New network of Anglican Communion Colleges Will Broaden Educational Horizons
Episcopal News Service. April 15, 1993 [93068]
Students at Anglican Communion-related colleges may soon discover that the world is their campus.
Representatives of 48 institutions from 13 nations recently inaugurated the Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion (CUAC), a new network linking those church-related schools in a cooperative venture that could have far-reaching implications for education in the 21st century.
Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey told the 140 participants at the first international conference of the CUAC in Canterbury's Christ Church College that his recent international visits "have impressed on me how much the communion has to offer in its sheer diversity throughout the world. Your presence here reminds us of this truth in the realm of education."
The architects of the new organization insist that the increasingly global nature of education gave rise to the CUAC. "Those of us who are involved in education felt a need to look at the critical issues facing the world and to see how we address those issues as educators," said Linda Chisolm, president of the Association of Episcopal Colleges (AEC) and the new general secretary of the CUAC, in an interview in New York.
Echoing Carey's view on education, Chisolm said that "no college is doing its job unless it provides a way for students to receive an education that diminishes parochialism and broadens their horizons to the wider world. The church has a unique structure to make that possible because it has international and intercultural connections."
"Colleges often act like little kingdoms unto themselves," Chisolm said. "This new network will be the nucleus for a world-open university."
Chisolm said that Anglican Communion-related colleges "felt an obligation to give concrete expression to their church foundations" and the CUAC would help them to emphasize that part of their heritage. "They also want to raise issues of values and ethics, but not in a narrow sense -- rather, in the broadest and deepest way," she added. Chisolm also admitted that the international network could be part of a marketing strategy for small colleges in an increasingly competitive search for potential students.
Although the CUAC is still in the earliest stages of infancy as an organization, Chisolm has dreams of a mature network opening up opportunities to students and faculty around the world. "Imagine the resources we could draw on-joint degrees from both nations, attending classes in both places," she said.
In the short term, Chisolm expects additional colleges will declare their membership in the CUAC. By late summer 1993 a strategic planning group will be appointed, a regular newsletter will begin publication and international students will have opportunity to participate in the volunteer program "Learning Through Service" of the Association of Episcopal Colleges. Chisolm also suggested the CUAC may develop a "cycle of prayer" for use in Anglican Communion-related colleges. The network may also compile a directory of faculty who would teach at other colleges while on sabbatical leave.
In the long term the CUAC may well be guided by what Carey called "a genuine sharing of resources, a greater commitment to the aims of Christian education and an embarking upon an educational journey which offers inestimable benefits for generations of students yet to come."
Chisolm said that the CUAC could "use the connections of colleges to develop international and intercultural curriculum, and to support faculty and student exchanges." She also suggested that the CUAC would "explore the possibilities of new technology that would promote communication links among students of different viewpoints. Imagine the possibility that you could have students of 13 different nations in the same classroom," she said.
In addition to the educational benefits of the CUAC, Chisolm said that it will be a new support system for colleges in need. For example, participants at the Canterbury meeting adopted a resolution in support of Cuttington University College in Liberia, urging the United Nations and the Economic Community of West African States to help restore peace in Liberia. "We, in turn, pledge our strenuous support, by all the means at our disposal, for the restoring and developing of education in Liberia," the resolution said. Chisolm said that members of the CUAC will explore granting scholarships to Liberian refugee students.
CUAC will hold a second conference in the Pacific Rim in 1995, Chisolm said.
In the April 15 story on a new network of Anglican Colleges and Universities (93068), we inadvertently misspelled the last name of the new general secretary of the CUAC. Here, with her first name is the correct spelling: Linda Chisholm.