Whenever I am asked how a campus should begin to internationalize, I recommend a short, inexpensive report titled Educating Americans for a World in Flux, published by the American Council on Education (ACE). This report focuses on the task of educating all U.S. students to be global citizens.
"The nation must commit itself now to providing all students with the kinds of knowledge it once provided only to a few - a powerful, deep rooted understanding of other languages, diverse cultures, and global issues," the report urges. "This kind of competence needs to be provided not as something extra in the curriculum, but as an integral part of the educational experience."
The need to recognize the value of international education and begin the task of changing priorities is no less important for historically Black colleges and universities (HCBUs) and minority-serving institutions (MSIs) than for majority-serving institutions. In fact, one could argue that it is even more urgent for the former institutions.
While there are a number of ways an institution demonstrates its commitment to international education, one generally recognized by international educators is the number of undergraduate students who study abroad for academic credit each year. According to Open Doors 1995/96, a yearly publication of the New York-based Institute of International Education - which reports on the number of U.S. students who study abroad and foreign students studying in the U.S. - of the 85,000 undergraduates who studied abroad during the 1995-96 academic year, 10,571 were students of color. The precise ethnic composition was 4,146 (4.9 percent) Asian American; 3,827 (4.5 percent) Hispanic; 2,348 African American (2.8 percent); and 250 (0.03 percent) Native American.
Only sixteen HBCUs reported to Open Doors. Collectively, these institutions sent 150 students abroad (most of whom are assumed to be Black), out of a total HBCU population of 280,000. It is possible that there were more students from HBCUs who studied abroad in the 1995-96 academic year, but they were not reported to Open Doors.
