We almost missed our chance to say bon voyage to this significant CSU leader

Whether it’s a convergence of coincidences or a God thing, you can decide, but this is certain: You are reading about the departure of one of Columbus State’s most significant faculty members in the past two decades because of the alignment of these events.

Last week, former Ledger-Enquirer publisher John Greenman asked me whether I had heard that CSU Center for International Education Director Neal McCrillis was hired as vice provost for international affairs at the University of Illinois-Chicago. As I said no, I Googled those nouns and found a news release from Illinois-Chicago that was two months old. I lamented that we had lost our chance for a news peg.

Fast forward a few days to Friday night at Temple Israel, where Rabbi Schwartz spoke to a group of visitors before the Shabbat service. Afterward, the rabbi told me the group comprised CSU students preparing for their trip to Berlin as part of their Holocaust studies. They wanted to learn more about Judaism before they left.

And one of the faculty members accompanying them was -- lo and behold! -- Neal McCrillis.

I told Rabbi Schwartz, “Neal McCrillis? He supposedly left for another job in Chicago weeks ago.”

So the rabbi introduced me to McCrillis, and he told me he hadn’t left yet because he told his new employer he wanted to fulfill his commitment to CSU for this new study abroad program to Berlin. In fact, he said, his last day as CSU’s international education director was Tuesday, and Illinois-Chicago is allowing him to go to Berlin with the CSU students during their spring break next month. Before and after their trip, he’ll continue via Skype co-teaching the course with assistant professor of communication Mariko Izumi. The “CSU in Berlin” course examines how the Holocaust developed and how it’s remembered and memorialized.

That kind of commitment from McCrillis has helped boost CSU’s study abroad program exponentially. When he arrived here in 1998 from Methodist University in Fayetteville, N.C., CSU had 10 students studying abroad in one country (Mexico). Now, an average of approximately 200 CSU students studied abroad the past two years, comprising about 25 faculty-led programs in 15 countries, plus another 30 exchange programs with other institutions around the world.

No wonder CSU received a Senator Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization in 2014, along with much larger schools: North Carolina State University, Ohio State University and Rutgers University.

“That’s a lot of work that a lot of people did, particularly the faculty members who designed those programs,” he said. “You have to propose them to go through a review process. You have to recruit for them. It’s a lot of work.”

It takes about 18 months to go from idea to reality and ensure a safe and quality study abroad program, McCrillis said. But study abroad is only part of international education at CSU.

When he arrived at CSU, 30-40 international students were studying on campus. This past fall semester, there were 147.

“We’ve got a good team in enrollment services who are doing international recruitment, and we’re using agents to help us reach out to different parts of the world,” McCrillis said. “International education is about engaging students at multiple points throughout their academic career in global learning. So it’s in the classroom, in co-curricular programming, in excursions, in study abroad. It’s the cumulative learning that really makes it develop. If you do something one time, it is not going to change things.”

For example, CSU international students conduct 18 global dialogues each year. “For many students, that’s the first time they’ve every sat down and talked to somebody who’s not from America,” he said. “It’s a small step, but it’s really an important step in their beginning to develop global awareness and global learning.”

McCrillis’ personal story is a testament to the power of international education. He met the woman who became his wife, CSU associate professor of art history Michele McCrillis, while he was in a study abroad program through Vanderbilt University at the University of Leeds in England. Michele will finish the semester in Columbus then join Neal in Chicago.

The opportunity makes sense in Chicago, he said, not only because he earned his master’s and doctorate degrees at UIC. He also was looking for a new challenge.

“I was seeing my 20^th work anniversary coming up here, and I was thinking I need to do something different,” he said. “I didn’t know what that was, but I needed something to excite me more. Yeah, there are always things to do that are different in this position, but I think it’s good for an institution to have new leadership in different roles.”

Like what he did at CSU, he figures he can help UIC bring together “so many of the pieces to make the sum of the parts greater than the individual elements,” he said. “I know I can do that.”

He definitely has here.

And here’s his explanation of why international education matters:

“Because you can’t get it in front of your computer,” he said. “We know this from employers. What do they want? They want employees who are flexible, think outside the box, can work with diverse colleague, problem solvers. I mean, what study abroad and international experiences force you to do is think outside the box. … You have to figure out how to work with different people, and you’ve got to do it; you just can’t talk about it. So those international experiences really do help students become prepared for the workplace. They’re OK with ambiguity and uncertainty, because you’ve been in a situation where you didn’t know what you were doing, but you figured it out, whereas a lot of young people have never been challenge in that way.”

CSU interim provost Tina Butcher told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email that McCrillis “has had a profound impact on CSU, building one of the most respected programs of international education in the nation. ... Through the generosity of the Mildred Miller Fort Foundation and Dr. McCrillis' vision for a globally engaged campus, CSU has a solid foundation for its international programs. This includes a new three-week January term, which will provide additional study abroad opportunities for our students.”

CSU president Chris Markwood added in the email, “Neal brought leadership and passion to internationalization at CSU. As he leaves, his legacy is a campus-wide commitment and international infrastructure to further move this priority to even greater success.”

Assistant director Becky Becker has become the center’s interim director while CSU launches a search for McCrillis’ successor.

“She’s fabulous and has a lot of experience, and I know she’ll continue the progress,” McCrillis said. “So I feel good about leaving, even though it’s a little hard to leave a place I care about. I feel really good about where it’s headed and the people who are going to be leading it.”

This story was originally published February 22, 2017 at 4:19 PM with the headline "We almost missed our chance to say bon voyage to this significant CSU leader."