About Council on Internationalization and Global Engagement

Welcome to our About Us page! To get started, please learn more about who we are and what we do by reading our history below.

Mission Statement

The Council on Internationalization and Global Engagement (CIGE) is a committee of students, staff, faculty and community members created to develop an integrated, coherent and purposeful approach to internationalization and global engagement at UW-Eau Claire.

To that end, the CIGE shall:

• Create a vision for internationalization and global engagement at UW-Eau Claire; 
• Inventory and assess existing programs, activities, and resources on campus and in the community in order to identify strengths, potential, improvements and opportunities;
• Develop short-term and longer-term strategic goals for the campus, identifying and promoting the implementation of any items for immediate action; 
• Inform the campus and community of our findings and invite all to participate in the growth and execution of a new approach to internationalization and global engagement at UW-Eau Claire.

History

In early 2013 interim Chancellor Gilles Bousquet pinpointed a need to integrate and evaluate current international programs and events going on at UW-Eau Claire. The UW-Eau Claire CIGE was appointed to evaluate and create better standards that will make our university the best it can be in regards to internationalization and global engagement. Inspired by the newly revised 2012 Global Learning Outcomes set by our Dean of Education, and by the 1995 Wisconsin Idea, we aimed to set a new standard for Eau Claire, high above where it was before.

The University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire (UWEC) has identified internationalization and global engagement as a fundamental feature of liberal education¹. We will provide learning opportunities that prepare all of our students [also faculty and staff] for active and ethical participation in a pluralistic and globally interdependent world. We do this in purposeful, coordinated and collaborative ways that promote cultural competency, recognize the need for multi-literacy,and uphold the dignity of all peoples. Toward these ends, UWEC commits to cultivate meaningful and commensal relationships between our university community and people, places, ideas and cultures beyond the borders of the United States, as well as with multi-ethnic individuals and populations within our own local and regional community. Commensurate with the Wisconsin Idea, the benefits of UWEC's internationalization and global engagement go beyond our students, faculty and staff, into the local area, and state, and into those communities around the world with whom we interact and establish relationships.

¹Strategic plan, 2008; mission statement (2009), Liberal Education Core goals and Learning Outcomes (2012)