Veritas, Vol. 30, No. 03, November 1989

              NOVEMBER 1989 • VOLUME 30, NUMBER 3 • FOR THE FACULTY AND STAFF OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI
Living abroad offers experience of a lifetime
Ttvo international students and one student who has studied abroad discuss their experiences ivith Steve Stein, assistant provost for international programs. Pictured (left to right) are Marianne Be que, from the University of Orleans, France; Stein; Noriko Niijima, from the University of Sophia, Tokyo; and Al Buzzetti, who spent a year at the University ofL Aquila, Italy.
When Steve Stein came to the University of Miami in 1983 as a history professor, he immediately recognized a need for an international exchange program — an area in which he had experience at Stanford as well as other universities.
“I was struck by the fact that UM prided itself on being a global university,” he said, “yet there were few opportunities for our students to get any experience abroad.”
With the go-ahead from top administrators, Stein took action. Today, as assistant provost for international programs, he can boast that UM has the largest network of international exchanges of any other institution in the country.
Students have their choice of studying at 38 different sites abroad. Most recently agreements have been signed with the University of Orleans in France and The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. In addition, an agreement is in the works with Moscow State University, according to President Edward T. Foote II, who met with that university’s president on a trip to the Soviet Union this summer.
“Having traveled throughout most of the world, I’ve never had a more interesting trip than in Moscow,” says Foote. “It will be very exciting to exchange students and faculty with the most prestigious university in the Soviet Union. Our international exchange program is extremely important both to our students, who should live in another culture to really understand international issues, and to Miami, which is rapidly becoming a world-class international city.”
In the four years since the Office of International Programs was created more than 300 students have taken this opportunity to
experience all aspects of life in another country — something Stein finds necessary in this day and age.
“In the contemporary world where things are going on like the rise of Japan and the unification of Europe in 1992, we feel it is absolutely necessary for people in this country to have international experience, an international perspective, and the tools to deal with international situations,” he says. “Within the next decade there will probably be no major profession in this country that will not be touched by the international situation.”
To assure that students get as much from the experience as possible, Stein makes certain that the program firmly adheres to one of its main philosophies — “total immersion.”
“Our idea is to have students become a part of the society and the culture,” he says. “We reject the idea of the ‘campus abroad,’ which is basically to have the students taking American classes from American professors and living in dorms with other American students. We feel that creates a situation where the only time a student
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government
Yeltsin calls for democracy in Soviet
Soviet parliamentarian Boris Yeltsin, the outspoken Soviet populist who attracted national attention for his open criticism of the Soviet political system during his recent tour of the United States, finished his eight-day visit with a stop in Miami sponsored by the University of Miami’s Institute for Soviet and East European Studies in the Graduate School of International Studies.
Yeltsin told the luncheon crowd of about 500 at the Omni International Hotel that democratic reforms in his homeland were not progressing quickly enough, and he provided names of five Soviet leaders he’d like to see removed from the Politburo because of their opposition to the
reforms. He also called for a more accountable Soviet Communist Party.
“This is particularly necessary in view of the fact that the Politburo today is leaning too far to the right and is pulling Gorbachev along with it,” he said.
Yeltsin founded the Independent Caucus of the Supreme Soviet, a group that calls for an end to Communist Party-run press and television, the elimination of travel restrictions, and indefinite leasehold property rights available to any individual.
Yeltsin was appointed secretary of the Central Committee for Construction by President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985. Two years later he received
international attention when Gorbachev dismissed him from his post for publicly criticizing perestroika's progress. Yeltsin was reinstated to the Congress of People’s Deputies by an overwhelming majority earlier this year.
“Yelstin’s visit was of enormous significance for the struggle for a more open Soviet system and better Soviet/United States political, trade, and scientific relations,” says Jiri Valenta, director of the institute. “In sponsoring his visit, UM established itself firmly as one of the leading education centers promoting this effort.”
—Conchita Ruiz-Topinka