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H. Martin Lancaster, President
North Carolina Community College System

Sheraton Imperial, Research Triangle Park, NC

March 5, 2001

I welcome each of you here today for this first statewide conference on global education sponsored by the North Carolina Community College System. I thank each of you for being here, the Stanley Foundation and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation for helping pay the bills, and the many hard-working folks from the System Office and the colleges for planning the event. Conference planners have been able to call on the results of the excellent meeting hosted two years ago by Forsyth Technical Community College and other strong local and regional efforts.

We know how profoundly things have changed in our world in a few short years. "Globalization" is no longer an abstract concept with meaning for somebody else, somewhere else. It is reality right now for North Carolina's economy, and it must be reality for our educational system, if we are to reap its full benefits.

Those potential benefits of globalization are concrete, not abstract, and they are huge:

• Faster economic growth;
• Higher living standards;
• Accelerated innovation; and
• New economic opportunities for the people, businesses, institutions and nations committed to taking full advantage of them.

North Carolina is committed, and good things are happening. In just the last eight years, our state has had 6.1 billion dollars in new investment from businesses owned outside the United States. That adds up to 42,000 new jobs.

Twenty years ago, about 34,000 people in North Carolina worked for foreign-owned companies. Today, that number is 225,000, an increase of almost 600 percent.

On average, employees of these international companies earn wages 15 percent higher than do their peers in American owned businesses.

North Carolinians who work for international companies represent just one segment of the global economy now growing in our state.

All eight million of us are, indeed, now a part of the global economy.

We buy food, clothing, electronic equipment and much more produced in Mexico, Thailand, Ukraine, Morocco and hundreds of other faraway places.

We sell what we make and grow to customers in places just as remote.

We are learning to order and to cook lemon grass soup and spaetzle as well as pizza, burritos, fried rice and barbecue.

We welcome international stars to our stages and concert halls -- if you're not sure what I mean, I invite you to enjoy any performance of the professional Carolina Ballet, which showcases the talents of terrific dancers from here and abroad. We welcome to our neighborhood professional hockey players and other top athletes from many countries.

Increasingly, we spend our vacations in exotic international settings.

Our economy has "gone global" so quickly for several reasons.

One is the persistent, progressive dismantling of international trade barriers by our country and others.

Another is the greatly increased ability of financial institutions to move money---capital ---across international borders.

Fundamental changes in technology, including computers, the Internet, and transportation systems are behind many of these improvements. The continuation of globalization seems inevitable; its momentum, irresistible.

This momentum brings us together today. All of you are being called upon to represent your community college in the development of a greater awareness and understanding of the importance of globalization. You have the key tasks of explaining to your colleagues and your constituents the essential role of your college in helping North Carolinians become competent in global and multi-cultural issues, as well as technical skills.

As your teams work through your sessions these three days, I challenge you to be aware of every opportunity for planning and enhancing current curriculums and any training programs by infusing them with global concepts. While you are here, think globally, in every possible way. When you go home, as the saying goes, think globally but act locally to make those thoughts happen.

One of our major sponsors, The Stanley Foundation, has compiled one list of the key traits of a competent Global Learner and another of the formidable obstacles that community colleges face in addressing globalization.

I would like to share these with you as "food for thought" as you begin your work.

The globally competent learner is:

• Empowered by the experience of global education to help make a difference in society.
• Is committed to global, lifelong learning.
• Is aware of diversity, commonalties, and interdependence.
• Appreciates the impact of other cultures on American life
• Accepts the importance of all peoples

Among the obstacles to global learning in our nation's community colleges are:

• Many US citizens speak only English. In fact, common use of the term "foreign" languages reinforces existing negative perceptions about language study
• Many of us do not acknowledge our regressive behavior and views about diversity issues.
• Negative perceptions of Americans persist in other countries. Colleges need to sensitize students to this fact.
• Global education needs to be pervasive, with the goal of building global competency throughout the entire academic program.
• Colleges often underutilize their rich resource of international students and international residents in the community.
• There are limited training opportunities for community college faculty.
• Not all community college mission statements include global education.
• Institutions need more faculty with global issues expertise.
• Community colleges are experiencing diminishing financial resources precisely when more are needed.