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Caption: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1962
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1254 BOARD OF TRUSTEES [December 19 Report of President's Special Faculty Conference, December 2, 1961 The President's Special Faculty Conference on International Affairs examined a wide range of institutional and individual responsibilities inherent in the role of a great university in the second half of the twentieth century. A major assumption underlying much of the discussion was the belief that consideration and appropriate use of a comparative cross-cultural approach is essential to professional competence in most areas of teaching, research, and service. T h e Conference participants adopted recommendations dealing with some ways of implementing the University's responsibilities in the light of the basic assumption noted above. These recommendations can convey neither the feeling of need and urgency nor the sense of opportunity and challenge revealed in the discussion. A persistent undercurrent of feeling voiced at the Conference was that such recommendations are not peripheral to the life of the University, but rather represent a shift in the center of gravity of the total intellectual perspective. The recommendations should be interpreted in the context of the basic assumption, and in the light of the following needs and expectations: ( a ) The need to find efficient and economic ways of closing gaps which still exist in the University's programs and activities relevant to major world areas and problems. (b) The necessity of strengthening programs and practices basic to crosscultural orientation, teaching, and research in all disciplines. (c) The expectation that increasing confrontation with other major cultures will lead to improved understanding of Western culture and provide opportunities to re-examine traditional concepts. Recommendations 1. Current University activities in international affairs should be greatly expanded. 2. The University should introduce instruction in non-Western languages. 3. The Conference notes with approval the development of the Center for Russian Language and Area Studies and the Center for Latin American Studies and recommends further strengthening of their programs of teaching and research. 4. The development of both area studies and international studies concerned with problems of global significance should be encouraged. In both cases the approach should be comparative and interdisciplinary. 5. The President is urged to clarify administrative responsibility for the development and coordination of additional area study programs, including both teaching and research, and for the recommendation of priorities. 6. The University of Illinois should develop minimal programs for important areas but should not attempt to develop programs in depth for all areas. Consideration should be given to the possibility of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation's recommending that particular universities assume responsibility for different areas. 7. Deans and executive officers of departments are urged to initiate review of the interests and requirements of their disciplines for courses with an international or foreign area emphasis, to assess faculty resources and needs, and to initiate action through normal channels to meet recognized needs. 8. It is highly desirable to introduce more non-Western subject matter whether by revision of current courses or by the addition of new courses. Additional faculty may be required for the latter. 9. The University should consider methods of improving staff competence in the international aspects of the various disciplines, including leaves with pay. 10. The University should encourage and seek financial support for a program of international faculty and student exchange. [While the above report was approved by the participants at the Presidents Special Faculty Conference on International Affairs, it should not be assumed that any particular recommendation was approved by all participants.] This report was received for record. BEQUEST OF ELLA GRACE BROWN BURD1CK (21) The will of Ella Grace Brown Burdick, a resident of Highland Park, Illinois, who died on November 17, 1960, includes a bequest:
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