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Statement by Katherine Bellows
Executive Director, Office of International Programs
Georgetown University

Before Joint Hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on
International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight
And House Education and Labor Subcommittee on
Higher Education, Lifelong Learning and Competitiveness
Friday, June 29, 2007

Chairmen Delahunt and Hinojosa, Ranking Members Rohrabacher and Keller, and Members of the Subcommittees, thank you for this opportunity to testify about the importance of international students and scholars on U. S. campuses and more broadly about the critical role that international education plays on individual campuses and to the nation at large. Georgetown University President, Jack DeGioia, who wishes he could have been here himself today, is committed to building on the University's extensive international character in this era of globalization. In remarks earlier this year, to a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations, he summed up his thoughts on the role of academia in fostering international understanding as follows:

". . . a university provides a unique home for multiple traditions, cultures, and disciplines-what I call "communities of interpretation." What distinguishes different communities of interpretation is the "horizon of significance," the background of social practices, morals, customs, and institutions that provide meaning for individual members of that community. No where is the engagement between conflicting and competing communities of interpretation.between different horizons of significance.so constant and so part of daily life as in the Academy. This engagement is imbedded in our mission. And providing the context where horizons of significance can be fused-where bridges can be built between communities of interpretation-is one of our continuing challenges, and one of our greatest opportunities to promote understanding."

Indeed, the international nature of Georgetown began with its first class in 1789. The student body, of 275 students, included 47 international students mostly from Europe and Central America who went on to become doctors, lawyers, farmers, merchants, clergymen and politicians. That beginning destined the University to continue to engage internationally in:

• welcoming significant numbers of international students to our campuses each year,

• sending more than half of Georgetown's undergraduate students to study abroad,

• developing a School of Foreign Service the graduate programs of which were recently ranked first in the nation by peer institutions,

• being home to three Department of Education Title VI-funded National Resource Centers (on the Middle East, on Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies, and on Latin America) as well as sharing a partnership with George Washington University and the Center for Applied Linguistics in operating the Title VI-supported National Capital Language Resource Center,

• managing government-sponsored international exchange programs, and

• implementing innovative community-based learning programs at several sites internationally.

Furthermore, in addition to operating programs at Georgetown University-owned sites in Italy and Turkey, we are one of five U. S. universities supported by the Government of Qatar to open a campus in Doha as part of their "Education City." That campus will have approximately 110 students from 23 countries when classes commence this fall where they will experience Georgetown values and our approach to learning. It is our plan that a good number of those Georgetown students at the Doha campus will be able to have at least one semester of their Georgetown education at our Washington campus.

During the 2005-2006 academic year, Georgetown was home to 1676 international students from 124 countries. The preponderance of those - 936 -- were graduate students pursuing studies in diverse fields including medicine, business, the sciences, humanities and social sciences, including social justice and international relations. As is true nationally, the greatest numbers of international students come to our campuses from Asia led by South Korea, the People's Republic of China, and Japan. We also have students from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Myanmar, the Sudan, Vietnam and Venezuela.

The presence of these students on our campuses absolutely enriches the educational experience for all of our students by bringing special perspectives and unique experiences to our classrooms. In the audience here today is Hamza Karcic, who is from Bosnia and is pursuing his Masters Degree at Georgetown's Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies. Having grown up in Bosnia until the outbreak of the conflict, Hamza's life experience has informed his academic work as well as the perspectives he has been able to share with his fellow students, predominantly Americans, regarding the functioning of the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Similarly, a Colombian student - pursuing her Masters Degree in Latin American studies -- who worked extensively with NGO's focused on conflict resolution in her home country and who is this summer involved in University-supported research on that topic in Colombia - has brought her own exposure to the violence and conflict in her home country to the classroom here at Georgetown.

As you know, one aspect of the Higher Education Act's Title VI National Resource Centers program is outreach activities to share the knowledge generated by the Centers to the broader public, including K-12 teachers. Certainly, our National Resource Centers have effectively enhanced their outreach programming by engaging international students in that activity. Let me share with you one example. A graduate student in the Title VI-funded Center for Latin American Studies, Patricio Zamorano, is a journalist by training from Chile but also an avid musician. When the Center was approached by a Spanish language teacher at West Springfield High School in Fairfax, Virginia, seeking someone to speak with their Level 4 Spanish class about songwriting and musical expression in Latin America during the 1970's and '80s, Patricio was a natural. He not only gave a presentation followed by an extensive question and answer session on the topic in Spanish, but he engaged the students by playing several songs, some of them instrumental solos, some of them with lyrics, on a variety of instruments including the charango, cuatro, guitar, and the zampoña.

