Higher education institutions are notorious for being highly siloed, but international offices are uniquely positioned to break down those barriers because through our everyday work we collaborate with everyone. I have worked as Senior International Officer at two small private institutions and now I’m in that role at a mid-sized public university. I’m finding that what I learned about collaboration at the liberal arts schools is serving me well now. Taking the time to develop relationships with colleagues across the campus is essential in a field in which we provide for the academic success, the co-curricular opportunities, and the well-being of our students.

In addition to the basic cross-campus nature of international education as a functional unit, we are also interdependent with colleagues because we share goals, but also because we are typically under-resourced. When we do not have the staff or the funds to carry out our mission, we need to collaborate with the many other under-resourced campus entities to help each other by co-sponsoring initiatives, programs, and events.

There are two major functions of an international office that require completely different kinds of support, and which campus partners work with us depends on the umbrella under which we place each goal. The first of these functions is the everyday running of the office. For daily transactions that deal with student support and our in-house abroad programs, we work with Financial Aid, the Registrar, Residential Life, the Bursar’s Office, Academic Advising, Marketing, Title IX, the Legal Department, Information Technology, to name a few. To run our on-campus educational programs, outreach, and community service, we rely on Student Programs, Dining and Catering, Scheduling, Facilities, and other Student Life services. And in an emergency, we need all hands on deck. The second function of an international office that relies on partnerships is strategic planning and academic integration. In this area we work closely with Alumni Relations, Advancement, DEI, Academic Affairs, and the President’s office. The diversity of our campus collaborations is reflected in the fact that IE offices are sometimes housed under Academics and sometimes under Student Life, two areas that normally never interact, but which are both integral to our work.

Faculty are a special category of their own, because of the multiple ways they contribute to internationalization and the many ways we support their efforts. A collaboration with faculty can be the most rewarding thing we do (and as a former faculty member, I admit it’s my favorite thing to do), but many IE professionals find it frustrating to work with professors. This is because of the artificially imposed staff/faculty structural divide and lack of understanding of each other’s work. This makes collaboration with faculty our biggest challenge and opportunity for silo busting. A successful SIO should understand faculty needs and priorities and be able to help channel the tremendous creative energy that faculty can bring to international efforts. You have to know when to bring them opportunities and ideas, and when the timing is not right. You need to be creative in finding solutions for their lofty goals. And you also have to know how to temper expectations when the enthusiasm and goals of faculty are outside the scope of what you can support with the resources at your disposal.

Another area of collaboration is where we shine because we provide something no-one else on campus is as well-equipped to provide, and that is a connection to the rest of the world (literally). We are the ones who connect students and faculty with study abroad providers, we collaborate with Admissions in connecting with international students, we create and nurture partnerships with universities worldwide, and we support international research and scholarship through our shepherding of programs such as Fulbright.

Collaboration across these artificial divides is not only rewarding, but it also shows off our ability to do exactly what we are teaching our students to do—be flexible, open-minded, and work across cultural and structural barriers. Something many of us don’t typically do very well is educate the campus community about what we do. This is largely the reason for the lack of resources that is so common in our field. If administration understood how essential we are, for the many reasons we already know so well, we would be in a more comfortable place from which to ask for support. This is where our mad silo-busting skills can serve us well. We need to document the work we do with other offices, because this demonstrates the tremendous impact we have on and off our home campuses. And we need to have open and active lines of communication with colleagues and with campus leaders, so they know about our successes and can support us when and how we request, without making assumptions about our needs. This is an imperfect plan because this type of upward management is much more difficult than I just made it sound, and it depends largely on the personalities involved. However, education through collaboration is a good idea precisely because it plays on our strengths as international educators—we are the ultimate silo busters.