Shreve Auditorium, Global and International Studies Building
Wednesday, March 04, 2020
Stephen L. and Connie J. Ferguson International Center Groundbreaking
Hannah Buxbaum, Vice President for International Affairs
Last year, Patrick O’Meara, my colleague, friend, and predecessor, wrote a wonderful book entitled “Indiana University and the World: A Celebration of Collaboration, 1890-2018.” The book focuses mostly on the university’s outward facing activities, looking country by country at the contributions of IU faculty members and administrators to development projects overseas.
But it also serves as a chronicle of international engagement on our campuses, charting the generations of international students who have earned degrees here, and participated as members of our community. It makes clear that for many decades, it has been a priority of the university to ensure that all of our students encounter languages, ideas, and people from different countries.
The book is a historical account, yet resonates very clearly with the current context. That we live in a global era is, in 2020, a truism. Simply considering the two most prominent challenges in the news today—climate change and the coronavirus—is enough to make that clear. As an institution of higher education, we too must be global—producing research that draws on diverse perspectives and cross-border partnerships; creating a community of students from a wide range of countries; and offering all of our students study abroad and other opportunities for international learning.
In serving that mission, we have significantly expanded our international community. As President McRobbie recounted, we welcome thousands of international students each year, with over 110 different countries represented on this campus alone.
Through their academic work, their participation in student organizations, and in their social lives, they are side by side with students from the United States, ensuring that all of our students develop the diversity of perspective and intercultural competency that are so important not just to their professional futures, but to their participation as informed citizens in the world.
The Ferguson International Center will not only help us serve these students better, it will also stand as a visible signal of how central internationalization is to our success. It will bring the offices that serve international students from the periphery of campus to its center, and its location across the street from the Hamilton Lugar School will create a focal point for global learning. Moreover, the building will also house our study abroad offices, thereby helping us to strengthen and expand interaction between the international and the domestic student bodies.
Indiana University is already recognized, nationally and internationally, as a leader in global research and education. The Ferguson International Center is a renewal of our commitment in that regard, and one that could not come at a better time, when international awareness and expertise are so desperately needed.
I would like to conclude by thanking those who are making the Center a reality, and I will start with President McRobbie. In 1964, in very advanced preparations for IU’s sesquicentennial, then-President Stahr submitted to the Board of Trustees a list of projects that he wished to implement as part of the anniversary celebration. On that list was an “international house,” intended to “symbolize and put into action the position of the University with the world at large.” His communication identified area programs, international development contracts, and a gathering place for international students as some possible uses of such a building.
It is now, not in our sesquicentennial but rather in our bicentennial year, that we are breaking ground for this building. I find it absolutely fitting that it is during President McRobbie’s tenure that we do so. His commitment to the international dimension of our work as scholars and as educators has been one of the most durable and visible aspects of his presidency. He has not only built on IU’s longstanding assets and expertise in this arena, but has transformed the range and quality of our international engagement, including through the creation of our Global Gateway Network and the Hamilton Lugar School, in whose building we now celebrate. The Ferguson International Center is part of his vision.
I join him also in thanking Steve and Connie Ferguson for their extraordinary generosity in supporting the construction of this building. Their philanthropy over the years has made a huge difference to our campus, and I am truly grateful for their understanding and support of our international work. I likewise want to thank Jane and Jay Jorgensen, and Jim and Joyce Grandorf, for their support and encouragement.
Most particularly, I would like to recognize my colleagues in International Affairs. Their expertise, professionalism, and deep commitment to our students is exemplary and inspiring. The Ferguson International Center will be their campus home as well, and I am looking forward to the work we will do there together.