Strategic Plan

Foster, develop and implement a welcoming, diverse and inclusive environment that promotes social equity and challenges institutional racism in all its forms.

• Diversity and Inclusion Training: Integrate regular diversity and inclusion training programs for faculty, staff, and students.
• Update Curriculum Emphasizing Specific Topics: Identify opportunities for increasing courses focused on social justice, human rights, ethics, and inclusion in the curriculum.
• Expand Diversity Scholarships and Fundraising Initiatives: Develop processes and procedures that facilitate an environment to financially support students whose backgrounds contribute to the diversity of the Penn State community.

SIA seeks to draw both on its outstanding core faculty as well as affiliate faculty, alumni, and resources from throughout Penn State to provide SIA students with a world-class, professional international affairs education that prepares students for success in the fast-changing environment of international affairs career opportunities. This educational experience includes innovative and experiential courses that are relevant to professional success in international affairs careers.

• Curriculum Assessment: Ensure that there is an understanding of the types of skills and nimbleness necessary to respond proactively to the challenges of a rapidly changing globalized world. If there is more information needed for this, SIA will survey potential employers and alumni about the skills most desired in our graduates. Based on this perspective, SIA will review and assess its curriculum, especially the required core classes, to ensure that our educational offering enhances students’ employability, and develop these necessary skills.
• Innovative and Experiential Instruction: Foster innovative and experiential class instruction, especially in the required core classes, to prepare students for the current and emerging professional needs of the international affairs employment market. Align Capstone opportunities and modalities with learning objectives of core classes and requirements (such as internships, and participation in leadership roles) for professional success.
• Expand Globally Relevant and Customizable Programs: Provide greater opportunities to match student interests, the professional needs of the global workplace, and the resources of SIA, Penn State and other sources to create relevant subject-matter programmatic offerings and continue to offer seamlessly student-driven customizable programmatic opportunities.
• Create an International Affairs Doctoral Minor: Provide educational mechanism to globalize doctoral students’ pursuit of a Ph.D. in other units.

Strengthen research and teaching areas that address critical points of global concern today and moving forward, when possible in collaboration with units and programs across campus.

• Global Sustainability Faculty: SIA will complement Penn State’s impressive strengths in faculty research on issues regarding sustainability, climate change, and the environment with faculty strength in the School of International Affairs on Global Sustainability Policy. Faculty hires may be both collaborative between SIA and other units or housed exclusively within SIA. New faculty will both have research interests and approaches that connect to current SIA and to Penn State faculty research areas in sustainability, climate change and the environment as well as representing new areas of exploration.
• Middle East Area Faculty: The Middle East is especially critical to a number of important SIA and Penn State areas of research and teaching, such as energy policy, international and national security, and cultural and religious understanding. SIA is interested in strengthening its faculty with research and teaching interests on the Middle East. The area and its related topics are also of strong interest to SIA students, frequently exceeding classroom capacity and available offerings.
• Human Rights Area Faculty: The area of Human Rights is especially critical to a number of important SIA and Penn State areas of research and teaching, such as immigration, international and national security, and cultural and religious understanding. This area also reflects SIA’s commitment to DEI principals. SIA is interested in strengthening its faculty with research and teaching interests on Human Rights. The area and its related topics are also of strong interest to SIA students, frequently exceeding classroom capacity and available offerings.
• Africa Topics and International Security Faculty: SIA will preserve its strengths in Africa and international security by continuing to make collaborative hires, in partnership with the Center for Security Research and Education (CSRE) and other units on campus, and replacement hiring for any faculty losses.
• International Business Area Faculty: SIA students and faculty have expressed a strong interest in expanding the School’s capacity in international business. In addition, Smeal College of Business has agreed to a 25% collaborative hire with a faculty member. We plan to renew the failed business search (2019-20) conducted jointly with SMEAL in international business to hire a tenure-stream international business faculty member.
• Improve the SIA Scholarship Space: SIA seeks to create an increasingly robust, interactive scholarship environment that encourages faculty research excellence and student research engagement.

Develop collaborations both within Penn State and beyond.

• Integrated Undergraduate-Graduate (IUG) Degree Programs: Review the entire IUG process and expand the number of IUG programs available to Penn State students and expand in a variety of areas strategically designed to enhance students’ professional success.
• Joint Programs: Create joint programs in a variety of areas strategically designed to enhance students' professional success. In particular, develop innovative programs that enhance Penn State’s engagement with global sustainability policy and global human rights.

Develop a robust set of programmatic and networking initiatives to engage SIA alumni globally, incentivize their active support of students and School initiatives, and identify and cultivate prospective donors. Adapt core curriculum to increase the attractiveness of SIA graduates to potential employers.

• Alumni Mentoring Network: Identify and recruit alumni willing to serve as mentors to current students, ensuring a sufficiently diverse (demographically, professionally, nationally) group of mentors to be able to support the needs of a similarly diverse student body.
• Launch SIA Affiliate Program Group: Build alumni awareness of the opportunity to network with fellow SIA alumni, within the institutional structure of the SIA Affiliate Program Group, supported by the Penn State Alumni Association.
• Fundraising and Board of Advisors: SIA will build fundraising from private donors, corporations, and foundations to assist with scholarships and student support, and continue to build its Board of Advisors and Alumni Society Board.

Upon completion, the SIA MIA Degree program will be offered online. SIA currently has two core courses and two electives available through World Campus, which if approved by World Campus, allows a student to obtain a graduate certificate in International Affairs. SIA will develop and offer four additional core courses required in the MIA degree to provide access to all six of the School’s core courses online, allowing students to complete their MIA with SIA and PSU online electives.

• Add Four Core Online Courses: Identify funding to add four core courses. Commit faculty member to create course material.