FEATURE STORY:  Fall 2006

Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2006, marked a momentous day for the University of Oklahoma. OU President David Boren and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Paul Bell joined representatives from Beijing Normal University Council and the consulate general of the People’s Republic of China in Houston in establishing a new partnership between the university and the People’s Republic of China. This partnership comes in the form of a Confucius Institute, nonprofit institute with a mission of promoting Chinese language and culture and supporting local Chinese teaching, according to the institute’s Web site.

To host one of only 80 such institutes in 38 countries throughout the world, with just a handful in the United States, is an honor. For Sharon Gou, program administrator for OU Outreach and the newly appointed director of the Confucius Institute at OU, it is a dream realized.

“This is where my passion lies,” she said. “I feel like I can contribute more if I am doing something that has value to both communities, China and the U.S. I’ve always dreamed of such a place – this is a formal platform for us to do Chinese-related activities, in education, cultural, business, everything. It’s just all come together.”

In partnering OU with China, the Confucius Institute at the University of Oklahoma (OUCI) will also form a partnership between colleges. “We are very excited to host the Confucius Institute at OU,” Gou said. “The OU Confucius Institute is the collaboration between the College of Continuing Education and the College of Arts and Sciences. I’m extremely grateful to have been appointed as the director for the institute.

“The goal we have for the Confucius Institute is to build a mutual beneficial strategic alliance with partners from OU and with educational providers, businesses and community leaders from the Oklahoma community and from surrounding states. We are committed to serve the university community and general public by making our resources available to everyone who has an interest.”

To become a host of such an institute, a university must complete an application process and demonstrate that they can offer programs such as multimedia and Web-based Chinese teaching, professional training for Chinese teachers, translation, tourism and business courses; promoting Chinese teaching materials and recommending Chinese teachers; and a library service for reference.

At OU and within OU Outreach, many Chinese-related services are already being provided. The College of Continuing Education provides training programs to Chinese executives from different industries, including education, oil and energy, and government. The OU College of Arts and Sciences initiated an undergraduate Chinese major in fall 2006, and the Oklahoma Institute for Teaching East Asia at OU-Tulsa assists teachers in making East Asia an integral and permanent part of their curricula. And with students attending the university from 110 countries, OU already has an established international program.

In addition, August 2006 was the beginning of another institute, the OU U.S.-China Institute, which will play a role in the new CI. The U.S.-China Institute, directed by Peter Gries, engages in and supports research and outreach activities that seek to better understand and improve US-China relations; seeks to promote China studies in the state of Oklahoma; and convenes an annual symposium that brings together a broad array of academic, think tank, government, and business leaders to discuss specific security concerns in US-China relations.

The new OUCI will offer both credit and noncredit programs, with the College of Arts and Sciences serving as the credit arm and University Outreach serving as the community outreach arm. “In Outreach, we will be providing the noncredit portion of the project, which will be a lot,” Gou said.

Future plans for the institute include business Chinese classes for the community, online Chinese delivery for the general public, and possibly some weekend and night noncredit courses also for the general public. Cultural exchange activities and trips to China, initially offered for students with the future goal of including tours for members of the community, are also in the works, Gou said.

Another aspect of the outreach portion is supporting the Oklahoma ABC Chinese School, which Gou also directs. The school provides Chinese language classes to both children and their parents. “I get a lot of calls now from parents who are interested in sending their children to our weekend Chinese school to learn Chinese,” she said. Enrollment jumped from 82 to 11 2 this fall, she said, and includes children as young as two years old.

OUCI will bring in support from the Chinese Department of Education, Office of Chinese Language Council International, also known as Hanban. Hanban will be donating 3,000 volumes of books, CDs and DVDs to OU’s Confucius Institute, and while the Oklahoma ABC Chinese School won’t be a formal part of the institute, it will benefit from those resources, Gou said.

“They will be our community outreach project,” she said. “We will support them by making the materials accessible to them.” In the future, she hopes to set up some scholarships for families who have a need to learn Chinese but cannot afford the courses. Currently, Hanban supports one class of American adults whose children are enrolled in the Chinese school. In order to provide support for parents, who can in turn help their children with lessons, Hanban provided the adult class free of charge.

Because of the requests for children’s classes in Chinese language, Gou said getting Chinese language classes into the Norman public schools is a goal. “The Chinese school is one option, but it would have a larger and better impact if we can offer the language in public school,” she said.

The OUCI program funding will be matched by China, which will allow the university to offer quality courses and services at competitive costs, Gou said.

OU has an agreement with Hanban for five years, she said, after which both sides will evaluate and see if they want to continue the commitment.

“From the support and feedback we have received from people involved or who have heard about the program, I think we will continue,” she said. “This is a great opportunity, and I am committed to doing a good job.”

– Lauren Park

Top Picture: University of Oklahoma President David L. Boren, center, signs the documents to create the Confucius Institute at OU. With him are, Jinzhou Hua, consulgeneral of People’s Republic of China consulate in Houston, Texas, left, and Chunsheng Liu, chair of Beijing Normal University Council, right.