Preparing Future World Leaders

In 1999 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., Joseph Cyrulik '96 wrote a pioneering study on homeland security that warned of the nature of the new terrorism threat against the United States.

George Beres '01 (center), an engineer with Merck & Co., Inc., received a B.S. in chemical engineering and an A.B. in International Studies. He benefited from the advice of Professor Rado Pribic (left) and Professor Leonard Van Gulick, chair of International Studies and Engineering.

As reported by MSNBC after the Sept. 11 hijacking attacks, "Cyrulik accurately predicted that U.S. enemies—unable to defeat American forces on overseas battlefields—would bring war home by inflicting pain on the U.S. civilian population." Quoted in The New Yorker and other media, the paper stated that "this pain can take the form of killing and wounding people, creating discomfort through attacks against the financial and transportation systems, and psychologically destroying faith in domestic institutions and systems." Cyrulik, who majored in International Affairs

While globalism has gained increased attention within higher education in recent years, the International Affairs major has been preparing students like Cyrulik for foreign service, international business, international law, political analysis, teaching, and many other internationally focused careers since 1949. From the beginning, the program has been a partnership among four departments: government and law, history, foreign languages and literatures, and economics and business.

"Other schools would have such a program attached to one department," says Rado Pribic, Edwin Oliver Williams Professor of Languages, who has chaired the IA program for the past 13 years. "Lafayette's interdisciplinary approach to international affairs was daring and revolutionary. I must have given the blueprint for it to 10 or 12 other schools."

Despite competition from schools in the nation's capital and Boston, Lafayette boasts one of the best undergraduate International Affairs programs on the East Coast. Pribic believes this is why, traditionally, many of Lafayette's IA majors come from outside the region. Current and intended majors come from Estonia, Hong Kong, Poland, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Poland, California, Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Florida, and other states. Approximately 25-30 majors graduate each year. Pribic is gratified that for some high school seniors, the IA program is the main reason they choose Lafayette. Like Cyrulik before him, Brian Leap '06 was looking last year for an institution with a strong program in International Affairs or politics. After meeting with Pribic on campus, he saw that Lafayette was the place to find it. "It sounded like a great program," he says. "I liked how it is designed to cover a broad spectrum of disciplines. It provides students a general understanding of how the world operates." The collaboration of four departments and attention to

Experiences studying abroad in Italy prompted Chantal Pasquarello '02, an IA graduate now working with the Peace Corps in Togo, West Africa, to conduct an independent study on Albanian immigrants with Professor Katalin Fabian.

THEN AND NOW

Hutchison's Dream: School of International Affairs

IBM president Thomas J. Watson, then vice president of Lafayette's Board of Trustees, and his wife, Jeanette Kittredge Watson, donated $150,000 to the College for Watson Hall of International Affairs in 1945. According to the late Albert Gendebien '34 in The Biography of a College, "It was to be a residence where foreign students and selected American students would live together and, according to the president, 'be guided in their consideration of foreign affairs by a professor who will live in the hall.'" Four years later, the International Affairs major was created, and the history department was moved into the building and renamed the Department of History and International Affairs.

These changes were part of a plan by former Lafayette President Ralph Cooper Hutchison '18 in which a School of International Affairs would be the first component in a transformation of the College into a series of preprofessional schools. Although the Board of Trustees initially approved the plan, nearly unanimous faculty opposition killed the proposal, upholding the commitment to liberal arts education. In 1952, the history department reverted to its former status.

When it opened, Watson Hall included dining room tables for students to practice French; they had to pass a speaking test to eat elsewhere. Enrollment in the School of International Affairs was limited to 20 in each incoming class. Requirements for graduation included demonstrating the ability to read and speak French and at least one other foreign language, and completion of a comprehensive exam in International Affairs and related fields.

New German Studies Center

The foreign languages and literatures department dedicated the Max Kade Center for German Studies Feb. 7 in Pardee Hall. Following remarks by President Arthur J. Rothkopf '55 and department faculty, Diane Windham Shaw, College archivist, talked about the theme of the center's inaugural exhibit, "On the History of Teaching German at Lafayette College." Frank Trommler, professor of Germanic languages and literatures at University of Pennsylvania, gave a keynote address on "German Studies in the United States: Reflections on Writing Their History."

In addition to funding renovations for the center, the Max Kade Foundation will contribute $5,000 toward a German library and the first in a series of visiting scholars. Herbert Herzmann, professor and head of German at University College Dublin in Ireland, will visit this semester.

Briana Niblick '03, president of the German Club, presents Hans Hachmann, Max Kade Foundation director,with commemorative plaque.

Fifteen to 20 percent of students enrolled in German also major in it, and many more declare German as their minor. Margarete Lamb-Faffelberger, associate professor of foreign languages and literatures, is director of the center.

Those declaring a major in International Affairs join an academically accomplished, enthusiastic group. Of the 59 students in the class of 2002 invited to join Phi Beta Kappa, 11 were IA majors. Two others had an individualized major with an international focus-Japanese Studies and Modern European History and Economics-and three earned two degrees, a B.S. in an engineering discipline and an A.B. in International Studies. Eleven IA majors have given presentations at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in the past two years.

Each fall, IA majors and other members of the International Affairs Club travel to Washington, D.C., to participate in the annual European Union Simulation sponsored by the European American Institute. Representing Swedish government leaders and diplomats, this year's group worked with peers to create a resolution that would help apprehend and punish international criminals.

Oscar Arias Sanchez (left), former president of Costa Rica, talks with Farah Arabe '04 (L-R), Emmanuel Kirunda '05, and Emefa Woananu '03 during his visit to campus.

