The 
international 
studies 
major, run by the University 
of 
Michigan 
Program 
in 
International and Comparative 
Studies, is celebrating its 10th 
anniversary.
In 2005, the Center for 
International and Comparative 
Studies 
was 
founded 
by 
Professor 
Ken 
Kollman. 
The 
minor 
in 
international 
studies was created to provide 
undergraduate 
students 
an 
interdisciplinary, 
globally 
focused course of study.
Due to the minor’s success, 
the major was created in 2009. 
Students enrolled in the major 
can select one of four sub-plans: 
international security, norms 
and 
cooperation; 
political 
economy 
and 
development; 
comparative 
culture 
and 

identity; and global environment 
and health. Kollman said the 
major was created based on the 
requirements for the minor.
“It started very small, but 
it’s become a really important 
program on campus,” Kollman 
said. “It’s very much engaged 
in student experiential learning 
and tries to encourage students 
to go places, study abroad and 
learn languages, but also to 
think about things in a very 
intelligent, structured way.”
As soon as the major was 
announced it became popular, 
quickly 
reaching 
over 
700 
students, according to Robert 
Franzese, 
director 
of 
the 
program in international and 
comparative studies. Currently, 
the international studies major 
is the eighth largest within LSA. 
Franzese said the major was 
created to give undergraduate 
students a global background. 

The Center for International 
and 
Comparative 
Studies 
was renamed the Program in 
International and Comparative 
Studies to better align with 
its 
mission 
of 
providing 
undergraduates 
with 
an 
internationally 
focused 
education.
While other majors with 
some overlap in areas of study, 
such as public health and public 
policy, began springing up after 
the major’s creation, Franzese 
said international studies is 
unique because of its focus 
on understanding large-scale 
issues and intersections within 
different areas of study.
“The students are primarily 
driven by this problem that they 
want to understand and begin 
to do something,” Franzese 
said. “They’ll want to learn 
from the disciplines, what they 
can take from the disciplines 
to 
understand 
the 
problem, and understand 
what might be the start 
of certain solutions. So, 
sometimes I would say that 
the international studies 
student is not interested 
in the substantive realm 
of politics, per se, they’re 
interested in the realm of 
a particular problem or 
dynamic 
that 
challenges 
them.”
The major is assembled 
from 
courses 
across 
numerous 
departments, 
with two core lecturers 
teaching the only three 
International 
Studies 
courses — an introductory 
course, intermediate course 
with offerings based on 
subplan and an advanced 
seminar. 
The 
students’ 
other 
coursework 
is 
composed of courses from 
across 
the 
University’s 
schools and departments.
Because the coursework 
is 
pulled 
from 
many 
departments, Kollman said 
students graduate with a 
strong understanding of the 

various disciplines that play a 
role in studying international 
issues.
“Good disciplinary training 
makes good interdisciplinary 
training,” 
Kollman 
said. 
“Students are getting a number 
of skills, but also a kind of 
grounding in some of the core 
social science disciplines.”
Nataša Gruden-Alajbegovic, 
global 
projects 
manager 
at 
the University’s International 
Institute, 
said 
creating 
a 
curriculum based on course 
availability is a challenge for 
program faculty. But she said 
the ability to pull from a wide 
range of courses, paired with 
the opportunity to select a sub-
major that more aligns with each 
student’s interests, contributes 
to the major’s opportunities for 
personalization.
Gruden-Alajbegovic 
said 
there is a pre-approved list of 
more than 400 courses which 
satisfy 
International 
Studies 
requirements 
offered 
each 
semester. She said there is also 
an option for students to come 
to advisers and request a course 
not already on the list be added.
“Interdisciplinary is a very 
key word,” Gruden-Alajbegovic 
said. “It’s almost like putting 
together your own major with 
different disciplines that you 
decide to focus on.”
Franzese 
said 
putting 
together the coursework is an 
administrative challenge each 
semester, but there is never 
a shortage of courses being 
taught among the schools and 
departments at the University.
There is also a third-year 
language requirement, which 
goes two semesters beyond 
the 
four-semester 
language 
requirement in LSA. This can 
also be fulfilled by a student 
taking four semesters of one 
language and two semesters in a 
second language.

