The summit, held last Thursday and Friday, aimed to foster dialogue on how the government and the non-governmental sector can work together to strengthen U.S. higher education on a global level. Numerous university leaders, including Dartmouth President James Wright, attended the summit.
According to Wright, Dartmouth has long been a frontrunner in terms of international education, citing the College's strong foreign study programs.
"I think others can learn something from us, since Dartmouth has taken a leadership role [in international education]," Wright said.
President Bush will request $114 million in the 2007 fiscal year to fund this program. The initiative, once implemented, will create and expand a number of programs for students from the kindergarten to college levels to enhance their learning of critical languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Hindi and Russian.
"This initiative is a broad-gauged initiative that deals with the defense of the country, the diplomacy of the country, the intelligence to defend our country and the education of our people," Bush said.
Bush stated that the program will help to encourage freedom and democracy throughout the world and show citizens of foreign countries that Americans are not ignorant of foreign cultures.
"In order for this country to be able to convince others, people have got to be able to see our true worth in our heart," Bush said. "And when Americans learn to speak a language, learn to speak Arabic, those in the Arabic region will say, gosh, America is interested in us. They care enough to learn how we speak."
The summit also focused on attracting foreign students and scholars to American universities and encouraging American students to study abroad.
Other goals of the summit were to help universities and students better understand visa and regulatory processes, increase access to study abroad programs and encourage non-traditional study abroad locations and language acquisition.
Pointing to Dartmouth's language requirement, foreign study programs and programs through the Tucker Foundation and the John Sloan Dickey Center, Wright remained confident that Dartmouth has already furthered the international agenda.
"I think Dartmouth is ahead of many schools in terms of what we're talking about here," Wright said.
