International Grants

Title VI-A Grant  (1995)               Title VI-B Grant
Title VI-A Grant (1997)

In 1995, The Franklin P. Perdue School of Business was the recipient of two U.S. Department of Education Grants, one each from the title VI-A and VI-B programs. Again, in 1997, The Perdue School received a second, title VI-A grant.  Following are the project abstracts from the grants.

Title VI-A Grant (1995)

"Crossing Boundaries: A Program to Increase the Foreign Language Skills and Cross-Cultural Sensitivities of International Business Students"

Education in languages and cross-cultural communication is as essential to success in today's global market as is education in business concepts. These skills have not traditionally been emphasized in business education. As a result, U.S. professional are much less equipped to take advantage of international markets compared to many foreigners, whose English language skills allow them to readily develop professional activity in this country.

Salisbury University (SU), on Maryland's Eastern Shore, is part of the University System of Maryland; we offer a traditional liberal arts curriculum and a variety of pre-professional and professional programs on both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Crossing Boundaries is a joint effort of SU's Perdue School of Business and Fulton School of Liberal Arts. Building on a long history of interdisciplinary collaboration, our joint objective for this project is to prepare our International Business track students for the challenges of a world economy by increasing their language skills and cross-cultural sensitivities. To accomplish this, we will build linkages between our business and language faculty and curricula, using project funds to:

• Expose business and language faculty to successful models for integrating business, language, and cultural education, through both domestic workshops and travel abroad. 
• Revise FREN 310 French Grammar and Composition to include more business oriented materials and assignments. 
• Develop a new proficiency-base course, FREN 313 Commercial French. 
• Certify language faculty as ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interviewers, thus allowing them to develop standardized assessments of our students' language capabilities. 
• Revise BUAD 423 International Marketing and BUAD 422 Managing the Multinational Business to include more cultural content, particularly through the use of interactive and multi-media teaching resources. 
• Expand opportunities for cross-cultural experiential learning via: 1)a business/culture travel "course package" (co-requisites BUAD 385 International Business Abroad and FREN 405 Art of Crossing Cultures) that will take students to France over the Winter Term; and 2) an international Electronic Bulletin Board that will provide student/faculty access to international databases and on-line interactions with international peers and colleagues. 

We expect that, as a result of this project, our International Business Track students will be better prepared to succeed in today's global marketplace. 

Title VI-A (1997)

"From Europe to Latin America:  A Program to Expand the Boundaries of International Business and the Foreign Language Curriculum"

Salisbury University (SU) is a traditional liberal arts institution located on Maryland's Eastern Shore.  AT SU, recognizing the need educate students in international business with a rigorous background in foreign languages and geo-political studies has long bee a goal of the Perdue School of Business and the Department of Modern Languages in the Fulton School of Liberal Arts.  to that end, both schools have previously collaborated to implement an International Business Track which not only includes intensive international courses in all business disciplines but also requires the student to enroll in foreign language, political science and geography studies.  In addition, study abroad is highly encourages as an overall part of the program.  In 1995, the two schools sponsored the first study abroad program to Grenoble, France and continued with a second study abroad program to Rennes, France in 1997.  Lastly, new courses were developed to incorporate business into the French language courses and to include more cultural and region-specific topics into the business curriculum.

As the interests of the faculty begin to move toward other regions of the world, their competencies are in languages other than French, and as students are beginning to express a desire to study in locales other than Western Europe, a concerted effort is now needed to expand the offerings of the Business School and the Department of Modern Languages in the area of business Spanish and to develop a cross cultural experiential learning program in a Spanish speaking country which focuses on an international business theme.  Building on the newly established business school's relationship with the Universidad Mariano Egana in Santiago, Chile, the goal of this grant project is to expand the International Business Track offerings for its students who will need to meet the challenges of a global economy and increase their language skills and cross-cultural sensitivities in a Latin American region.  In order to accomplish this, the Perdue School and the Department of Modern Languages will again collaborate, using project funds to:

• Expose business and language faculty to successful models for incorporating more curriculum content on Latin America through both domestic workshops and travel abroad

• Revise the BUAD 385 Business in its Global Setting and BUAD 686 Global Business courses to include more cultural content on Latin America, particularly through the use of distance learning and multi-media resources

• Create a new proficiency-based course, SPAN 313 Commercial Spanish and a culture course, MDFL 406 The Art of Crossing Cultures, directly addressing customs and practices in Chile

• Plan and implement a Winter-term, cross-cultural experiential learning program with the Universidad Mariano Egana in Santiago, Chile that includes the classroom lectures combined with site visits and cultural experiences

• Jointly teach BUAD 385 and BUAD 686 with SR. Jorge Nilo Gonzales of the Universidad Mariano Egana via distance learning at SU and during the Winter-term cross-cultural program in Chile

• Develop and execute a model marketing study and recruitment plan to encourage more students to study abroad and to enroll in foreign languages as part of their overall education

• Certify a Spanish professor as an ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interviewer

• Develop an interactive, searchable data base on the Global Programs web site

Title VI-B

"Building Export Capacity: Helping Businesses on Maryland's Eastern Shore Succeed in the International Marketplace"

This project is sponsored by the Perdue School of Business at Salisbury University. Salisbury University (SU), on Maryland's Eastern Shore, is part of the University of Maryland System; it offers a traditional liberal arts curriculum and a variety of pre-professional and professional programs on both the graduate and undergraduate levels. The Franklin P. Perdue School of Business at SU is fully accredited and the largest college-level center for business education in the Eastern Shore region.

At SU, we are committed to fostering a global outlook, and the Perdue School has risen to this challenge. The Perdue School has a well-established International Business Track, strong collaborative relationships with partner business schools in France and Belgium, and a vigorous international business outreach program through its European American Business Institute.

Responding to a need for export education and technical assistance in our areas, we have established three objectives for this project:

• 1. International Business Development: To help four to eight regional businesses develop export strategies and establish relationships with international venture partners. 
• To accomplish this objective, we will: 
• Form student/faculty Export Assistance Teams to help "export ready" local businesses develop their export strategies. 
• Take these businesses on a trade mission to Europe. 
• 2. International Business Education: To become a center for international business education, technical assistance and referral services on the Eastern Shore and to heighten community awareness of international economic interdependence. 
• To accomplish this objective, we will: 
• Develop an International Business Executive Diploma Program 
• Develop an interactive, on-line reference and communications tool, the international electronic bulletin board. 
• Serve as the satellite office for the State of Maryland's Office of International Trade. 
• Use print, television, and on-line outlets for disseminating information about the project to the general public. 
• 3. Institutional Improvement: To increase the international expertise of our Perdue School faculty and students in order to make them better resources to the Eastern shore business community. 
• To accomplish this objective, we will help students and faculty use their experience on this project to increase their practical understanding of international business issues. 

We expect that, as a result of this project, regional businesses will augment their export expertise and activity and our institutional ability to provide technical assistance to them will also increase.