President David Skorton is keen to "champion the aspirations of Cornell faculty and strengthen relationships with alumni" in his upcoming trip to East Asia -- his first tour of the region as Cornell's president. In an interview with Cornell Chronicle editors Oct. 10, Skorton also underscored the importance of fostering the university's educational and research connections abroad.

"One main purpose of this trip -- as it was when we traveled to India in January and more recently to Doha in June -- is to continue to be supportive of the faculty's work," he said. "Why? Because Cornell's remarkable footprint around the world is the result of realizing the aspirations of many individual faculty, students and staff members. So we visit countries overseas with our eyes and ears open to new opportunities for Cornell's distinguished faculty to consider."

Skorton and Provost Biddy Martin will lead Cornell's five-city tour to Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, Oct. 22 to Nov. 3, with fellow faculty members and other university officials.

On the way east, Skorton will make a brief visit Oct. 21 to Rabigh, Saudi Arabia, to attend groundbreaking ceremonies for King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, the nation's first independent, international graduate-level research university.

The president, who often refers to Cornell as the land-grant university to the world, noted that "our number-one academic support priorities are right here in Ithaca, Geneva [N.Y.] and New York City."

At the same time, he said, Cornell's mission at home is greatly enhanced by international students, faculty and scholars. "We do better at this university by having talented international students," Skorton said. "We want to be very competitive. We want people to be hungry to come to Cornell. We want to raise resources so they can come, and we want the visa system to work for them. We also want our students in larger numbers to go overseas to become more culturally aware and more culturally competent."

The delegation
The Asia trip delegation includes Charles Phlegar, vice president for alumni affairs and development; Thomas Bruce, vice president for university communications; David Wippman, vice provost for international relations; Banoo Parpia, director of international alumni affairs and development; Professor Robin Davisson; Liya Rong, director of the China-Cornell College Preparatory Program; and Professor Amy Villarejo. They will meet with alumni, academics and local leaders to discuss educational and research partnerships in areas of mutual concern.

In China, Skorton will visit the leaders of the universities of Fudan, Jiaotong, Renmin and Beijing, and he plans to appear in two televised interviews with President Zhang Jie of Jiaotong University and President Ji Baocheng of Renmin University.

Skorton said his purpose in reaching out through television to a wider Chinese audience is "to convey that regardless of politics or world events, in every culture I've visited, people are focused on their children's future, and the ticket to doing better for them is through higher education."

In pursuing his call for outreach to university leaders around the world in what he has described as a new global university initiative, Skorton said he will invite the Chinese university presidents "to join Cornell in a commitment to using higher education as a human development tool and to dedicate some of their efforts and resources to such a plan."

Skorton said he and the delegation also will meet with the first group of Cornell majors in the China and Asia-Pacific Studies program at Peking University on Nov. 1. Another key event planned will be the repatriation of an important fungi collection from the Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

Following up on the success of the India trip in bolstering alumni relations, the president and his delegation will attend alumni dinners in each city along the route.

"Of course I'm going to talk to them about the fundraising campaign and hope that they'll be supportive," he said. "But just as important, we hope that they'll be supportive of sending the most talented students that deserve education here, and helpful in advising me and others of our appropriate role in these countries."

While it is possible that Cornell might sign cooperation agreements in China, Japan or South Korea, Skorton said that currently there are no plans to do so.

"The real nitty-gritty in cultivating international initiatives," he said, "is faculty-to-faculty contact, student-to-student contact and student- and staff-to-faculty contact." But then he added a closing thought about the bigger picture, saying, "One of the biggest benefits for society at large that stems from such trips is that higher education is a diplomatic asset that encourages international cooperation and understanding. And one of the most positive, if not the most positive, of American assets is our higher education system."