We are particularly proud of the effort Georgetown undertakes to ensure that our student body, both domestically and internationally, includes students from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. While there is not a ready pool of significant student aid funding for international students, we are fortunate that, thanks to generous anonymous donors, Georgetown is able to help a small number of international students with financial need to attend the University through the Pedro Arrupe, S.J. Scholarship for Peace. This prestigious scholarship, named for Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J., former Superior General of the Jesuits, is offered to students from other countries who plan to return to their home country after earning a Georgetown degree. In selecting the Arrupe Scholars, the Committee identifies individuals who have already shown a commitment to social justice and are expected to continue their work while at Georgetown and throughout their lives. This program focuses in particular on academically outstanding students with little or no resources from conflicted regions of the world, and over the last 10 years, has permitted nearly two dozen students from 15 countries including Afghanistan, Myanmar (Burma) and Iraq to study at Georgetown..

A recent report by one of our Arrupe students, who recently completed her graduate studies, shared several examples of what she is contributing already as a result of her studies. To quote from her report: "I proposed a microfinance idea that the World Bank and developing country governments offer microfinance loans - together with incentives for adults - so that youth and adults can establish joint-ventures, and work as co-owners. The proposal was well-received by the World Bank staff who expressed their strong interest in promoting my idea among country governments." Furthermore, she reported that her academic work in the area of development management skills, gender analysis, project implementation, and performance monitoring and evaluation enabled her to have a consulting internship with the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance at the US Agency for International Development (OFDA/USAID) where she helped develop a set of performance indicators so that the Office can better monitor program results across the world more efficiently. She intends to return to her native Burma when feasible to help the country achieve economic and social development, but for the time being, she is devoting her life to social development of people in developing countries, by working with the International Youth Foundation to improve prospects of children and youth around the world.

International scholars also play an important role on our campus and provide important benefits to the United States. Let me share several examples that will, I feel sure, drive home that point:

• Dr. Frank Wong was born in Vietnam and grew up in Canada. He first came to the United States on a student visa and has since become a naturalized U. S. citizen. Today, Dr. Wong is a valued member of the faculty of the Georgetown School of Nursing and Health Studies and is recognized for his important work focusing on HIV prevention strategies and substance abuse in the US, Asia, Caribbean, and South Africa. He has also briefed Members of Congress on these topics.
• Our School of Foreign Service is fortunate to include among its faculty not only leaders in the U. S. foreign policy arena, but also former Presidents of Spain and Poland who serve as Distinguished Professors in the Practice of Diplomacy.
• Dr. Aziza Shad is Chief of the Division of Pediatric Hematology Oncology, Blood and Marrow Transplantation at the Lombardi Cancer Center. Dr Shad, a native of Pakistan, graduated with honors from Dow Medical College, in Karachi and obtained a Post-Graduate Diploma in Child Health (DCH) from The University of Karachi. After further training in Pediatrics and Oncology in London, she underwent another Pediatric Residency at the Children's Hospital, Pennsylvania State University followed by a Fellowship in Pediatric Hematology Oncology at the National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD (1989-92). Today, Dr. Shad is Board Certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology Oncology and directs the Georgetown University Medical Center's Leukemia Lymphoma Program and chairs the Pediatric Tumor Board at Lombardi Cancer Center. She holds the Amey Distinguished Professor of Neuro Oncology and Childhood Cancer and is one of the leaders in the emerging field of late effects of pediatric cancers.
• For almost thirty years, the Department of Government at Georgetown University has maintained a cordial and valued relationship with the leading political scientists and international relations scholars in Israel. Grants from the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington, matched by Georgetown University, have made possible a visiting Israeli lectureship - the Aaron and Cecile Goldman Visiting Israeli Professorship -- the Visiting Israeli Professorship that has, since 1979, brought nineteen distinguished Israeli scholars to Georgetown University which serves as an intellectual bridge between Israel and the United States. Currently, the Goldman Professorship is held by Dr. Avi Beker, a faculty member at Tel Aviv University who is teaching a full course load of undergraduate courses with an emphasis on Israel, the Middle East and Israeli-Arab relations.
• The Georgetown University Law Center also has active faculty exchange programs with the University of Heidelberg, Hebrew University and Seoul National University and hosts a number of visiting international faculty each year who are teaching law courses in fields such as the European Union, trade, and international human rights.
• Ziv Yaniv, who holds a PhD from Hebrew University in Israel is currently working at the Georgetown University Medical Center's Imaging Science and Information Systems Center on computer-assisted surgical navigation systems, often seen as the GPS-system for the medical field, and will be involved in an upcoming clinical trial on the system's ability to improve the accuracy of diagnostic biopsies in lung cancers. He is here on a J-1 exchange scholar visa.

