Let me begin by saying I am honored to be the keynote speaker for this opening convocation. Now I must admit, when Corwin Georges contacted me early last Spring to see if I would provide the comments for this morning, I was pleased to be asked but had assumed that this was the traditional role the President played. I thought that, I suppose, because at my prior institution, the opening convocation was always the formal address by the president to first-year students.

I also had not realized then that a short three weeks from now I would be officially inaugurated as the 13 th President of Wittenberg. That date was set much later than my discussion with Prof. Georges. So all those things I had imagined I might say initially (if this were, in fact, the address to first year students) have now already been said. They were part of the speech I gave on Move- In day, Aug. 18. Students in the great class of ’09, I trust that speech is seared into your memories! And all the thoughts and ideas I have about what makes this place distinctive and where we need to be going will be what I will share with you at my inauguration on Sept. 24. Which left me with the somewhat daunting task of deciding what I would talk about this morning? In the end, I decided to talk about a topic that is very near and dear to my heart, both because I believe it matters enormously not just on this campus, but across our country and the world and also because it is a topic about which I have given some considerable thought.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I have borrowed portions of the comments I plan to give today from a keynote address I gave in the United Arab Emirates last fall. That address was given to a group of approximately 250 K-12 administrators in international schools. The conference was all the more fascinating because it occurred during the holy month of Ramadan – thus providing me with a wonderful experience in cultural immersion. I was also fortunate enough to be invited to share the evening Ramadan meal at the Palace of Sheikh Neyan. It was a truly extraordinary experience. As I sat with the Ambassador from France and the Ambassador from the U.K. and watched this amazing ritual unfold before me, I found myself reflecting on the importance of having our students experience the world and preparing them to become Global Citizens.

My message today is a somewhat personal – it is not a research piece – although I obviously did some research to prepare it – but rather a thought piece shaped by my three decades of experience as an educator and my travels around the world both personal and professional. The opinions are my own and are meant simply to prompt your thinking and enhance our collective dialogue around what I see as some very important topics. Students, please understand that while much of what I have to say will be addressed to the faculty and administration, you are the focus of that discussion. It is all about your education, and your preparation for the world beyond Wittenberg.

What I would like to talk about today is our role as educators in today’s increasingly chaotic and sometimes hostile world. The world we live in is a crazy and complex place, and it seems to be getting crazier by the moment. One need only look to the London bombings of this summer, or the earlier bombings in Spain or to the events of 9/11 to be reminded of this reality. In such a time, I would suggest that our role as educators must be to inspire the next generation of this world’s leadership and to provide them with a compass (a moral compass if you will) and a telescope (with a very broad lens that opens their ability to see and understand those that are different from them). To provide them with the tools to navigate the difficult waters of world leadership.

To some of you, I suspect this statement may sound a tad grandiose, but it is true. College students who attend campuses like ours at Wittenberg are the future leaders of the world we live in. The students we teach and mentor are the best and the brightest and the most privileged of their generation. They will go on to play major leadership roles, as educators, politicians, leaders of business and industry, and some may even become the leaders of their countries (prime ministers, presidents, senators, leaders of government agencies).

And WE have this incredible opportunity and responsibility to impact their lives, to shape the lens with which they view the world, to help provide their moral compass. I know that some of the most influential figures in my life have been the teachers and administrators who took a personal interest in me as a student. I remember, for instance, my ninth-grade English teacher, Mrs. Ore, who taught me to speak up or Carl Wartenberg, an associate dean at Princeton, who taught me about true caring and compassion. Both of them changed my life. I suspect that many of you –

faculty, staff, and students – were similarly inspired by a teacher or administrator who had a special impact on your life and helped you see the world in a broader context. I am also certain that many of you have provided that same inspiration and broadening experience for others. What an incredible opportunity and what a tremendous responsibility we have. “Having light we pass it on to others.”

We teach our students math, language, history, the sciences and so on – all the key academic programs, but perhaps more importantly we also have the opportunity to teach them about ethics, tolerance, compassion, critical thinking, social responsibility and empathy. How to be a good friend, neighbor, parent, community leader and Global Citizen. Not just how to make a living, but how to make a life….in the fullest sense of all that means. And, yes, how to change the world.

I had the privilege last summer of teaching a group of international school administrators in the Global Leadership program at my former institution, Lehigh University. These were adult students who were enrolled in the doctoral or master’s degree program in school leadership. And I heard firsthand their accounts of the tragic incidents that marred their attempts to educate young people on their campuses. One of my students was the Head of the International School in Kenya when the embassy was bombed. Two of my students taught at the International School in Islamabad, Pakistan and described the process of twice evacuating the school last year.

