In 1991, nine small, liberal arts colleges and universities across the South came together as the Associated Colleges of the South to enrich and expand the opportunities offered to students and faculty in international studies. These institutions were drawn together by comparable academic standing and a commitment to strengthen academic offerings and preserve financial resources. They quickly identified other academic and administrative areas where consortial efforts would be beneficial, but international programs have never ceased to play an important role in the focus of ACS. Today, ACS has 16 members, and international programs face ever changing challenges.

Early in ACS's history, a network was developed among the extensive individual institutional programs. This network enabled students to participate in a broader range of overseas programming. For the last decade, ACS students have expanded their academic horizons in Japan, Kenya, Greece, Scotland, Italy and Turkey, to name only a handful of the countries visited.

The consortium has also been especially mindful of the value of international experiences for faculty. These experiences have enhanced faculty development, research and the liberal arts curriculum. Contacts are being developed with individual scholars and organizations from around the world as a step toward offering additional international faculty workshops, seminars, and teaching and research opportunities.

Carpathian Alliance

ACS recognizes the value of bringing international visitors to the ACS campuses, as it did in the spring of 1996, as part of the Carpathian Alliance initiative. Nine ACS institutions hosted 15 representatives from Carpathian universities in Central Europe; the following fall, ACS representatives visited the Carpathian region. This program provided a low-cost model for international college and university collaboration, in this case focused on college-community partnerships.

Latin American Studies Symposium

Since 1992, ACS has offered faculty and students the opportunity for interchange at the annual Latin American Studies Symposium. This symposium is held at and led by Birmingham-Southern College. Through keynote speakers, roundtable discussions and diverse presentations, this gathering has furthered faculty and undergraduate research and increased dialogue among faculty members and students.

Global Partners Project

Beginning in 1999, ACS teamed with the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and the Great Lakes Colleges Association on the Global Partners Project (GPP). This Project was funded through the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. GPP was designed to strengthen the international initiatives and programs of the institutions in ACS, ACM and GLCA through shared resources and collaborative efforts. Global Partners Centers were set up in East Africa/Kenya, Central Europe/Russia, and Turkey. Moreover, the groups worked together to improve language instruction and promote cooperation among programs located in the same cities or regions abroad.

Another thrust of Global Partners was discussion and application of "best practices" to various aspects of off-campus and international activity such as pre-departure orientation and training of prospective program directors. Visit the Global Partners Project website for more information on all of these initiatives.

International programs will continue to be a vital component in ACS offerings to member institutions. Through such programs, ACS seeks to enhance international learning experiences for faculty and students and to expand the international character and global perspective of its member institutions.