September 27, 2000

Contact: Carl Strikwerda, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, (785) 864-3661, or Anne Merydith-Wolf, Office of International Programs, (785) 864-6161

KU international centers awarded $3.1 million

LAWRENCE - Four international studies centers at the University of Kansas have been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as National Resource Centers and will receive three-year Title VI grants, KU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Office of International Programs announced today.

The KU centers for African, East Asian, Latin American, and Russian and East European studies will each receive grants to support research, teaching and outreach. KU ranks 11th among U.S. universities in Title VI funding for international area studies centers.

"KU can be extremely proud of the excellent leadership of its faculty in international studies," said Sally Frost Mason, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, which oversees the four centers. The four grants, including money for graduate student fellowships, total approximately $3.1 million over three years.

"The Title VI-funded centers promote international education by providing programming and courses for KU and Kansas," said Diana Carlin, dean of international programs. "The recent grants are a testimony to the quality of our area centers."

The centers provide expertise to businesses, schools and governments, promote the teaching of foreign languages and international topics, and conduct research. They also help KU offer regular instruction in 28 languages, more than any other university in the region.

KU also receives funding under Title VI to support the Center for International Business and Economic Research in the School of Business.

The grants will:

* Provide more than $70,000 in library acquisitions each year, which will pay for more than 10,000 new publications for KU libraries over the life of the grants.

* Support a festival on the Czech Republic and Czech culture, and an international conference sponsored with the Kansas National Guard and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in spring 2001.

* Support a new Okinawan Studies Center.

* Help KU's business school hire a geographer and environmental studies specialist on South America and a international finance specialist on Latin America.

* Help expand an ongoing exchange with Senegal and a study abroad program in Ghana, as well as create a new program with Tanzania.

The centers will also cooperate in sponsoring a joint international conference in the spring of 2002 on the global legacy of the Cold War.

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Last updated: Wednesday, September 20, 2000