European Council of the Univeristy System of Georgia

EUROPEAN COUNCIL OF THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF GEORGIA Georgia College & State University 104 Atkinson September 13, 2013 1:00 p.m.

Teddi Cunningham, Ron Fietkau, Barbara Smith, Luc Guglielmi, Dan Cabaniss, Dan Ross, Nick Norwood, Robert Costomiris, Dave Nelson, David Biek, Irina McClellan, Jeff Brown, Maria Darley, Beverly Vantine, Linda Sun, Camille Bearden, Eric Gresch, Sara Beth Mallory, Jeff Palis, Danielle Smith, Kimberly Lawrence, Victoria Dubriel AGENDA

1. Self-Introduction of Representatives 2. Minutes (Margee) 3. University System News a. USG Update b. CISI Insurance c. EC Charge for 2013-2014

4. FTI Presentation/Q&A a. Fellowship Travel does more than airfare. Can assist with service learning, volunteer projects, and other humanitarian work. b. Use airlines that best accommodates students with deviations and withdraws, in the case of EC, Lufthansa works the best.

5. SCIE committees a. Report from System Council for International Education b. Report from the Study Abroad Committee (Margee) i. The new position will be advertised in a few weeks. SCIE committee worked on a description for the new position in Atlanta and the predominant role will be state support for study abroad programs. The new position will start as a one man job but hope to get additional to assist later ii. Neal McCrillis was selected to participate on the search committee if possible. iii. SCIE also hopes to update the USG site by putting International Education on the main page c. Report from the International Students and Scholars Committee

6. Old Business a. EC Staff Updates (Beverly) i. New student worker. GiGi Greaux. Went on Russia 2013 program and is an international student. Will be great asset for office. b. Study Abroad Program Reports for 2013 and Updates for 2014 (Directors) i. Germany 1. 22 students and 4 faculty 2. PD arrived 3 days later and stayed one day after student departures 3. One faculty contracted a virus and passed out because of lack of fluid but returned to program the next day fully recovered. 4. Students stayed in Akademie Hotel (2 beds per room with personal bathroom) 5. 1 student left early because was homesick 6. On the day of departure one student overslept. Ron was able to get a taxi and get the student to the airport in time because he stayed that extra day. 7. In 2014, Barbara & Ron will tag team the program, one will do the first half the other will do the second half. ii. London 1. 75 students, 8 faculty, and 1 PD 2. Several hospital visits because of the heat and students not drinking enough water. 3. Classrooms were being renovated and caused confusion but won’t be a problem next year. 4. Herb Mattord (KSU) was the site director and fit worked well. He will be site director for 2014. 5. Some complaints about housing because they’re older dorms. But is a good tradeoff for the central location. iii. Ireland 1. 60 students 2. This year the group focused on outdoor activities with students and will continue/grow that focus in 2014. Students his year went hiking, surfing, and horseback riding. 3. The program has also built a stronger relation with WIT staff iv. Paris 1. 50 Students 2. New lodging at Cite this year (2013) 3. Luc was given the wrong information about Cite and thusly, provided students with inaccurate information. Students were upset that Laundry was more expensive than what they were told, and WiFi wasn’t in their room. Now that Luc knows, he will be more accurate with information at orientation next year. 4. No ER visits this year. 5. 2014  meals twice a week at Cite. 1 pizza night/week. 1 cold cut & cheese/week. Is looking into pre-paid grocery cards but will depend on budget. 6. Will include a formal meal on Bateaux Mosh on the Seine in 2014 7. Remove visit to the Louvre because of crowd and will remove us tour and do self-guided walking tour. 8. Language students will stay with hopefully have option of staying with host families. Luc will do a background check on all families and will meet them personally beforehand. 9. Families are asking less than Cite for housing & Meals. 10. Will be keeping the Giverny excursion. 11. Dropping Sociology classes and adding 2 French classes in its place. 12. Cite will be 34 euros/night for Faculty guest v. Russia 1. 17 students and 1 faculty 2. Great group this syear. 3. 1st time in program history they had double entry Visas and visted Latvia with the assistants of Jeff Palis. 4. Everyone except one past participant went to Moscow. Students say the trip is expensive is will be looking into revising the trip to make it more cost effective. 5. Did a lot of walking tours and packed the trip in the beginning. 6. 2014 because of dbl entry visas will have a Baltic Cruise included in the cost of the program in addition to overnight in Frankfurt. vi. Scotland 1. 1st year as EC program and went well 2. 18 students 1 faculty 1 PD 3. Weather was freezing this year. vii. Spain 1. Martha had to leave before final reports. Robert Costomiris reported on the program from a faculty stand point and said all went well. There were a few hospital visits but nothing outside of the norm. viii. Morocco (2014) 1. Will examine Arabic Life and influence on Spain 2. 2 weeks in Morocco and 1 week in Spain 3. Goal is 10 students but reserved 15 airfare seats. 4. David Biek will be only Georgia faculty unless recruitment goes well then will consider bringing another person along.

7. New Business a. Program Materials for 2014 i. Paris Video (Luc) 1. Watched new Paris promo video ii. St. Pete Video (Irina) 1. Wasn’t ready. Will send out when finalized. b. Operations Budget (Irina) i. All programs have health budget and no one in the red. c. How much to return for waived flights (Bev) i. Bev will subtract $200 from cost of plane tickets for students who want to do their own airfare. d. Per Diem (Teddi) i. Per Diem will now be referred to as “Meal Allowance” so people don’t get confused with what is set forth by the state as our budgets can’t support that amount. ii. Currently meal allowance is $42/day. Increase now to $50/day max e. Support for new faculty/mentorships (Irina) f. Greece (Margee) i. Costas from GCSU will no longer be able to be PD because of duties in current position as Dept Chair. ii. Now looking into Chris Bourdouvalis from GRU. If accepted, he will be PD for three years. iii. Nothing is set in stone yet because he will present to the Committee in in November and to everyone in February. g. Evaluations (Irina/Bev) i. Would like to move to online format, perhaps with Qualtrix. ii. Moving to uniform questions for each program and leaving the option for programs to add their own at the end. iii. Currently the two formats aren’t working. 1. Students now write evaluations by hand but take forever to type (but everyone in program completes them). 2. The other hand of the spectrum, some programs use Survey Monkey but not everyone in the program completes them, but is easy to copy/past information. iv. New system will be online but will need to have a way to make sure students completed the survey while also being anonymous. Grades will be held until surveys have been completed. h. Online Applications i. Not possible to do online applications at this time because students must first go through the campus representative for approval. i. Communication about program dates & campus schedules (Margee/Bev) i. This was also discussed at the SCIE meeting. Campus schedules will be collected so every effort can be made to not conflict with exams and graduations at home campus; however, this is no guarantee that conflicts won’t arise as oftentimes PDs are limited with the dates they can pick.

8. Information a. Brochures and Website (Bev) i. Brochures are ready to passed out except Russia. Russia will be mailed out when available. ii. Website is underworks so please be patient for the revamping. b. Application and Payment procedures (Bev) i. Application and Payments process will be the same this year.

9. Other Business or Announcements a. Sept 14, 2013: Faculty Orientations for Berlin, London, Madrid, Paris, St. Petersburg, Waterford, Edinburgh, Morocco b. Nov 8, 2013: EC Executive Committee meets at GC Macon Campus c. Feb 14: European Council and Executive Committee meeting at GC Macon Campus