Recently, the Division of Global Engagement (DGE) has focused on bringing together a comprehensive dataset on the campus’s international connections, to more effectively manage, evaluate, and sustain internationalization efforts. With UC Santa Cruz’s ACE Internationalization Lab strategic planning process underway, there has been growing interest both from faculty and administrative leadership to understand where international connections with the campus community exist already. By taking careful stock of these connections, DGE will be better positioned to identify where faculty and institutional priorities align, and to help leverage these for partnership and program development — a strategic focus of the Lab’s emerging internationalization plan for the campus.
Recognizing the need for a more systematic approach to data collection on the campus’s international connections, DGE has made UC Santa Cruz the fourth UC campus (along with Berkeley, Davis, and San Diego) to implement MoveON, a cloud-based international relations management (IRM) system hosted by QS Unisolution. This platform, branded “GlobalConnect” at UC Santa Cruz, is similar in concept to a customer relationship management (CRM) system. It is designed to collect and manage a wealth of information about faculty and campus international partnerships and collaborations, student mobility, visiting scholar information and other international activities in a single database, easily searchable and reportable from anywhere, online.
A unique feature of the GlobalConnect database is the web front-end, called the “publisher,” which allows key relation details to be presented online within a search portal so that anyone can easily browse and explore the campus’s global network, past and present. “CRM systems typically allow you to take in information, and share it internally, within the organization. But, they don’t usually have a quick and easy way to share out details about your network on a website,” Director of Global Initiatives, George Sabo said. “We think this will be a valuable function of GlobalConnect — to be able to share these stories about our campus’s global connections with the campus community and also the public in this way.”
GlobalConnect also has electronic-form capability for collecting information from faculty, staff, and students. DGE plans to roll out two new e-forms this academic year. The first will allow anyone affiliated with UC Santa Cruz to quickly and easily submit information about their international connections and activities, such as faculty who maintain research collaborations abroad. The second e-form allows UC Santa Cruz faculty to submit their proposals for international agreements, which will initiate the partnership development process and capture critical details along the way.
“With the division’s partnership strategy increasingly focused on building institutional partnerships based on existing faculty connections abroad, we are excited about the new insights GlobalConnect will help bring to the surface, especially when faculty regularly let us know where they are engaged,” Sabo said. “We hope GlobalConnect will become a tool for faculty to explore and connect with others across campus working in similar regions or on similar topics. Of course, it will be an interesting resource for staff and students as well, who want to get a better sense of where Banana Slugs are engaging throughout the world.”
It will also aid the campus with identifying where strong international research ties could potentially be leveraged into broader strategic institutional partnerships in support of faculty and graduate research, recruitment, and experiential learning opportunities as well as illustrating the global reach and impact of our faculty research enterprise.
DGE plans to launch the GlobalConnect search portal on the Global Engagement website in early fall. Shortly following the site launch, the e-forms will go live for a select group of faculty for testing and feedback, followed by a campus-wide rollout later in the fall quarter.
For questions or comments regarding CruzConnect, contact George Sabo, Director of Global Initiatives.