Abstract
Employers report they value global experiences in their employees. Global awareness, global competencies, and global experiences are encouraged at many universities including in the strategic plan of one American University. “Core Goals” articulated in this University’s plan declare a key element of “Student Success” is to be “a student development model that…broadens their horizons through…international travel, service, and study.” Under the goal of “Community Engagement,” the plan suggests the University “proudly message …contributions made…globally…through service and engagement.” While this plan is specific to one University, it is emblematic of many institutions both within and external to academe. In the current study, the researchers sought to determine specifically how global awareness, competencies, and experiences were encouraged in faculty members and students across the institution. Adopting a content analysis approach, researchers accessed departmental and college documents utilizing terms such as “global”, “international” and “foreign.” A spectrum of official documents was analyzed, including Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure standards at both Departmental level and College levels. An analysis revealed a significant variation of the use of the “vocabulary of internationalization” across documents. The researchers concluded that additional effort should be devoted to standardizing approaches to global issues.