steering committee thanked David for this advocacy work.

David then reported on the proposal for a Fulbright-Hayes group study trip in 2009. In his summer trip to Washington, where he read successful grants from the past, he learned that China and India are favored by the agency. He believes our proposal, due next fall, should focus on 3 cities in China (Shanghai, Beijing, and one other) and be broadly conceived as a familiarization trip, rather than a topical one. NCAGE, by drawing on a number of postsecondary schools, should be well-positioned to win an award. We will need to find one or more sponsors in China to make local arrangements for us. Rosalind suggested contacting Colin Speakman, who has experience with Fulbright, and Justine Zsu, who runs the large China program at CSU Northridge. Riad knows a political science professor who accompanied students to China.

David attended the regional NAFSA meeting in San Francisco recently and noted that study abroad was a major topic there. He also recruited Chico and Delta community colleges to join NCAGE.

Stephen announced that the DLI has a new commandant, Sue Ann Sundusky, an army colonel from the Foreign Area Officers program. She is fluent in French and has had tours in Africa. Col. Mansager has moved on to the NATO command in Europe.

We discussed the calendar for coming months. Mike will have Rajat put together an eNewsletter soon with minutes from this meeting, reports on minigrants, and a call for minigrant proposals. Since spring break will likely be in late March, we decided to hold our spring Forum in the second week of April, probably on the Friday the 11^th. If we set a minigrant app deadline in mid-March, we can probably announce the awards at the Forum. It would be held at SJSU. Everyone is urged to think of a keynote speaker for the event.

Chuck handed out Joan Powers’s very attractive new brochure for global studies at Mission College. Chuck’s tenure as NCAGE president will begin in January. Mike handed out SJSU’s 2008 Global Lens calendar.