Rider to Host First Live Video Conference with a University from Abroad             

Twenty-nine Rider University students on the Lawrenceville campus and 15 German students on site at the University of Dresden will discuss global leadership affairs via a live video conference on Tuesday, April 27 and Wednesday, April 28.
     Sponsored by Rider’s global and multinational studies major, the video conference – the first of its kind in international scope for Rider – will take place at 1 p.m. on Tuesday and 9 a.m. on Wednesday at the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) in the Science and Technology Building.
     Such an endeavor has been made possible by Roberta Fiske-Rusciano, adjunct assistant professor of political science, students in her global and multinational studies class, “The Social Construction of Global Society (GMS 200), and Dr. Marc Boots-Ebenfield, lead instructional technologist for the TLC.  Through a contact at the University of Dresden, Fiske-Rusciano was put in contact with Dr. Lutz Hagen and his class.
     According to Fiske-Rusciano, the students will take it from there, crafting the questions and general direction of the discussion. The event itself evolved from the present global political climate and American students’ feelings of being increasingly isolated in the world. The broad focus of the videoconference will be to explore the conceptualization of Germany’s and the United States’ future roles in global leadership.      “We are excited at the prospect of having transatlantic discussions over a two-day period,” said Fiske-Rusciano. “The experience of delving into problems, sharing common goals, arguing about directions of leadership, and experiencing a bit of each others' realities, is a unique and valuable life lesson. Hopefully, it will create in our students a hunger for more of the same, and with that comes a lifetime of learning, and becoming culturally knowledgeable. That, in fact, is what we look for in our future leaders – the ability to discuss, argue, convince or be convinced. This should all be grounded in a basic respect for humanity.”
     The next live video conference will take place at the TLC on Thursday, May 6 from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. From their respective campuses and headquarters, Rider and Fairleigh Dickinson students will discuss issues with representatives from the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland and in New York City. The guest speaker in Geneva will be David Heymann, former head of the Global Communicable Disease Cluster and currently head of the Global Polio Eradication Program.  From New York, Richard Alderslade, senior external affairs officer at the World Health organization, will speak.
     For more information, contact Fiske-Rusciano at (609) 895-5761.  

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