Stakeholders External

The committee identified several key external stakeholder groups to consider in strategic planning efforts: Note that most all of these stakeholder relationships will need ongoing close attention and management in order to meet the goal of diversifying our onsite student population.

The key external stakeholder groups are:

Funding and Recruiting Partners

These include the US State Department offices, global diplomatic offices, public/private funders and agents. These stakeholders have the power to greatly influence the AEI & the diversification of our student population over time. They should be viewed as key AEI partners in every way, and we should continuously work to help them understand , support, collaborate, remember, promote, and fund all of our programs.

Prospective Students

These students are the AEI’s bread and butter; they are currently our key target audience. This group can help diversify the population we already serve. Currently, most of these students are from the financially elite of their home nation. They have money and academic potential; the AEI needs these people to know they can get excellent English skills at AEI. They are our future.

Prospective and Current Parents

Those who are paying for AEI decide each term whether to continue doing so. We need them to believe that we are doing a good job, and we want them to feel that the ROI for this education is high.

Professional Affiliations

There are two main types of affiliations:

a. Groups that require memberships, such as UCIEP or AAIEP. From these groups we get information on best practices in the field (pedagogical and administrative) in order to broaden our perspective. Membership also gives us visibility and exposure.

b. Accreditation Organizations. From these groups we receive continued validation for our programs—a stamp of approval, if you will. Striving for accreditation also gives us a reason (and an extra nudge) to document what we do and reflect on our practices.

Unions & OUS

These bodies greatly influence our worker realities and conditions. Examples are the GTFF, the GTF union, the new faculty union and OUS rules and regulations. These groups regulate or set the benchmark for worker hours, salaries, rights of employment, etc.

Eugene Community Partners

There are a few types of local partners.

a. Non-profit organizations, such as MIUSA and ELAW. These are global organizations, headquartered in Eugene. Each has a very specific mission and sometimes needs ESL-training for their guests and awardees.

b. Vendors who provides services to AEI, such as Omni Shuttle and Phoenix Inn. (Others include Experience Oregon, Rafting Companies, Office Max, Eugene Urgent Care, et cetera…) Each has an interest in serving AEI students because it is profitable for their business, they are proud of the services they can offer and/or they have a special interest in working with international students.

c. Eugene residents and our homestay families. Homestay families provide homestay opportunities to our IEP DE hybrid and SP program students. The homestay experience is consistently rates as a “positive” experience from students that have been involved in our DE/SP hybrid programs and IEP students as well. How can we better connect with the larger community to ensure on ongoing and vibrant homestay program?

d. Religious organizations, such as churches and the mosque. The mosque sometimes has great influence over our Muslim student population and we need to strive for better collaboration in order to meet both the educational and religious needs of our students.

e. Local and statewide K-12 schools. We visit these schools with our SP students to give them on the ground experience with US education.

f. Education groups like ISTE. Again nationally known, but headquartered in Eugene. This group is focused on how technology can be best used in education and publishes a vast array of IT resources for this purpose.

g. Police Department. What can we do to better communication with officers and our students?

h. Service Learning Sources. IEP + SGP groups interact with them to enrich language learning and cultural exposure.

AEI Alumni from all programs

Our alums want to be in touch; most have very fond memories of the time with AEI. They are also, as a larger group, an important recruiting tool for us. The AEI needs its alumni to feel as if they will forever be a part of the AEI community and that they are a valuable part of the AEI, even after having left the AEI program. We need to cultivate closer relationships with our alums, collect data on their successes, request financial support from them for our programs and encourage them to help with AEI reputation building.

Partner Universities

They have the potential to help us in a myriad of ways – sharing best practices, networking and outreach, sponsorship of programs, diversification of our student population, etc. We also need to work closely with our Oregon colleagues to continue to collaborate and co-determine how we matter to the OUS system and the Oregon citizenry... both in Oregon, nationally and globally.