SMU Magazine Winter 2001 - Saint Mary's University of Minnesota

Campus News
Trip to China a lesson
for SMU president
Overseas visit is a first-hand look for Brother Louis
at the realities of life and private education in China
China is a lot more like United
States than most Americans
would suppose.
That’s the impression Brother
Louis DeThomasis, president of Saint
Mary’s University, brought back when
he returned Nov. 11 from China.
Brother Louis spent a week
speaking with Chinese educators as
part of a delegation from Minnesota’s
private colleges.The mission
was to strengthen relations between
higher education systems.
Eleven private colleges and universities
in Minnesota have programs
in Asian/East Asian studies or languages.
The Saint Mary’s University
history department is sponsoring a
three-week student trip next summer.
“The trip was a marvelous experience
and a very worthwhile venture,”
Brother Louis said. The
purpose was “to present workshops
to the higher education leaders in
China for them to get an understanding
of how private higher education
works in this country.”
The delegation met officials
The Ming Tombs were among the many places Brother Louis visited during his trip to China
last November with the Minnesota Private College Council.
Brother Louis DeThomasis and fellow university presidents (left-to-right) Robert Holst (Concordia-
St. Paul), Bill Frame (Augsburg) and Larry Osnes (Hamline) stand in front of examples of terra
cotta solders in Shaanxi Provincial Museum in Xian.
from the Chinese Ministry of Education
and university presidents in
Beijing. In Xian, they explored new
developments in Chinese higher
education with the Shaanxi Education
Council. (Shaanxi is the “sister
province” to the state of Minnesota.)
The delegation then met
with Chinese business leaders in
Shanghai to discuss business and
education relations.
Brother Louis said unlike private
universities in China, those in
the United States are nonprofit — a
concept his Chinese counterparts
had a difficult time grasping.
“They have no not-for-profit
higher education,” he said, adding
that they didn’t know why a board of
directors or trustees would get
involved in an institution that doesn’t
make money.
For his part, Brother Louis said,
he was impressed that the Chinese
educators made a profit while educating
students.
Still, he said, the Chinese were
6 SAINT MARY’S UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE