College of William and Mary law professor Linda Malone ’88 concluded the open forums as part of the ongoing search for a new vice provost for international affairs by discussing her qualifications for the position Thursday in the Sadler Center.
As Marshall-Wythe Foundation Professor of Law and former visiting professor at the University of Virginia, Malone said her past administrative and teaching experience would help create more collaboration within the Wendy and Emery Reves Center for International Studies.
“We have a strong ethical responsibility to turn out citizens of the world,” Malone said. “In this day and age, that transcends being a question.”
Malone said one of her main objectives as vice provost would be restructuring the Reves Center. She called for more transparency, increased communication of the center’s function as facilitator and greater collaboration between faculty and students.
“We are facing a revolutionary world in terms of WikiLeaks, and William and Mary should use that to our advantage to create more interaction within the College and between the College and the international community,” Malone said.
Malone also stressed utilizing past strategies to attract more students from other countries to Williamsburg, as well as encouraging more of the College’s students to study abroad. Currently, 40 percent of College students participate in study-abroad programs.
“I am tired of hearing William and Mary being advertised for its closeness to Washington,” Malone said. “We need to use media relations to attract people to the College for its closeness to Colonial Williamsburg, as being part of the nation’s birthplace.”
Malone said it was imperative to take the College’s credentials abroad to create more connections and, ultimately, more study abroad programs.
“Vice provost should be the ambassador for William and Mary: the face and the voice for William and Mary in the international community,” Malone said.
Malone admitted that the Reves Center has limited resources, but proposed international programs of two to three years across all disciplines that will take current international issues and tie them into something that is unique about the College.
“How do you integrate science programs, without bringing in law, environmental issues or business programs?” Malone said. “With international issues, the solution has to be collaborative.”
Greater exploration of human security issues was proposed as a possible interdisciplinary program.
“William and Mary has to have something to contribute to the future, not just the past,” Malone said.
