MUNCIE, Ind. – Eighteen faculty and professional staff members leave May 26 for a field trip to Turkey as part of Ball State University’s international training and development efforts.

The 16-day trip is the first in what will become an annual summer faculty and professional staff exchange with Istanbul University or other Ball State international exchange partners.

"Establishing academic and professional relations with international counterparts is a focus of the program," said Erdogan Kumcu, marketing professor and Istanbul Exchange Program director. "Cultural, social and historical visits will enable participants to collect and prepare new course material and share experiences with students and colleagues."

Faculty members are planning a wide range of activities related to their own fields, including studying urban air quality, Islamic paradise gardens, Byzantine art and architecture, urban design, Middle Eastern fiction and the use of technology by the Turkish university.

Istanbul University is more than 500 years old and is one of the 20 oldest universities in the world. It has 73,000 students and 5,000 teaching staff for its undergraduate and graduate programs. It has two campuses, one within the walled city of Istanbul in what is known as the European side of the city, and another 15 miles west of Istanbul.

Earlier this year Ball State was cited in Peer Review, a quarterly published by the American Association of Universities and Colleges, as one of the nation’s best examples for the manner in which it supports faculty members to conduct international teaching and research. Ball State was one of four universities commended as a "best practice" institution.

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Kumcu by e-mail at ekumcu@bsu.edu or by phone at (765) 285-5186.)