President of SCSU Visits SNNU

On the morning of October 14th, 2010, Dr. Earh. Potter , President of St. Cloud State University (SCSU), and Christin Potter, special assistant for President of SCSU, were hospitably welcomed by Fang Yu, President of Shaanxi Normal University (SNNU), in VIP hall in Chong Yu building on Yan Ta campus. A memorandum about the cooperation and communication between two universities and an arrangement for students exchange program were signed by President Potter and President Fang Yu. Meanwhile, inter-university cooperation and communication was also resolved to commence in 2011. The participants were Zhang Jianxiang, Vice President of SNNU, Zhang Jiancheng, Director of SNNU International Program Office and Wang Xiaoling, Vice Dean of SNNU International College of Chinese Studies.

At the beginning of the meeting, President of these two universities recalled past experience in inter-university cooperation. Both deemed that the visiting to SNNU by SCSU in 2006 and 2009 established solid foundation for formal cooperation and communication between two universities in the future. Then, they introduced fundamental state in their university and expressed the expectation upon the further cooperation and communication with all the distinguished universities in the world. President Fang Fu pointed out that the relationship between SCSU and SNNU will be bound to further the friendship and accelerate the joint development in two universities, and wished to promote substantial communication between faculties and students in two universities. Zhang Jianxiang, Vice President of SNNU, referred to the achievement obtained in the field of international communication in SNNU and agreed with the expectation of the cooperation between two universities. He stated that there are several identical features between two universities. Firstly, both have open-minded notion for development and pay special attention to the communication with partner institutions. Secondly, both are in the stage of transformation and are developing from a mere teacher education university to a comprehensive research university. Thirdly, both have similar background for disciplinary development. The liberal arts are developed with great advantages and computer science, chemistry, environment science and other scientific disciplines are also taken seriously. Subsequently, the discussion about the training program for teachers and short-term or long-term Chinese teaching program was hold among the two universities leaders.

After the meeting, President Potter visited College of Distance Education, the Center for Developing Teachers Professional Competence and International College of Chinese Studies accompanied by Zhang Jianxiang and Zhang Jiancheng. (Trans: Qi Hongmiao)