November 12, 2019
Dear IUPUI community,
Later this week, I will be leading a small IUPUI delegation to China for meetings with our longtime institutional partners and collaborators at Sun Yat-sen University. There can be no better time for these meetings than now.
The state of Indiana, Indiana University, and IUPUI clearly recognize how important it is to build on what have thus far been strong and lasting connections between China and the United States. Just two months ago, Governor Holcomb led his first economic development trip to China. IU opened our Gateway Office in Beijing in 2014. And IUPUI remains deeply committed to our reciprocal relationship with SYSU.
As we have with many international partners, we at IUPUI have worked side-by-side with colleagues from SYSU in the spirit of reciprocity, learning together and, in so doing, strengthening the global education and research environment.
This spirit of reciprocity lies at the heart of the very best higher education around the world and is reinforced by the open doors that enable scholars and students to share ideas, discoveries, and innovations regardless of geographical boundaries.
With all of this in mind, now more than ever, we must reaffirm our global partnerships with China and other countries around the world to keep the doors to innovation open. We must champion the global dissemination of knowledge and fight for academic freedom. These values have made American higher education the best in the world, a diverse and inclusive institution whose competing perspectives spark better ideas and solve bigger problems.
Now is the time.
Sincerely,
Nasser H. Paydar
Chancellor