Oct 13, 2003
As U.S. Re-enters UNESCO, DePaul Poised To Forge Partnership
DePaul University is prepared to become one of the first American universities to partner with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) since the United States rejoined the Paris-based organization that promotes collaboration among nations in education, science, culture and communications. The official welcoming ceremony was held Oct. 1 in Paris.
A delegation from DePaul recently traveled to Paris where it met with key UNESCO officials who said education currently is UNESCO’s single most important priority and identified several areas where UNESCO and DePaul could forge partnerships. Those areas include UNESCO sponsored professorships; exchange programs with worldwide universities and organizations; work in post-conflict areas such as Iraq and Afghanistan; literacy and HIV awareness and treatment programs.“As America re-establishes its connection with UNESCO, DePaul has taken a proactive step to be the first American university to begin negotiating a partnership,” said John J. Kozak, DePaul’s executive vice president for academic affairs. “UNESCO continues to encourage and facilitate global relationships and the dissemination of information on critical international issues involving education, science and culture and DePaul will be a key player when UNESCO looks to American universities for expertise."
Partnering with UNESCO would be a natural fit for DePaul, which has established alliances and programs across the globe. DePaul collaborations have been established in such locations as Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Europe and Asia.
DePaul has several well established international partnerships and programs on which a joint venture with UNESCO could be built.
• The International Human Rights Law Institute has been conducting research in the Americas on the trafficking of women and children for the purposes of sexual exploitation. The institute also is working on projects in the Arab world including human rights training for judges in Afghanistan and developing publications in Arabic on the International Criminal Court and international human rights law. Other College of Law programs include legal clinics in Chiapas and Oaxaca, Mexico that provide human rights training and a course on post-conflict judicial reforms that takes students to El Salvador.
• Since 1997, DePaul’s business school has launched MBA programs with partner institutions in Hong Kong, Bahrain and the Czech Republic. The school’s Driehaus Center for International Business also sponsors short-term seminars and a full-time MBA program in international marketing and finance that allow students to study and pursue internships abroad.
• The School for New Learning (SNL), which is expressly geared to the educational needs of adult learners, works in collaboration with the University of Free State in South Africa to develop curriculum for new adult education programs in post-apartheid South Africa. SNL also offers undergraduate courses in Hong Kong.
The United States, which was a founding member of UNESCO, severed its ties with the organization in 1984 to protest the “new world information order” the organization then promoted. In September 2002, President George Bush announced that the U.S. would re-establish a relationship with UNESCO. The move was made official during a welcoming ceremony held this month in Paris that first lady Laura Bush attended.
Now that the U.S.-UNESCO relationship is formalized, DePaul can pursue the partnership possibilities more aggressively. “We hope to sign formal agreements in the future,” said Kozak.