from Inquiry, Volume 1, Number 1, Spring 1997, 58-60
© Copyright 1997 Virginia Community College System
Brief Abstract
The exchange pairs VCCS teaching and professional faculty and administrators with their counterparts in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland for two-week study visits to their partners’ institutions.
The first rule, when proposing a new entity to a large and varied group of people, is surely to give it a name which everyone can pronounce. But when the VaCIE-CEMP Exchange was about to leave the drawing board in 1994, titles like “The VCCS-United Kingdom Exchange” seemed unduly cumbersome and did not reflect the two organizations which had collaborated to make this short term reciprocal professional development exchange available to VCCS educators. So VaCIE-CEMP it became (pronounced “Vaycee-Kemp”). And it is on the verge of becoming a VCCS household word. Twenty-five Virginia delegates from sixteen colleges took part in the initial exchange cycle in 1995-96, while thirty-six, from nineteen colleges, are participating currently.
International educators in Virginia recognize VaCIE as the Virginia Council for International Education, a statewide organization of two- and four-year schools dedicated to promoting international education throughout the Commonwealth. Founded in 1990, it is modeled, along with its name, on similar organizations in other states: PaCIE, for example, in Pennsylvania. CEMP is the Cheshire Education Management Programme, which provides a wide variety of professional development opportunities on a contractual basis to administrators and instructors in about seventy-five colleges of further and higher education in the United Kingdom.
History
Through matchmaker JoAnne McCarthy, who is the Director of International Programs at Old Dominion University, the transatlantic marriage of these two organizations took place. Before moving to ODU, JoAnn had been active in ICISP, the Illinois Consortium for International Studies and Programs, a consortium of all Illinois community colleges. CEMP and ICISP colleges had been conducting one- and two-week reciprocal “study visits” for their faculty and administrators since the late 1980's, and, based on their success, CEMP wished to expand its operations into another state. CEMP director Kevin Quinlan called JoAnn, who then described the exchange model to several of us in the VCCS;, she arranged for Kevin and his associate Anne Grady to attend the VaCIE annual meeting in October of 1994. The group of VCCS educators at his presentation agreed to assume responsibility for the exchange on the Virginia side, and the rest, as they say, is history — a substantial three-year history based on the hard work and enthusiastic cooperation of dozens, if not hundreds, of VCCS educators across the state.
Process
The exchange works by pairing teaching and professional faculty and administrators within the VCCS on the basis of their professional development proposals and their self-described personal characteristics with their counterparts in colleges of further and higher education in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The Virginia delegates host their partners during a two-week study visit (administrators have a one-week option) which takes place in the latter part of October. UK delegates reciprocate in mid-May. The home hospitality which each delegate provides to his or her partner offers unique and immediate access to the host culture, while the care taken in the pairing process contributes to the exchange's potential for creating enduring personal friendships.
Yet the principal benefit of the exchange is a professional one. Through their investigation of the manner in which their own duties are carried out on their host campus, delegates return not only with new ideas, but with with a much enhanced understanding of their own institution and the role which they play in it. Many also study solutions already in place for problems as yet unsolved by their home institutions, or investigate intriguing educational differences — the modular system, for example (i.e. the accumulation of credits towards a degree), for UK delegates, or the realities of a national curriculum for Virginians. On another plane, those who have not had the opportunity to spend time in a foreign country experience “otherness” in a non-threatening way, broadening their international acumen and deepening their sensitivity to individuals from other cultures.
But the benefits do not stop with the individual delegates. Delegate families report bonding with the visitor and benefitting from the change in their daily routine. On campus, by devising for their partners' study visit a schedule enabling them to achieve specific professional development objectives, host delegates involve large numbers of colleagues and even students in the hosting process. Visiting educators enjoy a welcome reception, sit in on meetings, interview key personnel, teach classes, address faculty, help with lab sessions, talk to students and otherwise master the nature and modus operandi of their host institutions.
An entire campus can be energized through their presence. Off-campus, they frequently visit local businesses and civic organizations, and even attend professional conferences with their partners.
Host delegates readily admit that, however exhilarating, hosting is a strenuous addition to their regular schedules and actually requires the social and professional assistance of colleagues to be manageable. Even being the visitor is demanding, and hosts learn to be sensitive to the stamina of their visitors as the visit progresses, and intersperse periods of tourism and relaxation. The general level of intensity is such that exchange rules preclude delegates being accompanied by spouses. Friends and family members are free to join them at the conclusion of the study visit; although the visiting delegation departs as a group, its members may choose a return flight other than one with the group for an out-of-pocket deviation fee which is currently $50.
Speaking of finances, the VaCIE-CEMP Exchange enjoys the blessings of VCCS administrators, in part, because the cost has held steady at $800, which covers the lodging and orientation of the visiting UK delegate(s) in Washington as well as the transatlantic flight of the Virginia partner. Campus outlay for events such as the welcome reception must also be factored in, of course. Host delegates pay out of pocket the ordinary expenses of their visitor's homestay, though it is usual for the visiting delegate to assume the cost of unusual events or activities.
Not to be underestimated in the cost-effectiveness of the exchange is the sweat equity contributed not only by delegates, but by the members of the steering committee, each of whom is responsible for a region of the state. Wendell Armstrong (CVCC), Renee Banks (DSLCC), Jean Braden (NVCC, Alexandria), Sallie Branscom (VWCC), Arthur Dixon (JSRCC) — who was replaced this year by Susan Wood— Anne Dowd (TNCC), Mary Ruth Clowdsley (TCC), and I have filled many roles, from exchange promoters to long-distance van drivers. Thanks are owed also to the VaCIE contact person designated by his or her president on each VCCS campus, who takes responsibility for advertising and coordinating each year's application process. And it has been my pleasure to undertake the overall coordination of the exchange, which has brought me in contact with so many VCCS colleagues whom I would not otherwise have met — another exchange benefit not to be overlooked. We and our UK guests are all in the debt of the speakers who have taken part in the two orientations thus far: Dr. Gordon Davies, director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia; Dr. Deborah DiCroce, President of PVCC; Dr. Christine Drake, Professor of Geography at Old Dominion University; Dr. Jud Sage, Professor of History at NVCC, Alexandria; Dr. Ron Murray, former VCCS and FE college instructor; and Lynn Bostain, the Washington director of the Virginia Department of Tourism.
Like any real-world enterprise involving many individuals and institutions, the VaCIE-CEMP Exchange has had its glitches: the unexpected withdrawal of delegates, occasional unmet expectations, and, of a different order of magnitude, the retreat from the peace process in Northern Ireland just as its benefits were beginning to be felt (CEMP coordinator Anne Grady continues to travel there without a second thought and recommends the same attitude to us). Nonetheless, the overall rate of satisfaction has been very high.
Becky Thomas is Coordinator of the VaCIE-CEMP Exchange at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Virginia. She can be contacted for information on participating in the program at (804) 961-5306 or by Internet e-mail (bt20d@jade.pvcc.cc.va.us).