The title of this talk, “Stop the Planet I Want to Get Off: The Challenges of Educating Global Citizens in an Increasingly Chaotic World,” was inspired by working with this group of international educators – by their resolve to educate their students in the face of such difficulties or perhaps because of it.

Let me begin by talking about the challenges that face this generation of college students being educated in the U.S. Perhaps the most limiting factor our students face in the U.S. is the U.S.-centric education and culture they live in. Although the U.S. is not an island in geographic terms, it certainly feels like one. Whenever I travel abroad and return to the U.S., I am surprised by the lack of world news. Visitors from abroad often comment that they are astounded that our prime time world news coverage typically consists of two minutes worth of world news – but only where the U.S. has interest – and 28 minutes of domestic news coverage. Similarly, the newspapers provide limited coverage of world events (with, I would suggest, the exception of The New York Times).

The U.S. is educationally and culturally landlocked. Comparatively few of our citizens travel abroad. In fact, only about 20 percent of U.S. citizens even own a passport. I would hazard to guess that many of the students that come to us out of high school cannot name more than a handful of world leaders. In a test given by the National Geographic Society on the subject of world geography, American school children consistently rank in the bottom third of children throughout the world. Perhaps more disturbing than this generation of high school graduates inability to name world leaders, is their lack of exposure to different cultures and religions – their inability to understand the perspective of someone who is different than them.

In the aftermath of 9/11, the Near East Asian Schools Administrators’ Organization sponsored an essay contest among its teachers asking them to write an essay titled, “Why do they hate us?” In preparation for my talk in Dubai, I read the winning essay. It was terrific. What a thought-provoking exercise and excellent way to seek to understand the perspective of others. I wish more U.S. college campuses and high school had asked their students to write such an essay – then or even now. This weekend, I stopped by a history department gathering and spoke with Scott Rosenberg who told me how the Wittenberg students who went on the trip to Lesotho this summer experienced some of this understanding as they talked with the citizens of that country about their views regarding the U.S. What a wonderful broadening experience.

The U.S. is an “island unto itself,” and our students are allowed to live in a cocoon that shapes the lens with which they see the world. One of our educational imperatives must be to open up their world. To help broaden the lens with which they view the world.

As one of my mentors is very fond of saying, “In a world where we can be connected instantaneously by the Internet the only thing that separates us is our software” – the way we interpret that world. So what are we at Wittenberg and in the broader higher education community doing to address this issue? And what should we be doing?

One of the obvious ways we are trying to “open the world of our students” is by bringing the world to them – by attracting increasing numbers of international students to campus. And we need to bring more international students to Wittenberg, so the kid from Toledo, Ohio, can live next to someone from Nepal or Bangladesh or Turkey.

Unfortunately, just as we need to be ramping up our international recruitment efforts, the U.S. government is providing greater barriers to access. Our fear of the world is creating a blockade to international students coming to the U.S. At the same time, Canada, the U.K. and Australia are becoming increasingly aggressive in the international student market. Who can blame them? The end result is a decreasing flow of international students to the U.S. at a time when we need them more than ever.

In addition to bringing more international students to campus, we must look to send more students abroad to study. I know from my own children’s experiences that living overseas with another family can have a profound effect on their world perspective. I also know that the two most popular study-abroad locations for U.S. students are the U.K. and Australia. Language is not a barrier, and the culture is not too taxing.

In addition, many of these study-abroad experiences are designed to allow Americans to study abroad with groups of Americans, sometimes even staying in U.S. university-owned facilities with U.S. professors. While I agree that such an experience is better than staying at home, in many ways it becomes much like an extended vacation. The students see the sites and discuss the culture, but they don’t really experience it. Students are not required to immerse themselves in a different culture, to take risks, to understand another world because they are part of that world. I firmly believe that we need to make our students more uncomfortable if they are to truly learn (a tough sell, I know, when they are paying $30,000 plus a year). We must encourage them to go to places like Peru, Egypt, Malaysia, Russia, China, where they will need to work on their language skills and live a dramatically different life.

There has also been a proliferation of programs labeled Global Citizenship on campuses across the U.S., especially in the aftermath of 9/11.

