Nov. 16, 1998
Contact: Charlotte Crystal
(804) 924-6858


Brantly Womack To Head Planning Commission
INITIATIVE TO STRENGTHEN U.VA.'S INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES

	Brantly Womack, professor of government and foreign affairs and
chair of the division of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and
Cultures, will head the University of Virginia's planning commission on
international activities.
	Womack is the last of four commission chairs to be announced by
President John T. Casteen III to help shape the four strategic
priorities he announced in his State of the University address last
spring. The four initiatives -- in the fine and performing arts, science
and engineering, international activities, and public service and
outreach -- are crucial elements of the University's quest to
demonstrate unsurpassed excellence in teaching, research and public
service. The planning commissions have been charged with assessing
current programs and establishing benchmarks for building excellence in
the first part of the 21st century. Recommendations are expected to
include priorities and timelines for implementation, including strategic
investment in personnel, facilities and support services.
	"I deeply appreciate Brantly Womack's willingness to assume a
leadership role and to work with others in the University community to
realize our important long-range goals," Casteen said.
	The planning commission will build on the University's
long-standing global ties, which began with Thomas Jefferson's
appointment of British professors to U.Va.'s faculty, Womack said. While
many individual departments and professors are active around the world,
Womack believes U.Va.'s international activities could use more
coordination as a way of gaining greater recognition across Grounds.
	"We're like a herd of turtles all heading out toward our own
contacts," Womack said. "Coordination could facilitate everyone's
projects and make the world more accessible to students and teachers." 
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	Womack sees his commission's task not only as coordinating
various current efforts and finding ways to institutionalize and
strengthen them, but also to explore new opportunities and new ways of
doing things. Above all, he said he will work to ensure that
internationalism permeates the academic enterprise.
	"In order to be on top of a field, you need to be on top of it
globally," Womack said. "The world is no longer 'out there.' It's now
part of routine teaching and research activities."
	Womack, the former director of the East Asia Center, has
published widely on the politics of China and Vietnam and has studied
and taught in Germany, England, China and Hong Kong. His current
research interests include the relationship of public authority and
popular power in China; provincial diversification in China; domestic
politics and foreign policy of Vietnam; and China's relations with
Southeast Asia.
	The other three planning commission directors are Robert Chapel,
chair of the drama department, who will lead the planning commission on
the fine and performing arts; Anita Jones, University Professor of
Computer Science, who will lead the commission on science and
engineering; and Rebecca Kneedler, associate dean for academic affairs
in the Curry School of Education, who will oversee the commission on
public service and outreach.

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	For more information, call Brantly Womack at (804) 924-7008.
Television reporters should call the TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.

	Information on the four commissions' work is available on the
web at: http://minerva.acc.virginia.edu/pres/plan/index.html