“A cross between ‘Charlie Rose’ and ‘Meet the Press,’ with a healthy dose of Midwestern practicality.” This is how the staff of International Engagement, Communications and Protocol (IECP) describes its most recent media project, “Illinois International.” Illinois International is a 30-minute television program aired on Sunday mornings on Insight Cable Channel 2. The program runs for five months with a new program being produced each month and airing each week on Sundays during the month.

The program is designed to discuss a variety of timely global issues, raising awareness both on campus and within the Champaign community. Last season’s programming included discussions of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program; US-Sino relations; global diaspora; global pandemics; and the state of global affairs. This season’s programming will be linked with the upcoming 2008 US presidential elections and cover such topics as US-Russia Relations; Petro-politics; Iraq; US Foreign Policy; and food security.

Where it is able, the program uses University scholars to address various global issues. When University faculty is not available, the program uses other experts with affiliation to campus units. “In most cases we have access to faculty well respected in their research fields,” says Jacques Fuqua, director of International Engagement, Communications and Protocol and host of the program. “On rare occasions, we run into a situation where the depth of on-campus knowledge isn’t there, as we did when we wanted to discuss the future of US-Sino relations. As a result, we decided to invite Professor Michael Chambers to join us, department chair of political science at Indiana State University, who is also an affiliate member of the University’s East Asian and Pacific Studies Center.” Last season’s programs featured such Urbana faculty guests as Professor Gale Summerfield (director, Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program); Professor Ilana Akresh (department of sociology); Professor Julian Palmore (department of mathematics); and Visiting Professor Rajmohan Gandhi (Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and director of the Global Crossroads International Living/Learning Community).

The idea for such a program has been a long time coming according to Fuqua. “I wanted to put together such a program in my previous posting as associate director of the East Asian Studies Center at Indiana University, but the geographical area of coverage was too narrow. With a broader mandate at Urbana, however, the idea made sense.” Fuqua readily acknowledges that none of this would have been possible without critical financial support. “No matter how good an idea is, without adequate funding it simply won’t get off the ground. We were quite fortunate that Ms. Susan Little Abbott, executive vice president of Busey Bank, agreed that we had a good idea and was willing to assist. Through the timely support of Busey Bank, along with the University’s East Asian and Pacific Studies Center and International Programs and Studies, we were able to move from the concept to execution in rather short order,” says Fuqua.

This season IECP plans to extend geographical coverage of the show to include Springfield and Decatur.