Penn administrators, faculty build ties with China trip

While some students relaxed on sunny beaches, Penn President Amy Gutmann, along with administrators and faculty from several Penn schools, took a spring break trip of their own.

The group travelled to China to identify productive collaborations between the University and its Chinese counterparts. Specific goals were to increase internship and study abroad opportunities for Penn students in China, as well as opportunities for collaboration between Penn and Chinese faculty, Gutmann said.

Since most of the current interaction between Penn and Chinese universities consists of professor-to-professor relationships, last week’s China visit was meant to build a “more enduring institutional bridge,” International Relations professor and trip participant Avery Goldstein said.

Representatives from the School of Design, the Law School, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Dental Medicine and the Wharton School went on the trip with Gutmann.

Unlike Penn Law and SEAS, which have established more concrete collaborations with their Chinese counterparts, Goldstein explained that SAS collaborations are “intermittent.”

Though no specific mechanism for interaction was established for SAS faculty, Goldstein said the trip indicated greater administrative support for Chinese collaborations with the school.

Wharton also renewed its agreements with top business schools in Beijing for student exchanges and faculty research, Wharton Dean Thomas Robertson wrote in a statement.

The collaboration with Penn Law is particularly timely because there has been an “explosive” growth in legal education in China, Dean Michael Fitts said. Penn Law also receives more applications from mainland China than any other law school in the United States.

Trip participants visited both Tsinghua and Peking Universities, both of which have existing partnerships with Penn.

At Tsinghua, Penn and Tsinghua faculty participated in a day-long symposium featuring panels about sustainability. Gutmann and Tsinghua administrators reaffirmed a formal commitment to environmental sustainability between PennDesign, Penn Law, SEAS and their Tsinghua counterparts, according to a University press release. An agreement between the Dental School and its Tsinghua counterpart was also signed.

At Peking, Gutmann signed a partnership agreement with Peking University President Zhou Qifeng.

Several Penn faculty then participated in an international relations panel moderated by Gutmann, as well as a symposium on public health.

U.S. Ambassador to China and Penn graduate John Huntsman, Jr. hosted a “terrific” reception for 450 Penn alumni and representatives at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, Vice President of Development and Alumni Relations John Zeller said.

Both Gutmann and Huntsman gave speeches at the reception. Huntsman spoke for several minutes in fluent Chinese before he switched to English, Goldstein said.

Later, Gutmann and several faculty members hosted an event in Shanghai, featuring lectures by Penn Law professor Jacques deLisle on Chinese export regulation and Wharton professor Eric Orts on climate change.

The trip was a “great start to building relationships between Penn and China more formally,” Goldstein said. However, he added, “the real test will be the follow-up.”