Remembering EIIC-Emerson:

A Personal Note 

 

 

I had been a professor of Mass Communication at Emerson for three years before I was selected in 1990 to be the dean of its international branch that was going to open in Maastricht, the Netherlands. I was a native of Greece, had already been a Fulbright scholar in Scandinavia in 1986-87, had reported from the United Nations and I had a degree in international mass communication, so dealing with other cultures was second nature to me. 

 

The Maastricht position was wonderful for us and our young family--the children attended the international elementary school and my wife, a former copy editor, advised EIIC's student newspaper. Practicing the profession you love in the heart of Europe and being surrounded by a competent and supportive staff was a dream come true for me.

 

Pat Tollo, head of academic advising/planning, was on top of her game. The admissions staff, under Petra de Boer, did a fantastic job visiting many European international high schools and the student life staff, under Joel Menard always kept the students happily busy with Carnaval, sports, Halloween, poetry and film festivals, excursions, quiz bowl and other social and extracurricular activities. Thadee Almering kept the finances under control, Marika Macco and Natascha Swagemakers ran a very efficient secreteriat office and John van Proemeren kept the facilities going.

 

Our partnership with the University of Limburg library and Center for European Studies as well as with WorldNeth was extremely beneficial. Our setup was impressive enough that the University of Missouri School of Journalism brought faculty and students to us for a semester.

 

One of EIIC's greatest distinctions was that in 1994 it managed to get its new graduate program in Global Marketing Communication and Advertising (under the direction of Prof. Ted O'Hearn) accredited by the International Advertising Association. We were the first American institution to receive such an honor. The program is now thriving on Emerson's Boston campus.

 

One of the key strengths of EIIC always was its ability to attract a truly multicultural group of students (Americans were a minority) and team of young faculty from European universities with different educational philosophies and accents to study together and learn from and about each other in this unique Dutch city.

 

EIIC's logo was fitting: Global communication for global understanding.

 

We offered a regular Emerson curriculum with an international flavor and all courses and faculty were approved by the Boston Emerson departments they represented. It had a solid academic foundation and its global credential was at least a decade ahead of its time. The Boston campus welcomed us by sending some of its best faculty for a semester: Crannell, Littlefield, Selig, Shute, Silvestri, Sharp and Henry, were some of the first to join us.

 

The international student body to which we appealed soon overcame its initial hesitation about us and often European International High School counselors sat in our classes and talked to our faculty and students. Three years after we started, we learned that the president of the European International High School Counselors Association had decided to send his daughter to EIIC!

 

Soon after we arrived our students created the city's only English language weekly newspaper, complete with a monthly literary supplement for the writing students, and advertising sales opportunities for the marketing/advertising students. We also had a teletext news service on local cable that transmitted local news. We found student internships in advertising agencies and non-profits in the area.

 

Our initial student body was small, 50-70, but we soon doubled and tripled. We had adequate classroom space, a computer lab and a basic TV studio. Students studying in equipment-intensive fields had to finish their majors in Boston.

 

Every aspect of EIIC's life was supervised by its Boston equivalent and we were often visited by members of the Boston campus security office, department chairs, accountants, admissions officers, accrediting agency representatives and even members of the board of trustees.

 

After I returned to the Boston campus, EIIC moved to Brussels but eventually did not continue. To this day, colleagues at Emerson and schools  abroad ask me why we left Maastricht and EIIC. I have no good answer other than my understanding that after Pres. Zacharis' death some top administrators felt the program was not making enough money quickly enough.

 

Nevertheless, in its short life, EIIC managed to make an impact on the disciplines it represented in the heart of Europe and on the lives of so many students, faculty and staff.

 

This site is for them and for those who worked so hard to make EIIC the success it was!

 

Manny Paraschos, Ph.D.

Founding Dean

EIIC-Emerson

1991-94

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boston, April 2015

 

emmanuel_paraschos@emerson.edu