Latitudes: NAFSA Has a New Leader. Here’s Why She Got the Job.

Plus, new guidelines have been proposed for Confucius Institutes. But are they too late? ADVERTISEMENT [Latitudes Logo]( Did someone forward you this newsletter? [Sign up free]( to receive your own copy. You can now read The Chronicle on [Flipboard]( and [Google News](. NAFSA selects international-education veteran as new leader NAFSA: Association of International Educators has selected Fanta Aw, a longtime college administrator, a past chair of the group’s board of directors, and a former international student as its next executive director and chief executive. Aw will be the second woman of color and the first person from the Global South to serve in NAFSA’s top job. Born in Mali, in West Africa, Aw came to the United States to attend American University, in Washington, D.C., where she earned bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees and spent her academic career. She currently is the university’s vice president for undergraduate enrollment, campus life, and inclusive excellence. Aw, whose start date is in March, succeeds Esther D. Brimmer, who stepped down at the end of December after six years. (You can read Brimmer’s [exit interview]( with Latitudes.) LaNitra Berger, NAFSA’s current board chair and director of African and African American studies at George Mason University, said Aw brings a wealth of personal and professional experience to the role, including her scholarship on international students, her years of volunteer service throughout NAFSA, and her work as American’s point person in responding to the Covid-19 crisis. Her appointment also sends an important signal that NAFSA is an inclusive organization, welcoming people from diverse backgrounds who may not have thought international education was for them, said Berger, an associate professor of history and art history. “For Fanta to be taking the helm at this time really helps us to make connections and be able to reach out to bigger and broader audiences.” Latitudes caught up with Berger to talk about Aw’s pick and how the six-month search process renewed her optimism in international education. The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. What were the principles that guided the search? The board has been deeply engaged in conversations internally about how we want the next 75 years of NAFSA to look and how our next leader can put us on that path. We’re looking for somebody who had a clear passion for the field of international education, someone who had a proven track record of effective leadership, as well as experience with results and strategic innovation and thoughtful change. How do you guide a field through some very significant and profound changes, through public policy, through Covid-19, through racial justice? We wanted someone who had been tested in all of those areas. You had to have that big-picture conversation before you could begin to have the conversation about who you were looking for. Absolutely. Emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic really helped us to see how dramatically the field had evolved. We’re looking for somebody who can help us think through who has been participating in international education up to this point and who’s left out of the conversation and how can we bring those people in during our next iteration of the association’s life. You started out with a road map of how you were going to approach the search. But as you got further into the process, were there things that surprised or challenged you? One thing that surprised me was the number of people who answered the call to leadership. We have just gotten through a very challenging time in the field. There’s [article]( after article about burnout and turnover and people leaving the field. So I was really heartened to see that so many people would step forward and put themselves forward as a candidate for this very public-facing role in guiding the field of international education. That really gave me a sense of hope and positivity for the future. As you began to whittle down that field, what made Fanta stand out? What made you think that she was the right person to meet these demands and challenges? Her commitment to international education is so deep and and so storied. What we found interesting as well is that she has several vice president roles at AU and those are cross-cutting. Not only is she responsible for campus life and leadership, but she also does a lot with inclusive excellence. She takes an entrepreneurial approach to leveraging the resources that she’s had. And she’s done all of this through a data-driven decision-making process. Fanta is somebody who understands the big picture, but she is also somebody who can drill down. And she’s such an effective communicator who has the ability to build trust and trusting relationships with other people. Let’s talk about the issue of diversity and how it intersects with international education. How critical is her experience as an international student and as a woman of color to where NAFSA wants to go in the future? This is central to who we are and to our survival as an association. We’ve come a long way since NAFSA’s founding, and we have a lot to celebrate in how we have taken on the issue of diversifying the field. But we have a long way to go. The issues of international education were seen as very separate than some of the issues domestically in terms of racism and segregation, when in fact, they’ve always been