SU Opens New Center for International Education

SALISBURY, MD---In a festive ceremony including strolling French musicians, colorful flags representing some 50 countries, tables where visitors could have their names written in Cyrillic and Arabic alphabets, and international foods galore, Salisbury University officially opened its new Center for International Education (CIE) on May 4.

Reflecting growing globalization, the number of SU students studying abroad has doubled in the last five years, and nearly 11 percent of this year’s graduating class will have had a study abroad experience—higher than national averages (6-8 percent), said Robert Hallworth, director of the SU’s new CIE.

“This is an exciting and important occasion for Salisbury University,” said President Janet Dudley-Eshbach, a champion of international education.  Dudley-Eshbach completed undergraduate work in Spanish and Latin American studies at Indiana University and earned her doctorate in Hispanic literature at El Colegio De Mexico in Mexico City. She later undertook post-doctoral study in Chile on a Fulbright-Hays Grant.

“The opening of the new center enhances our ability to attract exceptional students from around the world, and provides new resources to our current students for memorable and potentially life-changing opportunities to study abroad” she said.  Our commitment to the international learning experience will groom Salisbury University students for success in the global economy and prepare them for a lifetime of engaged global citizenship."

Shortly after coming to Salisbury in 2000, Dudley-Eshbach created the Link of Nations between the Guerrieri University Center and Commons.  This hall contains the flags of 57 countries represented by SU students, faculty and staff.  She also hired the University’s first director of international education and committed resources to make the Center possible.

Located at 1106 Camden Ave., the CIE is a 1930s former home on University Row, a mixture of new and refurbished buildings bordering main campus.  The Center offers a variety of services, including faculty-led as well as collaborative study abroad programs with other universities on all continents except Antarctica.

The Center also sponsors campus programming focusing on international culture.  Recently Indian philosophy and cuisine were highlighted and a brown bag lunch series examined President Bush’s foreign policy directives and proposed national immigration policy reforms.  With offices, a library and meeting rooms, the Center also houses SU’s director of cultural affairs, whose programs often have an international focus.

Senior Erica Tindale, who spent the fall semester in Italy, speaks for many students when she praises her experiences in Perugia where she studied Italian language and literature and also ancient Roman archaeology: “I realized how different people are, yet this experience made me open to (these) different people and cultures.”  She still maintains contact with friends from Israel whom she met on a side trip to Greece. For more information on the SU Center for International Education, call 410-334-3495 or visit the SU Web site at www.salisbury.edu. "