The International Program records is one of the most recent additions to the University Archives collections. The entirety of the collection pertains to a group of Eastern European centric programs started by UT Tyler in the early and mid-1990s. This collection offers an interesting look at UT Tyler’s international program during the early 1990s, a time in which grand political changes were occurring in central and eastern Europe. The series covers a time span from 1990 to 2004, and covers multiple unique foreign exchange programs and the development of different travel study courses to Europe. The collection contains a wealth of information concerning the various programs, including comprehensive grant and project proposals, correspondence between UT Tyler and European participants in the program, and promotional and publicity materials for the various programs.
The International Program Records collection comprised of five different series that describe five distinct programs that the university began in the 1990.
These series include;
Poland Municipal Education and Leadership Program
International Studies Program Development,
Central European Studies Program,
International Summer Program
Travel Study Program
The first series that we will touch on is the Poland Municipal Education and Leadership Program. This program was carried out in 1994 and 1995 and involved bringing fifteen municipal administrators from the Polish city of Jelenia Gora to gain administrative experience in how a municipality is run in a western liberal democracy. The program was part of a larger United States Information Agency program to encourage the growth of democratic institutions in former Soviet nations. Jelenia Gora was chosen because at the time, Jelenia Gora and Tyler were partnered as Sister Cities as part of the Sister Cities International organization. UT Tyler faculty and City of Tyler administrators acted as the mentors for the administrators from Jelenia Cora during their time in Tyler, and during the second phase of the program a delegation of UT Tyler and City of Tyler participants traveled to Jelenia Gora and served as consultants to their agency counterparts.
The PMELP and CESP were a core part of the university’s participation in the USIA’s program to encourage liberalism in central and eastern Europe after the end of the Cold War. The USIA was an independent arm of the executive branch of the US government, and promoted US foreign policy during the Cold War. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the USIA began a program of spreading democratic ideals and practices to newly independent and liberalizing central and eastern European nations.
During the early 1990s, the university began efforts to expand its international studies program, and part of these increasing the number and variety of travel study courses offered by the university. The International Studies Program Development and Travel Study Program series document this development through the entire decade. These travel study courses took UT Tyler students across Europe, including trips to Poland, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, and Greece. The courses themselves focused on the history of a particular country, such as France during the World Wars, or theater in Italy and England during the time of Shakespeare.
The Central European Studies Program was an extensive educational program on Central European culture, politics, and history undertaken by the university in 1994 and 1995. In 1995 the university began calling the program International Summer, and extended the program for a third session in the summer term of 1996. The program invited a select number of university students from central Europe to study at UT Tyler during its summer session, and invited local students to participate alongside their international colleagues. Guest lecturers from American and European universities were invited to hold lecture series during the summer session, covering topics concerning the culture, politics, economics, and history of many central European nations.
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