| Over the course of history, state universities and land grant colleges have responded well to issues of national importance and exigency. Their role in conducting research and educating, people for the industrial and scientific revolutions, exemplify these notable milestones.;Today, the nation is faced with competing not only with global economic systems, but also with the learning systems of the economically successful. Considering that we now have a global economy that increasingly is knowledge-based in technology and services, the call today emanates from a need to empower America with an international education that allows its citizens to effectively operate in an interdependent, increasingly complex, and competitive global economy.;There is reason to believe that America does not yet enjoy the luxury of effectively competing in global situations. Much of its citizenry encounters difficulty making the connection between international activities and the impact that they may have on their local communities and closer, on their personal lives. Students at both the secondary school and baccalaureate levels of education, although somewhat progressing, similarly manifest limited levels of knowledge with regard to the outside world and how this limitation may effect their careers.;Small- to medium-sized business and industry, because of its extraordinary capacity to produce, is expected to lead Americas' journey to economic prosperity during the new millennium. It however, expresses fear of the unknown, a condition exacerbated by a lack of an international knowledge that enables it to capture a fair share of the world market.;Although both higher education and the economy are internationalizing, they are moving on separate tracks with little regard for the needs of the other. In view of technological and economic shifts that continue to displace the American work force, the overriding challenge is that of examining how higher education and those involved with matters of the global economy can best merge to serve the needs of a nation in a competitive global society. Within this framework, education's more specific task is that of cultivating in students a knowledge that allows them to understand the features of the global world as it exists, including the interdependency of nations and their interconnected political, economic, and social processes. Crucial to this important endeavor will be a student's ability to view this ambience not exclusively from an American perspective, but also from culturally and ethnically diverse points of view. |
