Responding to Crisis: Invisible Sponsor Challenges and Lessons

1. The “Invisible” Sponsor Responses to Crisis and Resources Sandarshi Gunawardena, Vietnam Education Foundation

2. Who is a Sponsoring Organization? Some examples: • In the United States • Institute of International Education (IIE) • America-Mideast Educational and Training Services (AMIDEAST) • Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES) • Ford Foundation • American Councils (ACTR-ACCELS) • Academy for Educational Development (AED) • World Health Organization (WHO) • LASPAU: Academic and Professional Programs for the Americas • Foreign Embassies in the United States • U.S. Federal Government Agencies • Overseas • Foreign governments/ministries • Foreign institutions and organizations

3. Wide variety of sponsors and sponsoring organizations • Relationship between U.S. universities and sponsoring agencies varies • Relationships between sponsored students and their sponsoring agencies vary • Relationships between sponsored international student s and their U.S. university international offices vary

4. Case Study Mental health crisis Emergency medical evacuation

5. Challenges faced by Sponsors • The “invisible” sponsor • Who is really responsible for the student? • Do you have authority to work on your students’/scholars’ behalf? • Addressing a crisis situation at a distance • Should you and when should you go to the location of the crisis? • Ethical dilemmas: Working with sponsor requirements and a many other requests and requirements • Dealing with conflicting responses and information

6. Lessons Learned • Identify primary contact in your institution – for all matters and communication • Crisis team – very important • Priorities • Confidentiality and privacy • Ethical issues • Cross-cultural issues • Immigration issues

7. Lessons Learned • Each crisis situation has its own set of individual circumstances • Responses to a crisis being unified • Crisis situations involving international students/scholars require great sensitivity and respect to a multitude of cross-cultural issues • Each crisis situation requires a university/sponsor to address and refine internal procedures and policies , based on what was learned

8. Preparation: Plan and AssessPreventionResponseRecovery

9. Sponsors and Universities: Communication. Who is the advisor who works with sponsored students at the university; who is the contact person at the sponsoring organization? • Universities/colleges: Ascertain sponsor-specific policies and procedures – Each program has its own requirements • All: Need to work collaboratively when making all decisions

10. A crisis involving international students/scholars cannot be prevented or addressed in isolation. It requires a team of designated, culturally sensitive, and responsible individuals working together