JOPLIN, Mo. — Caitlyn Brooke Hines, a senior international studies major at Missouri Southern State University, recently traveled to India as part of a project exploring that country’s caste system. She wanted to know how it affects human trafficking, particularly in the form of slavery.

Her trip was funded by the McCaleb Initiative for Peace, an endowment that every year provides grants to a student-faculty team to research causes of war and ways to promote peace.

Hines spent the past eight months researching the issue, and said the trip to India changed her perspective.

“I think it was easy to think in terms of numbers when you are an ocean away,” she said. “It was quite another matter to actually travel to India and converse with families about the caste system, which was technically abolished by the government but practically remains in effect, in rural India.

“It was pretty revolutionary for me,” she added, going so far as to say the ability to travel to India “completely changed my perspective.”

Hines, 21, is a graduate of Neosho High School. Her interest in international studies is an outgrowth of an introductory course she took at MSSU.

“It was really the first class that struck my interest,” she said. “It just grew from there.”

Along with other international studies majors, she also is tracking the fate of the Institute for International Studies at Southern.

“I’ve definitely been worried about it,” she said, contending that if the international mission fades it would be a loss not just to the school but also to the community.

Future course

As another themed semester gets under way — this fall the focus is on Brazil — questions remain about the future of the international mission.

Just last week, Holly McSpadden, a member of the faculty senate, asked administrators about the future of the program during a meeting.

“Without the international mission, we don’t have a brand,” she said.

MSSU President Bruce Speck responded by saying that he didn’t have any additional plans for the mission, although he did say some of its aspects are under review.

Two years ago, deep cuts to the university’s Institute for International Studies triggered an outcry from students and faculty and played a role in a vote of no confidence for Speck from the faculty.

Funding for the institute, which acts as a linchpin for the international mission that has helped define Southern, has not been cut since. But neither has it increased.

Both university administrators and the board of governors continue to voice support for the mission, but the challenge of funding remains.

A new advisory board with representatives from MSSU’s Board of Governors and the community is helping to chart the program’s future in preparation for shrinking state support. They are looking at private fundraising; an endowment has been established to collect those funds.

“I honestly think that faculty are still concerned about it (the international mission),” faculty senate president Cheryl Cifelli said last week.

That concern is part of the larger one faculty voiced both before and after the no-confidence vote: that one of the key elements that defines Southern could be eroding.

Measuring up

A.J. Anglin, who was installed as the university’s new vice president for academic affairs just a few months ago, said he does not see the importance of the international mission diminishing. He also said he is not looking to downsize the program.

But the university is looking for numbers to measure the impact of the program — surveys, for example, to show how many students participate in the university’s themed semester activities, Anglin said. That kind of effort is under way for many of the university’s programs at a time when money is tight and university officials said higher education is having to justify its offerings.

“We have never really had to justify who we are and what we do,” Anglin said of higher education.

Separately, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has called for a statewide review of all academic programs at two-year and four-year institutions.

“We must take a hard and unsentimental look ... and cull those that are of low productivity, low priority or duplicative,” Nixon said recently. “We simply cannot afford the luxury of supporting programs that are not connected strategically to state needs and priorities. Likewise, this is a time when we have go decide how to best focus institutional missions rather than expand them.”

State Rep. Tom Flanigan, R-Carthage, said the general revenue fund that funds higher education in Missouri also supports a range of functions, from social services to prisons, which are competing for fewer dollars.

That budget next year is going to be tight, he said.

“Especially now, people want to have an accounting” of where their money goes, Flanigan said.

Some of those numbers have already been gathered, according to Chad Stebbins, director of the Institute for International Studies at Southern.

Attendance at the university’s themed semesters is being tracked and a survey of graduating seniors last year included a question about the international mission and showed a number of them thought the mission was an asset that should be expanded.

‘Nitty-gritty issues’

Last week, Speck said he could not yet say whether the institute would be spared from the next round of budget cuts that are anticipated next year when federal stimulus money — which the state used to offset declines in revenue — dries up.

“Those are nitty-gritty issues that need to be figured out,” he said.

Asked about the prospect of reallocating resources from other programs to the international mission, the president said he thought any funds freed up would likely go toward closing the shortfall in state funding.

On the other hand, Anglin said he is not looking to reduce the institute’s budget, although he acknowledged that he and Speck have different roles at the university.

“I think it is the centerpiece of what makes us unique,” Anglin said of the mission. He added: “I am supportive, but it is not the only thing we do here.”

Cifelli, the faculty senate president, said she thought some faculty remained skeptical, partly because of questions about monetary support for the institute.

Some faculty also have said that part of the problem is how the university handled cuts implemented two years ago that reduced the institute’s budget by 40 percent, according to Stebbins.

“It was an unconsidered cut,” said McSpadden, the member of the faculty senate.

Although every department took a 10 percent budget cut two years ago, she said she thought a number of departments would have been willing to take a deeper cut — 12 percent, for example — to offset the impact on the international mission.

Speck last week reiterated the same defense he made two years ago: The cuts had to do with the size of the program, not its merits, although the university is only now collecting more data on the impact on the program.

Cuts to the institute were part of a series of cuts that university officials said were needed after years of deficit spending and shrinking cash reserves.

Speck also said he had been through budget crunches at other universities, and based on that experience he said he knew that he needed to act quickly to stop more financial bleeding.

He continues to reject claims that he opposes the international mission.

“It’s just absolutely not the case,” he said last week.

Both he and Anglin did say the university needed to have the benchmarks for the international mission, as well as for other programs at the university.

In the case of the themed semester, for example, one instrument could be to look at how many freshmen participated and where. That in turn lets the university know the extent to which the mission has been integrated into the whole campus.

“It (the mission) shouldn’t be for a few,” Speck said. “It should be for every student.”

New reality

Since those cuts two years ago, the budget for the institute has been $279,281 per year, according to the university.

“I wouldn’t anticipate recouping that 40 percent of our budget,” Stebbins said. “I think we’d be happy to just maintain the current level of funding.”

Meanwhile, the advisory board is defining priorities for the international mission. The top priority in the past has been trips abroad, Stebbins said. It also has been the most expensive component.

Past budget cuts and expected declines in state funding for higher education have set the stage for the international mission to turn more to private fundraising.

That kind of outreach would be new, said Jack Crusa, a senior vice president and the president of specialized products segment for Carthage-based Leggett & Platt. Crusa is a member of the advisory group.

“I think there are businesses in this region that look to Missouri Southern for future employees who are doing global business,” he said.

It’s valuable for companies with international operations to have potential employees who have cultural experience in other countries, Crusa said. It’s also valuable for companies to have international students who graduate from Southern and later return to their native countries as employees of local businesses.

Asked about how this area would respond to calls for financial support, Crusa said he thought businesses in the region that do international commerce would, as would private citizens who have traveled or studied abroad.

“I don’t think there are any programs that we feel are not valuable,” he said.

Stebbins said there is still a challenge getting buy-in from some in Southwest Missouri for the international mission.

“I would say there are probably still people in the community who do not fully understand the international mission,” he replied.

Asked about the benefits of the program, he refers to the transformation students undergo when they travel abroad and learn to make their way through a foreign country.

“It’s about self-discovery,” he said.

“You will see how the student has grown immeasurably,” he said.