Dear all,

Winter still has its grip on Iowa, but I hope you are staying warm wherever you are. As usual, International Programs was a beehive of activity this past month, and the trend will continue into March. IP was proud to host a delegation from the Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest (Chicago) in early February. Deputy Consul General Daniel Aschheim and Media and Academic Affairs Director Jess Goldblatt spent a day and a half on campus visiting with civic and campus leaders such as Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague, UI President Barbara Wilson, and the deans of the Tippie College of Business, the UI School of Music, the UI Public Policy Center, and Iowa Hillel. The Daily Iowan featured the visit in an article.

Just after the visit from the Consulate General of Israel, International Programs received a delegation from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Chicago. Discussion centered on collaborations related to language programming, study abroad, international student recruitment, and research partnerships among faculty.

February also saw the beginning of what will be a large number of events related to this year’s Provost’s Global Forum (PGF) on the legacy of Anne Frank. The PGF opened with an exhibit at the Pentacrest Museums entitled “Let Me be Myself: The Life of Story of Anne Frank.” Located in the in the Old Capitol, the exhibit consists of a series of panels that deal not only with her life and death, but the influence her story lends to the causes of tolerance and social justice today. The museum exhibit has drawn audiences from the university and Iowa City communities, and we are especially pleased by the number of middle school students who have attended. The exhibit runs through early March, and will be followed by numerous other activities, including a WorldCanvass program entitled “Teaching Anne Frank” and subsequent panel discussions and a film screening. On March 2, the Joel Barkan Memorial Lecture will feature Ronald Leopold, executive director, Anne Frank House, Amsterdam.

This year’s Provost’s Global Forum also focuses on training student peer educators to serve as docents for the museum exhibit and endeavors to inform the public about Anne’s life and her contributions as an author. In late April, the programming concludes with the planting of a sapling taken from the tree outside Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam. We’ll say more about the planting ceremony in future communications, but the sense of hope and renewal the sapling represents will serve as a perfect culmination of IP’s biggest Provost’s Global Forum to date. We certainly hope you will be able to join us for some, if not all of these events.

In the meantime, please let me send my very best wishes as we begin to close out winter and move into spring.

Russ