Strengthening our China connection
May 3rd, 2011Jan and I are just back from a trip to China where we attended the annual presidents’ meeting of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, as well as the centenary celebration of Tsinghua University. Next summer we will host the annual meeting of APRU and look forward to having on our campus the presidents of the top 42 research universities around the Pacific Rim.
The centenary celebration of Tsinghua was a remarkable event. The president of China, Hu Jintao, is an alum of Tsinghua so naturally the main celebration was held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and Hu Jintao gave the keynote address. It was attended by a mere 8,000 people.
It was an honor for the University of Oregon to be numbered among the 115 universities invited to this celebration. In the accompanying photograph I am joined by our vice provost for international affairs, Denis Simon, planting a commemorative University of Oregon tree on the campus of Tsinghua University.
The other photograph shows Jan and me with the parents of two incoming graduate students who will be attending the University of Oregon for the first time this fall.
This was a remarkably productive trip and affirmation of the University of Oregon's growing reputation in China.
