Cortland Leads Globalization Effort

11/06/2012 

SUNY Cortland today announced the launch of SUNY Global Workforce Project, a website developed by faculty at SUNY Cortland and the College at Brockport to internationalize the curriculum of all 64 SUNY campuses.

The website, operated by the SUNY Levin Institute, will help college faculty modify their traditional coursework to enhance students’ international understanding and develop skills needed in the modern, global economy. Those skills include cross-cultural communications, holistic thinking and technological acumen.  

“Whether it is our faculty conducting research overseas, our students studying abroad, or our administrators partnering with their counterparts in foreign countries to offer a dual degree, SUNY is committed to offering students and faculty alike with access to the best tools and resources from around the world,” said State University of New York Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher. “This innovative curriculum project will serve our faculty and, in turn, our students with a fantastic universal platform and I commend the SUNY Levin Institute, SUNY Cortland, and the College at Brockport for making it possible.”

Beginning in August 2009, SUNY Cortland, the SUNY Levin Institute and the College at Brockport implemented a Global Workforce Project to prepare undergraduate students for the global economy. The project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, created and tested new global curricula developed to enhance international knowledge and to develop the skills needed in the global workforce of the 21st century. 

More than 11 SUNY Cortland instructors piloted the program in 23 courses, affecting more than 1,000 students.

The Global Workforce Project is part of a larger effort by Cortland to increase global awareness on campus, said William Skipper, the College’s project coordinator and chair of its Sociology/Anthropology Department.

“Cortland emphasizes the importance of global issues to the undergraduate experience by offering multiple globally-focused majors and minors as well as an array of foreign languages and study-abroad opportunities,” Skipper said. “The Global Workforce Project now offers a path for all students to gain knowledge of the wider world through a more globally-focused general education curriculum.”

Beyond preparing the students, the Global Workforce Project provides training to SUNY faculty to help them infuse their classrooms with global content.

“Last fall, 10 SUNY campuses visited Cortland to learn about the project,” SUNY Cortland President Erik J. Bitterbaum said. “I watched my faculty share their experiences piloting the curriculum, and it was clear that all of them been transformed through their participation in this project.”

Cortland sport management instructor Aaron Zipp piloted the Nationalism and State Sovereignty Module in his strategic management courses.

“I was excited to bring history and political science into a business-related course,” Zipp said. “My students continue to report that this exercise helped them understand how different cultures use sports to express nationalistic pride.”

The SUNY Levin Institute’s Globalization101.org website hosts the new Global Workforce Curriculum. An online training program for the Global Workforce Curriculum is in development and will be available in spring 2013. Also in spring 2013, SUNY Cortland, Brockport and the SUNY Levin Institute will be hosting a daylong conference on the themes of the Global Workforce Project.