Sino-American Liberal Education Conference
MPCC-UIC China Seminar 2007 Presidential Lecture Series
Presidents at the Seminar
The Sino-American Liberal Education Conference 2007/ MPCC-UIC Presidential Lecture Series was held onNov. 5 to Nov. 6, 2007 at UIC. Featured speakers of this event included Prof. Ng Ching Fai, President of both UIC and HKBU, Dr. Larry Goodwin, President of College of St. Scholastica and Dr. Paul Pribbenow, President of Augsburg College. The Sino-American Liberal Education Conference on the benefits of liberal education for globalization was held in the afternoon of Nov. 6 featuring prominent guests from Mainland China, Hong Kong and the U.S.
The Seminar is the first large-scale academic cooperation between MPCC and UIC. It was an effort to explore the development of liberal education in China. Prof. Kwok Siu Tong, Executive Vice-President of UIC, said, "It is hoped this can be developed into a full cooperation between Minnesota and China to build a Minnesota-in-China forum for the people of USA and China." UIC also invited parent representatives to join the seminar.
Students were asking questions
MPCC colleges of Minnesota have a long liberal arts tradition. UIC is a newly established college with a mission to create the first liberal college in China. In the last two years, UIC has built up a close relationship with MPCC, an organization consisting of 17 liberal arts colleges and universities in Minnesota. The collaboration between MPCC and UIC will hopefully bring about further development of liberal arts education in China.
Guests from MPCC and Staff of UIC
Reporter：Cheryl Chen/ Christy Zhao
Photographer：Chen Mengxing
Media and Communication Center
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Prof. Ng Ching-Fai
President, United International College;
Vice Chancellor, Hong Kong Baptist University:
In today's China, we put the "social goal" of higher education as developing well-educated, critical thinkers who can function effectively in a civil society; while the "individual goal" as all rounded personal growth. ... We also try our very best to inject into the concept of Liberal Education a local perspective. Intellectual qualities acquired by our students should be able to guide them towards developing profound understanding of their own culture and society. At the same time we aim to expose our students to various other cultures and societies for a world vision.
Dr. Larry Goodwin
President, College of St. Scholastica:
Liberal education prepares students for their professional lives, but we cannot know fully what it means to be a good professional unless we also know what it means to be a good human being. Liberal education thus involves examination of the great proposals about how we ought to understand ourselves and how we ought to live in the world. At its best, liberal education engages the mind but also provokes the conscience, shapes character, and so provides the context within which people engage in good work. Liberal education is a moral project.
Dr. William Frame
Former President, Augsburg College:
The Minnesota Private College Council is an appropriate partner for UIC for one reason, that is both we in the United States and you in China are facing the similar challenge. And the challenge is that the global economy has become the powerful force organizing our life together in recent time. That means other forces of community building have lost position...and that is what causes you here at UIC and us in Minnesota to be looking very hard at the way in which we bring those forces back there, especially in our young, so that we can find a place for liberal education in the mist of this global commercial society. In the United States, we have decided to address this overwhelming business education by seeing whether we can integrate professional education or professional learning with liberal learning... What you are trying to do is somehow to create coherence out of a culture, which itself has been directed in at least three different directions... We might both be better off if we are doing this together and be in touch with each other.
Dr. Paul C. Pribbenow
President, Augsburg College:
The project (liberal education), in addition to a moral project, is a civic project - how are we preparing our students for lives of leaders and service in this 21st Century?...Joining a college is the first step in the formation of our students to be good learners, to be good people and also to be good citizens. To learn as an amateur, to learn from strangers, to learn to be a patriot, perhaps in these simple ideas we might find common ground for embracing our role imaging the power of liberal arts to provide genuine civic education in the 21st century.
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Parents Highly Regard MPCC-UIC Presidential Lecture Series
Parent representatives were invited to the Sino-American Liberal Education Conference 2007/ MPCC-UIC Presidential Lecture Series on Nov. 6. The event highlighted the benefits of liberal education for globalization, featuring prominent speakers from UIC and member colleges of MPCC.
