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I am a dean at a community college in a small Midwestern town. It's a typical small college with a typical mission statement, something about preparing students for the future. I once proposed something more straightforward, such as “Our mission is to prepare our students, particularly those who don't drop out, to achieve high incomes and retain them in times of economic stress,” but calmer heads prevailed. All the same, ours is a good mission statement that accords with our times. At least I thought so.
But a few months ago I attended a conference on international programming. As we all know, the world is now flat, after many centuries of being round. That means, as I understand it, that we all have to be global—ourselves, our students, our curricula. I don't mind being global. In fact, I like to take a few weeks in the south of France every summer, just to recharge my global batteries. Nothing makes one feel more global than watching the other Americans in Arles who don't understand that the correct order is “un grand créme,” not “un café au lait.”
Gary Henrickson is the dean of academic affairs at the Fergus Falls campus of Minnesota State Community and Technical College. He was formerly a senior program officer at the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has taught American literature in Yemen, Syria, Poland, Russia, Taiwan, and North Dakota.
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