zaiShanghai

John Sexton at NYU Shanghai ground­break­ing cer­e­monies in Pudong, March 28, 2011 (Photo by Casey Kwon)

Bo Hershey: NYU has been expand­ing its reach far from the Washington Square cam­pus. How will this ben­e­fit the aver­age NYU stu­dent? Will Washington Square NYU stu­dents be able to take classes at the Shanghai cam­pus in the future?

President John Sexton: Let me answer the sec­ond part of your ques­tion first: yes. NYU has had a Study Away site in Shanghai for some years – that is how we came to know our part­ners in the cre­ation of the research uni­ver­sity we will be build­ing there, NYU Shanghai – and we will con­tinue to have a Study Away pres­ence there.

As to the first part of your ques­tion: in the 21st cen­tury, many of the chal­lenges mankind will face are transna­tional in nature – cli­mate change, polit­i­cal and reli­gious extrem­ism, the dis­tri­b­u­tion of poverty and wealth. As a uni­ver­sity, we need to pre­pare stu­dents to be lead­ers in that world, and that obliges a uni­ver­sity expe­ri­ence that has a global char­ac­ter.

Beyond that, with the global net­work of research uni­ver­sity cam­puses – New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai – and Study Away sites we are estab­lish­ing, they will be able to inter­act with a far more diverse range of stu­dents and fac­ulty than if we insisted on the centuries-old model of higher edu­ca­tion: one must come to our university's city of ori­gin to receive our edu­ca­tion and work with our fac­ulty.

And, truth be told, stu­dents already know this – more stu­dents at NYU study abroad than at any other US col­lege or uni­ver­sity. They are telling us by their deci­sions – their deci­sion to attend NYU (where appli­ca­tions have set new records to attend NYU) and their deci­sion to par­tic­i­pate in Study Away – that they see this as an advan­tage.

BH: NYU will have cam­puses in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai. Will the stu­dents who enroll in these uni­ver­si­ties be sep­a­rate? Is the uni­ver­sity sys­tem going to be sim­i­lar to American University in Cairo?

JS: In answer to the sec­ond part of your ques­tion: The global net­work we are estab­lish­ing is sui generis – it is the first of its kind, and not mod­eled on any other uni­ver­sity. In fact, if one looks at what some other major uni­ver­si­ties are doing – Yale in Singapore, Duke in China – one might be inclined to con­clude that other uni­ver­si­ties are emu­lat­ing NYU.

In answer to the first part of your ques­tion: yes and no, though more the lat­ter. Each of our degree-granting por­tal cam­puses – New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai – will have its own char­ac­ter and per­son­al­ity. Each will be "home" to its stu­dents and fac­ulty.

But the key dis­tinc­tion, the fore­most value each will have is that each will be con­nected to the global net­work, each will act to encour­age the seam­less cir­cu­la­tion of knowl­edge and ideas and research and fac­ulty and stu­dents among the cam­puses and other global sites, and each will have to meet the stan­dards of aca­d­e­mic excel­lence at NYU's core.

BH: What kind of cam­pus will NYU Shanghai be? Shanghai is filled with tons of sky­scrap­ers. How will the new NYU cam­pus fit into Shanghai's urban land­scape?

JS: NYU Shanghai's build­ing will be in the com­mer­cial heart of Shanghai. It will be a large build­ing, one that will fit in well with the neigh­bor­hood. The city of Shanghai has pro­vided us with an excep­tional site.

But it won't be a sky­scraper. Skyscrapers – though mag­nif­i­cent exam­ples of human inge­nu­ity – are not espe­cially well suited for aca­d­e­mic build­ings. Academic build­ings tend to be bet­ter suited to build­ings with big floor-plates (to fit class­rooms and labs) and with­out a lot of reliance on ele­va­tors.

BH: The cam­pus will be in Pudong which is at the cen­ter of Shanghai's finan­cial dis­trict. How will NYU stu­dents be incor­po­rated into this envi­ron­ment?

