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FSU MAY OPEN CAMPUS IN VIETNAM
By Dana Peck
Special to the Florida State Times
Imagine a country where most of the population is younger than 25.
Imagine a country where few adults know how to run a business for profit, and eager students are turned away from schools for lack of room.
Now imagine what Florida State University could do to help, even if that country should be an old enemy: Vietnam.
That is a challenge Florida State officials are considering this year. FSU administrators, including President Sandy D'Alemberte, are talking with Vietnam leaders about establishing educational ties with a nation eager to develop economically.
Some of the possibilities include setting up a study center for Florida State students as well as Vietnamese students, and offering classes in economics, hospitality, public administration, computer science and English as a second language. Developing distance learning is also a possibility in Vietnam.
"The next generation must be exposed to international cultures and economies because they will be much more impacted by the international economy than our generation has been," D'Alemberte said.
This spring, D'Alemberte headed a delegation of FSU faculty members for a 10-day trip to meet with Vietnamese ministers of trade and education and university officials.
Others making the 44-hour round-trip flight and tour were two representatives sent by Gov. Lawton Chiles, and representatives from Walt Disney World, resort developers, and computer companies.
The greeting from the Vietnamese was enthusiastic, said Jim Pitts, FSU's director of international programs, who initially was skeptical about a project in Vietnam.
"The receptivity, the hospitality of the people impressed me," said Pitts. "I went there thinking it was not very much of a possibility. I came away thinking it might be a possibility."
Jerry Messec, the director of the Florida Southeast Asia Initiative, said he felt the first step for FSU might be to offer courses in Vietnam to Florida State students who want a Southeast Asia experience.
Messec said the Vietnamese were very enthusiastic about the possibility of establishing courses related to economic development.
Adults in parts of Vietnam have had little experience in entrepreneurship. Workers were accustomed to being assigned jobs, and business ownership was unheard of. Since 1986, though, Vietnam has been trying to switch to a market economy.
But difficulties are tremendous. Today in Vietnam, the average yearly income is about $300, and items such as credit cards and fast food restaurants that most Americans take for granted are just being introduced.
Although other universities in the states have already established educational ties with Vietnam, FSU has a special relationship with the country. Its ambassador is former U. S. Rep. Pete Peterson, D-Marianna, who represented North Florida in Congress and is known by many FSU faculty members.
Peterson also has a special edge in helping those who are hesitant about becoming involved with Vietnam because of the deep scars left by the war. During the war with Vietnam, Peterson spent six and a half years as a prisoner of war in Hanoi.
"I was helped by a couple of comments that Ambassador Peterson made," said Pitts, 56, who remembers the conflict well. Peterson told the FSU contingency that he had revisited the Hanoi Hilton, the name U.S. soldiers gave to their prison, and forgiven the guards who once tortured him and other prisoners.
And Peterson pointed out that the animosities of the war should be nothing more than memory because today in Vietnam 60 percent of the nation wasn't born when the war ended in 1973.
"You can't really fault the people who weren't alive," said Pitts.
While there, the FSU delegation met with university officials at the Hanoi Open University, and the Vietnam National University and Foreign Trade University in Hanoi. The group also visited with education leaders at the Ho Chi Minh City National University, and with the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon. The People's Committee can be compared to a county commission in Florida.
FSU currently has study programs in London (where it offers an Associate of Arts degree and accepts local students), Florence, Toremolinos, Spain, and the Panama Canal Zone. Florida State also has summer programs in Paris, Moscow and Costa Rica.
Many more meetings and trips to Vietnam are planned for the future, said
Messec. But, he said, no hard and fast decisions have been made.