Cooperation between UNAM and The Big Ten. Interview with Hanna Buxbaum

At the end of 2022, UNAM Chicago took part in a special session focusing on the role of foreign representations as part of the annual Conference of The Big Ten Academic Alliance (an alliance that gathers 14 HEIs from the United States and keeps growing).

There, UNAM Chicago was able to outline some of the main features and objectives of internationalization and its mission as an overseas representation. It was an opportunity to showcase how these offices benefit students and foster relations with different universities.

At the event, Hanna Buxbaum, Vice-President for international affairs at Indiana University and the Chair of the Senior International Offices at The Big Ten Academic Alliance, said:
The conference was a splendid opportunity to exchange relevant information pertinent for further and future cooperation and in that context we interviewed Buxbaum.

Alberto Foncerrada: People in the United States hear about the Big Ten and immediately think about sports; basketball and college football teams. In Mexico people don’t really know what it is. Could you describe it for us?
Hanna Buxbaum: Indeed, when most people hear the phrase the Big Ten, they think immediately of athletics. But there is an academic side in this group of universities. There are more than 10 universities now and we are expanding to include the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) relatively soon.

So essentially the provosts of the Big Ten campuses maintain this academic group where the universities come together, both to share best practices and further our shared mission as these large research universities, but we also engage in shared initiatives of various kinds.

The Alliance has a number of interest groups. For instance, the communications directors from the different universities have their own working group, in addition to the provost representing the universities as a whole. There is one of these interest groups for the Senior International Officers of the Big Ten and that is the group in which I participate. It is really quite wonderful to work routinely with colleagues from similarly situated universities. A lot of us are engaged in similar activities and promoting global engagement. As you know, we all maintain a robust network of international partners and many of us have overlapping partnerships with universities around the globe. We also are interested in where we can engage collectively in particular initiatives. So we try to meet in person at least once a year.

AF: So, what is your role as Chair?
HB: I work with a small executive committee in setting agendas and really bringing to the group’s attention some of the issues that are most important to our work right now. During COVID-19 we were really all struggling with very similar issues and so we had a lot to talk about. For instance, immigration regulations, some of which are strategic. Right now, we’re interested in working more closely with the diversity equity and inclusion offices on our respective campuses to bring global engagement and equity inclusion. That’s the kind of topic on which we really have a lot to talk about with each other.

AF: Most of these universities are in the Midwest, but some are in the eastern part of the United States…
HB: That’s an interesting historical matter. As the Big Ten started it really was Midwestern focused but it has indeed expanded so now Rutgers University and the University of Maryland on the East Coast are part of our group and again, we now have two schools from California that will become part of the group. So, I have to say there’s less of a focal point in one part of the country anymore, although most of our members are still Midwestern institutions.

AT INDIANA UNIVERSITY WE HAVE FIVE FOREIGN OFFICES; ONE OF THEM LOCATED ON YOUR UNIVERSITY CITY

AF: It has been a great experience for us to partake in your annual meeting. How often do you do have this kind of participation? Do you always have an international guest? What is the objective of this networking?
HB: We do from time to time invite guests to join us at these meetings. UNAM Chicago is part of a network of global offices that UNAM maintains, and some of our universities likewise have global office networks. At Indiana University we have five foreign offices; one of them located on your University City. We are very grateful to UNAM for hosting this office. It’s been a fantastic supporter of the work we do in Mexico and throughout Latin America. Ohio State likewise has several foreign offices and some of the others and we thought it would be very interesting to learn from both sides.

AF: Another member of the Big Ten, the University of Illinois, just last year opened their office in our campus where we had the Mayor of Chicago and the Illinois Hispanic Chambers of Commerce travel with us. This goes to show the importance that all these universities assign to internationalization.
HB: Yes. And I think it’s an important move past just mobility arrangements. We’ve always had a lot of students going to study abroad and we have of course a routine flow of faculty members crossing borders as they work with partners at other universities in other countries on their own research projects and so forth. But to have that process more institutionalized to make really a more durable and sustainable commitment to certain regions by having a presence like this, year round, in particular places, I think it’s just so beneficial for the depth and range of the global activities we’re able to undertake.

AF: What is the biggest challenge you have as an organization?
HB: Funding. With unlimited funds there’s just so much that we would be able to do to further help our students. In an ideal world I would love to see every single student have an opportunity for overseas study or service learning or a professional internship. I think that would be just amazing, but the fact is that that’s not, at least today, financially feasible. So other than funding, the leftover effects of COVID-19 are still, for sure, a challenge. Although we’re rebounding in terms of the activity we’re seeing among students and faculty. I have to say, in the United States right now the geopolitical challenges particularly with China are certainly an issue. I know the United States is not alone in that, I think there’s just a lot of geopolitical challenges right now. One of the hardest recent things has been the need for refugee students and scholars. The situation in Ukraine, Afghanistan and now Iran. I think this is a reality that all of our universities are grappling with, how to be active and find a way to support as many refugee students and scholars as we can. And sadly, I think this is likely to be a part of our work going forward now. So, that has really been quite a significant challenge for all of our institutions.

AF: There was a lot of interest from some of your colleagues on our Spanish programs. We openly discussed why would their students prefer to go to Spain instead of studying Spanish in Mexico. I think there’s a lot of potential there.
HB: I agree with you completely. I think there is a tremendous amount of potential to be tapped. My team is really looking forward to working with yours on that. I come back to the strength of institutional partnerships. Like the partnership between Indiana University and UNAM. UNAM has wonderful partnerships with many other universities as well, and also the ongoing work that we can do together with these local offices. I think this is just going to continue to improve the information flow and also the personal contacts, expanded networks and research based connections that help support what we do.

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