Addendum #2

President’s Report

Board of Trustees Meeting

December 15, 2006

China

      China offers NMU opportunities hard to ignore.  Relationships in China are influenced by who you know and how these connections lead to decision makers.  We have been able to utilize contacts established by faculty and USOEC staff to explore educational partnerships that may lead to exchanges of students, faculty, coursework and intellectual endeavors. 

     NMU has also favored international relationships facilitated by corporate entities. 
Well-regarded companies motivate educational partners on both sides since the prospect of investment, the development of intellectual property via joint research efforts and access to governmental agencies is certainly enhanced.  A major component of our China trip was to bring our laptop supplier, Lenovo, into closer proximity to University interests above and beyond a supplier-buyer bond.  This model of corporate facilitation also allows a mid-size university like NMU to approach scale with larger international universities.  We don’t have name brand cachet like Berkeley, MIT or UCLA to stand on our own.  But we must be doing something important if Lenovo is supporting our contact with major Chinese universities.  Corporate facilitation is proving an effective model in our exploratory talks with Sweden, Mexico and other European arenas.

     NMU’s China experience has set in motion what I believe will be some excellent opportunities.  As you will see from the bullets below, the activity is already moving forward quickly and deliberately.  The Board should know we have asked Dykema’s international law group to review partnership proposals with Chinese universities and schools. We hope to email these proposals to our prospective partners early next year. 

University Relationships

• A signed memorandum of understanding to promote further discussion and visits with Beijing Sports University (BSU) exists.  BSU is a comprehensive, doctoral university with a mission to educate both mind and body.  They have a commitment to Olympic training with programming appearing similar to our own USOEC.  BSU is not an Olympic training site, since the Chinese have a huge Olympic training mega-structure.  However BSU also benefits from being in Beijing’s inner ring close to government offices and the closest campus to the Olympic 2008 site.  The facilities and services clearly reflect the government’s preference for athletics with the hope and expectation of medal winnings in 2008.

• Jilin University-Zhuhai is an independent campus affiliated with one of China’s top universities.  The Zhuhai campus is three years old with a current enrollment of 8000.  The government is building a new addition with expectations of reaching 20,000 in the next two years.  We have agreed to exchange proposals to formalize our relationship.  Jilin-Zhuhai seeks English speaking students and English Master’s level students.  Rapid growth means they are and will be in need of faculty.  Our students and faculty may play a big role in funneling students to NMU. Jilin-Zhuhai’s initial offer includes paying for all accommodations including room and board for any student/faculty who comes to visit.  Our people will provide English instruction and/or content instruction in return.   They are currently charging students about $2200 USD annually in tuition.

• Sun Yat-Sen University (Guangzhou) is, arguably, one of the top five in China.  Their English and American Studies College seeks a partnership with the same conditions as Jilin-Zhuhai.  Additionally, they want a proposal from us for a semester-length study at Northern Michigan University for their students.

• Global Language Village (GLV) is a thriving, small, privately held language school in Zhuhai.  Serving mainly adults, they have hosted NMU students and faculty as recently as this past spring.  They represent the closest thing to a community college in China.  Of great interest to us are their English immersion program and their Chinese immersion program.  They are very interested in pursuing a partnership.  The cachet of an American University would certainly increase their clientele.  Our interest lies in the large number of adult students who literally quit work to study English.  With English proficiency, they are assured better paying jobs upon re-entry.  It is an investment they are willing to make.  It is also a desirable locale for any of our students seeking a Chinese language immersion experience in a less urbanized area of China.  It’s proximity to Hong Kong would offer us a venue to consider the Hong Kong area. 

     We are examining our infrastructure to ascertain our needs to service Chinese students in Marquette.  Our activity in Zhuhai, assisted by our presence on Zhuhai TV, has resulted in a large number of queries to our website regarding admissions.  We have no organized plan, yet, to handle queries and applications from China.  The opening up of the visa process for Chinese students to study in America is vastly improved.  Our location is considered safe for the Chinese and our tuition structure, while expensive to them, is not insurmountable.  They represent an interesting enrollment opportunity and challenge for NMU.   The Chinese are clearly at capacity in their higher education system and are building at a ferocious pace.  Building a world-class university system based on the American model is an unmistakable motive.  We are positioned to choose from a number of attractive options. 

LENOVO

     This corporate visit will result in great returns and alone was worth the trip.  Lenovo’s worldwide presence and growing market share in the PC business makes them a formidable competitor in that industry.  Partnering with NMU and other international campuses offers them a branding vision going far beyond that of “Chinese computer maker.”  As their largest laptop client in North America, we are uniquely placed to examine a number of ideas quite beneficial to NMU.

• Lenovo endorsed my proposal for NMU to become their “model” campus.  We hope to explore how we could answer questions they have about ubiquitous and portable computing.  As a model campus, we could also help any Chinese university on Lenovo’s list move to the technology level currently on our campus.

• Lenovo USA expressed a desire to use our current partnership as their first case study out of their R&D unit in North Carolina (Lenovo-USA).  No one knows the effects of laptops on student learning, the development of curricula, and ultimately any institutional efficiencies affected by laptops.  NMU as a research site to examine student learning and laptops appeals to them and to us.

• Our role as a product tester (beta site) for new consumer products ranging from telephony to servers is a possibility.

• As the prime sponsor of the 2008 Olympics, co-branding was raised and both sides are very interested in this.  This will be a key agenda item with Lenovo-USA.  To feature Lenovo’s support of an American university, Lenovo would use our campus for infomercials during the 2008 Olympics as was done during the last winter Olympics in Turino. Being able to use their Olympic licensing arrangement with Lenovo and NMU on advertising has immeasurable visibility for us in ways we could never afford.

• We were hosted by the founder/Chairman’s former chief of staff and current VP of external relations.  This was an important symbol of their seriousness.

     Seeing first hand a red hot economy and the optimism so pervasive throughout the culture was incredible.  China’s investments in higher education are enormous.  For them, English = money was a refrain heard everywhere we went.  They have problems, no doubt.  But they also are putting their money where their mouth is:  in education.  Such a value is traditionally Chinese and serves their world view well.  Their K-12 system is already strong especially in the sciences and mathematics.  English is required from middle school throughout college.  There is not enough English instruction to satisfy the demand arising from all corners of their country and their economy.