The partnership of Scripps College, the Claremont Colleges, and the University of Southern California has been awarded a $150,000 grant, renewable for three years, from the Delegation of the European Commission in Washington, D.C., to establish the European Union Center of California, at Scripps College. The new Center will be one of 10 academic centers nationwide to offer programs to help people understand the European Union.
With a history of successful previous collaborations, the Scripps-Claremont Colleges-USC partnership plans to share resources and information on European research programs, teaching and outreach activities. Together, they will help coordinate regional research on European integration issues for all of Southern California.
Co-directors of the Center will be David Andrews, assistant professor of politics and international relations at Scripps, and Jonathan Aronson, director of the School of International Relations at USC. Administrative headquarters for the Center will be on the EU Center of California Scripps campus in Claremont.
In discussing the importance of studying and understanding the European Union, Aronson called integration within the European Union “one of the most dynamic trends in today’s world. It is very important for Southern California to pay attention to Europe.” Andrews suggested that “the European Union is emerging as an increasing significant world actor.”
Scripps President Nancy Y. Bekavac described the new Center as “a central component of the College’s plan to develop an international curriculum.”
Ambassador Hugo Paemen, head of the European Commission’s Delegation in the United States, in announcing the site selections, said, “The EU Centers will be an essential, fortifying link in the chain of transatlantic relations by building better understanding and cooperation among our future leaders. We hope, through the centers, that more and more American students will gain insight into the European Union and the European integration process, and take that with them into their working lives.”
Also named as grant awardees for European Union Centers are Harvard University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Duke University, the New York Consortium for European Studies, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Washington at Seattle, the University System of Georgia and Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Missouri at Columbia.