Also of long term benefit to the United States is what these international students contribute when they return to their home countries. Georgetown, like other U. S. post-secondary institutions have educated individuals who have returned home to subsequently serve in high public office. But there are less well known individuals who have nonetheless been of great importance to shaping the future of their own nations and internationally. Keng Yong Ong of Singapore holds a Masters Degree in Arab Studies from Georgetown and is the current Secretary General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Among our undergraduate alumni is a young man from South Africa with a degree from Georgetown College in the early 1990's who returned home to serve a senior advisor to President Nelson Mandela. Another who studied English on our campus is today a judge in his native Ivory Coast with a focus on human rights and women's rights cases. Similarly, since 1993, the Leadership and Advocacy for Women in Africa (LAWA) Fellowship Program at Georgetown University Law Center has enabled nearly 50 women from Botswana, Ghana, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe to earn Master of Law degrees and return home to become parliamentarians, judges, professors, directors of organizations and service providers in their home countries. Six new LAWA fellows - from Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi and Nigeria - will be arriving on our Law Center campus on July 8.

Beyond the international students who come to Georgetown to pursue full courses of study and degree programs, the University is also home to the Center for Language Education and Development (CLED) which administers intensive English language programs for international students. At all times there are from 120 to 130 foreign students strengthening their English language skills through CLED, often before going on to other U. S. colleges and universities to pursue degrees. In addition, CLED administers an array of specialized programs including two teacher training programs now underway, one supported by Ministry of Education in Taiwan and one comprised of English teachers from Japan. The focus of those programs is on helping those teachers enhance the strength of the English communicative skills of their students. Another CLED program is working with graduate students in chemistry from Tokyo Metropolitan University. While those students are at Georgetown, they are engaged in sharing their research with faculty and students in the University's Chemistry Department. Across the board, CLED promotes involvement of its students in language exchange programming which enables U. S. students to improve their foreign language skills and understanding of other cultures while the foreign students in turn improve their conversational English and their understanding of this great country of ours.

Georgetown is also home to the Center for Intercultural Education and Development (CIED) which administers a number of programs - including several supported by the U. S. Agency for International Development and the Department of State - that are designed specifically to foster international understanding while contributing significantly to economic and social development and efforts to strengthen the institutions of democratic governments abroad and to reduce corruption. CIED continues to effectively manage the highly-regarded Cooperative Association of States for Scholarships (CASS) program which over the last two decades has brought to the United States over 5,000 individuals, including large numbers of indigenous people, women, minorities and individuals with disabilities, to pursue academic work at two and four year post-secondary institutions around the Nation. Those individuals have returned to their home countries in Central America, the Caribbean, and Mexico where they are making substantial contributions to their communities and who identify strongly with America and our values. Just recently, CIED was selected by the Department of State to implement a similar program on a smaller scale to bring students from North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, and, starting next week, will be hosting, for the second consecutive year, a group of about two dozen university undergraduates from the countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa under the State Department's Middle East Partnership Initiative.

Suffice it to say that, as we host international students, scholars and researchers on U. S. campuses, our Nation benefits both from the many ways that they add to the intellectual rigor of campus life and in terms of the appreciation for American values that they take home when they complete their educations. Likewise, our campus and the Nation benefit from the international higher education programs authorized under Title VI of the Higher Education Act which I referenced earlier.

With that in mind, I want to take a few moments to share with you my general perspectives on areas where the Congress can be of help in maintaining the maximum constructive presence of international students, scholars and researchers on U. S. campuses. In that regard, it is important to keep in mind the integral role that colleges and universities in the United States play in research activities funded by our government. As the examples I provided earlier from our campus make clear, universities are responsible for important basic research that provides American industry with the knowledge and tools to go forward with American technological innovation. It would be hard to overstate how important these international researchers are to the conduct of cutting-edge research in the United States. Georgetown and other colleges and universities work hand-in-hand with the Departments of Homeland Security and State to enable this vital exchange to work as smoothly as possible, keeping in mind valid national security concerns.

At Georgetown, we have had the privilege of working closely on a number of occasions with Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Maura Harty, and we are grateful for her own deep appreciation of the importance of international students to our country. I would like to share with you a quote from an editorial piece written by Assistant Secretary Harty in the October 8, 2004, issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, entitled "We Don't Want to Lose Even One International Student":

"The loss of even one qualified student to another nation is one too many. When a student goes elsewhere, we haven't lost only the student. We have lost his or her parents, who have clearly decided to spend their money elsewhere. We have very likely lost younger siblings, who will follow in the footsteps of an older brother or sister. Most important to me, though, we have lost the chance for a student to see the wonders of America through his or her own eyes, rather than through the prism of a foreign news-media outlet that may be biased. When a student grows up and becomes a social, civic, political, or perhaps religious leader at home, we want that leader to have had the quintessential experience of life on an American college or university campus. A young person's positive experience in America strengthens and enriches our nation. And we are informed every day in what we do by our desire to welcome those students to our shores."

