Chancellor James L. Oblinger was part of a select group of university presidents and chancellors invited to Washington, D.C., for a summit on international education Jan. 5-6.

The event, titled the “U.S. University Presidents Summit on International Education,” was co-hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. The Summit was a platform for President George W. Bush to introduce a new federal language initiative, the National Security Language Initiative.

According to the chancellor, the Summit focused broadly on current international education issues, including the need for more foreign language training at U.S. colleges and universities.

Oblinger explained that as a recent historical backdrop to the conference, there has been a nation-wide decline in foreign students coming to study at domestic institutions of higher learning, particularly graduate schools, since Sept. 11.

He pointed out, however, that N.C. State’s enrollment of foreign students has remained relatively steady since that time.

“There was a feeling that perhaps the pendulum had swung too far in restricting education visas after 9/11,” Oblinger said. “The Summit provided an opportunity to dialogue with those who control those visas and who are now also focused on international education.”

The Summit also looked at ways linguistics programs could be expanded. These involved innovative programs taught through video and cable television formats to actual student “immersion” exchanges.

Programs singled out for need included Chinese, Hindi, Russian and Arabic.

According to Oblinger, the Summit also reviewed ways international education experiences could be facilitated, and how these experiences could benefit students in a globally competitive atmosphere.

The chancellor has long emphasized international educational experiences for students and faculty, beginning with developing an exchange program with the Republic of Mexico when he first became associate dean and director of academic programs in CALS.

NCSU participates in the Fulbright Scholarship program which awards federal grant money on a competitive basis to students and faculty.

The program provides opportunities to study, teach and perform research in foreign countries. NCSU has been particularly active in the faculty part of the program, with a lower level of activity among students.

“Our University is on a crusade to get our students to have an international experience because we live in global economy,” Bob Patterson, professor of crop science and participant in the Fulbright program, said.

Patterson received a Fulbright Scholarship for faculty teaching and research that took him to Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany in 1995-96.

He said the experience, which occurred a few years after the fall of the Berlin wall, had a profound impact on his life.

“East Germany had been a bread basket in Eastern Europe before the advent of the collective farming methods used by the Communist system,” Patterson said. “When I arrived, East Germany was recovering from a terrible condition in terms of food production.”

He said there was no fishable lake in East Germany due to the methods of agriculture employed under the Communist system. His experience allowed him to help the East German agriculture economy recover by teaching and studying sustainable agriculture techniques.

Patterson said the University’s new strategic plan will emphasize international education experience more.

Patterson taught a graduate course in plant physiology and conducted research, while in Germany. He pointed to his contacts as growing over the years and benefitting the University.

One of the German scientists he studied with later came to NCSU and taught a course in 2000.

“I carried my knowledge of how to grow soybeans from North Carolina to Germany,” Patterson said.

“If the fruit of this [Summit] is a variety of competitive grant programs and opportunities that would enhance a core value we already have, such as international education, then absolutely, we will be a player,” Oblinger said, noting the convention’s impact on the University.