61st Annual OAU Board and Council Meeting Shines Spotlight on Globalization of the University
In recent years, higher education has become a global enterprise with American universities competing on a universal stage for the best faculty and students and locating campuses in other countries. While the large number of international students on American campuses provides unique opportunities, it also presents complicated challenges.
These issues took center stage during a two-day workshop on the Globalization of the University and Deemed Export Policy held in conjunction with the 61st Annual Meeting of ORAU's Council of Sponsoring Institutions in March.
Members of the ORAU Council of Sponsoring Institutions enjoyed two days of discussion about the Globalization of the University and Deemed Export Policy during their 61st annual meeting in March.
Each of the past three years, ORAU has used its annual meeting of member institutions to provide a forum on a topic of particular relevance to its consortium members. During this year's meeting, which took place at the Oak Ridge Center for Advanced Studies, councilors had the opportunity to hear from both university administrators and government officials about the many issues that accompany the increasingly international enterprise at top research universities.
Of particular concern at the workshop was the "Deemed Export Policy," which derives its name from language in the Export Administration Act of 1979. That piece of legislation allows the U.S. government to control the export of computer software and hardware and their underlying technologies. Under its terms, the act states that the "release of controlled technology to foreign nationals, including foreign visitors or workers at U.S. private, public, or government research laboratories is deemed to be an export to the home country of the foreign national."
Jim Roberto, the deputy director for science and technology at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), spoke to the group and said the release of controlled technology to internationals is a critical issue for the lab.
"Deemed export policy is a top problem," Roberto said. "The playing field is changing faster than our policies can adapt. We wrestle with balancing science and national security. If we were doing this workshop 10 years ago, we might have a different answer; if we do it 10 years from now we might get a different answer. Part of the problem is there's a moving target here as the world changes before us. We want to build bridges, we want to break down barriers, but we want to do it in a responsible way."
Lee Williams, chairman of the board of ORAU, said there is significant tension on this issue for universities because the nature of their work historically has been to share their successes as widely as possible rather than to restrict the flow of information in any way.
"The issues of deemed export policies, just in the last couple of years have really come to a head," Williams said. "How do you respond to these issues of the legitimate concerns of the export of information and knowledge balanced against the intrinsic sense of an academic environment where our mission is the creation and dissemination of knowledge? We're never happier than when we're telling everybody about everything we did."
From the government's perspective, Matt Borman, who is the acting assistant secretary for export administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce, the purpose of the deemed export policy is not to restrict technological advances but to protect national security and the nation's economic interests. He told the council that his department believes open dialog is critical to creating policy that works cooperatively to achieve security and innovation rather than pitting the two against each other.
"We, in the government, really do want to continue to have as much interaction with the university community as we can," Borman said.
You can learn more about the workshop by visiting the official site at orcas.orau.org/programs/workshops/globalization.htm