1-13-99

OHIO STATE VISIT TO INDIA TO RE-ESTABLISH UNIVERSITY TIES

	COLUMBUS -- Ten representatives of The Ohio State 
University, led by Board of Trustees Chair Ted Celeste and 
President William E. Kirwan, will visit India from Jan. 17-23 to 
establish and re-establish ties with several Indian universities 
and research institutes.

	The academic objectives of the trip, Kirwan said, are to 
establish institutional linkages, develop study-abroad language 
programs, facilitate faculty and graduate student exchanges and 
long-term research programs, and explore possibilities for joint 
degree programs.  Additionally, the group hopes to facilitate 
Ohio business and cultural connections with India.

	Ohio State’s affiliation with Indian higher education dates 
to 1957, when the U.S. State Department invited the university to 
participate in creating three agricultural universities in 
northwest India.  As part of the “Green Revolution,” these 
universities (Punjab, Haryana and Udaipur) were instrumental in 
converting India from a country that could not feed its own 
population to one with a surplus of food, said David O. Hansen, 
director of international programs in agriculture at Ohio State 
and a member of the travel group.

	Ohio State’s colleges of Education and Engineering also had 
partnerships with Indian institutions.  The affiliations were 
severed in the early 1970s when the U.S. government sided with 
Pakistan in its war with India.  Today, the Indian government and 
Indian universities are looking to reinstate some of these ties 
and to build new ones, Hansen said.

	During this visit, the Ohio State group will sign some 
agreements on joint research programs and lay the groundwork for 
re-establishing some of the old ties as well as creating new 
ones.  During most of the trip, the group will divide and visit 
different sites each day.  They will be focusing on agricultural, 
engineering and humanities programs.

	Bobby Moser, vice president for agricultural administration 
and dean of the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental 
Sciences, along with Hansen and Rattan Lal, professor of soil 
science, will represent agriculture.  They will sign a memorandum 
of understanding with the Indian Council on Agricultural Research 
and visit three agricultural universities where they will 
participate in public forums and alumni receptions.

	Kermit Hall, dean of the College of Humanities, and Richard 
Gunther, director of Ohio State’s Center for International 
Studies, will meet with the Indian Council of Social Science 
Research and visit several universities with programs in arts and 
sciences.

	David Ashley, dean of the College of Engineering, will visit 
the Indian Institutes of Technology in Delhi and Kanpur, the 
Science Institute of India, and the Centre for Artificial 
Intelligence and Robotics.

	All of the group members will be guests of U.S. Ambassador 
Richard Celeste for a reception, and all plan to tour the Taj 
Mahal and to visit the Tata Institute, a research center.  Kirwan 
also plans to meet with Rattan Tata, a philanthropist dedicated 
to promoting development in India.

The Ohio State delegation:
William E. Kirwan, president
Theodore Celeste, chair of the Board of Trustees, and his wife,
  Bobbie Celeste
Daniel Slane, trustee
Bobby Moser, vice president for agricultural administration and
  dean of the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental
  Sciences
David Ashley, dean of the College of Engineering
Kermit Hall, dean of the College of Humanities
Richard Gunther, director of the Center for International Studies
  and executive director of International Studies
Rattan Lal, professor of soil science
David Hansen, director of the Office of International Programs in 
  Agriculture and associate dean of the College of Food,
  Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

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Contact: David Hansen, (614) 292-7252.