State Department awards $200,000 to CU programs that aid Bulgaria

By Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.

A $200,000 grant to develop course programs in Bulgaria for managing regional development has been awarded to Cornell by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Cornell will collaborate with the University of Rousse, located near the Bulgarian-Romanian border. The two universities will establish master's degree courses in managing regional development, and off-campus short courses for elected and appointed officials. The curricula will focus on community and economic growth and the relationship of these processes to the natural environment.

David L. Brown, professor of development sociology, and Gerald B. White, professor of applied economics and management, will lead the Cornell team. The project will support Bulgaria's effort to join the European Union (EU), since competence in regional development is an essential expectation of member states, said Brown. Local governance and development are relatively new ideas in Bulgaria, given its history, he said.

"Students who obtain training in this curriculum will likely play an important role in Bulgaria's development," he noted.

Bulgaria's transformation from a centrally planned communist state has resulted in regional inequality and environmental damage, Brown said. "Educational programs to address the challenges of uneven development are largely absent in Bulgarian higher education. Since regional development is important to the EU accession process, Bulgaria needs leaders who can manage the process of territorial change to make a smooth transition into the EU."

The Cornell-Rousse curriculum will include city and regional planning, economics and management, sociology, law and environmental management. The project is being coordinated by International Programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, with additional support from the Central and Eastern Europe Initiative and the Polson Institute for Global Development.