2023 Comprehensive East Carolina University
East Carolina University (ECU) is a public research university with more than 27,000 total students located in Greenville, North Carolina. Under the guidance of its Office of Global Affairs (OGA), the university creates international opportunities through virtual exchange, internationalized curricula, and a year-round study abroad program in Italy. In addition, ECU has focused on creating a welcoming environment for its international students.
When Professor Linda Darty first started taking undergraduates to Certaldo Alto, Italy, in 2008, it was for a three-week summer program for art students. Today, she runs East Carolina University’s only year-round study abroad program, ECU Tuscany. More than 1,500 students have participated in the 15 years the program has been running, and students can take courses in a variety of disciplines.
In May 2023, Darty organized an end-of-semester exhibition showcasing the work the ECU students did during the spring. Students in a photography class had been given an assignment to take portraits of people in Certa ldo whom they didn’t know. The exhibition is the classes’ final chance to say goodbye to the community. “The whole town came,” Darty says.
The program allows students to immerse themselves in the daily life of the town, a medieval village with a population of around 150. It was also the home of Giovanni Boccaccio, a 14th-century Italian poet and scholar who was Dante’s biographer. Darty said that every other semester ECU Tuscany offers a class in Italian literature focused on Boccaccio — one of the many general education classes that ECU students can take. “I wanted to create a program that all students can take no matter what their major,” Darty says.
She said that the creation of ECU’s Office of Global Affairs (OGA) in 2017 has bolstered support for the program. Instead of having to coordinate across multiple offices on campus, she can work directly with the international office. “When OGA came, it really brought a new awareness of global studies to the whole university,” Darty says.
Supporting Internationalization
The OGA is home to education abroad, international student and scholar services, virtual exchange and global partnerships, and intensive English. The office coordinates with the 25-member Global Affairs Committee, which has representatives of every college at ECU and many other administrative units across campus. The committee, which also serves as an advisory board for the OGA, allows the office to notify colleagues of changes and programming that it's working on and learn about what different departments are doing. The key to creating a campus culture of internationalization has been communicating why internationalization matters, says Jon Rezek, the assistant vice chancellor for global affairs and leader of the OGA.
Jami Leibowitz, associate director for global affairs and director of global academic initiatives, says that Rezek’s leadership style is to engage everyone. “It’s not good enough to have your champions on campus — you need to spread your message mo re broadly... People know we’re here, what we’re doing, how we fit into what they’re doing, and why they should care about it. That’s something we’ve been working on a lot, so we can get more buy-in from our own ECU community.”
One way the OGA elevated the visibility of internationalization on campus was with the introduction of a university-wide international awards ceremony in 2017. This annual event, initiated and funded by the chancellor s and provost’s offices, recognizes staff who have contributed to a positive environment for international students or who have encouraged students to engage internationally. It also celebrates international students who have made positive contributions to the ECU or Greenville communities. This increased awareness and recognition helps to foster an inclusive celebration of campus internationalization.
Creating Opportunities for All
In addition to gaining exposure to global learning by participating in study abroad programs such as ECU Tuscany, students can do so on campus through virtual exchanges and curriculum internationalization facilitated by the Global Understanding International Virtual Exchange, for which ECU won the Simon Spotlight Award in 2016. All ECU students are also required to complete two 3-credit-hour diversity courses — one focused on global diversity and the other focused on domestic diversity.
Robin N. Coger, provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, says, “At ECU we have put in a great deal of effort into ensuring that all of our students have access to international experiences through low-cost , cocurricular programs abroad, expanded study abroad scholarships, and international virtual exchange courses.”
Around 300 students participate in 12-15 Global Understanding courses each semester. The courses provide students with synchronous interaction with international partners, typic ally in three countries. The virtual exchange offerings help diversify the students who are participating in global learning activities and create opportunities for students who aren’t able to study abroad.
The virtual exchanges have also boosted student participation in other international education opportunities. ECU students who take a Global Understanding course are two times more likely to subsequently study abroad, Leibowitz said. And that number is even greater for students who are historically underrepresented in education abroad.
In 2022, ECU launched a new cohort-based program, called Global Fellows, for incoming first-year students who express an interest in global activities. The program includes guaranteed study abroad scholarships and targeted programming, such as specialized virtual exchange classes and first-year seminar classes, designed to build intercultural skills. Over the first two years, all of ECU's colleges that accept undergraduates have been represented in the program.
Bella Sardina completed her first year at ECU in spring 2023 and was a member of the inaugural Global Fellows cohort. “ECU is doing everything in their power to make sure that students are globally minded,” she says . “Even here in Greenville, you kind of get that feeling of what it'd be like to be abroad when just having a conversation with an international student.”
Fostering a Welcoming Environment
According to Rezek, international student recruitment has been a major challenge for ECU as a regional campus without an internationally recognized brand. ECU currently has around 250 international students on a campus with a student body of 27,000. The university has faced the need to foster a more welcoming environment for international students and grow its visibility in international rankings.
“One of the reasons why we hadn't been as successful in recruiting is because we didn't have as much positive word of mouth,” Rezek says . “Recruitment occurs naturally if you support your students well.”
As a result, OGA staff articulated a different value proposition to attract international students. “We came up with ‘Academically supported. Professionally prepared. You belong at ECU,’” Rezek says .
As part of their efforts to grow recruitment and support international students, OGA staff created more student-centric programming, expanded international student orientation, paired international students with domestic students, hosted excursions to local and regional attractions, and initiated a weekly international coffee hour, among other activities. The campus writing center also offers specialized tutoring services and career preparation workshops for international students. In addition, there are professional development opportunities for faculty and staff to learn about how to better serve the international student population.
Faisal Abouelhassan is an international MBA student from Egypt and Qatar who also completed his undergraduate studies in finance and political science at ECU. “ECU really sheds light on diversity, whether it’s students from different backgrounds here in the United States, or also spotlighting international students,” he says . “They make sure that we're seen and heard, and whatever concerns we have are brought to the appropriate parties.”
Looking Ahead: New Focus on Intercultural Communication
For its next round of accreditation, ECU will be launching a five-year quality enhancement plan (QEP) focused on intercultural communication. The QEP will utilize the Intercultural Development Inventory to assess student development resulting from various interventions, including intercultural communication modules, student mobility, virtual exchange, and global diversity courses.
“We anticipate that the QEP will help support our faculty, staff, and students continue to strengthen our teaching and learning norms, research and creative activities, and community interactions in ways that help us to improve and transform ECU’s effectiveness in welcoming learners and colleagues from across the region, the state, the nation, and the world,” Coger says.