After the seminar, parents felt they had a better understanding of liberal arts education. They found that the educational approaches adopted by UIC were quite similar to those adopted by liberal arts colleges in Minnesota. They were interested in the cooperation between UIC and MPCC, which meant better development opportunities for the students.
"This is the first time we have ever participated in this kind of academic activity. We are honored to be here," said a parent from Guangdong, "Information we get from our kids and the media is not enough for us to piece together a complete picture of the college. Being here is a better way for us to know more about the development of the college. I will come here more often in future."
Several parents expressed they satisfaction with the progress their kids had made during the last two years. Both parents and students vouched for the benefits from the Whole Person Education and English teaching environment at UIC.
The parents hoped that UIC would continue to strengthen its commitment to and innovation in liberal arts education. They would support in this effort of the college.
Parents at the Seminar
Student Journalist：Lu Zhe
Editor：Cheryl Chen/ Christy Zhao
Media and Communication Center
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Cooperation between MPCC and UIC
In 2007, UIC has signed cooperation memoranda with seven member colleges of the Minnesota Private College Council (MPCC). The cooperation has attracted attention from many UIC students.
MPCC and Liberal Arts Education
Members of the Minnesota Private College Council are 17 private, four-year liberal arts colleges, some of which have more than 150 years of history. They have extensive experience in traditional liberal education.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, liberal arts means "College or university curriculum aimed at imparting general knowledge and developing general intellectual capacities, in contrast to a professional, vocational, or technical curriculum. In Classical antiquity, the term designated the education proper to a freeman (Latin liber, "free") as opposed to a slave. In the medieval Western university, the seven liberal arts were grammar, rhetoric, and logic (the trivium) and geometry, arithmetic, music, and astronomy (the quadrivium). In modern colleges and universities, the liberal arts include the study of literature, languages, philosophy, history, mathematics, and science."
The Path towards Mutual Benefit
According to Prof. Kwok Siu Tong, MPCC had been trying to find cooperation partners among universities and colleges in Hong Kong and Mainland China in the recent couple of years. Their delegates had visited many universities in Mainland before meeting Prof. Kwok at an education conference in Hong Kong in 2005, when they were impressed by Prof. Kwok's introduction to the Whole Person Education at UIC.
In early 2007, administrative staff and scholars from a number of Minnesota universities and colleges visited UIC. Dr. Bill Frame, former President of Augsburg College stayed at UIC for six weeks. He had in-depth communication with UIC students and detailed review on the operation of the college. The weekly report he submitted to MPCC indicated the progress of UIC in every aspect, helping UIC to win the trust from MPCC gradually.
Dr. Bill Frame was at the first UIC high table dinner as guest of honor
In May, 2007, Prof. Kwok was invited to visit more than 10 universities and colleges in Minnesota. The trip turned out to be fruitful. Prof. Kwok found that UIC and MPCC shared common understanding in educational philosophy. The universities and colleges in Minnesota were interested in the innovative education approaches at UIC, such as Whole Person Education, Four-Points Interaction, Parents' Network and experiential study. During the trip, several universities drafted student exchange program proposals with UIC, and also discussed with Prof. Kwok about some cooperation programs.
Prof. Kwok Sighed Cooperation Memoranda with Members of MPCC
This summer, UIC organized a Minnesota Study Tour for more than 20 UIC students to travel to six Minnesota private colleges for the study of liberal arts education in the United States. The study tour was an important activity in the cooperation between MPCC and UIC. In early September, delegates from Augsburg College visited UIC and finalized a memorandum of cooperation between the two colleges.
In early Oct., UIC officially signed cooperation memoranda with seven Minnesota private colleges and became the only cooperation partner of MPCC in Greater China.
From Nov. 5 to Nov. 6, MPCC and UIC jointly held the China Seminar 2007 Presidential Lecture Series. The seminar opened a new page in the academic cooperation between MPCC and UIC.
