INTERNATIONAL VISITORS

COMMITTEE OF MID-MICHIGAN

The big news from the IVCMM is that Alan Fisher, freshly retired Professor of Turkish and Middle Eastern History, has volunteered to work on programming International Visitors.

In order to install and use the new software that allows the State Department, the national program agencies, and local CIV’s (Councils for International Visitors) like ours to download and share information, Marjorie Porter purchased Windows XP Professional, Office 2003 Professional, and a DSL connection. A grant from NCIV covered new software and the first year’s subscription to DSL service. Now we are updating and expanding online information about the best resources IVCMM has to offer International Visitors. The next step is entering a great deal of background and contact information on local resource people.

In fiscal ‘04, IVCMM served thirty-eight international visitors. Programs for these visitors included home hospitality, except for a single one-day visit. The first group comprised three Serbian government officials interested in public administration and government reform. Four days after that group departed, a group of three Chinese journalists arrived to observe a free press in operation.

Leading educators from seven Arabic-speaking countries came to learn about educational policy and teacher training. Two government officials from Zanzibar (an island province of Tanzania) were concerned with improving federalism at home. Later, nine Ukrainian educators met with several key administrators of the MSU College of Education.

MSU’s School of Criminal Justice arranged a distinguished program for five key officials responsible for different aspects of international security in their home countries. Among the presenters were the Governor’s Director of Homeland Security and the Chicago-based Director of the Midwest Region of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Government officials responsible for food safety in eight Asian countries met with key personnel from MSU’s National Food Safety and Food Toxicology Center, the State Dept. of Agriculture, and the Michigan Farm Bureau, among others.

If you would like to learn more about the work of IVCMM, please contact Majorie Porter (332-8262 or porter@msu.edu).