Herbert to address summit on education

As far as IU President Adam Herbert is concerned, the world is flat. Herbert plans to tell a panel of his peers today at a national summit of university presidents that the new currency of the global economy is no longer climate and geography but knowledge. Drawing from the thesis of the book by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, "The World is Flat," Herbert will discuss the growing importance of communications and globalism to American universities at the conference in Washington, D.C.\nOn Thursday, President George W. Bush told about 150 leaders of major higher universities at the meeting that he is sponsoring a new initiative known as the National Security Language Initiative to spend nearly $115 million on teaching Americans "critical-need foreign languages" like Arabic, Chinese, Hindi and Farsi in an effort to deal with this increasingly globalized world.\nThe U.S. Departments of State and Education called the summit with higher education leaders to discuss international student education. Among the major issues being addressed are balancing post-Sept. 11, 2001, student visa restrictions with national security issues and how to reverse the declining numbers of foreign students and scholars who come to the United States to study. Participants will also examine how to encourage more U.S. students to travel and study abroad. \nIU Dean of International Programs Patrick O'Meara said a summit like this is important because today students must deal with a globalized educational process in school and an increasingly globalized workforce when they leave school.\n"Our students are now operating in a different world from the world students in my generation grew up in," he said. \nPresident Bush's new initiative is very important to IU because the University is at the forefront of education in the lesser-known languages, O'Meara said.\nFor example, IU has programs to teach Arabic, Chinese and Russian and has developed a very close relationship with the American University campus in the central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan, said IU Spokesman Larry MacIntyre.\nO'Meara likened the new program to the build-up in study of Russian language and culture during the Cold War era developed in part by the Department of Defense. But, the announcement also reflects a perception that Americans need to better understand and communicate with other languages and cultures.\n"Sometimes (it) is even impossible to maneuver a trip across town when you don't have the language skills, much less conduct business or diplomacy," he said.\nThis conference does not mark the first time Herbert has been in the spotlight for international education. In October 2004, Herbert told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that post-Sept. 11, 2001, restrictions were causing unnecessary delays in getting student visas and discouraging students from studying in the United States.