Saudi scholars visit Wisconsin, receive faculty mentoring at UW-Whitewater

August 3, 2009

Saudi Arabia will send 25 scholars to Wisconsin this month to be trained by University of Wisconsin-Whitewater experts in faculty mentoring.

The program involves two-weeks of training in Milwaukee for personnel of King Abdulaziz University, who will come to the United States to further their skills in helping young Saudi faculty members become more effective in their jobs.

Thomas Ganser, associate professor of field experience at UW-Whitewater, and Joseph Pascarelli, Portland, Ore., will be co-directors of the project. The professors are members of the International Mentoring Association board of directors and Pascarelli is president of the organization.

"Basically, what we're trying to do is to empower the Saudi scholars to understand what they need to do to work with beginning faculty members," Ganser said. He said that in teaching, as in other fields, seasoned professionals may have great technical and scholarly skills but may not be experienced in helping younger members of the profession develop.

Ganser said the program has three goals:

• To benefit newly graduated faculty members and faculty members who have recently begun work at the Saudi university;
• To be a model for possible adoption and use in other Saudi universities;
• To promote interaction and build relationships between Saudi faculty members and their counterparts at American universities.

"The group that is coming here consists pretty much of people who are serving as mentors at the Saudi university and want our help in doing the best job possible," Ganser said.

The university, located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has 40,000 students and about 2,300 staff members.

"It is a substantial university with a solid reputation," Ganser said. "It is certainly comparable to research-intensive, doctoral-granting institutions like the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but it hasn't had the opportunity to develop the mentoring programs that Wisconsin institutions now have."

UW-Whitewater will receive $57,000 from the Saudi university for its part in the program. The scholars, who come from fields including dentistry, science, education, home economics, computer technology and engineering, will be in Wisconsin through Aug. 13. As part of their training, the Saudi scholars will visit the UW-Whitewater and UW-Madison campuses.

Choton Basu, director of UW-Whitewater's Global Business Resource Center, and Harlan Smith, director of UW-Whitewater's International Education and Programs, will also share their expertise.

Ganser said the timing of the grant may be beneficial to UW-Whitewater international programs in the future.

"We have had a number of overseas opportunities, but as far as I know, this may be the first substantive connection between UW-Whitewater and a university in the Middle East," he said.