Global Initiatives

Maine Experiences. Global Explorations.

It’s often said that we should be citizens of the world and that global awareness is a good thing.  But what, exactly, do these statements mean? The United States of America was born out of British intrigues around the globe and America’s founders appealed to global opinion when they sued for independence.  The earth, with its rich but finite resources, has ever been the stage for all sorts of clashes--religious, commercial, political and many others.  It is this never-ending quest for personal or national advantage that brings people in contact. And this drama of exchanges and movement spurs a hundred forms of globalization.  Foods, beliefs, fashions, diseases, and people cross borders, making a mockery of those who think that cultures and bodies can be hermetically sealed.  Contamination, not immunity or purity, is the natural order of things. Everything travels. Tourists on chartered tours cross (invisible) paths with illegal immigrants.  The trade in oil competes with drug trafficking.  A few languages rise to global dominance on the back of their mighty sponsors, while many others die for lack of attention, taking with them the memory of entire of cultures. Within the flux of globalization, every place is a border zone. There is no outside or inside.

The Office for Global Initiatives (OGI) exists to help faculty and students make sense of our rapidly changing world and how to think of higher education and scholarship in this age of globalization. It works with academic deans, center directors, and faculty to support the development of innovative courses that address and elucidate our complex realities and encourages research projects and initiatives that benefit the University. It oversees the Global Education Program (GEP), which is directly responsible for implementing UNE's global initiatives by encouraging, facilitating, supporting, and monitoring global learning experiences.

OGI seeks to establish UNE academic centers (independently or in partnership) in a few select locations around the world, preferably at the crossroads of major civilizations and cultures, so that our students may acquire first-hand experiences of the major challenges facing our civilization today. We want to give substance to UNE’s globalization effort by making it possible for the entire UNE community to move seamlessly between our main campuses in Maine and our sites or partner institutions abroad. Because stepping out of our cultural comfort zones means having to work in different language communities, our sites and  programs will strive to provide the best tools for adjustment and optimal study without taking away from the challenge of engaging with the unfamiliar. By developing a set of courses that examine the details of our interconnected world, supporting high-level seminars with a global focus, and expanding our campus and curricula to select locations around the world, UNE will turn into a campus without walls and embrace its border identity in a world where traditional fences make little intellectual sense.

Elizabeth Bennett
Office for Global Initiatives
University of New England
716 Stevens Avenue
304 Proctor Hall
Portland, ME 04103
United States of America