Letter of Invitation
To Our MSU Colleagues and Students and Members of the Indian Community:
Please join us on September 22 for Global Encounter: India, a landmark discussion among members of the MSU community--faculty, staff, students, administrators, and visiting international scholars and professionals and of the local Indian Community. MSU has had a varied and rich involvement with India for decades through faculty and student presence here and abroad, cutting-edge research and scholarship, and active engagement and partnership. This is the time to build on the participation of hundreds at our April 20 Global Encounter and other recent developments. You are invited to help build the next pieces of these relationships as we shape MSU's strategic engagements in India.
MSU Global Encounter: India
Framing MSU's Global Engagement for the 21st Century
Friday, September 22, 2006
8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. (Check-in and continental breakfast starts at 8 a.m.)
Delia Koo International Academic Center, Third Floor
Michigan State University Campus
We will come together from 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. in an India-specific Global Encounter event to help identify partners, programmatic themes, and research and instructional opportunities where MSU can have transformational impacts in the decades ahead and can benefit from the reciprocal relationships. For discussion purposes, part of the session will be structured around several broad themes designed to encompass the vast array of interests at MSU, such as health (human, animal and plant), technology and economic development, food systems and agribusiness, environment, education, and gender, poverty, and social inequalities. Participants will also focus on issues related to various stakeholders, e.g., Indian alumni, MSU students, students from India, and the MSU/area community. At this event, you will have the opportunity to think collectively about MSU's future leadership and partnerships in research, education, and outreach in a crucial part of the world.
Your input is key to charting MSU's new directions. We urge you to register on-line at the Global Encounter: India web site (www.isp.msu.edu/globalencounter/india), which includes the schedule.
Persons registering by September 19 will receive complimentary lunches. We will also post selected items on the Web site that will inform our discussion, so you can plan to read them in advance. In the weeks and months ahead, we will continue to shape and implement the ideas that emerge from Global Encounter: India.
Global Encounter: India is flexibly structured and interactive. Whether you can come for only an hour or the entire session, your perspectives and ideas will be integrated with those of other participants and will help ensure that our university will be the premier world-grant institution of the 21st Century.
We are justifiably proud of our history of MSU's longtime engagement in India and our markers of success--our study abroad programs, our record of research and outreach in a wide range of disciplines; our past and present linkages with Indian universities; our course offerings, including enhanced language instruction; and our renowned Asian Studies Center, Center for Advanced Study in International Development, and Women and International Development. With success, however, comes the challenge to examine current directions against future trends and needs. This is critical to expand our international reach and create a sustainable presence in the world, as called for in President Simon's strategic plan, Boldness by Design.
We look forward to seeing you at this agenda-setting event.
| Kim A. Wilcox | Jeffrey M. Riedinger | ||
| Provost | Acting Dean | ||
| International Studies and Programs |