intertwined. We’ve got to untangle a lot of that in order to be able to reach out to communities that have felt that international education wasn’t for them. You can see a hunger for that kind of outreach. People don’t want to be exclusive; they want to broaden the reach of international education. This is such a fantastic opportunity to learn and take lessons from those periods and think about how we can do things differently in the future to broaden our tent and to make sure that everyone who wants this opportunity can have it. And even those who don’t think they need it, we need to convince them that they should. It’s been a challenging time for international education in the last few years. How will you look to Fanta’s leadership in dealing with these headwinds? One of the strengths of Fanta is that she understands how leadership is not just about being the person out front, the person who’s there when everything looks good. It’s about making hard decisions and making sure that you have your constituents front and center. On a personal level, as board chair, how do you look forward to working together? I am so excited to work with Fanta because I’ve known her for a very long time. She’s been a colleague, she’s been a friend, she’s been a mentor. I’ve gotten to know her as somebody who will tell you the truth at all times. I know that her decision making will always be guided by what is the best thing for the members. And we share that vision. We share a vision of racial justice. We share the vision of inclusion. We share the vision of supporting the Global South. And I’m so confident and so excited that Fanta is going to show people what NAFSA for the next 75 years will look like. ADVERTISEMENT Report offers guidelines for Confucius Institutes Colleges that put in place safeguards to ensure academic freedom and full managerial control of campus Confucius Institutes could qualify for waivers that permit them to receive U.S. Department of Defense research grants while hosting the Chinese-funded language and cultural centers, a special National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee [recommends](. The National Academies drafted the proposed waiver criteria at the request of Congress, which included language in a 2021 defense authorization bill [prohibiting]( colleges with Confucius Institutes from receiving Defense Department funds. Lawmakers asked for recommendations that could be used in a waiver process beginning with the 2024 fiscal year. But the recommendations may be largely academic — while more than 100 American colleges once housed the Chinese-language centers, the committee notes that there are now just seven active institutes on campuses. Of those, two are at colleges that receive defense research grants. Many of the closures were the result of the 2021 legislation as well as an earlier, more limited measure that barred colleges with Confucius Institutes from getting defense grants for foreign-language study. Although the laws permitted the Department of Defense to waive the prohibition, no exemptions were granted, and many college leaders opted to shutter the Chinese-language centers rather than jeopardize federal research funding. The committee — which is comprised of experts in academic research, international education, and China — acknowledged that Confucius Institutes can present an “added, legitimate source of risk to host institutions with respect to academic freedom, freedom of expression, and national security.” But its members noted that there is no evidence that the centers have been associated with [espionage]( or intellectual-property theft, as some critics have charged. The report lays out several conditions the Defense Department could use to assess whether colleges are taking precautions to mitigate risk and be granted a waiver, among them: - Colleges should demonstrate that Confucius Institutes are formally established centers or institutes and are thus subject to all institutional policies and shared governance. If institutes aren’t formal centers, colleges should have structures in place for oversight. - Host institutions should comply with all applicable Defense Department requirements for information, data, physical, and research security. - Colleges should have full managerial control of Confucius Institutes, including over curriculum, hiring, programming, grants, and textbooks and other educational materials. They should also have fiduciary and financial oversight. - Colleges should ensure that no contract or agreement calls for application of foreign laws to any aspect of Confucius Institute operations on an American campus. If colleges meet the criteria, they should be granted waivers, the report said. And if the Defense Department does not grant any waivers, or denies waivers to certain institutions, it should specify the reason for denial, without releasing classified information, the committee recommends. The feedback would allow colleges to potentially take action to deal with risks. During a briefing on their work, committee members sidestepped questions about whether the waiver criteria were drafted too belatedly to have an impact on Confucius Institute operations, saying they had no way of knowing whether having criteria in place would encourage colleges to establish new Confucius Institutes or reopen centers that have been shut down. “That’s outside the scope of our work,” said Philip J. Hanlon, the committee’s chairman and president of Dartmouth College. Competitiveness