Lester Gerhardt, vice provost, acting dean of Graduate Education and newly-named director of international programs, quoted statistics saying that “96 percent of humanity lives outside of the United States, while only 19 percent of Americans have passports and two percent of the United States’ college student population do an abroad experience of any type every year.” This final number, Gerhardt stated, is “an embarrassingly low percentage of engineers. You can’t deny the world beyond is different, but we don’t get out there and see it.”

RPI and about 33 other U.S. universities have been participating in the Global Engineering Education Exchange, which offers students an opportunity to gain international experience. The program is described by Gerhardt as “relatively small;” every year, it sends around 300 U.S. students overseas. “From [this program] we have seen that students have never not benefited from that interface with other schools,” stated Gerhardt.

The new program being implemented is called REACH, Rensselaer Education Across Cultural Horizons. This program will manage the study abroad opportunities for RPI students by providing five aspects—academic, housing, student services, health and safety, and administration. Additionally, the program will also balance the quantities of incoming students with outgoing students over the long-term.

“This program is not a constraint, but is an academic opportunity. We are looking for a mix of disciplines on our part going out, as well as a mix of disciplines coming in,” elaborated Gerhardt. He is aiming for 12-15 partner schools in the end. The final goal is to move this program beyond just the School of Engineering, Gerhardt explained.

As announced last year, the Institute plans to have 25 percent student participation in an international program within the school of engineering by Spring 2009, run the program for two years, then achieve 50 percent participation, increase to 75 percent, and eventually attain 100 percent involvement.

“We are recognizing that a large part of students can’t participate because of athletic commitments and so on,” stated Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education Prabat Hajela. He continued, however, that some alternative, short programs are being implemented in Spring 2008, where six weeks of the usual 18-week term will be spent abroad instead.

“Rensselaer will be the first American university requiring an abroad experience,” said Gerhardt. Gerhardt explained that this experience can be a summer experience, academic experience, an internship, participation in Engineering Without Borders, or a semester at sea. “We are looking at all possibilities to reflect an international experience of some sort and of some length,” Gerhardt stated, explaining that an assessment of credit in each of these venues would be made.

Hajela said that students will pay tuition at RPI while abroad. In terms of housing, Hajela explained that “We help students coming here; we expect other schools to do the same. In many situations, housing will be found before the student leaves.”

The Technical University of Denmark, the first announced REACH partner, visited the RPI campus Monday through Wednesday of last week. Other REACH partners expected for 2009 are another unannounced school in Europe and two more in Asia. Gerhardt believes that by sending approximately 40-50 students to each of the four schools, REACH can achieve the 25 percent goal. Gerhardt explained that partner schools must be of “comparable quality, offer a diversified set of disciplines, teach in English, and … be located in a place where students are safe and feel comfortable.”

In terms of implementing this program, Gerhardt gave one example of a difficulty that they have encountered. According to Gerhardt, Denmark has a good health care plan, but that it will not kick in until after students have been there for six weeks. This poses the problem of how students will be medically covered when they first arrive. Gerhardt showed full confidence that all problems and difficulties will be worked out, and that there will be “no show-stoppers” when it comes to their efforts to go forward with REACH.

Hajela explained that, “We are in a global environment. I know how much more students from other places know about us. I would like [our students] to use the opportunity to see what is going on in the world.” He expressed his belief that “one outcome is becoming better global citizens,” and stated an abroad experience “makes you more aware of social issues … aware of energy needs … and poverty.”

“[President Shirley Ann Jackson] has also seen this need to give students perspective,” stated Gerhardt. “Travel today is uneventful … and the planet is shrinking due to technology. In the past, this [ease of transportation] wasn’t possible.”