Founded by the Great Lakes College Association, the Global Liberal Arts Alliance is an international partnership of thirty colleges and universities in eighteen different countries. Its mission is to foster and facilitate global connections, collaboration and exchange at the student, staff and faculty levels between the members of its network, with an overarching goal of supporting the advancement of the liberal arts in both their global and specific local contexts.
President Martín-Barbero and Franklin's GLAA Liaison, Kate Roy, attended the GLAA's first in-person Leadership and Liaisons meeting since 2020, hosted by DePauw University (IN, US). President Martín-Barbero's active presence and reflective contributions across the four days of the meeting were warmly appreciated, as were the numerous connections he personally initiated and fostered with institutions across the Alliance, enabling some exciting potential global institutional synergies for Franklin's future.
The meeting opened with the host, DePauw University's President Lori White, launching a lively debate on shared challenges faced across the network in shaping liberal arts institutions for the current context and climate. Subsequent sessions were themed sessions on furthering what the institutions do best: outward-facing student learning and knowledge production. Discussions focused in particular on further supporting employable skills, and how to best give a platform to and reflect on student learning experiences in the wealth of exciting, engaged and engaging hands-on learning and research that the GLAA institutions' students do (Franklin's Academic Travel and FYS programs being two notable examples).
Students will know the GLAA from its active support of the annual Athens Democracy Forum, at which Franklin students have always excelled. Franklin was most recently represented by Ghala Ashoor and Jordan King, who are both working on action plans for the Franklin community that have come out of their Forum experiences. Staff and faculty can benefit from the GLAA's Alliance Professional Development Program, while faculty also have opportunities for research and teaching support through the Global Course Connections Program and the Alliance Institutes. All three of these latter opportunities have exciting new faces after a dynamic reshape at the November meeting, to which Franklin was also able to give its voice.
Students, staff and faculty interested in learning more about the GLAA, its programming, and its funded institutes and exchanges should contact Kate Roy for further information and support in making applications!