BRIDGES - Kennedy Center - Brigham Young University

ational
Studies
David M. Kennedy Center for
International Studies
What is your favorite memory from your years
as director?
My greatest joy was the trip, not the destination. From the
Center for International and Area Studies (changed to present
greater distance between the CIAS and the CIA) and to the
David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies, I had the
pleasure of working with outstanding men and women in the
creation of an international center with an international reputation
of quality and integrity. When we began the trip, there
was no coordination of international activities across the university,
no central office to bring together all of the disparate
individual, department, and university international interests,
and no university-wide source of advice for all international
university contacts. International touring groups would travel
to countries with no pre-travel training about the cultures into
which they would be traveling. We have come a long way
since then and may still have some distance to go. It was an
honor to be involved in the process.
What was your vision for the center during your
tenure as director?
When we created the center, the university had no formal
international office. I anticipated that the center would act in
that capacity under the direction of the president and the academic
vice president. The center gradually began to vet nearly
all university international outreach efforts and to make contributions
to many of them by reviewing international sisteruniversity
proposals, training and accompanying international
performing groups, assisting in grant proposals involving
international travel, maintaining academic integrity in the
study abroad programs, etc.
I did not anticipate that the center would ever develop its
own faculty, but I did anticipate that we would coordinate all
of the international, interdisciplinary academic programs of
the university. My vision was that the center would become
one of the very best undergraduate education programs in the
U.S. and would become a major feeder of top students to the
best graduate programs.
Larry Shumway appointed IR undergraduate
studies director
Ladd Hollist replaced Ray C. Hillam as IR undergraduate
and graduate studies coordinator
Kent Jackson replaced David Montgomery as
Near East Studies chair
Spencer Palmer, who helped build the center, also supervised
what began as a modest research budget. We both anticipated
the growth of that effort. I also envisioned a means to
keep all Latter-day Saint expatriates and foreign nationals
connected through newsletters and conferences.
Who inspired or supported you most while director
of the center?
President (now Elder) Jeffrey R. Holland and Provost and
Academic Vice President Jae Ballif were extremely supportive.
Ray Hillam, Spencer Palmer, and I met with Provost Ballif
weekly and tried to correlate all university international affairs.
But, of course, Martin Hickman, then-dean of the College of
Family, Home, and Social Sciences was the primary academic
supporter of the center. He chaired the Dean’s Council and was
very active, interested in, and supportive of the center. The academic
programs of the center would never have developed as
well as they did had he not given total support and provided
enthusiastic and positive direction to the center.
What do you feel were your greatest accomplishments
for the center?
1. Getting the center going, with the help of Ray, Martin, and
Spencer.
2. Helping students find careers in which they could make a
contribution to international affairs.
3. Placing students in the best graduate schools of international
affairs.
4. Raising an endowment to help us prepare and accompany
the international performing groups.
5. Raising an endowment to subsidize the cultural experiences
of Study Abroad students.
What would you have liked to accomplish but didn’t?
Perhaps my only regret stemmed from my inability to gain
campus-wide support for the center, especially from some
individuals and departments whose support was critical.
Lecture:
Caspar Weinberger, U.S. Secretary of Defense
Symposia:
“Religion in Africa”
“Kennedy Fellows”
BYU/University of Utah Conference:
“Religion and Law”
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