legislation passed by Congress last year would additionally prevent National Science Foundation funds from going to colleges with Confucius Institutes. Although the committee’s recommendations are to the Defense Department, Hanlon said he saw “no reason” why other federal agencies could not also adopt the waiver criteria. Still, the draft criteria are just recommendations, and it will now be up to defense officials to decide whether to act on them. In its report, the committee encouraged officials to solicit feedback from colleges, higher-education associations, and others. SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHRONICLE Enjoying the newsletter? [Subscribe today]( for unlimited access to essential news, analysis, and advice. Join a Chronicle webinar on international-recruitment agents For years, American colleges have debated the use of paying outside agents to recruit students overseas. But with colleges facing a volatile international-enrollment environment, their use has become a more important strategy, according to a recent survey by the Institute of International Education. Agents’ knowledge of a national market and local customs can be key to connecting with students and their families. Yet concerns linger. Some international educators continue to object to how agents are paid, which is often on a per-student commission basis. Others say that agents can be helpful but emphasize that proper vetting is crucial. Join The Chronicle on Wednesday, January 25, at 2 p.m. ET for a [virtual forum]( on international-student recruitment agents. I’ll lead a panel of experts in discussing the pros and cons of agents as well as practical advice on how those institutions that are relatively new to agents should use them for the best outcomes. The webinar is free, but registration is required. [You can sign up here](. Around the globe Student veterans will be able to more easily use their GI Bill benefits to study abroad on a greater variety of overseas programs under [legislation]( passed at the end of the last congressional session. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is proposing to increase a number of [immigration fees]( including those that colleges pay when hiring foreign-born researchers and professors. A rejected applicant for the prestigious Fulbright-Hays fellowship has asked a federal court to force the government to reconsider her application to the study-abroad program, claiming that she was [penalized]( because she is a native foreign-language speaker. Minnesota State University at Mankato paid $117,500 to settle a discrimination lawsuit brought by a Hong Kong-born professor who said he was passed over for a promotion because of his [accent](. A new report recommends that U.S. intelligence agencies create more temporary positions to bring in scientists from academia and industry to increase [cutting-edge research](. Politico’s China Watcher talked to the Republican congressman heading a [new select committee on China]( who said “the health of our educational system is tied to our success” in managing competition with China. Young Chinese scientists recruited back to China through a government talent-recruitment plan published more research papers than their peers who remained overseas, a [new study]( found. English-language skills in China have slipped, according to a [global proficiency ranking]( especially among young Chinese, and some are blaming rising nationalism. A regulatory body in India has released draft rules that would allow some foreign universities to open [branch campuses]( in the country. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is leading scholars to rethink the field of [Russian studies](. The Dutch education minister is calling on universities there to [stop actively recruiting]( international students because surging enrollments have led to classroom overcrowding and student-housing shortages. ADVERTISEMENT And finally … As a writer, I probably spend more time thinking about the writer-editor relationship than your average person. Although I lack the temperament to be a good editor myself, I’ve been lucky enough to have a few, and I know when the partnership is humming, the writing sings in a way that it doesn’t when I’m on my own. That’s all to say, I’m very much the target audience for the new film, Turn Every Page, about the biographer Robert Caro, famous for his multi-volume work on Lyndon B. Johnson, and his legendary editor, Robert Gottlieb. I haven’t seen the movie yet — deadlines! — so I’ve been tiding myself over by reading pieces about the pair, such as this delightful [profile]( of Gottlieb and this [Q&A]( with Caro, which highlight their half-century working relationship, including their disagreements over punctuation. (Like Caro, I am a fierce partisan of the semi-colon and may also occasionally be a little deadline challenged.) Seen anything good lately? I always love hearing about what you’re reading, watching, and listening to. You can send me your reviews and recommendations — as well as your news tips and feedback — at karin.fischer@chronicle.com. You can also find me on [Twitter]( or [LinkedIn](. If you like this newsletter, please share it with colleagues and friends. They can [sign up here](. Thank you for reading. NEWSLETTER FEEDBACK [Please let us know what you thought of today's newsletter in this three-question survey](. This newsletter was sent to {EMAIL}. [Read this newsletter on the web](. 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