In an online meeting held on November 18, Ohio State University (OSU) and Wuhan University (WHU) renewed their bilateral memorandum of understanding alongside a joint student affairs forum. Secretary of the Party Committee of WHU Han Jin, Vice President of WHU Tang Qizhu, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of WHU Qu Wenqian, Associate Provost of OSU Gil Latz and Associate Vice President of Student Affairs of OSU Danny Glassman attended the meeting.

The attendees of WHU

At the renewal ceremony, Tang Qizhu and Gil Latz signed the memorandum of understanding between WHU and OSU to maintain friendly cooperation.

Screenshot of the online ceremony

Prof. Tang giving a speech

Prof. Tang looked back on the cooperation between the two universities over the past 40 years in talent cultivation, joint scientific research, social services and school management. He noted that WHU and OSU are both strong comprehensive universities with a wide range of disciplines and notable strengths, which provide a solid foundation for the two universities to further explore their collaborative potential. The increasingly frequent exchanges and close collaboration are reflective of great beginnings, achievements, and potentials. He said that WHU will continue to quicken its pace of exchange, work hand in hand with OSU, strengthen mutual learning and create more cooperative achievements for promoting human development and progress.

The renewal of the MOU between WHU and OSU is conducive to the continuation of the long-standing relationship between the two universities. 40 years of cooperation and exchange have deepened the understanding of globalization among the two sides, and the consensuses on cooperation in the fields of literature, food, agriculture, and environmental science will allow broader communication, Gil Latz said. He expects to further enhance cooperation with WHU and provide various exchange programs for teachers and students.

After the renewal ceremony, the student affairs forum between WHU and OSU was held. Both sides focused on and discussed the experiences and practices of student affairs management and services in the context of epidemic prevention and control measures.

“The balance of different tastes is the beauty of soup.” Prof. Qu pointed out that WHU and OSU have 40 years of friendly cooperation. During the epidemics, the two universities stood by each other and actively raised funds, procured goods and came to each other’s aid in such a time of crisis, which became a successful case of the international community in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. He stressed that boosting international communication is one of the important missions of a university. As a highland of talent cultivation, universities should play their role in promoting international exchanges and actively cultivate students’ awareness of a community of a shared future for mankind to further strengthen communication and cooperation.

Student affairs officers of the two universities discussed student affairs management and services in the context of epidemic prevention and control. Officials from OSU shared the work on risk management, quarantine measures, campus activities, psychological counseling and academic activities against a background of combating COVID-19. Li Qin, the director of the WHU Student Affairs department, shared the role, responsibility, experiences and achievements of WHU during the pandemic in terms of WHU’s unique disease combating mode, students’ educational services during the epidemic and student affairs management during normalization of the epidemic.

OSU is a long-standing partner university of WHU, and 2021 marks the 40th anniversary of the partnership. Since the interscholastic cooperation agreement was signed in 1981, both sides have carried out exchanges and cooperation on graduate cultivation, student exchanges and staff training. Scientific cooperation includes Chinese language internationalization, medical education reform, energy research, irrigation science, library and information science and many other aspects. The leaders of the two universities have engaged infrequent exchange visits, which enhance the cooperation in various fields. In April 2020, Dou Xiankang, president of WHU, had a video call with Michael Drake, former president of OSU, in which they shared WHU’s experiences of combating COVID-19.

Source: http://news.whu.edu.cn/info/1002/65995.htm

Rewritten by Wang Ziyan

Edited by Cheng Shiwen, Sylvia and Hu Sijia