Jon M. Huntsman School of Business appoints economist as associate dean for international affairs
LOGAN – The Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University has just made a decision it hopes will have a global impact.
Chris Fawson has been appointed associate dean for international affairs, a new position at the college. Fawson served as the vice provost for academic and international affairs for USU from 2001 to 2005. From 2005 to 2006 he was head of the economics department.
The dean of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business , Doug Anderson, said students have long taken advantage of the college’s strong international connections.
"More and more companies are doing business internationally, and we have an obligation to help our students prepare for that international workplace," Anderson said.
The college has an international business major, but Fawson said an international component is something the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business is now weaving into fabric of everything it does in support of its academic mission.
Fawson will oversee that work. He said he would eventually like to see all students who go through the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business have an international experience in an academic setting before they graduate.
As a first step in that process, Fawson is initiating efforts to bring a USU international business degree program to students in China and Taiwan. These programs will create opportunities for students at Utah State University to more effectively immerse themselves in Jon M. Huntsman School of Business -sponsored academic programs throughout the world, Fawson said.
Utah universities have an unusual resource in that many of their students have served missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Anderson said.
The Jon M. Huntsman School of Business conducted a survey of its students last spring that showed that 40 percent of the respondents lived abroad for at least three months and that 45 percent were fluent in a second language, Fawson said.
Fawson said employers, graduate program admission committees and students themselves may not understand the practical advantage a mission can bring to their academic program of study. Creating innovative opportunities for students to leverage their cultural and language skills in an academic setting provides external validation for the value of that experience.
"International experiences engender a high level of cultural sensitivity and create opportunities for extending foreign language skills," Fawson said. "Adding a global component to their education will make our students more marketable and prepared to make contributions to business and the communities the students live in."
Fawson, who grew up in Utah, graduated from Texas A&M with a master’s of science in 1983 and a doctorate in economics in 1986. He has been at USU for 17 years.
He speaks Mandarin and has traveled to Vietnam, Bangladesh and Thailand on projects for the Asian Development Bank. He traveled to Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand on a project for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A World Bank-sponsored project sent him to Yemen, and he visited Guyana on a project for the Inter-American Development Bank. He also spent a semester as a research scholar with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, Italy.
Fawson’s work for the university has given him the opportunity to do extensive work throughout Asia, South America, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and the Caribbean basin. He said it has given him great appreciation for the value of international immersion experiences.