In an effort to increase Cornell’s international academic opportunities and better support its international students and scholars who travel abroad, the University has opened a new Office of Global Learning.
The office will combine Cornell Abroad with the International Students and Scholars Office and will be led by executive director Uttiyo Raychaudhuri, who is currently an adjunct faculty member at the Clemson College of Education and worked as director of Clemson Abroad from 2013.
Raychaudhuri is currently conducting research at Clemson focused on international education and the promotion of global engagement. He is also a member of the the Forum on Education Abroad Council, a non-profit organization that is recognized as the Standards Development Organization for education abroad.
“[Raychaudhuri] brings talent and experience that will enable us to build enhanced support and services,” said Laura Spitz, the Vice Provost for International Affairs. “Joining the two previously separate teams under an expanded mission of global learning will provide increased capacity and opportunities.”
In recent years, Cornell has shown a diversification of global opportunities.
Thirty-seven percent of graduating seniors participated in an international program, according to Cornell Abroad.
Semester-long study abroad courses are also not the only way for students to participate in international programs.
Alternatives include lesser-known year-long academic programs like the International Agriculture and Rural Development 602 class, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
At its founding, the course was a brief 20-day course in Latin America or India. Now it is an eight-credit fall course, a 20-day three-credit course of hands-on experience in a foreign country, and a spring course.
Beginning in 1968, when international students comprised only 3.2 percent of undergraduate enrollment, IARD602 was Cornell’s first international course, run by International Programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
“It is anything but a typical classroom,” said Prof. K.V. Raman, who has been associated with the course since 2001.
Since its launch, students have had the opportunity to explore Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, Ecuador, India, Thailand and Myanmar.
“IARD602 broadened to include socio-economic and development issues, and then expanded to provide insights into issues of globalization and transnational communities,” course director Ronnie Coffman said. “The consistent thing about the course is that it often represents a life-altering experience for the students.”
Maryam Zafar can be reached at [email protected].