TAU B M AN PRIZE AWARDE D

2A — Wednesday, October 23, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News

KELSEY PEASE/Daily
Professor Sir Stephen O’Rahilly receives the Taubman Prize for his contribution to new understanding of obesity and metabolic disease during the 
Taubman Institute Symposium in the Biomedical Science Research building Tuesday morning

TUESDAY:
By Design 
THURSDAY:
Twitter Talk
FRIDAY:
Behind the Story

MONDAY:
Looking at the Numbers

WEDNESDAY:
This Week in History 

ALEX HARRING
Daily Staff Reporter

Students, professors celebrate 10th anniversary of program’s founding in 2009

International Studies faculty reflect 
on past decade of major, discuss future

BE TRUE BE YOU
puzzle by sudokusyndication.com

Public Favors Impeachment for President Nixon

October 23, 1973
WASHINGTON – Demands 
for impeachment of President 
Nixon 
or 
his 
resignation 
mounted 
yesterday 
in 
Washington as a scientific 
poll showed a thin plurality 
of 
Americans 
favoring 
impeachment.
NBC News said the poll 
showed 44 per cent in favor 
of impeachment, 43 percent 
opposed 
and 
13 
percent 
undecided. The Oliver Quayle 
organization contacted nearly 
1,000 persons for the poll.
THE POLL was initiated 
after 
Nixon 
fired 
special 
Watergate 
prosecutor 

Archibald Cox. It showed 75 
per cent of those questioned 
opposed to that action, 16 
percent 
approved 
and 
9 
percent undecided, NBC said.
The network said that 48 
per cent of those questioned 
since Saturday night believe 
Nixon should step aside “and 
let someone else run the 
country,” while 43 per cent 
said he should not resign and 9 
per cent were undecided.
MEANWHILE, 
the 
new 
acting 
attorney 
general 
pledged vigorous pursuit of 
the Watergate investigation. 
House Speaker Carl Albert 
and 
other 
congressional, 

leaders 
worked 
on 
plans 
for how to proceed with 
impeachment 
resolutions 
promised by angry members 
in the wake of Nixon’s firing 
Saturday 
night 
of 
special 
Watergate 
prosecutor 
Archibald Cox. 
Nixon, first at the White 
House 
and 
then 
at 
his 
Camp David, Md., retreat, 
considered using a televised 
speech to present his side of 
the case to the nation. 
U.S. SOLICITOR General 
Robert Bork said the staff and 
evidence assembled by Cox 
would be used to pursue the 
Watergate probe. Bork became 

acting attorney general when 
Atty. Gen. Elliot Richardson 
quit and Deputy Atty. Gen. 
William 
Ruckelshaus 
was 
dismissed Saturday night over 
Cox’s firing.
He put the investigation 
under 
the 
supervision 
of 
Henry Petersen, the assistant 
attorney general in charge of 
the criminal division. Bork 
said 
he 
retains 
“ultimate 
authority and responsibility” 
for the investigation. When 
Nixon fired Cox, he also 
abolished 
the 
office 
of 
special prosecutor, which had 
handled the case since May.
WHILE WHITE HOUSE 

aides sought to mollify critical 
senators 
and 
congressmen 
with explanations of Nixon’s 
action, 
criticism 
of 
the 
move continued to pile up-a 
significant amount of it from 
Republicans.
The 
AFL-CIO’s 
national 
convention in Miami Beach, 
Fla., shouted approval to a 
resolution calling for Nixon to 
resign or be impeached if he 
didn’t.
Sen. 
Daniel 
Inouye 
(D-Hawaii), a member of the 
Senate Watergate committee, 
told the convention Nixon 
should 
resign 
because 
Americans 
“have 
suffered 

enough” and “must be spared 
this new pain and trauma.”
THE 
PUBLIC 
flooded 
Western Union with telegrams 
to Washington. Some 8,000 
were sent to Cox’s former 
office. A new Gallop Poll 
taken before Saturday’s events 
showed Nixon’s confidence 
rating with the public at a new 
low.
The 
president 
of 
the 
American 
Bar 
Association 
urged Congress to reestablish 
the 
office 
of 
the 
special 
prosecutor, a move a number of 
senators and representatives 
also advocated.

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