Records of the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (MC 703)
About the Collection
The Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES) established the University of Arkansas Libraries in 1986 as the official repository for its permanently valuable records. Administered by the Libraries' Special Collections Department, the CIES archives include more than 200 linear feet of minutes, correspondence, publications, and other files of research value.
In placing the records at the University of Arkansas Libraries, CIES recognized the libraries' efforts to document the legacy of J. William Fulbright to the cause of international educational exchange. The Special Collections Department holds Fulbright's papers documenting his congressional career and his lifelong commitment to education. In addition, the Department houses other significant related collections: the papers of Elizabeth Lam Vieg, longtime executive associate of the Committee on International Exchange of Persons, the predecessor of CIES; the records of the Board of Foreign Scholarships; the records of the United States Information Agency's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Historical Office; and the records of the National Association for Foreign Student Affairs, a membership association that provides services to professionals in the field of international educational exchange.
About the Council for International Exchange of Scholars
CIES, a private organization funded under a grant from the USIA, was organized in 1947 as an outgrowth of the passage of the Fulbright Act, to cooperate with the United States government in administering the Fulbright Scholar Program. CIES also administers the Indo-American Fellowship Program, the Spain Research Fellowships, and the NATO Research Fellowship. In the first forty years of its operation, CIES aided in the exchange of more than 20,000 Americans and 20,000 visiting scholars.
Files of the CIES archives reflect the organization of the Council into six geographic units: Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East/South Asia, and Western Europe. The units administer awards each year for more than a thousand Americans and twelve hundred visiting scholars. A thirteen-member CIES Board makes recommendations to the USIA and to the Board of Foreign Scholarships on both operational and policy issues.
Among the records categories included in the CIES collection are directories of visiting and American scholars, files of conferences held in Washington and elsewhere, program books for the countries that have hosted visiting American scholars, and the final reports filed by recipients of the exchange grants in which they describe and evaluate their experiences. Selected file titles reveal the range and scope of the exchange program; for example: "Soviet-American Bible, 1975-76," "Areas of American Education Least Understood," etc.; "General Recommendations for the Development of Razi University March 1976," "German Educational Experts Program," "People's Republic of China 1980," "Some Issues in University Education: Commentaries by Arab University Educators."
Access
A descriptive finding aid to the collection is available online.
Access to the Council for International Exchange of Scholars Papers is open to students, faculty, and others upon application to the staff. Researchers may direct inquiries to Special Collections, but extensive projects will require a visit to the department. To facilitate their work, researchers who wish to use the papers are advised to email, write, or telephone the department in advance.