Student Journalist：Deng Weijun
Editor：Cheryl Chen/ Christy Zhao
Media and Communication Center
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Minnesota Private College Council
The Minnesota Private College Council (MPCC) was set up in 1948. Members of the organizations are 17 private, four-year liberal arts colleges. The mission of MPCC is to preserve and enhance quality private higher education to serve the education and economic needs of the Minnesota region while strengthening the cultural and economic fabric.
Guests from Minnesota Private College Council
Paul C. Pribbenow, Ph.D.
President
Augsburg College
Paul Pribbenow, the 11th president of Augsburg College, a private liberal arts college associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and located in Minneapolis, is recognized as one of the country's most engaging commentators and teachers on ethics, philanthropy and American public life.
Before coming to Augsburg College in 2006, Pribbenow served as president of Rockford College in Rockford, Ill. He also has served as research fellow for the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College (Indiana); dean for College Advancement and secretary of the Board of Trustees at Wabash College; vice president of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; and associate dean of the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.
Pribbenow holds a B.A. (1978) from Luther College (Iowa), and an M.A. (1979) and Ph.D. (1993) in social ethics from the University of Chicago.
Pribbenow has chaired the state board of the Illinois Campus Compact and served on the visiting committee to the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. He was named a McCormick Presidential Civic Leader Fellow for 2003-04 and for 2005-06. Pribbenow is the author of numerous articles on the professions, ethics, and not-for-profit management. He publishes a bi-monthly e-mail newsletter entitled Notes for the Reflective Practitioner, writes a regular column for Contributions magazine, and has edited two collections of essays entitled Serving the Public Trust: Insights for Fund Raising Research and Practice, Volumes 1 and 2 (Jossey-Bass, 2000 and 2001). He currently is at work on a book manuscript entitled Public Service: Philanthropic Fundraising as a Calling.
Paul Pribbenow博士是Augsburg 学院的第11任校长。Augsburg学院是一所联合美国福音路德教会(ELCA) 的私立文科学院，位于美国明尼阿波利斯市。Pribbenow博士被认为是美国在伦理道德、慈善事业和公共事务方面最有魅力的施教者之一。
在2006年任职于Augsburg 学院之前，Pribbenow博士曾是美国伊利诺斯州罗克福德Rockford 学院的校长。他曾是印地安那州Wabash学院文学院调查中心的研究学者，并担任该大学学院发展院长和理事会秘书之职。此外，他还是School of the Art Institute of Chicago的副校长，和Divinity School of the University of Chicago的副院长。
Pribbenow博士拥有爱荷华州的学士学位(1978)和 芝加哥大学的社会论理学硕士学位(1979)和博士学位(1993), 曾任伊利诺斯州校园契约主席，并在芝加哥大学神学院的访问委员会任职。在2003到2004和2005到2006期间，他被命为McCormick Presidential Civic Leader Fellow。Pribbenow博士出版了大量关于职业道德和非盈利机构管理的文献。他出版名为Notes for the Reflective Practitioner的双月刊e-mail时事通讯，为Contributions杂志撰写专栏，并编辑了两本文献精选，名为Serving the Public Trust: Insights for Fund Raising Research and Practice卷一和卷二(Jossey-Bass, 2000和2001)。他目前正在撰写一本书的手稿，该书名为Public Service: Philanthropic Fundraising as a Calling。
Dr. Larry Goodwin
President
College of St. Scholastica
Larry Goodwin is president of The College of St. Scholastica. Prior to his appointment, Dr. Goodwin was the vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty at St. Scholastica.
He has developed numerous programs at Minnesota's private colleges, including the Accelerated Degree Evening Program for working adults and the General Education program at The College of St. Scholastica, as well as the Ethics Center, Master of Arts in Theology, and Weekend College at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul.
Dr. Goodwin also is professor of religious studies; his scholarly interests include concepts of God, ethics, and the problem of evil, the latter deriving from his experience as a soldier in Vietnam.
His community involvement includes the American Heart Association, the United Way, Leadership Duluth, Rotary, and Minnesota Public Radio. He also serves on the board of Soft Center Duluth.
Goodwin earned his bachelor of arts degree in philosophy from Bellarmine College in Louisville, KY, and his master's and doctoral degrees in theology from the University of Chicago.
