Entering the Chinese New Year in 2009, the Year of the Ox, UW-Platteville will see new friends on campus. Hailing from the South Central University for Nationalities in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, 31 graduate students arrived on campus on Jan. 28.

The graduate students will be taking part in the Master of Science in English Education and the Master of Science in Project Management. While here to continue their studies, the students will also be taking part in campus activities, like the Chinese New Year celebrations that are sponsored by the Confucius Institute.

Photograph by Kate Olsen
Walter Iselin, coordinator of the MSE program in English Education, discussed expectations of hosting Chinese students for both studends and faculty. Invited guests included residental hall roommates of the students and their RAs.

Barbara Daus, special assistant to the chancellor and executive director of international programs, said that Chancellor Markee traveled to China in the late 1990s and early 2000s to develop a relationship between the SCUN and UW-P.

As part of the partnership, there are different areas of study students can participate in: The Confucius Institute, the Study Abroad Program in China, a summer cultural immersion program for SCUN faculty and two master degrees.

Since the chancellor’s visit, Walter Iselin, coordinator of the MSE program in English Education, and D. W. Bill Haskins, coordinator of the masters program in Project Management, have been working closely with SCUN.

“This will be the first time that we will be hosting graduate students from China in [Project Management],” David Van Buren, associate vice chancellor and dean of the school of graduate studies, said.

The students are part of a cohort group, which is a group of students that enters one of the two master programs together and then pursues the program together.

This will be the fourth cohort of students in the MSE program in English Education and the first cohort in the Project Management. There will be 26 students pursuing the MSE/English master program, and five pursuing the project management degree. Though coming to UW-P is not a requirement of their program, they must return to China in order to receive the degree.

Daus said that some of the students would be coming because of their job situations, and others for personal reasons.

“For their part, the Chinese students gain a reciprocal understanding of our culture and daily life here in the States, uncolored by the popular media or official Chinese information services,” Iselin said.

“[They are here] to learn to speak English better and to learn the Western culture,” Yunmei Reede, language instructor and coordinator for the Confucius Institute, said.

Van Buren said that while the students have been placed in residence halls, they are also being assigned to host families, so they can have the opportunity to experience the American family.

“In the past, the ties that have developed between the Chinese students and their UW-P roommates, other friends at UW-Platteville and the host families have become close and sometimes blossomed into long-term, enduring friendships,” Van Buren said.