The College of Staten Island, a senior college of The City University of New York, hosted 60 University Presidents from Vietnam as they traveled the Northeast auditing higher education best practices in the United States. In addition to CSI, their one-week tour also included the Institute of International Education and Harvard University.
The delegation’s goal was to investigate best practices in leadership and management, ways to link research to community, international outreach and recruitment, economic realities and their impact on institutional development, faculty roles in management decisions, resource allocations, state involvement, and institutional outcomes and assessment models.
Their tour of the CSI campus was highlighted by a close review of the CUNY High-Performance Computational Facility. Of particular interest were projects that benefited the community, such as tackling the region’s tough transportation issues. After a presentation on development and outreach from CSI Interim Vice President for Institutional Advancement Robert Huber, and another regarding academic priorities and best practices by Provost William Fritz, lunch was served and a free exchange of ideas and dialogue ensued.
During his remarks at the luncheon, Dr. Minh, from the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training, spoke very warmly about the visit to Staten Island. “Now one-fifth of the universities in Vietnam know and can recommend the College of Staten Island. And, they want to welcome you, your students and faculty to Vietnam in the future.”
“This is the largest group of Vietnamese university officials ever to visit the College,” said Ann Helm, executive director of the CSI Center for International Service, who also added that the College has been working with Vietnamese partners since 1997. “We expect this visit will enable us to collaborate in many different areas with our Vietnamese counterparts.”
