Yunnan University Commencement

Commencement Ceremony Remarks for 1-2-1 Program Graduates
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Yunnan University; Kunming, China

Wan shang how. Good evening, President Song, members of the Yunnan University faculty, fellow presidents of universities in China and the United States, honored guests, and especially to this year’s graduates of the one plus two plus one program.

I am Jo Ann Gora, the president of Ball State University, and it’s my distinct honor to be here for this graduation ceremony. This is my first time visiting Yunnan University and the first year that a Ball State president has been able to present diplomas to graduates of the one plus two plus one program, so it has been a memorable day indeed. Congratulations to our two Ball State graduates, students from Xi’an Shiyou and Soochow universities, and to all of you graduating from the program today.

Though we began participating in this program only four years ago, it is already bringing great benefits to Ball State. Even as we celebrate this momentous occasion, I am happy to report that 44 students are studying on our campus from 16 other Chinese universities, and 24 additional students are expected to join us when the fall semester begins in two months.

Ball State has long valued international education opportunities, and some of the university’s exchange arrangements date back many decades. Recently, however, we have made a concerted effort to increase the number of these educational exchanges. In fact, I have spent the last several days in China meeting with educational leaders to both strengthen and broaden our existing exchange agreements and to explore opportunities to develop new ones.

This is because we are implementing a new strategic plan at Ball State. Among its objectives are dramatic increases in the number of our American students pursuing studies abroad and the number of students from other countries coming to our campus for their studies. By 2012, we plan to have five percent of our total enrollment, approximately 1,000 students, studying abroad and a similar number of international students living and learning with us at our Muncie campus.

I am pleased to tell you that we are making great progress toward those objectives. Last semester, we had nearly 500 international students on campus from 86 countries, including 102 from China, by far our largest contingent. Meanwhile, we have seen tremendous growth in the number of Ball State students studying abroad. During the academic year just completed, 790 of our students took advantage of those opportunities, an increase of 20 percent from the previous year and an astounding 59 percent over the 2004-05 academic year.

Like all of you here, I have long believed in the importance of international education. All college students today, whether here, in the United States, or elsewhere, are graduating into a global society in which we are all connected. As technology continues its rapid advance, more and more issues—economic, environmental, health-related, social—span national, even regional, borders. Cooperative educational efforts like the one plus two plus one program are the only way that international understanding can be increased, so that global consideration of these issues can become a reality.

So I know that our international student numbers and our study abroad totals will continue to increase because global education makes Ball State a better place to learn. Students from China and other countries bring international perspectives to our classrooms and laboratories and residence halls and student organizations. By doing so, they stretch us, enlighten us, and challenge us with their views, making all of us stronger individually and our universities stronger as a whole. I sincerely hope that Ball State students can do the same here at Yunnan University and everywhere else they may study in the future.

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the events of these memorable two days to celebrate such an important program for international education and global understanding. Congratulations to today’s graduates and my sincere best wishes for your future endeavors.

View photos from the President's trip to Asia