That perspective is important to remember as we continue to work on persistent challenges that exist as we strive to reach the right balance.

There continue to be delays in non-immigrant visa issuance. These delays are not a function of the Department of State; rather they involve a cumbersome and often duplicative search of a number of disconnected databases that are managed by the various agencies in the intelligence community. It is important to note that these delays affect not only people applying for the first time but also people who have been in the United States and are in the midst of doing research for us. When they exit the United States for a conference or a visit home, they must get a new visa. The threat of getting caught in one of these clearance delays acts as a serious disincentive to travel either for professional or personal reasons and undermines the process to help them maintain ties to their home country

One individual whose effort to secure the necessary approvals to teach in the United States has been seriously delayed is Dr. Waskar T. Ari Chachaki who earned his Ph.D. in history from Georgetown in the fall of 2004. Dr. Ari is a member of Bolivia's Aymara people, and he is an authority on the religious beliefs and political activism among indigenous Bolivians. Prior to returning to Bolivia in 2005 for what he intended to be a brief visit, he served as a consultant to the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. He had also been a visiting assistant professor at Western Michigan University and done postdoctoral work at the University of Texas. Dr. Ari has been seeking a visa to permit him to assume responsibilities as Assistant Professor of History and Ethnic Studies at the University of Nebraska. He was hired by the University of Nebraska with the intention that he would assume his responsibilities in August, 2005. Just last month, the Department of Homeland Security finally approved an employment-visa petition submitted almost two years ago by the University of Nebraska at Lincoln for Dr. Ari. The approval simply means that Mr. Ari, an expert on the indigenous Indians of the Andes, and an Aymara Indian, can now request a visa to take up the position offered him over two years ago at Nebraska. As far as I know, our government never gave a reason for not responding earlier.

Likewise, delays in green card approvals can pose real concerns. We all expect the intelligence community to take a very close look at people who wish to become permanent residents of the United States. However, most universities have a number of faculty members and researchers who have been waiting for years for these clearances. At some point, one wonders about the validity of a clearance that is four years in the making.

Earlier in my testimony, I shared with you examples of the work of several of the Title VI programs at Georgetown University. Those programs engage our international students and faculty with U. S. students and faculty in ways that add immeasurably to the base of knowledge about critical regions on our campus and beyond. I was pleased to see, after five years of stagnant funding for international higher education programs, that the version of the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill which was approved earlier this month by the House Appropriations Subcommittee includes a nearly $10 million increase in funding for the various Title VI programs. Those resources serve as important base funding which enables institutions to attract additional support to deepen learning and research into critical regions. The importance of that work was highlighted in a recent National Resource Council's report, International Education and Foreign Languages: Keys to Securing America's Future. I encourage Members of the Committees to give that report's recommendations thoughtful attention.

Before closing, I want to take just a moment to share with you a few thoughts about study abroad programs. While I know that is not the focus of today's hearing, I do think it is an essential counterpart to the presence of international students, scholars and researchers on American campuses. Earlier this year, the full House approved legislation crafted in the Foreign Affairs Committee, the H. R. 1469, Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act. I do hope that the Senate will follow the House's lead and approve that legislation this session. I can share with you many examples of how an effective study-abroad experience have changed the lives of U. S. students and enhanced international understanding. For the moment, I do want to encourage the Congress to be supportive of study-abroad opportunities and to lend support to innovations that will strengthen those experiences.

We are particularly proud, at Georgetown, of our Community-Based Learning Abroad Initiative. In fall 2003, we launched a program that provides interested students with opportunities to engage in community-based learning while enrolled in a GU-approved program abroad. Students who choose to pursue this option enroll in a newly-designed three-credit course, Sociology 207, "Social Justice Practicum," offered through the Department of Sociology and Anthropology-a course that requires participation in a community-based project which is nested in academic framework and requirements. The program draws on two of Georgetown's traditional strengths: community service and justice work, on the one hand, and study abroad on the other. It was developed through a close partnership between the Office of International Programs; the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service; and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. The prime example is the program in with la Universidad Alberto Hurtado, a Jesuit institution in Santiago, Chile. Others are being pursued in Ecuador, Senegal, South Africa and Turkey.

In closing, I would ask that you continue to impress upon the intelligence agencies handling clearance for members of the international academic community the importance of making significant improvements to the clearance process to facilitate internationals with expertise coming to this country in support of our values and beliefs. I thank your Committees for the interest you have shown in these topics by convening today's hearing, and I encourage you to continue that focus as you shape the pending Higher Education Act Reauthorization as well as appropriations legislation and other initiatives that create new and expanded opportunities for international students, researchers and faculty to come to our campuses and for American students to enrich their educational experiences through study abroad.