UDK-FIRST WITH CAMPUS NEWS
Foreign professors abound on Mt. Oread
By EMMANUEL AKUCHU
In landlocked Kansas there are some professors who speak no English.
The migration, though often temporary, of foreign professors is a two way exchange. They learn from being here and the students learn from them.
KU has 84 foreign faculty members this year from 27 countries the world over. For the past few years, the figure has ranged from
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60 upwards, according to Francis Heller, associate dean of faculties.
The percentage of total faculty which is foreign has been about 10 per cent.
THE UNITED STATES census figures of 1960 showed 13.902 foreign-born university and college professors in the U.S.
Those that come to KU, Clark Coan, dean of foreign students, said, come through personal contacts, foreign faculty exchange programs or they meet and know someone on the faculty.
"I had a sister in the Department of Psychology who wrote me saying there was a chance to teach French," said Monique Darsen, French instructor from Paris.
THE DEPARTMENT then wrote inviting me, she said.
"It was very easy for me to come here," she said.
Peter Coltman, assistant professor of architecture from South Africa, met the chairman of the department in 1961 while on an educational exchange in Texas.
"I applied to KU and was given an appointment, but we had to wait for more than two years to get the visa." Coltman said.
"I CAME UNDER the South African Quarter after KU applied for first preference quarter for me." Coltman said.
Coltman decided to work abroad after Zambia, where he worked in the government, achieved independence and the old colonial system had to change.
"I could appreciate there were conflicts in carrying out the same kind of work in the new political environment," Coltman said. "So I felt the people needed new faces and new thinking to carry out their development."
COLTMAN LEFT South Africa to work in Zambia because in his words "I began to worry about the future of events in South Africa."
About 50 per cent of the foreign faculty is on an exchange program, Coan said.
Some of them travel on the Fulbright travel grant.
The Fulbright Commission, Heller said, sends a list of scholars available under the Fulbright-Hays Act for renumerate teaching positions in U.S. universities and colleges to every university in the country.
IT IS NOT COMMON for KU to pick exchange faculty from this list. But sometimes "we use it when we find somebody with the right qualifications in the field for which we need someone." Heller said.
Heller picked out Grabriel Roekpe, visiting professor of speech and drama from Chile, from the Fulbright exchange list.
"I got an invitation from KU through the Fulbright Commission." Miss Roepke said.
Some of the foreign faculty apply directly to KU for a teaching position.
DAVID OWEN, visiting lecturer from Great Britain, applied to KU from Peking, the capital of Red China, where he spent 18 months teaching English.
"While in Peking, I got names of American universities from the back of the Webster Dictionary and wrote." Owen said. KU was the place that wanted me most, he added.
John Sharp, research associate in chemistry from Australia, is another faculty member who applied directly.
"I WROTE TO FOUR different universities in the U.S. and was offered a place at KU," he said.
Sharp said he came to the U.S. to learn new techniques and to study the American educational system. To obtain an academic position in Australia, he said, one must go overseas to gain this type of knowledge.
James R. Surface, dean of faculties, said the process of employment of foreign faculty members begins with the departments.
IF A DEPARTMENT knows a professor or someone of outstanding achievement that it wants to invite to KU, the department makes a recommendation to the dean concerned, dean of faculties and the dean of graduate school, Surface said.
The final recommendation is made to the Chancellor and the resulting employment offer is made. Surface said.
The employment of foreign faculty is achieved mainly through correspondence. Unlike the other faculty members, Surface said, the foreign faculty is not invited to visit the campus before being offered positions.
HOW LONG the foreign faculty member stays at KU depends upon the status under which he came here.
The office of the foreign student adviser processes the foreigners' immigration particulars.
Coan said those on the faculty exchange program usually stay at KU for two years. The period for the researchers is about three years.
SOME OF THE FOREIGN faculty come as visiting professors but they might be invited to stay on as permanent teachers on the faculty.
Lothar Schweder, acting assistant professor of German Language and Literature from Germany, does not intend to return home. He came here as an exchange student in 1960 and obtained his master's degree. He is now working for a Ph.D.
Birth control movie set
Of the foreign faculty members that come to KU and later on decide to naturalize in the U.S., none, so far, has stayed permanently at KU.
SCHWEDER DID NOT plan on staying on in the U.S. when he came on the exchange program, but when he discovered he could teach and work for a Ph.D. he decided not to go back.
"I would say the main attraction in terms of professional development is being able to develop and follow my interests," he said.
"The Techniques of Birth Control or The Prevention of Conception" will be the film shown at 4:30 May 25 in the Kansas Union Forum Room.
TAMERLAN SALATY, instructor of slavic language and literature from the Soviet Union, has been in the U.S. since 1949 and was naturalized in 1956.
"I don't have the same opportunity in Germany," he said.
"I am an ex-Soviet citizen, but I am not completely free from the supreme Soviet," he said.
Andrian Fung, assistant professor of electrical engineering from China, said he will go home "If I have a good opportunity or job."
"We don't intend to go back to South Africa. We don't have South African passports, but we tell people we come from South Africa because we were born there," he said.
COLTMAN NEITHER wants to go back to South Africa nor stay on in the U.S. Coltman is married and has three children.
"I would certainly like to go back to Africa, and Zambia in particular, in an advisory capacity." Coltman said.
"WE ENJOYED living in Zambia and got on very well with the people there."
Daily Kansan Wednesday, May 24, 1967
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