The best way to create cross-cultural understanding between countries as diverse as China and the United States is for people to not just have a deeper knowledge of each other but to have a heartfelt knowledge. That does not come from books! 

For college students it comes from living together, sharing not only meals but dreams, cramming all night while mutually damning Biochem exams and profs who think their class is the only one that matters, helping each other through break-up tears, pretending not to be jealous when love gets in the way - in essence - bonding and becoming best friends.

For most American undergrads at Stony Brook, however, that opportunity rarely exists. As a New York State public university, roughly 95%* of undergraduates are state residents. The chance to meet someone with a different knowledge set about many aspects of life - and the chance to teach each other through simple daily acts of life - means that Stony Brook students have less of an education than their peers at more diverse universities.

For Chinese students, the lack of diversity in their own universities is even more pronounced. Learning enough Chinese characters to read textbooks is a rare accomplishment for non-natives and one they rarely do before attending college. The Chinese, on the other hand, begin mandatory English lessons while still in primary school.

And Stony Brook's Chinese American population does not count as a different culture even though many non-ABC's do not see it that way. Of the three Chinese Americans on [AA]2's Board of Directors, all SBU alumni and former Zine editors - only one has ever been to China, and that was Hong Kong, not even the mainland - and she had graduated from Stony Brook before she went. 

Professor Chen hopes to change all of that. He is himself a graduate of multiple cultures and knows its value from personal experience. He did his Bachelor's and Master's in China, then his PhD in Physics in Japan. He came to Stony Brook on a post-doc and never left.

"Globalization and diversity are essential," said Dean Chen, "to move our educational quality to a higher level."

Now with the Mineral Physics Institute (MPI), Dr. Chen works on experimental studies of the physical properties of minerals under high pressures and their implications to the Earth's structure and dynamics. He is very passionate about Stony Brook and what he is able to do here, even turning down offers of faculty positions at higher ranked institutions. He has brought more than a million dollars in grants to the University including the first ever DoD DURIP grant for MPI.

Provost Bob McGrath recently endorsed his new multimillion dollar initiative to run a facility at the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Lab (BNL) with a new SBU-BNL joint position at MPI. The NSLS is funded by the US Department of Energy and provides intense light spanning the electromagnetic spectrum from infrared through X-Ray's. It is used by over 2300 scientists annually from throughout the US.
 

SBU students Steven Leigh and Huy Huynh with Sherry Gu, daughter of SB China alumnus GU Yong. Xintiandi, Shanghai.

But back to recruiting students from China - of course there is the mercenary side to it that some administrators like - an international student means four years of out-of-state tuition guaranteed. And the arrogant faculty side - "If only American students had as rigorous training in math as Asian students." (Tell that to college dropout Bill Gates...) 

Fortunately the good that comes from the experience is worth so much more than those myopic viewpoints they can be ignored for what they are - lacking in vision. Having just spent the summer in Shanghai with Stony Brook China alumni who are ecstatic about this new direction Provost McGrath is taking and have begun working with Dean Chen - one of their children will attend Stony Brook next fall - we wish Professor Chen absolute success. The experience for us was incomparable! We know it will be for undergraduate Chinese students coming here as well. We hope that someday soon with the planned SUNY / SBU program, to be taught in English in China, it will also be more American students going there.

Huy Huynh, SBU Editor
Ja Young, Alumni Editor
5 Sept 06

Dean Chen's website at MPI:
http://sbmp80.ess.sunysb.edu/Faculty/JiuhuaChen/index.html

SBU Admissions page in Chinese:
http://www.stonybrook.edu/ugadmissions/china/

*The percentage of NY State undergraduates was guesstimated from various diversity charts. The University's search function leaves much to be desired and even Google could not help.