Bulletin Spring‧Summer 2003

Much Coveted Exposure to Other Cultures Students of the University have access to a plethora o f scholarships and academic exchange opportunities, Carson said. During his year in the US as an exchange student, Carson was impressed by h ow students at American universities could speak at length on any topic o f their choice on campus. When he came back, he and his friends started a small group to hold regular talks in their hostel. Each week, they would take turns to speak on the latest subject of their respective disciplines. They also organized a book club. Carson has also participated in many other exchange programmes. He visited Singapore on the I n t e r n a t i o n al Y o u t h Ex c h a n ge Programme (IYEP). He was one of 26 students from Hong Kong, mainland and the US chosen f or the n i n e - mo n th Tu f ts I n t e r na t i onal Leadership and International Perspective (TILIP) programme in 2002. During the course of the programme, Carson was paired up with a Haitian student for six weeks at the Education and Ma n p ower Bureau i n H o n g K o n g wh e re t h ey worked as interns. He and the other Chinese students also s h owed t h e i r A m e r i c an partners around Beijing and Xi'an, and in turn were given t o u rs o f N ew Y o r k and Boston, where he got to meet Andrew Nathan, writer of the Tiananmen Papers as well as a handful of top international scholars. He feels grateful to the University for the space it has given him to learn about other cultures and societies, and the opportunity for memories to form that w i ll last a lifetime. Future of CUHK As the University enters its 40th year, Carson hopes that the University w i l l persist in its whole-person approach to education, s ome t h i ng w h i c h has b e n e f i t ed h i m immensely. He hopes, above all, it w i ll concern itself first and foremost w i th becoming an institution that its students and graduates can be truly proud of. Regarding institutional integration, he is of two minds. He concedes that wh i l e i n t e g r a t i on m i g ht make the University stronger in some aspects, care must be taken to ensure that things that make CUHK unique such as the collegiate system should not be sacrificed. On the topic of the new vice- chancellor, Carson said w i th the sincerity o f someone who truly cares about the University, ‘The new vice-chancellor must be someone who is capable, who is w i l l i ng to listen to different voices, and who w i l l stay in office for a sufficiently long period to guide the University's development. Above all, the new vice-chancellor must genuinely love The Chinese University.' Visiting Xi'an on the TILIP programme Recounting Their Experiences at CUHK 21