Colin Wishneski curated this story by Mike Rasheed, which The Appalachian published Jan. 19, 1984.
ASU Chancellor John Thomas and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Harvey Dunham will once again travel to the People’s Republic of China to negotiate an exchange program with the Northeast Institute of Technology (NEIT) in Shenyang.
In 1980, during the first conference, Thomas and Mr. Bi, the president of NEIT, worked out an agreement to exchange faculty. This year they will propose and ratify a new agreement that would allow the two schools to exchange students.
Although the formal agreement will not be finalized until the spring meeting, Dunham said that this proposal will not be a surprise. He added that only the formalities need to be completed now. With the confidence in the ratification of the new agreement, the International Studies council has already selected two students to send to China next year. They are Shelley Dixon and Beth Williams.
NEIT currently has no plans to send any of its students to ASU during the 1984-85 academic year.
The students selected will not be living in the dormitories used by Chinese students. Instead, they will be living in apartments or in the Foreign Visitors Dorm on campus. Either way, the students will be in Western-style accommodations.
In addition to their independent studies, each student will be required to work a maximum of 10 hours each week teaching Chinese professors and students English.
NEIT has approximately an 11:13 student to teacher ratio. It is considered one of the 80 key universities in China’s 650-member system and therefore receives additional funding. This funding enables NEIT to finance such an exchange program, which at the time was the only one of its kind.
Although the People’s Republic of China is a communist state, a clause in the agreement between the two universities states that no person shall participate or express his political views while visiting the host countries. According to Durham, no problems have risen and none are expected to rise due to this political difference.
The program with NEIT has been such a success that Kookmin University in Seoul, South Korea, plans a similar faculty exchange program with Appalachian.
The Kookmin University President visited Chancellor Thomas last summer and finalized plans for a one-on-one faculty exchange.
This program will be somewhat different from the NEIT program in that it will be significantly cheaper. In the Korean Exchange, each professor will take his own salary, insurance policies, etc., and relieve the University from total financial responsibility. But Durham contributed part of the success of the NEIT program to the exceptional care the Chinese professors are given.
