PREPROPOSAL COVER SHEET
IRA AND INEVA REILLY BALDWIN WISCONSIN IDEA ENDOWMENT
Project Title: Cooperative Program between the University of Wisconsin-Madison
and East Timor National University
Project Duration: 1 year
Total Funding Requested: $99,993 Total Matching
Funds (not required): $__________
ABSTRACT: Brief Description of Project:
This program establishes ties between the University of Wisconsin and the
world's newest nation, East Timor, and its National University; and enhances
existing ties with Madison's sister city Ainaro and the Bairo Pite medical
clinic. Through input of UW students, faculty and the Madison community,
interdisciplinary programs of East Timor studies will address nation and
community building, sustainable development, the special educational, agricultural
and health needs of the East Timorese people, and the larger issues
of economic justice, human rights, international law, geopolitics, and Timor's
unique linguistic, cultural and biological diversity.
Project Leader Signature
Co-project Leader Signature (if applicable)
Name: Michael Iltis
Name:
Title:
Title:
Department/Unit:
Department/Unit:
Campus Address:
Campus Address:
Email: mgiltis@hotmail.com
Email:
Campus Phone Number:
Campus Phone Number:
Department Chair Signature
Dean's Office Signature
Name:
Name:
Title:
Title:
__________________________________________________________________
Cooperative University Programs between the University of Wisconsin and East
Timor.
Background: In 2001, the Madison City Council voted to make Ainaro the first
East Timorese sister city of any in the US. In May 2002, the former Portuguese
colony of East Timor became the world's newest nation, after overcoming 24
years of Indonesian military occupation that claimed the lives of some 200,000
East Timorese. The UN estimates about 70% of East Timor's and 95% of Ainaro's
infrastructure was largely destroyed in September 1999 by the departing Indonesian
militia. In June 2002, members of a Madison delegation visited the main library
of the National University of East Timor in Dili to which Madison shipped
50 boxes of textbooks. We met with student leaders, deans, department chairs,
and Chancellor Benjamin Corte Real. We also met with Dr. Dan Murphy, director
of the Bairo Pite clinic in Dili . We made contacts with the East Timor
government and had conversations with the Ministers of Environment and Investment,
Health, Agriculture, and Education and various community leaders. To Ainaro
we brought tools, medicine and physicians. We funded projects on community
building including adult literacy, scholarships for orphan children, sewing
and weaving cooperatives, agriculture and more .
Program Plans: To establish and cultivate, with input of UW students,
faculty and the Madison community, an interdisciplinary course/program on
East Timor studies that will address nation and community building and healing,
explore the history and special needs of the East Timor people, and alert
concerned participants within and without academe to the larger issues of
economic and social justice, human rights, international law, geopolitics,
health care, sustainable development, and the links between linguistics,
culture and biodiversity. We can offer valuable experience to students through
fundraising activities and public relations and projects in economic development,
infrastructure planning, and logistics. Engineering students could apply
the general system science framework for modeling, simulation and optimization
to various problems in economy building, building stable electric power systems,
roads and waterworks, or repairing Ainaro's radio station. Students in the
arts and humanities could benefit from cultural exchanges of music and art.
Other subjects of scholastic pursuit would include ethno-pharmacology, land
tenure issues, education policy, and the rich languages of East Timor. There
would also be the unique challenge in the realm of psychology to help rehabilitate
a people coping with the trauma of war atrocities. The Sister University
project is a new dimension to a long history of Madison - East Timor solidarity
work and may serve as a novel adventure in education and development.
Outreach mission statement: What we can accomplish depends on the resources
we have. But even with a small group, any of the above topics could be used
as a starting point for a term project. Internships for students can
be arranged through the East Timor Action Network (ETAN) national field office
in Madison. There is the medical student exchange program through the UW
Office of International Health. Another international health project involves
building distance learning and other training programs for East Timorese
health workers (such as through the Bairo Pite clinic). We could also work
with other East Timor Studies programs at universities in the U.S and abroad.
Outreach to K-12 is quite possible: Ainaro leaders received many requests
from children for pen-pals in Madison. We want to encourage vocational-tech
exchanges, distance learning from UW to East Timor and vice versa, and ideally,
scholarships for Timorese students to study in Madison . Biodiversity and
botany survey teams could work closely with the University of Hawaii, and
institutions in Australia, the Netherlands (Leiden University), Indonesia,
and Portugal. Scientific studies are sorely lacking for Timor, whose alpine
mountains create diverse ecosystems, habitats and micro-climates that enhance
biodiversity, as do its coral reefs. The potential economic value in studying
species and their conservation biology is enormous from the standpoint of
medicine, pharmacy, and agriculture. To study and compare the biota and other
aspects of Timor with those of other regions is to enhance understanding
of important global and local issues.
Timeline: Offer 2 one-semester courses beginning Jan. '03; active procurement
for other funds by 2nd semester. Place: on-campus during regular semesters,
with possible summer projects in East Timor. Personnel : 1) Michael
Iltis, lecturer/coordinator, 2) project assistant (computer support),
3) financial specialist, 4) prep course instructor, 5) summer program coordinator,
6) ad hoc program specialists .
_
1 Dr. Murphy last visited Madison in June 2001 and addressed 150 UW
medical students.
2 see http://www.aideasttimor.org and http://bairopiteclinic.tripod.com
for further information.
3 only if additional funding is available through Fulbright Scholarships
and other sources.
4 experts in systems ecology or field biology, agriculture, psychology,
education, distance learning and medicine or public health.
_______________________________________________________
Application Title: Cooperative Program between the University of Wisconsin-Madison
and East Timor National University
Project Director:
Michael Iltis
Department Name:
Dept. UDDS
JANUARY 1 - DECEMBER 31 GRANT YEARS
BUDGET CATEGORY
2003
PERSONNEL
Yr. 1
Name Title
% Time Salary Amt.
Michael Iltis Lecturer
50% $17,734
Financial Specialist
50% $12,500
Project Assistant
50% $13,500
Prep Course Instructor
50% $2,700
Summer Program Coordinator
50% $2,700
Student Help
%
$2,700
Ad Hoc Program Specialists
% $20,000
Total Personnel
$71,834
FRINGE BENEFITS (Rates from RSP WEB Page)
$13,984
See RSP WEB Page: http://www.rsp.wisc.edu/
TUITION REMISSION (25% of Stipend Amt.)
$3,375
SUPPLIES AND OTHER
$8,800
Research Projects
CAPITAL EQUIPMENT (Itemize items $5,000 and higher) $2,000
TOTAL GRANT REQUEST
$99,993
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