JS: From its incep­tion, NYU's charge has be to be "in and of the city." That will be just as true in Shanghai as in New York. I expect NYU Shanghai will host event that will con­tribute to the city's life, and its stu­dents will be involved in com­mu­nity ser­vice projects in the city. The city has long been part of the edu­ca­tional expe­ri­ence here in New York – from the muse­ums to the neigh­bor­hoods, from the issues of urban plan­ning to the issues of pub­lic health – and I am sure that as the fac­ulty at NYU Shanghai develop the cur­ricu­lum there, they will look for oppor­tu­ni­ties to use the city as a class­room in every­thing from busi­ness to eco­nomic devel­op­ment to plan­ning and urban sci­ence.

BH: What kind of aca­d­e­mics will be avail­able for stu­dents who enroll at NYU in Shanghai? Will it be strictly focused on those who wish to learn finance?

JS: The specifics of the cur­ricu­lum will be devel­oped by NYU fac­ulty, but answer­ing your ques­tion gen­er­ally: no, it will not be lim­ited to finance and busi­ness. NYU Shanghai will be a com­pre­hen­sive research uni­ver­sity with a lib­eral arts and sci­ence under­grad­u­ate col­lege.

BH: NYU in Shanghai will be China's first pri­vate insti­tu­tion. Will the Chinese gov­ern­ment be allowed to review NYU classes or are they kept com­pletely sep­a­rate from any inter­fer­ence?

JS: While NYU Shanghai is the first American uni­ver­sity with inde­pen­dent legal sta­tus approved by the Ministry of Education, NYU in Shanghai is not the first pri­vate insti­tu­tion or uni­ver­sity. There are many in China and even in Shanghai. NYU will be respon­si­ble for cur­ricu­lum design and classes will be con­ducted in accor­dance with the prin­ci­ples of aca­d­e­mic free­dom.

BH: One thing any inter­na­tional school has had to face here in China is assur­ing the gov­ern­ment that they are not try­ing to change the minds of local stu­dents — that's why most inter­na­tional high schools refuse to allow Chinese cit­i­zens to attend. As a uni­ver­sity osten­si­bly for Chinese cit­i­zens as well, has any­one expressed any wor­ries about the indoc­tri­na­tion of "American val­ues" and what has NYU done to com­bat those wor­ries?

JS: No, it hasn't come up.

BH: Will stu­dent clubs be allowed and will the gov­ern­ment have input on whether cer­tain ones (such as pro-democracy or LGBT clubs) can be formed?

JS: We expect that stu­dents at NYU Shanghai will have a full uni­ver­sity expe­ri­ence, includ­ing the oppor­tu­nity to form and par­tic­i­pate in stu­dent clubs. That said, NYU is mind­ful that as it embraces the world, it will nec­es­sar­ily encounter cul­tures and soci­eties and laws that are dif­fer­ent from those that pre­vail in our city of ori­gin, New York.

Academic free­dom must be part of NYU Shanghai's char­ac­ter, but so, too, must be sen­si­tiv­ity and respect for local cus­toms and norms and con­cerns. If there are peo­ple whose key wish is to chal­lenge local sen­si­tiv­i­ties, then NYU Shanghai may not be the right col­lege for them.

BH: VPNs seem to be a major issue in China. Currently NYU in Shanghai stu­dents have access to the VPN net­work at NYU. Will the stu­dents have access to VPN's that will allow them to go on restricted web­sites?

JS: I am not sure of the spe­cific tech­ni­cal arrange­ments, but stu­dents at NYU Shanghai will have unre­stricted inter­net access.

Bo Hersey is grad­u­at­ing this spring from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He is major­ing in History with a focus on Asian and African Histories. Bo was a stu­dent at NYU Shanghai in the spring of 2011 and he plans to return to China to work after grad­u­at­ing. I am explor­ing a vari­ety of work oppor­tu­ni­ties in China.