The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, the fastest growing private college in Minnesota over the past three years, offers "learning to touch the world." It is regularly recognized as one of the finest colleges in the Midwest. St. Scholastica's mission is to provide students with intellectual and moral preparation for responsible living and meaningful work. An independent comprehensive college, it was founded in the Catholic intellectual tradition and is shaped by Benedictine ideals. The College offers programs in the liberal arts and sciences and professional career fields. The College's students are guided by a curriculum that prepares them for their responsibilities as working professionals, as citizens and as individuals who seek to live full human lives.
Larry Goodwin 博士是St. Scholastica学院的校长。在就任校长前，Goodwin博士曾任该学院负责学术事务的副校长和文理学院教务长。
他曾在美国明尼苏达州多所私立大学中发展和设立了无数个项目和课程，包括St. Scholastica学院开设针对成年上班族的加速学位夜间课程和综合教育项目、设立道德中心、神学硕士课程，并在位于圣保罗的St. Catherine学院开设周末大学课程。
Goodwin 博士同时也是一位潜心宗教研究的教授，他的研究兴趣包括神学概念、伦理道德、罪恶，后者衍生于他作为越南老兵的经历。
Goodwin 博士热心于参与包括美国心脏协会、联合之路、德卢斯领导者、旋转和明尼苏达大众广播的活动。他同时也在德卢斯软件中心任职。
Goodwin 博士在位于美国肯塔基州路易斯维尔的Bellarmine学院获得哲学学士学位，并在芝加哥大学获得神学硕士和博士学位。
德卢斯的St. Scholastica学院是过去三年在明尼苏达州发展最快的私立学院，推倡"学习触摸世界"。该学院被广泛推崇为中西部最好的高校之一。 St. Scholastica的使命是提供教育，使学生无论在智力上还是精神上都能胜任有效和有意义的工作。作为一所独立的综合性学院，它基于天主教的知识传统，并被本笃会的理想影响较深。该学院设立了文理学院和多个专业领域的课程。这些课程能够指导他们，为今后的职业生涯和完整的个人生活做好准备。
Dr. David B. Laird, Jr.
President and CEO, Minnesota Private College Council,
Fund, Research Foundation, and Partners for Education Opportunity.
Dr. Laird has more than 30 years of state government, higher education finance, fund raising and college administration experience. Dr. Laird is considered a national expert on higher education financing and public policy. He is a frequent speaker to national groups and workshops on these topics. He works closely with the Governor's office, the Minnesota Legislature and members of Congress and executive branch representatives as they chart state and national higher education policy.
David B. Laird, Jr. 博士是明尼苏达私立学院协会会长及首席执行官，基金会，研究基金会，教育机会机构合作人。他在洲政府及高校从事财务、筹资和管理工作达三十年。他是全美公认的高校财务管理专家和公共政策专家，常常为全国性团体作相关的演说。他与洲长办公室、明尼苏达立法机构、国会议员以及行政代表紧密合作，协助制定洲或全国性的高校政策。
- Dr. William Frame
Former President, Augsburg College
Augsburg学院前校长
- Chris Mahai
Minnesota Private College Council Board － Aveus
明尼苏达私立大学协会董事会, Aveus 公司负责人
- Dr. David Davies
Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Hamline University
Hamline大学人类学系助理教授
- Joanne Stiles Laird
Retired as the Administrative Director of the China Center at the University of Minnesota
前明尼苏达大学中国中心的主任
- Mark Chronister
Minnesota Private College Council Board OF Directors
明尼苏达州私立大学协会董事
- Jane M. Chronister
Sales and Marketing for Insurance Company, Wedding coordinator, Vulunteer
从事保险业市场销售，婚庆策划，参与志愿者工作
- Dr. Daniel Miller
Chairman and CEO, ExCorp Medical
ExCorp Medical公司董事长及首席执行官
- Harold Stanislawski
Economic Improvement Commission Director, Fergus Fall Economic Development
Fergus Fall经济发展计划经济发展委员会主任
