Institute of International Studies and Diversity

 Mission Statement

The Institute for International Studies and Diversity’s mission is to serve as Dowling College as training and consulting in comparative, international, diversity and development education. We will accomplish our mission by IISD affiliated faculty, staff, students, alumni, and affiliated-constituencies engaged in research, training, consultancies, partnerships, service, policy making, teaching, and other forms of practice in local, regional, national, and international contexts.

 Importance of this Institute

Open Doors 2011 was released on November 14. Institute of International Education (IIE) held a briefing at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, with the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, to discuss new statistics and trends. The number of international students at colleges and universities in the United States increased by five percent to 723,277 during the 2010/11 academic year, as we become part of the globalized world, new views are needed for students and teachers. In 2000, Long Island's minority population increased to 23.6 percent, up from 15.9 percent in 1990. The need to understand diversity has also become a necessity for educational institutes. We believe that IISD institute provides these services as consulting and training activities.

IISD in collaboration with Dowling College with one of the most dynamic and productive, internationally-oriented schools of education in the world. IISD will be comprised of Affiliated Faculty and Graduate Students associated with the School of Education.  IISD also will work in collaboration with many other organizations and departments within the Dowling College.

Organizational Goals

IISD will accomplish its mission by focusing its strategic activities toward the achievement of five major goals:

Goal 1: to serve as a premier research, planning, monitoring and evaluation hub for development projects in cross-cultural and international contexts;
Goal 2: to offer capacity building expertise and assistance for educational agencies at all levels, and other multisectoral programs, higher education institutions, and indigenous education programs, diversity and multicultural programs with a long-term goal toward local sustainability;
Goal 3: to help develop a global orientation and international and diversity understandings among faculty, staff, alumni and other constituencies of Dowling College;
Goal 4: to assist colleagues in public and private schools in the New York  area to internationalize their curricula and to be linked to a global network of educators; and to infuse diversity and multicultural topics.
Goal 5: to facilitate institutional linkages as well as visiting scholar and other exchange programs on an international level.