"Confucius Say" Institute

Perhaps I should have titled this post 'Tempest...Chapter 4' because it is one of the fall-out events of the president-who-is-not-allowed-on-campus.  

The Chinese government has a program in which they partner with colleges outside China in establishing something called the Confucius Institutes.  They have many of these throughout the world, including the U.S.
Our little college has decided it wants to establish one.  We would provide the physical facilities and a director.  The Chinese send over visiting scholars who would teach Chinese language, history, culture, etc., to regular college classes, and/or high schoolers, community members, business people, etc. 

Investigation into the feasibility of taking part in this evidently began here many years ago, but it was the president-who-is-barred-from-campus (I'll call him Mr. P for now) who really pushed it through, with no discussion with the faculty at all.  The thing is, if these visiting scholars are to teach regular college courses, the affected departments, such as language and history, must decide if and how these are to be included in the department offerings.  All departments, and the general education committee, must consider these courses also.  Should they be included in the required courses for some majors?  Should they be an option in the general education requirements?   To consider these, we must have at least a one paragraph course description. We have no such thing.  As for Chinese history, I am wondering if they would cover all of it, or would they skip over nasty details such as the cultural revolution?  And now, our name is on the dotted line.  One of the administrators said "it's not a done deal", but of course, it is.  It would be too embarrassing to cancel the contract now.

The institute is due to begin activity one year from this fall.  The fall course offerings will be decided at the beginning of the spring semester.  We don't know who the visiting scholars will be, or what (specifically) they will be able to teach.  We don't have any plans for where the offices will be housed.  In short, we don't know what the h*** we are doing.

Yesterday, there was a meeting, open to all faculty, in which the proposed institute was finally presented in some detail.  It was clear that there would have been plenty of time to plan this properly if Mr. P had taken that course of action rather than ramrodding it through with no faculty involvement.  It was also very clear that NO specifics about just what these visiting scholars would do had been planned at all, not only for regular college courses, but for anything else.  Yesterday's meeting gave faculty a chance to ask questions, and it was clear there is more than one that is very unhappy with the situation.

The thing is, our contract with the Chinese guarentees a certain number of students they first year, more the second, etc.  Without the planning I described above, how can that happen?   This is very much the style of "leadership" that Mr. P used in a lot of areas, which is why no one is shedding tears over his absence. 

Evidently, someone from the local paper was at yesterday's meeting, and now it is a front page article. 

As for me, it was a chance for a free lunch, and a chance to enjoy a good show, complete with potato chips and cookies.