L.A. Colleges Pursue Link With Russia : Education: The district seeks its first faculty-student exchange with schools near Moscow. Pierce could be the focus of the program.

Moving to broaden its international ties, the Los Angeles Community College District is working to establish its first student and faculty exchange program with a school district in Russia.

If the nation’s largest community college district adopts the proposal to establish ties with the 35,000-student Lubertsy school district outside Moscow, Los Angeles officials say local students would be enriched by gaining exposure to the former Soviet Union.

“I think it’s enormously important to our colleges and to our country’s relationship with Russia that we start to have these citizen-to-citizen exchanges and that we help get them up to speed as a democratic nation,” said Trustee Lindsay Conner, who initiated the proposal.

The talks reflect the growing interest of American educators in the former Soviet Union.

In separate moves, the Los Angeles district this summer also expects to offer its first study-abroad class in Russia. And a coalition of California college districts is also trying to start up their own education programs in Russia and surrounding regions.

Officials at Pierce College in Woodland Hills said they want to be part of that coalition.

“We would like to have Pierce become the focus of a program with Russia,” Academic Vice President Carmelita Thomas said. “I think it would be enriching for our students to have that presence here on campus,”

Conner said he is interested in the 108-school Lubertsy district, which consists mainly of kindergarten through secondary schools, because last fall it added the beginnings of a community college-like program. And its superintendent wants her students to attend community colleges here.

Although the former Soviet Union has universities and vocational schools, it lacks an open-access, mass-appeal system like American community colleges. Educators in the Los Angeles district and elsewhere said they want to help promote a community college-like system in Russia.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, educational ties between U.S. colleges and the former Communist empire have been blossoming. Residents there are eager to learn about capitalism and business practices, while U.S. institutions see a new student market.

Nearly 1,600 Russians attended American colleges in 1993-94, more than double the number of the year before. And American undergraduates studying in Russia were more than 1,300 in 1991-92, nearly double that of five years earlier, according to the New York-based Institute of International Education.

Coincidentally, the Los Angeles district will get an early start on its Russian initiative this summer. Under a previous plan, the district will offer its first study-abroad class in Russia, according to Don Culton, the director of international programs.

That class, a monthlong session on Russian language and culture in St. Petersburg, will be offered regardless of the outcome of talks with the Lubertsy district. The only question is whether the required dozen or so students will sign up for the $2,000 program.

On another front, an Encino-based group headed by former district Chancellor Leslie Koltai has assembled a group of 17 community colleges--including Pasadena, Long Beach and Cerritos--to seek federal funds to teach programs in Russia and elsewhere in the formerly Soviet region.

“We are interested in exporting the American community college,” Koltai said. “If you look at a typical two-year community college curriculum, that is what they need in Russia right now.”

Thus far, though, Koltai’s group has lost out to universities in three grant applications.

Given the district’s financial problems, Conner conceded that it can’t put much money into the Russian exchange program. But he said students and faculty members on both sides might be willing to pay for their own travel if they receive food and lodging in the host country.

Russian high school graduates could attend the Los Angeles district’s nine campuses. The district already has about 2,500 foreign students among the more than 100,000 who attend. And district faculty could teach in Lubertsy, where officials say there is a large demand for English classes.

Because the Lubertsy district is mostly non-collegiate, doubt remains whether Los Angeles-area students could attend classes there. But Lubertsy still could serve as a base for students who would receive academic credit from the Los Angeles district, officials said.

Conner became interested when Lubertsy’s superintendent, Lidia Antonova, made a presentation to a national conference of U.S. community college trustees in October. Lubertsy already has an exchange program with college and government officials in northern Virginia.

The Los Angeles district’s only prior involvement in Russia took place when one group of faculty members toured Vladivostok in mid-1992 and a smaller group worked at its own expense with a technical institute there in summer, 1993.

Don Sanchez, who was part of the latter group, said American students could learn some lessons from their Russian counterparts.

“Those kids are very driven,” he said. “I wish to hell we had that kind of motivation here. I think it would be infectious for our kids.”