The records of the Office of International Programs document the development and administration of the University of Michigan's travel abroad and foreign study programs and the content of the program at various sites, particularly Florence, Paris, Aix-en-Provence, London, and Freiburg. Records include committees minutes, correspondence, curricular records, syllabi and student evaluations of the program.
In the 1960s, the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science and the Arts established and administered student overseas travel and study programs, including the Junior Year Abroad Program in Aix-en-Provence, France and Freiburg, Germany. In the early 1970s, the college centralized administration of the programs in the Center for Western European Studies (CWES), which received funding for this work from the Ford Foundation. By that time the programs included a joint program with Sarah Lawrence University in London, and the University of Michigan-University of Wisconsin Academic Year Program in Italy, which is situated in Florence. Funding from the Ford Foundation ended in 1977, and the college resumed financial support for the programs. Some university departments organized their own programs. The Romance Languages and Literatures department, for example, supervised two: one at the University of Salamanca in Spain and one at the University of Tours in France. All overseas travel and study programs were directed and staffed by senior faculty from Michigan or from the cooperating institutions.
In 1983, CWES was reorganized and given control over all international study programs, including those in departments. CWES established an executive committee as the agent to oversee operations, and four other committees to handle various tasks. The committees included: Foreign Study, International Exchange and Fellowships, On-campus Programs, and Colloquia and Conferences. The members of the executive committee included the director and associate director, a past director, and each of the four committee chairs. With this reorganization several new programs were inaugurated, including four in Britain, and one in Paris. The executive committee members in conjunction with the dean of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts appointed the CWES director who served a three-year term.
In 1989, the Office of International Programs (OIP) replaced the Center for Western European Studies as the overseeing agency for study abroad programs. The OIP was later replaced by the Center for Global and Intercultural Study (CGIS), which was founded in July 2009 to provide a wide variety of global engagement and learning opportunities to the University of Michigan Community. Today, the CGIS offers over 70 programs in over 30 countries, serving "students with diverse academic interests at international and domestic sites on every inhabited continent.
For current information on the Center for Global and Intercultural Study consult the unit's web page at the following url: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/cgis
