Tom Meets W., Condoleezza

Only one college president from Oregon attended the U.S. University Presidents Summit on International Education in Washington, D.C., and that was Lewis & Clark’s own Tom Hochstettler.

On January 5 and 6, Hochstettler joined 120 other presidents of colleges and universities from around the nation for a summit meeting focused on the critical importance of international education. During the summit, President George W. Bush outlined a broad initiative to increase the number of Americans trained in strategic international languages, notably Arabic, Chinese, and Farsi.

“The broader vision that drives this initiative recognizes that we inhabit a global community defined less by geography than by mutual economics and cultural interdependencies,” says Hochstettler. “Those very interdependencies create new opportunities to engage the people of the world not just by expanding our knowledge of their languages, but also by interacting as global citizens who share an essential humanity.”

The summit sought to foster dialogue on how the government and the non-governmental sector can work together to strengthen U.S. higher education on a global level. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings cosponsored the meeting.