President John B. Simpson recently accepted an honorary degree from the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT), awarded earlier this month during a welcome ceremony for incoming freshman.
He said the honor is not only directed to him, but UB as a whole.
"I was offered an honorary degree by TUAT which was actually in my view probably more about the university than me, which I think is very appropriate," he said. "I'm very pleased on behalf of the university - it shows the degree of commitment and interest they have in their relationship with UB."
Stephen Dunnett, vice provost for international education, believes the award demonstrates UB's global presence.
"The honor being bestowed upon President Simpson will enhance the prestige of both the university and our president," Dunnett said. "The fact that they would honor our president is recognition of UB's standing in the world."
Simpson gave a speech at the ceremony where he encouraged students to take advantage of the strong TUAT-UB partnership for studying abroad, and stressed the importance of experiencing other cultures.
TUAT - one of the top universities in Japan - and UB have been exchange partners since 1992. According to Dunnett, relationships like this are necessary in order for UB to offer an exchange program for students, faculty and staff.
Simpson believes that it is important for students to take advantage of these opportunities to facilitate "soft diplomacy." He defines this as "bringing about an understanding across borders through personal contact... not relying on the Department of State to do all the diplomacy for you."
Dunnett agreed, explaining that foreign affairs necessitated foreign understanding.
"It's important that our country not be isolated and know what's going on in other countries," he said.
Japan is an important country to maintain relationships with because it has an excellent system of higher education and the world's second greatest economy, Dunnett said. He said it is a prominent force in the world both in the present and the future.
"Our relationship with TUAT is productive and cordial," he said. "They have an outstanding engineering and science institution that is nationally ranked in their country and we have benefited from that. There is much to learn from the Japanese."
During his 10-day trip to Japan, Simpson also visited two other institutions with longtime ties to UB: Konan University and Kanazawa University.
"All of the visits were very interesting because they gave insight into how Japanese higher education works," he said.
Simpson thinks it's important for UB students to gain insight into other cultures.
"There is so much to gain in so many ways - practically, culturally, scholarly, by being able to exchange thoughts over geopolitical boundaries," he said. "I believe people that are able to deal with foreign cultures will be more successful."
According to Simpson, 10 percent of undergraduates have some type of international experience during their time at UB, at least four times more than the national average. UB has the highest proportion of international students of any public university nationwide.
UB currently has exchange partners worldwide including India, Singapore and Cuba, Simpson said.
Even though UB is more engaged in student and faculty foreign exchange than the average U.S. institutions, Simpson said that he is working to increase that number.
"For me, a priority is to find ways to increase and enable our U.S. students to have the means to study abroad as part of their educational experiences, and I'll try hard to make that reality," he said.
Simpson believes that international relationships like the one with TUAT are key to UB's future success.
"Universities that will thrive and succeed especially well in the 21st century are all going to have this kind of global outlook and presence," he said. "(This honor) is a very appropriate and very flattering recognition of the success UB has had as an American university with an international outlook."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