In fact, let me pause a minute and reflect on 9/11, because in many ways it was a watershed moment for consideration of increased efforts to foster global education on U.S. campuses. It was one of those rare moments, when the U.S. no longer felt like an “ Island.” Up until that point, most Americans watched the terrorism and violence that occurs in various parts of the world, and thought it wouldn’t happen in the U.S. 9/11, of course, changed all that and has impacted our college campuses in a few different ways.

One of these has already been discussed. In the aftermath of 9/11 it has become increasingly difficult for international students to obtain visas for study at U.S. universities prompting NAFSA, the Association of International Educators, to state that “International education has been set back considerably as a result of the fallout from 9/11.” While one cannot argue that the U.S. must make itself secure against terrorist threats, the best way to do that surely is to increase the flow of international students so they can be educated at U.S. universities, and our students can benefit from their presence so that the gap between our cultures can be bridged and greater understanding created.

The other impact of 9/11 has been an increased interest in US universities regarding the discussion of global issues. At my prior institution, for example, the number of international relations majors skyrocketed from 61 majors before 9/11 to 121 today. Just weeks after 9/11, the Association of American Colleges and Universities announced the availability of seed money to fund the creation of global citizen curricula at 10 American Universities. Numerous programs in Global Citizenship are up and running on college campuses and more are on the way. Perhaps Wittenberg should have one – just a provocative presidential thought.

Clearly one of our challenges in higher education is to put together a curriculum, which goes beyond special programs and which will infuse the university with a global perspective. The American Council on Education and 33 other American-based higher education groups called upon the federal government in 2002 to adopt a national agenda on global competence, but it did not happen. What must happen now is we must develop our own groups, we must have our own discussions, and we must take the lead in such reform.

Finally, we must also address what I see as one of the major weaknesses of the U.S. education system, our lack of focus on learning foreign language skills. In many schools, we don’t even become serious about teaching language until middle school or high school – long after the years when scientific research has demonstrated we learn languages the best. Many colleges have dropped their foreign language requirements altogether. Thankfully, Wittenberg is not one of them! As a result, we journey into the world expecting the world to meet us on our turf, to speak English, and I am as guilty as this as anyone. Speaking another language helps us shift our “lens” and experience the world outside the U.S. on its terms.

So what else can you do?

To the students, I would challenge each of you to take full advantage of all the opportunities and possibilities at Wittenberg. Take numerous languages courses, learn about different world religions, economic systems, and cultures, meet and interact with people from different countries. Read The New York Times and study abroad at least once (the at least once refers to study abroad, not reading the NY Times). Take advantage of these opportunities. They will enrich your life in ways you cannot even imagine. Don’t graduate saying, “I wish I had. In the words of the Nike commercial “just do it.” When you graduate I want you to truly be a citizen of the world. To do so, you need to understand and care about the world around you. Stretch yourself as never before, become uncomfortable, and learn, learn, learn.

Second, I would challenge our faculty to think seriously both individually and collectively about what it takes to prepare our students to become global citizens. A world perspective must be part of what we teach in every classroom of this university.

Third, I would challenge the administration. Yes, me, and the board, and the senior leadership to invest in our global future. Invest in our ability to attract and retain international students. Invest in our curricular initiatives to enrich the global perspectives on this campus and to allow our students to study abroad. Invest in bringing the world to Wittenberg and Wittenberg to the world.

Fourth, I would challenge all of us not to simply have this conversation among ourselves. It is a conversation that must occur across the spectrum of education – from K-12 to college and then beyond. In my opinion, we need to build more points of contact and discussion between the K-12 and higher education community. We need to discuss models of education that make a natural transition from one to the other in the education of our “Global Citizens.”

In order for the U.S. to turn the cultural tide and replace our present educational deficiencies with proficiency, our students must be taught that difference is something to celebrate. They should grow up in an educational culture where difference is the norm, where curiosity is nurtured, language is explored from kindergarten to adulthood, where Herzberg’s iceberg is seen from above and below the water, and where Senator Simon’s dream to send all students abroad is realized.

Madeleine Green, from the American Council on Education, noted that in order to foster globally competent college graduates, “institutions must do more than string together a few courses or offer a study abroad experience for a select few. They must put international understanding and intercultural competence at the heart of the educational experience, deep in the fabric and values of the institution. Preparing students to be globally literate will require many linked institutional changes, including the curriculum, student life, faculty development, and relationships with external groups, rather than a series of discrete initiatives. It will also require active engagement with institutions in other countries.”

And I believe there is no more important time for us to undertake this work than now. The world IS an increasingly chaotic and intolerant place, a place that makes you sometimes feel like jumping off, but we can change that by our actions and the actions of those we educate.

Thank you.