Partnership Renewal with the Taiwan Ministry of Education
Remarks by Boston University Provost Jean Morrison
Signing Ceremony with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office
Thursday, July 12, 2012
One Silber Way
Thank you, Bob (Murowchick). Good morning, everyone. Director Cynthia Huang and members of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office… Associate Provost for Global Programs Willis Wang… faculty and leadership of the Center for the Study of Asia and the International Center for East Asian Archaeology and Cultural History…
I am thrilled to be here with you helping to celebrate and renew what has been a truly remarkable partnership between Boston University and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office.
From the earliest days of our founding, Boston University has had a mission not only of providing students with the tools they need to succeed in the workplace, but with a sense of their place in a larger world and an engagement with the cultures, scholarship and diversity of experience that help to make us who we are.
I am hard-pressed to imagine a better extension of this mission than the cooperative agreement we have enjoyed over the last five years with the Taiwan Ministry of Education through its partners in the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office.
I would like to thank, in particular, Director Huang and her dedicated staff for their vision and generous support that has helped to bring so many incredible learning opportunities to our students and faculty over these years.
Indeed, so much of our success and continued advancement as an international research leader is only possible through the lasting friendships we’ve been fortunate to forge with organizations like TECO.
Today, thanks to this dynamic partnership, our permanent curriculum features more courses than ever before on Taiwanese culture, history, and literature.
Our teaching of Mandarin Chinese has been dramatically enhanced and our standing as a leader in East Asian archaeology strengthened through the availability of some of the world’s premier Taiwanese scholarship.
Our libraries house a growing collection of important Taiwanese materials, while students of all backgrounds and majors are exposed daily to East Asia’s global contribution and influence through lectures, forums, performances and celebrations.
At a time when East Asian culture, industry and ingenuity hold such a leading voice in international conversation and in our own development, we are delighted this morning to celebrate the five-year renewal of our cooperative agreement with the Taiwan Ministry of Education.
The objective of this partnership remains as it has been: to continue enhancing Boston University’s educational offerings related to China and Taiwan.
Under the terms of this new agreement, we are delighted to announce the establishment of a “Taiwan Forum Lecture Series” through the Center for the Study of Asia, which will each year invite prominent Taiwanese scholars to BU to present their latest research to our University and the broader Boston community.
Additionally, this renewal will strongly bolster the ARC/Base Project, a comprehensive, multilingual database being developed by the International Center for East Asian Archaeology and Cultural History. Once complete, this project will, we believe, serve as one of the world’s finest educational resources for scholars and researchers in East and Southeast Asian archaeology, anthropology, history and art history.
We are excited about the possibilities this morning’s renewed Memorandum of Understanding presents and about the friendship and connection Boston University enjoys with the people of Taiwan.
It now gives me great pleasure to welcome to the podium Cynthia Huang, director of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office…