Donned in his native country’s everyday clothing of a kurta and pyjama, Muzeeb Shaik adjusts his wireless glasses and exercises a friendly smile often.
Shaik is a Texas Tech University graduate student from Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. He received his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering in 2009 in India, but seeking additional education, he moved to Lubbock last August.
Shaik misses the warmer weather, homemade vegetarian Indian food and the fanfare of international cricket matches from his homeland.
Muzeeb Shaik, a graduate student from India, studying engineering, in traditional Indian clothing on the Texas Tech University campus. Allison Terry/The Hub@TTU
According to the engineering student, although he has lived in the United States for only a few months, he has observed many differences between the two countries.
“The way people interact, it’s quite different here,” Shaik said. “America is pretty good at interacting with other nations, but I’m not sure about the current generation and how well they are taking it from their ancestors.”
Shaik said that the United States was founded on the principles of cultural differences, as America is a nation of immigration.
“More or less, it’s a cultural blend of previous places,” Shaik said, discussing the international roots of America and the current need to bridge the global connectivity gap. “The students who are currently studying at the college should know how to interact with other people. I think there is a need for colleges to promote cross-cultural and international transfers.”
In response to this known need for international communication, the university has proposed the Texas Tech University Quality Enhancement Plan as a part of the 2015 Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges reaffirmation process.
Gary Smith, associate professor in the College of Architecture and chair of the Texas Tech SACSCOC Reaffirmation QEP Proposal Development Committee, in his Texas Tech University office. Allison Terry/The Hub@TTU
In order to continue to remain a certified higher learning institution, each SACSCOC-accredited university must seek reaffirmation every 10 years. A part of each university’s reaffirmation requires a QEP for further student learning improvement.
Texas Tech’s 2015-2020 QEP proposal is titled “Bear Our Banners Far and Wide: Communicating in a Global Society” and the five-year plan will focus on improving undergraduate students’ international communication skills.
“Our students are graduating into a world that reflects a more diverse and culturally-rich workplace,” said Texas Tech President M. Duane Nellis in a recent statement to The Hub@TTU. “Not only must we prepare them in the classrooms and labs, but also create an environment reflective of the world in which they will be employed. It is essential we provide them the communication tools necessary for the most productive career experience possible.”
Gary Smith, associate professor in the College of Architecture and chair of the Texas Tech SACSCOC Reaffirmation QEP Proposal Development Committee, said the main proponent of the QEP is to address student learning.
“We selected communication,” said Smith, “because we got a lot of response across the campus from various groups, administrators, faculty, that that’s what students really needed to work on.”
Smith, who worked on the previous QEP 10 years ago, concerning an ethics initiative, said the 2015 QEP will change students’ writing-intensive requirement to a communication-intensive requirement and add other communication-based courses to curriculums.
“Communications is something we need to improve,” Smith admitted, “because we have people that have hired our students and they’ve commented on the fact that some of our students have problems giving oral presentations or writing.”
A poster highlighting the Quality Enhancement Plan hangs on a door in the College of Media and Communication. Allison Terry/The Hub@TTU
According to Smith, although the QEP will have writing at the core, it will involve other forms of communication, including oral and visual presentations, electronic and social media communication and nonverbal communication.
“We have a lot of students go off,” Smith said, “and they end up working at a firm that does international work and they felt like they really need to understand globalism and the global community because they’re emailing, they’re calling, they’re visiting with, they’re meeting with people from other cultures across the world and they need to understand the difference in the cultures to effectively communicate.”
Todd Chambers, interim associate dean for undergraduate affairs in the College of Media and Communication and Texas Tech SACSCOC Reaffirmation QEP Committee member, echoed similar sentiment.
“It sets the stage for the entire university,” Chambers said of the QEP. “And we’re going look to, in our college, basically to improve our students’ presentation skills from both a visual and oral perspective that will improve them in such a way that they are going to be more effective communicators in sort of a global marketplace.”
Chambers explained that a student may graduate and begin work in another city, such as Chicago, but the company that employs the graduate may have clients or franchises in cities such as London, Moscow or Paris. He asked how are students going to communicate from a verbal perspective, a nonverbal perspective, a keynote presentation or a powerpoint presentation?
Allison Terry/The Hub@TTU
“Here in the College of Media and Communication,” Chambers began, “we do have courses spread across each one of our majors, where students learn about writing and they learn about oral presentation skills and they learn about digital media skills. One thing we are going to try to do at our college level is look at how can we be more effective — because not all of our students get the same type of skill set.”
According to Chambers, this initiative proposes creating a center for global communication, the Communication Tutoring Center, as a compliment to the university’s writing center.
“Faculty and students can go into this center,” Chambers said. “Say you’re a faculty member and you want to learn how to teach your students how to be able to be better communicators for a national audience. The center is going to be designed to help students do that.”
With the CTC, Chambers believes students can answer the question, how do you read a global audience?
“What may be appropriate for one culture may not be what you’re getting in a different culture,” Chambers said. “And it may be very inappropriate. I think five years from now, our hope is a Texas Tech University student that graduates in 2020 is going to be a better communicator in a global society than what we are graduating in 2015.”
A package of Quality Enhancement Plan posters are stacked on a desk. Allison Terry/The Hub@TTU
Chambers addressed the publicizing of the QEP on posters, buses, signs and videos on campus.
“The thing that gets missed sometimes is that our university, faculty, administration, staff, our leadership within student organizations are working together, trying to figure out a way to better the university,” Chambers said.
“We’re going to bring internationality in this global society to Lubbock. It’s so important to get the word out and say ‘here’s this cool thing that’s about to happen and you’re a part of it and you’re going to be a part of it as long as you’re a Red Raider.'”
Shaik outlined his agreement with the QEP’s goals of global communication, with mention of international integration in many of today’s business models.
“Jobs are being outsourced to other locations,” Shaik said. “And most of them are U.S.-based organizations. If you want to be a strong leader in your organization, you need to have the global connection so that you can go there and present your organization, your country and talk well with the local people. And having such a program and trying to go through on that will definitely help students to reach the higher positions in their career and other aspirations.”
Muzeeb Shaik, a graduate student from India studying engineering, in traditional Indian clothing on the Texas Tech University campus. Allison Terry/The Hub@TTU
The elimination of stereotypes is another factor in which the QEP may aid Texas Tech students.
“Back in India, people used to stereotype Americans, the same way Americans also stereotype others,” Shaik said. “It’s a common problem and it should be looked into and taken care of by using cultural diversity education.”
With a small laugh, Shaik mentioned many believe Indians only become medical doctors and software professionals.
“India is changing,” Shaik said. “Yes, it was like that a couple of years back, but now India is changing and Indians are getting into start-ups and ventures. I expect the global community to be of benefit and in-line with that.”
SACSCOC will review Texas Tech’s QEP during the reaffirmation, on-campus visit Tuesday through Thursday.
[Editor’s note: This article begins the “Bearing our Banners” international student feature series, highlighting global connectivity and communication. Muzeeb Shaik is currently running for a graduate senator position in the Texas Tech Student Government Association elections under the Techsan Tradition bloc. Although certain Hub staffers may or may not support various campaigns, their views or opinions do not reflect those of The Hub@TTU as a whole. In the interest of fairness, The Hub@TTU will not be endorsing a particular campaign.]
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