In 1957, university presidents responded to a question sent to them by the American Council on Education concerning university objectives in regard to international programs. The presidents said that the universities should encourage common understanding among nations, should strengthen the educational, scientific and cultural resources of mankind and should enable Americans to learn about and benefit from an association with people of other nations. It is no coincidence that these are also the objectives of the Peace Corps.
Peace Corps training programs have already been carried out or are now going on at both the Berkeley and Los Angeles campuses of the University of California, at Michigan State and the University of Michigan, at Colombia, Texas Western, Rutgers, Notre Dame, Iowa State, Pennsylvania State, Northern Illinois University, Ohio State, Colorado State and Arizona State. The Peace Corps hopes to arrange training programs at many other colleges and universities throughout the nation, both large and small, both private and, so to speak, public.
In every school which has conducted a training program, the effect has been noticeable and in some cases remarkable--in directing that school’s attention to international affairs, in generating language programs and special area studies, in setting academic activity in motion that will continue long after the training program is terminated.
In some cases, the university which administered a given training program has also become the joint sponsor of the program oversees--such as Colorado State in West Pakistan, Michigan State in Nigeria, Pennsylvania State in the Philippines. These three institutions are also pioneering a new and highly promising prospect and one which may eventually be applied to every Peace Corps project whether administered by the Peace Corps alone or in cooperation with whatever agency or institution. This prospect calls for giving academic credit for Peace Corps service abroad, with the huge congressional grants for scientific research and what these grants have done for basic science on American campus. In the international domain, the Peace Corps is effective, not only through its training programs, but because it has the jobs to offer.
In this connection, discussions have started between the Peace Corps and land-grant colleges about commencing international studies programs which would lead--as far as it is possible to guarantee it to a job with the Peace Corps upon graduation. Such a program would offer all-basic curriculum for the first two years, and students who show promise would be selected to continue an advanced international studies program for their last two years. In effect, this would mean that students would be selected as Peace Corps candidates at the end of their sophomore year and upon their completing the basic course. The Peace Corps certainly doesn’t expect that all colleges will be interested in carrying out this kind of program, but some colleges have already said that they want to give it a try.
The impact of the Peace Corps on colleges might further be described as an attempt to break down, at least partly, the traditional university division between professional and technical training, on the one hand, and the liberal arts on the other. We suggest to liberal arts students interested in the Peace Corps that they acquire a technical skill either at the university or by working in the summer. The nations now requesting Peace Corps projects are seeking Volunteers with technical skill. Since the Volunteers must also have a breadth of understanding beyond technology, we also suggest to technical students that they attempt to take increased doses of the liberal arts.
The Peace Corps makes no claim to a corner on international service. Many other agencies, public and private, some with long and honorable records, send Americans on overseas projects. And the sort of practical training for international service which is now being developed with new curricula at Colorado State, Northwestern, Iowa State’s agricultural school and Pennsylvania State’s school of home economics will train the interested student for service abroad with almost any of these agencies. The Peace Corps naturally hopes that many of the best of these students will be attracted by the prospects and promises of accomplishment which the Peace Corps offers.
Such considerations as the giving of academic credit must not be allowed to obscure the fact that the fundamental obligation of the Peace Corps Volunteer is to render service overseas and to carry out his assigned project to the best of his abilities. Moreover, the people in those nations where projects are being conducted ought never to acquire the impression that Volunteers have come to their country primarily to better themselves and only secondarily to be of service. Keeping in mind what is more important and what is less important, it is still true that work of the type that most Volunteers are doing is not dissimilar to many varieties of field work for which academic credit is now already being given.
The pioneer efforts at giving academic credit started at Colorado State, Michigan State and Pennsylvania State. There the individual Volunteer consults with a faculty member at the institution where he is receiving his training, and makes concrete proposals on the basis of which credit can properly be given. These proposals may involve an ultimate report on the field experience or they may involve an extended paper on some such definite subject as a linguistic study or the sociology of a rural village in Thailand.
The suggestion that academic credit might be given for appropriate performance has already been favorably received in a number of important quarters including the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, an organization of 600 colleges and universities which train 90 per cent of America’s teachers.
There seems to be an increasing emphasis on subjects and curricula involving practical training for service overseas--as distinct from international studies of a purely intellectual variety. Instruction with a practical orientation has been given for some time at American University in Washington and at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. The Peace Corps naturally wants to see such training extended elsewhere since it results in qualified Peace Corps candidates.
It probably isn’t going too far to say that the Peace Corps is the most important present vehicle through which college study programs can be internationalized. The parallel, on a much larger scale, is.
