PROPOSED SUPPORT TO JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

UNCLAS ROME 003527

SIPDIS


C O R R E C T E D C O P Y - CORRECT TAG ADDED: EAID

DEPT FOR DCHA GEORGE LIKE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAID IT
SUBJECT: PROPOSED SUPPORT TO JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
BOLOGNA CENTER

REF: STATE 174097


1. Embassy Rome strongly supports Johns Hopkins University's
request on behalf of the Johns Hopkins University Bologna
Center for an FY 2005 ASHA grant of $100,000 to procure books
and journals and to pay the salaries of three professors
(reftel). ConGen Florence and Embassy Rome have long had a
close relationship with the Bologna Center, since 2003 under
the directorship of former US Ambassador Marisa Lino. In
addition, a number of our officers at post are graduates of
the Center, as are many high-level Italian government
officials with whom we have regular contact.


2. Founded in 1955, the SAIS Bologna Center is the only
full-time resident American graduate school of international
relations in Europe. Since its creation, the Center has been
at the cutting edge of international political and economic
developments. The Center was among the first institutions of
higher learning to bridge the gap between East and West. It
established links with Eastern Europe long before the fall of
the Berlin Wall through ties with universities in Krakow,
Budapest, and Prague. Since its inception, more than 2,640
foreign students have graduated from the Center, from 96
different countries. In addition to drawing some of the
best-prepared students from throughout Europe, SAIS Bologna
attracts students from all over the world, with an increasing
number of students coming from countries in the Middle East,
the Far East, Africa, and Latin America. Nearly all of these
students require full tuition and stipend fellowships.


3. SAIS is highly regarded in the US, in Italy, and
internationally for the quality of its instruction, faculty,
and research. As educator to students from all over the
world, who in time will assume top-ranking roles in
government and business, SAIS Bologna is training a new
generation of international leaders. The Bologna Center
contributes significantly to the formative training of many
of Italy's -- and other countries' -- foreign affairs
experts. Over the nearly five decades of the Center's
operation, a large number of Italian diplomats, senior civil
servants, international business executives, economists, and
researchers have received their masters degrees from SAIS.
The Center's alumni worldwide include nearly a dozen Foreign
Ministers and many Ambassadors.


4. The SAIS Bologna Center is very influential in Bologna,
home of Italy's premier university. There is significant
sharing of information, programs, and faculty between the
Center and SAIS-Washington, and the University of Bologna and
the city of Bologna consider SAIS to be an invaluable asset.
SAIS Bologna operates 100 percent according to the American
system in an environment that is quite different, and it has
served to push the University of Bologna, and therefore the
Italian university system in general, toward change in
teaching methods and faculty-student relations. The Bologna
Center's operation retains great influence, particularly
since Italian universities tend to be huge and uncaring
institutions of mass education from which relatively small
numbers of students graduate. Even at the graduate level,
the relationship between faculty and student is usually
formal, distant, and extremely unequal. SAIS Bologna
students and faculty work together more closely and with
greater mutual respect.


5. Continued ASHA support is critical in allowing the Bologna
Center to maintain its high quality of graduate education to
an elite international student body. Without continued US
government funding, comparable Italian government funding may
be lost, and cutbacks would be inevitable in US resident
faculty, non-American student fellowships, and
English-language library resources.
Embassy Rome strongly urges ASHA to provide all possible
funding to this remarkable institution so that it can
continue the crucial work it is doing.

Visit Rome's Classified Website:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/rome/index.cf m

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2004ROME03527 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED