Words of Welcome: Intercultural Leadership Symposium

First of all, on behalf of the Chancellor and the entire Knoxville campus let me welcome all of you to this symposium on intercultural awareness and leadership, democracy and diversity, and the communication and information process.  As a former faculty member and administrator on the Berkeley campus of the University of California, I think I know something about intercultural awareness.  At the very least I can say that on a daily basis at Berkeley anyone who was a faculty member, a student, or a member of the staff, couldn’t avoid contact with a variety of cultures and traditions.  As you may know, white students were in the minority on the Berkeley campus, comprising only 30.5% of the undergraduate population in 2005.  There were more students with Asian origins (43.1%) than white students, and these students came from many different cultures and backgrounds: Chinese, East Indian, Pakistani, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Vietnamese, Pacific Islander, and many others.  Over 10% of the undergraduates were Hispanic; the majority of these students were from Mexican backgrounds.  And of course we also had, represented by smaller percentages, African Americans and Native Americans.

When people ask me – and they continue to ask me – if coming to Tennessee has been a culture shock, I usually answer in the negative.  What I say is that all universities confront similar issues, that universities are more national than regional in their composition, and that therefore on the campus I don’t feel so much a part of the culture of Tennessee or East Tennessee, as of a culture that permeates institutions of higher education.  But there is a culture shock of sorts that I don’t mention in my usual response, and that has to do with the composition of the campus with regard to different races and ethnic groups.  In comparison to what I experienced for over a quarter of a century at Berkeley, Knoxville is relatively homogenous, consisting of white, mostly middle class students.  The campus does have almost 10% African American undergraduates, and a small number of Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans, but the campus is somewhat interculturally impoverished in comparison to Berkeley and other schools in California.

I don’t want to give you the wrong impression.  Despite its greater diversity in the undergraduate population, Berkeley is far from solving all its problems with intercultural matters.  In fact, the Chancellor has just recently appointed a Vice Chancellor for Diversity to attend to issues that he believes were not well treated by other offices on campus.  Knoxville has different issues, and I am delighted to see that we are recognizing the importance of intercultural understanding, and the necessity for leadership both within and outside the university to deal with these matters directly and in sufficient detail.  Indeed, a prerequisite for any leader of the future will be the extent to which s/he communicates interculturally.

The University of Tennessee has recognized the necessity for intercultural and international understanding in particular with its major undergraduate initiative: Ready for the World.  This program came out of a concerted effort on the part of faculty to set a new course for the campus in the twenty-first century.  The premise of this far-reaching initiative is rather simple: the world is getting smaller.  If students are going to succeed in their careers after they receive their degrees and leave the campus, they will need to be able to communicate with individuals whose backgrounds and experiences differ significantly from their own.  The global economy is a reality, and it is our obligation as educators to prepare students for what they will face in the real world.  We have been working hard on Ready for the World, setting up structures for learning about international and intercultural dimensions of modern life; promoting exchange programs with foreign countries for both faculty and students; creating a curriculum that is commensurate with the knowledge students must acquire about foreign countries, their customs, their languages, and their way of life; and celebrating diversity on campus with special events, such as theater, music, and the arts.  The University of Tennessee's Ready for the World program kicked off  its year-long Celebration of Appalachian Peoples and Cultures just a few weeks ago with dance performances by the Warriors of the AniKituhwa; two weeks ago UT hosted the National Symposium on Multicultural Music from October 11-14, with lectures, workshops, and performances on music from a variety of cultures including African, African American, Appalachian, Arabic, Cajun, Caribbean, Chinese, Irish, Korean, Mexican American, Native American, Slavic, South American, and West Indian.  A little over a week ago the Chancellor opened the exhibit, "El Color de la Diaspora," detailing the African Diaspora in Ecuador; this fascinating exhibit will run at UT's Downtown Gallery from Oct. 20 through Nov. 24.  And these events are only a few illustrations of what we have planned to make certain that students who attend the University of Tennessee are fully cognizant of their place as citizens of the world who are ready for the world.

This event therefore fits perfectly into our common goals for students, faculty, and staff on the Knoxville campus.  As I understand it, you will be spending the next two days learning about and contributing to intercultural understanding.  These days will be important, and you will no doubt gain tremendous insight and develop plans for future initiatives and programs.  In welcoming you here today on behalf of the Chancellor and the rest of the campus, I wish you a most profitable two days.  It is my fervent hope that the present generation approaches these serious issues with a new resolve and finds solutions that have remained unknown and unexplored by my generation.  Let me thank you for you participation and wish you good luck.

Presented: 30 Oct. 2006