2001 IEP Advisory Board Meeting: Welcome

Dear Advisory Board Members:

Welcome to San Sebastian, and to the first meeting of the IEP Advisory Board in Spain. This meeting symbolizes the steps we have taken to expand the IEP and to extend our relationship to universities and companies in the Spanish-speaking world. Certainly, we are becoming an even more international engineering program, with a broader reach each year. Where will we meet in the year 2010?

The enclosed information is intended to provide important background for our May 23-24 meeting, and also to demonstrate that the IEP has maintained a strong pace and continues to grow and develop in very positive ways. The enclosed documents are intended as well to serve as an annual report for all persons interested in the progress of our work at URI to internationalize engineering education, both locally and nationally.

We take great pride in the public awards that have come to members of the IEP family and to the IEP itself over the past year. The German government chose nothing less than Germany's highest civilian award, the Federal Cross of Merit, to recognize the work of Heidi Kirk Duffy. The American Association of Teachers of German has named John Grandin Outstanding German Educator for this academic year. Impressed with the IEP as a model for the exchange of students between the United States and Germany, the German Academic Exchange Service has selected the program for its prestigious Edu.de Cooperation Prize, an honor which brings $20,000 to the program.

The IEP has grown in recognition from other sides as well. Taking note of the importance of this program for Rhode Island's economic development, Governor Lincoln Almond asked John Grandin to accompany him and his economic development team on a tour of Germany last November. Though the IEP commonly is mentioned in academic forums, it was just recently cited in the well noted Kiplinger Newsletter, and, as recently as this month, in the Hartford Courant.

Another high point for the IEP this past year was the Third Annual Colloquium on International Engineering Education, held on the URI campus October 12-14, 2000. This growing attempt to take the issues of international engineering education to a national level brought participants from forty campuses, as well as leaders from global business, and representatives from public sector organizations such as the German government, and the Department of Education. URI's IEP is well on its way to becoming a national, and even international, center for the discussion of global education.

Much of our meeting this year will focus on the work accomplished last summer and fall by the special subcommittee charged with developing a five-year strategic plan for the program. We owe special thanks to this group - Bill Silvia, Frank Curtin, Udo Schroff, and Norbert Klotz - who spent many hours with IEP faculty on the project, and outlined the key challenges for the coming years.

On behalf of myself and the IEP as a whole, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to you for your ongoing work and support of our efforts. I believe we are all committed to the fact that higher education reform cannot and should not take place without the advice, help, support, and coordination of the private sector. The IEP curricular structure and goals have become a national model, but the IEP cooperative effort with you has likewise become a national model. We are grateful to you for that!

My colleagues and I look forward to many years of continued and productive collaboration.

Sincerely,

John M. Grandin