In a concerted effort to focus attention on the need for expanded international programs, Cornell has joined colleges and universities across the nation to celebrate the first U.S. International Education Week, Nov. 13-17.

The weeklong observance is part of a renewed emphasis on international education launched in April by the U.S. departments of State and Education. At that time, President Clinton signed a Memorandum on International Education Policy directing the heads of U.S. government agencies to work together with other sectors to strengthen America's commitment to international education.

In celebration of International Education Week, Cornell's Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies will launch a new web site designed as a gateway to the international community and studies at the university. This consolidated site, located at, will provide users easier access to Cornell's international resources – its more than two dozen international programs and institutes, special library collections, international courses, funding opportunities, publications, international life on campus, career planning advice, Cornell Abroad, services for international students and scholars and travel resources.

Cornell also will host several distinguished international visitors during the week:

• The Latin American Studies Program will bring Sergio Ramirez, Nicaraguan prize winning author and former Sandinista president, to Ithaca for public talks on Wednesday and Thursday, Nov. 15 and 16. The first address, titled "Adios Muchachos: The Sandinista Revolution Revisited," a personal account of the events that took place in Nicaragua during the 1980s and early 1990s, will be Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. in 165 McGraw Hall. On Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Ramirez will speak at the Women's Community Building, 100 W. Seneca St., on "Nicaragua: Reviewing the Past and Prospects for the Future." Both events are free and open to the public.
• On Thursday, Nov. 16, Sierra Leone's ambassador to the United Nations, Ibrahim Kamarra, will be on campus to give a talk on the diamond trade,"Are Diamonds Sierra Leone's Best Friend? How the Illicit Trade of a Licit Good Fuels West Africa's Most Dramatic Conflict," in 101 Phillips Hall at 4:30 p.m. The talk is free and open to the public. His visit is sponsored by the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs and the Institute for African Development.
• On Friday, Nov. 17, Jón Baldvin Hannibalsson, Iceland's Ambassador to the United States and Canada, will visit the Cornell campus as guest of the curators of Cornell's Fiske Icelandic Collection, Institute for European Studies, and International Students and Scholars Office (ISSO). A former foreign affairs minister in Iceland and a career politician of 30 years, he led significant discussions, resulting in a European area agreement that gives Iceland free access to the European market short of full membership. While at Cornell, he will meet with faculty and students and visit the renowned Fiske Icelandic Collection at the university's Kroch Library, the largest repository of works on Iceland and Nordic medieval studies in North America.

In addition, the East Asia Program at Cornell, in conjunction with Cornell's Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, is sponsoring an exhibit featuring 35 Tibetan icon paintings (thangkas) from the Shelly and Donald Rubin collection, one of the world's premier holdings of Tibetan art. The exhibit, "Worlds of Transformation: Tibetan Art of Wisdom and Compassion," will run through Jan. 7, 2001. Local school groups will visit the museum to watch the creation of a sand mandala by monks from Ithaca's Namgyal Monastery and tour the exhibit.

Several other free events are scheduled across campus in recognition of International Education Week:

• "Samite: the Power of Music," a solo concert by Uganda's "musical ambassador," will be Wednesday, Nov. 15, at 8 p.m. in Barnes Hall, sponsored by the music department, Cornell Council for the Arts, the Einaudi Center and the Institute for African Development.
• "The Courageous Women of Colombia" and "Fiction of War," two recent Columbian documentaries, will be screened Wednesday, Nov. 15, at 8 p.m. in Uris Hall Auditorium, sponsored by the Latin American Studies Program.
• Eric Tagliacozzo, assistant professor of history, will speak on "Silent Ships Across the Water: Smuggling, Ethnicity, and Trade Along Sumatra's Pepper Coast, 1873-1899," Thursday, Nov. 16, at 12:15 p.m., Kahin Center, 640 Stewart Ave., sponsored by the Southeast Asia Program. "The events being sponsored during International Education Week at Cornell are only a sample of what goes on all year long," said Lani Peck, assistant director of the Einaudi Center. "We are proud to have more than 20 international programs and institutes at Cornell, which is also home to four U.S. Department of Education Comprehensive National Resource Centers – in Latin American, South Asian, East Asian and Southeast Asian Studies. These world area programs all have active outreach programs to serve communities and schools throughout the region."

For more information about International Education Week at Cornell or about the university's many international education programs, contact Peck at (607) 255-8935 or lbp2@cornell.edu or the Einaudi Center at (607) 255-6370.