Johannes Van Gorp '04, a double major in IA and history, received the award for top prime minister at the forum. Even more impressive is the fact that, unlike their peers at 15 other participating institutions, they did not participate as part of a course. To prepare for the experience, students

Faculty who teach in the program have some expertise in international topics. Among the associate professors of economics and business, for example, Rexford Ahene just returned from an extended sabbatical in Malawi, where he was overseeing the design and implementation of his land reform program using a $576,500 grant from the World Bank. James DeVault's knowledge in international trade and finance and environmental economics makes him an invited speaker at annual meetings of the Western, Eastern, Southern, and Korea-America economic associations. Gladstone Hutchinson, dean of studies, used his position as a consultant for Jamaica to enable two students to prepare a research report that influenced the country's fiscal policy. In the history department, full-time professors' specialties include Japan and East Asia, European intellectualism, modern Europe, Russia and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Jewish history.

The IA curriculum is tailored to the student interested in a multifaceted perspective on foreign policy, cultures, and issues. For example, upper-level foreign languages and literatures courses focusing on politics, recent history, or religion "are directly related to the kinds of issues central to international affairs," notes Michael Jordan, assistant professor of foreign languages and literatures and the department's liaison to the IA program.

Jordan's Latin American Civilization and Culture course last year examined the implications of NAFTA for trade as well as the potential for a free trade area of the Americas. "We discussed the civil wars going on in Central and South America and political oppression that has characterized authoritarian regimes, which is essential to know if you're going to be working in Latin America," he says.

Michael Avicolli '03 (left) reviews data sheets for his honors research on the conditions of labor in the Argentine economy with Professor James DeVault.

In economics and business, DeVault created a course on Foundations in International Economics specifically to meet the needs of IA majors. Rather than taking Intermediate Microeconomics and Intermediate Macroeconomics, IA majors use International Finance to fulfill the prerequisite for a host of upper-level courses with an international focus, including International Trade Policy and Contemporary African Economics classes offered this semester. "The general idea of an

Two courses unique to the program are Research Methods in International Affairs and Senior Seminar, the latter of which brings in about nine international experts for weekly talks each term.

Pribic stops just short of requiring IA majors to study abroad, but few need prodding. In addition to its own faculty-led trips, Lafayette is affiliated with many other programs, effectively covering strategic areas around the globe. "The International Affairs program here is really good, and the study abroad opportunities are endless," says Megan Towers '04, an IA major who took an interim course in China. Students can also spend a semester at the Globalization and International Affairs Program based at Bard College, New York City, or the foreign policy program based at American University, Washington, D.C.

IA majors can work closely with world-class faculty through EXCEL Scholars research projects and independent studies. Eleven took advantage of these programs last semester. EXCEL Scholar Merida Lopez '03 collaborated last year with Katalin Fábián, assistant professor of government and law, to research the political significance of activism on behalf of women's welfare in post-authoritarian regimes. They studied the political influence of activist women's groups on welfare-related issues in several emerging democracies in Eastern Europe.

Lopez, who has worked on women's issues in the public sector and hopes to pursue a law degree, believes the project will help her make career decisions. These learning experiences are supplemented by a busy schedule of guest speakers with international expertise. Visitors in 2002 included Oscar Arias

Lauren Frese '03 (left) talks with Professor Michael Jordan about her studies in Spain. She received a full scholarship to Elliott School, George Washington University, where she will be pursuing a master's degree.

"I liked the fact that students from different majors were brought together to study the phenomenon of globalization," says Michael Avicolli '03, IA major who presented a paper on World Trade Organization and Chinese economy.

The opportunities in the IA program excite students like Lauren Frese '03, president of International Affairs Club. She has taken Japanese language courses, conducted EXCEL Scholars research on Japanese militarism, taken an interim course in Africa, and served in the roles of Swedish and Greek government officials in EU Simulations. While studying abroad in Spain, she found an internship with a publisher through Career Services that provided editing and research experience. This summer, she took part in the Japan-America Student Conference, traveling across the United States for field studies, presenting a paper on the Kyoto Protocol, and taking part in environmental discussions. She is conducting an honors thesis advised by John McCartney, associate professor and head of government and law. The interdisciplinary curriculum, she says, opened the door for a State Department internship after graduation.

It's no surprise that Frese believes she has received excellent preparation to pursue her goal of attending graduate school for an advanced degree in International Affairs. "International Affairs is great because it's so broad, but you get to pick a focus," she says. "I do a lot with international environmental policy, which is the topic of my honors thesis."

Even more conclusive proof of how well the major prepares students is the graduates succeeding in the U.S. and around the world-a foreign service officer in the nation's capital, a diplomat in Norway, an oil industry associate in Singapore, a financial analyst in Brazil, a marketing manager in Hong Kong, a legal firm vice president in France, a graduate school student in Italy, a business owner in the Philippines, a newspaper editor in Argentina-the list goes on.

Lynne Saylor '78, IA graduate, learned from faculty such as "fabulous teacher" Ilan Peleg, Charles A. Dana Professor of Government and Law, before earning a master's degree from Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. As other IA graduates have noted, she found that her economics studies gave her an advantage over many other graduate students. She served in a U.S. trade representative's office and worked in international trade and policy for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals and U.S. Senator Mack Mattingly (R-Ga.). At Pfizer, she was part of a group that helped bring intellectual property issues into World Trade Organization negotiations in Uruguay in 1986. Saylor consulted for the company in England from 1988 until a few months ago, when she decided to take a break.

"The International Affairs program gave me a solid foundation," says Saylor. "It's even more vital today in an increasingly globalized, interdependent world."