US and Georgia Universities Share Community Outreach Strategies

At first glance, the University of California, Davis and Telavi State University, in the Republic of Georgia don’t appear to have much in common. However, it is some of their differences as well as their commonalities that make UC Davis an ideal host for Sophio (Sopo) Arsenishvili, Deputy Head of the International Office at Telavi State University.

Sopo is spending several weeks this winter being mentored by Dr. Jean-Xavier Guinard, Associate Vice-Provost of International Programs at UC Davis. As a university manager selected to join IREX’s University Administration Support Program (UASP), Sopo is observing the work of UC Davis’ University Outreach and International Programs office, interviewing faculty and staff across the campus, and working closely with Dr. Guinard to formulate a case study summary of her experiences. UASP provides opportunities for university administrators from Eurasia and China to work one-on-one with a counterpart at a US university on a specific university-management topic. Topics range from internationalization of the campus to strategic planning to the integration of teaching and research.

Sopo's observations about the results-oriented atmosphere of UC Davis.

Sopo’s topic is building relationships between universities and business and government. She asserts that “It will focus not only on idea that university needs such relations, but it will also describe how, technically, it is done at UC Davis, how it is implemented, how it works in a real life.”

Telavi State University, Sopo’s home institution, is looking to better interact and interface with local businesses and local government. By observing how UC Davis works with businesses in California, Sopo is gaining insight, approaches, and tools to make Telavi State more proactive in its relationships.

Based in Kakheti, home of much of Georgia’s wine industry, Telavi State has conducted some outreach to the community, but these relationships are still rather spontaneous, not well-established, and Sopo wants to find a framework for building partnerships. “I think that this is the big weakness of our universities,” she commented. “We don’t have such traditions, and actually, in a modern world, the university can’t survive without such relations.”

This is where the similarities between the two universities are particularly helpful. Both schools sit in the midst of regions that rely on wine production and tourism. UC Davis has strong ties with the wine industry, and Sopo has also found that the town of Davis has many ties to her native Georgia. She has made connections to local families who have hosted other Georgians or who have traveled to Georgia themselves. She is even using her free time to help a local musical group learn traditional Georgian songs.

Though participation in the program has meant time away from her family and her position at Telavi State, Sopo is glad that she applied. “It was a rare chance for people who work in the administration of the university to go abroad and to see how things work there… For a university who is facing big changes, we all—not only me, but also the staff members of university—decided that this will be very interesting and [a] very useful experience which I can bring back to my university.”

UASP is made possible with the generous support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Starr Foundation.