Jackson State University President Carolyn W. Meyers welcomed her Chinese counterpart from Nantong University to sign a formal agreement of collaboration and celebrate their shared vision.
Meyers said the partnership with Nantong President Cheng Chun materialized through JSU’s international program. After signing the memorandum of understanding, she described the joint opportunity with Nantong as “an excursion to a university that mirrors us.”
Through an interpreter, Cheng said, “In this current time, the globe is a village. The university should act as a very important road in globalization. As educational sectors, both institutions play a very important role.”
Furthermore, Meyers said Nantong – whose motto is “Bridging China and the West; striving for the best” – is a university that, like JSU, is more than a century old. “It has the same commitment to excellence and the same beliefs that the world is a stage for our students today, and that this is part of their preparation for changing the world. Students must experience other cultures.”
In addition to student exchanges, the joint effort will engage professors.
“This collaboration is not the job of the two presidents alone. It will involve the educational departments and researchers of both universities,” Cheng said. “As we’ve escalated our international program, we want to guarantee opportunities for learning that goes both ways and across all sectors of the universe. This ceremony is just the starting point for globalization.”
Nantong University, colloquially known in Chinese as Tong da, was established in 1912. It is in Nantong, Jiangsu province, China. As well, it has 22,539 undergraduates; 770 post-graduates; and 2,683 academic staff.