Last night Wil Goodheer met me at the airport…it was a quick exit with NO immigration or customs stops at all! We drove in snow in this Volvo…with GPS leading the way! He delivered me to the International University 2 bedroom apartment which is a great place for visiting profs to stay a week or a month or a semester! Very close walk (< 5 minutes) to Starbucks, to the University and to the best shopping (i.e. cheaper than by the opera!) in Vienna. After a civilized time in Starbucks last night, I went to bed early…but not before doing a big wash! About time!
This morning Linda Boyer (an American who came from York PA 21 years ago and has stayed) their V.P. for everything picked me up as we walked in heavier snow to the all-in-one building housing the University on 5 floors. It's rented and has perhaps 15,000 square feet. Nice facilities with half a dozen or more classrooms, offices, library, student lounge, and computer lab. The library has perhaps 5000 volumes. Met in their nice conference room with Wil's main team….Sabrina Nils (Marketing), Linda Boyer (VP), and himself. In addition he has Rola Dis…in finance, and Daniel who does the facilities. A lean team of 5 but they get on very well. They have about 300 students, from 75 countries here in Vienna! Their campus in Kiev which has independent financial and academic offices has 600. Their campus in Odessa has 150, and Singapore has 50….all graduate students. They run two main programs, one in Business and the other in Diplomatic Relations. I'm amazed at the number from other countries. They come for two reasons I hear….word of mouth and the web site. Sabrina is beginning now to attend more recruitment fairs…sometimes sponsored by businesses. Only 10% of the students are evangelical, and of the 20-25 faculty mostly adjunct (3-4 full-time), perhaps again only 10% are evangelical. This obviously means the "Chrisitian presence" tho strong in the mission statement and in most of the 5 full-time staff, is not a priority in students' minds. There are many muslims…in fact the Libyan embassy supports its students at I.U.! I asked students I visited in the computer lab and two classes how important the "Christian" focus was in their choice of IU….only one student, from Africa, said it was important. The students I met seemed very serious about their studies!
The needs they described focused mostly on the need for enhanced "validation." They are finishing up accreditation from IABCHE a business school program accreditation. They also have a "license" but not accreditation from the state of Alabama. But the problem is that Austria is VERY protective of its national traditions, and especially now with the EU imposing new policies under the Bolgona accord the government Ministry is feeling defensive. Wil says it has been reported the Ministry doesn't really like privates at all! Only Webster (St. Louis) and IU are accorded any legitimacy and only Webster is really fully accredited by the government. While they don't feel quality is an issue, they DO feel that the perception of quality could be improved by some CCCU review ("virtual accreditation?" "Validation review?") especially if it led to a new "intermediate level status" with CCCU between Affiliate and Member. Their percentage of Christian faculty might make full membership impossible under existing criteria. Along the same lines, some form of more formal "sister school" relationship would apparently also lend credibility. I couldn't be sure that the students would be more likely to come, but this team obviously feels it WOULD help. "Partner language" is too weak, and actual merger with a US school might be too much. Sabrina was going to think of a word or phrase that MIGHT capture the idea and give the enhanced credibility. "Academic Partnership" in latin might do it! J Apparently Mike O'Neal has been here too…Oklahoma Christian runs a summer and fall semester program here….25 and 50 respectively.
Another need is for hiring good faculty. I spoke with one part-timer who is obviously well-qualified, but he teaches in 6 universities at the same time! Reminds me of Sao Paulo where faculty run from early morning until late at night. Maybe some of our US faculty would feel better about their assignments if they understood such situations! J Do I still sound like an administrator? Apologies to what few remaining friends I have on faculty!
Another need they have is for a "portal" with the IU name to give students access to online full-text databases. They HAVE such access through the government, but the portal would make it seem more an IU benefit. (Again it seems that perception of quality more than substance is the issue.)
They would appreciate "SWAT teams to advise on various issues…including eg. How to do a better job in collections! Rola is frustrated at the time it takes to collect past due bills. I am reminded how hard it was for us at Greenville to do the same…ESPECIALLY among internationals who say "It's coming." As usual there is fear that tightening the requirement to pay before you can enroll would drive away students. But clearly some such added prevention would be worth a lot of cure!
Consolidated CCCU lobbying with the EU would be helpful too.
Had lunch at a nice restaurant near the university…and only 3 blocks from my apartment. Weiner Schnitzel of course! Great coffees too! Did a little shopping…..
1 My Apartment
2 Linda and Rola
3 Wil and Sabrina
4 Shopping....
6 Linda, Sabrina, Rola, and Jim
Back to the apartment and now at Starbucks for the wireless again….plan to help vet some applications for an internship at Oracle Software for them at 6pm. Then dinner and sleep before departing for Vilnius tomorrow.
It has been fun to be back in Vienna. I mostly remember the StatsOper where we took Eva Marie to see the Aida as part of her Westmont Graduation Europe Opera Tour….We stayed around the corner. And I remember the Ferrari dealership there, and we drove by the Prater park…where Elliot Mannoia, my nephew worked as a DJ. Ironically Rola Dis (then Mirza) was Elliot's classmate and knows both Elliot and Ellis. How amazingly small the world is!
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