South African Trip Expands Opportunities
August 29, 2012
Interim Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor and Vice Chancellor for Research Sam Traina and Academic Senate Executive Director Susan Sims attended in July a two-week global leadership summit at the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein, South Africa, to strengthen formal international partnerships and expand opportunities for new cooperative initiatives that will benefit UC Merced students and faculty.
The summit's focus was international engagement in addressing significant issues around race, racism, racial integration and racial reconciliation in higher education. Eminent scholars and politicians, including retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu, spoke to staff and students from universities all over the world.
As a result of the trip, the graduate dean of UFS will visit UC Merced in October. UCLA Professor Bill Worger visited UC Merced last week with three students who accompanied him to the summit sponsored through the UC-HBCU Initiative. Plans are taking shape for future initiatives.
Traina and Sims also visited the University of Cape Town and the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls to explore additional recruitment and partnership possibilities.
