UJ

My main mission in Amman is to continue a dialogue I started a couple years ago with the University of Jordan (although I'm talking to other Jordanian universities as well). UJ is huge. It has around 40,000 students and has almost a large midwestern university feel to it. The picture is of the clocktower in the center of campus, which is where you always agree to meet people before going on to another location for a meeting. Someone over there told me that something like 60% of all Jordanian university students attend the University of Jordan. I think there are a couple small dorms for women across the street from the campus, but beyond that itis completely commuter (which is really much more common around the world than the US residential college model). The diversity of the student body is fascinating, especially in regards to the dress of the female students. You will see many women dressed in a very conservative style with only the eyes showing (even down to wearing gloves), others dressed in a completely western style, and many somewhere in between.

The size of the place provides unique challenges and opportunities. With a university this big Champlain would only need a tiny sliver of their courses to more than take care of all of our Global Module pairings, although, obviously we want far more variety than that. However, it's also a greater challenge to find a way to tackle a school that big, as compared to the simplicity of talking to a small university. In the case of UJ it was partially a case of simply showing up again and again until they realized that I wouldn't take no for an answer (I'm like the devil from that horrible mini-series Storm of the Century - "give me want I want and I'll go away"). Sometimes I think we forget in the US what an email, faceless society we are. In most of the rest of the world it is almost an insult to simply email back and forth, especially when starting a partnership - instead, it is more customary and preferred for you to show up and do the ceremonial dance of sharing tea or coffee (I don't know how my bladder is going to survive, I have to have another cup at every meeting, hour after hour). One of the reasons why I've suddenly made such great strides is that 1) there is no suddenly about it, these are relationships I've been forged for years, and 2) Champlain has given me the resources to visit these places and talk to folks face to face and thus I can build trust. The other key to the recent success at the University of Jordan is finding the "right" department and the "right" individuals. We've found a home in the Division of Arts, and especially in the English Department. Dr. Ahmad Majdoubeh, the Dean of Arts, is a very big supporter. Inside of English we have great supporters such as Rula Quawas, Inas Ababneh and Lazaward Sughayer. Rula is currently running her third GM, Inas is running her first, and Lazaward is planning her first for the spring semester. In addition, they are very active in bringing in other faculty members. To be successful with every new university you always need a Rula. She is a ball of fire and just walks up and down the hall stopping by every office to talk to everyone administrator, professor and student. She is like a force of nature and she's been essential for the progress we've made here and I look for a new Rula at every institution. I think we could almost fill half of our COR 120 sections with GM links just from the Arts division here at UJ, although, again, I'll almost certainly try and bring in more universities to create even greater diversity in the discussion. We also have to keep in mind that we'll be expanding the GMs into second year courses like Spirituality & Belief and Capitalism & Democracy, which would also be great fits for Global Modules, so I'm also laying the groundwork for future classes as well.