Vice President's Message
Extension
Robert A. Pastor
THE BUSINESS OF UNIVERSITIES should be to generate ideas, refine them through dialogue with faculty and students, use them in the classroom, and bring them to the public arena. This comes naturally to a campus that believes in turning ideas into action and action into service.
During the fall 2005 semester, three compelling sets of ideas were generated on AU's campus, and these ideas have already influenced the public domain.
The Commission led by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James A. Baker, III, organized by AU, helped the country to understand that democracy requires continuous monitoring (see page 1). That was the message of their recommendations, and already Congress and state legislatures are wrestling with those ideas. As demonstrated below, the Commission's work garnered significant media attention.
AU's Center for North American Studies, working with the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and counterpart groups in Mexico and Canada, proposed that the United States address its neighbors as a part of a North American Community. Such an approach will require new ways to deal with security, competitiveness, and trade issues, but the new proposals offer an opportunity to transform North America into a model for the world. After the publication of the report, Building a North American Community, I was asked to testify on it before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last June and to write a second paper for the Council on ways to close the income gap between Mexico and its northern neighbors.
As described in the article on page 2, last August Abroad at AU welcomed 20 talented students from some of the best universities all over the world to learn about the United States while bringing the world into AU's classrooms and dormitories. The students take courses from across AU's curriculum, including a customized one called "What is America?". Taught by one of the university's most renowned professors, Allan Lichtman not only made American history come alive in the classroom last fall, but as a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Maryland, he also brought in the real world of American politics. This semester, the Abroad at AU students are taking a class called "How Washington Works" with Professor Kimberly Cowell-Meyers. The idea -- represented by the students -- is that the beginning of an excellent comparative education is an encounter between one's country and the rest of the world.
Abroad at AU student Sanae Higashiyama of Japan said that her friends had joked that she might meet a president if she came to the United States. After she met with Jimmy Carter on AU's campus last September, she phoned home, and the response was: "Are you kidding?"
With Abroad at AU successfully launched, AU Abroad has nearly doubled the number of AU students studying abroad in just three years. U.S. News & World Report not only recognizes it as one of the best programs in the country, but AU's rank in the Institute of International Education's 2005 Open Doors report rose to #7 -- in the percentage of students studying abroad among doctoral/research instituitions -- from not even making the list a few years ago.
Election reform, the North American Community, and internationalizing the campus are just three of many ideas generated at AU that extend into the classroom and beyond. Their cumulative effect is to lift AU and transform an idea like the "Premier Global University" into action and service.
Robert A. Pastor
Vice President of International Affairs
Reforming the Vote
"The report released yesterday by a commission on federal election reform...contains a number of valuable proposals."
--The Washington Post, 9/20/2005Bush, Meeting Panama's Leader, Endorses Widening of the Canal
"They don't need permission from us, but they do need to float bonds," said Robert A. Pastor, the director of Latin American and Caribbean affairs in the National Security Council during the Carter administration and now a professor at American University. "Having President Bush make a positive statement about it is helpful in terms of financing."
--The New York Times, 11/8/2005Voting Reform is in the Cards
"We agreed to lead the Commission on Federal Election Reform because of our shared concern that too many Americans lack confidence in the electoral process..."
--Op-Ed, The New York Times, 9/23/2005"The 2005 Open Doors report ranked AU #7 in the percentage of students studying abroad."
--Institute of International EducationCarter-Baker Panel to Call for Voting Fixes
"The Commission on Federal Election Reform was created under the auspices of American University's Center for Democracy and Election Management. The group was funded by several foundations, and Robert A. Pastor of American University served as executive director."
--The Washington Post, 9/19/2005Why The Americas Have Drifted Apart
"'The way the U.S. handled problems in Venezuela and Bolivia has made it much more difficult to forge any coalitions on democratization at this point,' says Robert Pastor, director of the Center for North American Studies at American University..."
--The Christian Science Monitor, 11/2/2005The Importance of Being Good Neighbours
"Earlier this year, a report by the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York think-tank, made some sensible proposals for 'Building a North American Community.'"
--The Economist, 8/27/2005Voting Panel Will Propose New Calendar for Primaries
"The new panel was organized by American University to address those [election reform] problems. Its 21 members include politicians from both parties and others with election experience."
--The New York Times, 9/19/2005Jimmy Carter Hosts Town Hall Meeting
"...Commission on Federal Election Reform made 87 recommendations to improve the electoral process, including photo IDs for all voters, and impartial election administration and a paper trail for electronic voting machines. AU's Center for Democracy and Election Management organized the group."
--The Eagle, 9/22/2005
previous