OU’s 25 partnerships with institutions in Southeast Asia and China are meant to foster global opportunities for students and faculty.
Ohio University has dozens of partnerships in Southeast Asia and China, but the university’s involvement in those countries hasn’t necessarily resulted in large financial donations to OU.
OU has received about $2 million in international donations in the last seven years, with the biggest chunk of that money, about $1.9 million, from the Malaysian government.
Malaysia’s deputy prime minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin, visited OU in late 2013.
Of the 6,500 OU alumni living abroad, about 4,300 are from Asia, not including the Middle East or Russia, said Kelli Kotowski, executive director of Development, Gift Planning and Principal Gifts.
“There have been some significant gifts in the past,” Kotowski said. “But what you have to realize is that these cultures are very different and that the U.S. is pretty unique in that we were really one of the first cultures to embrace philanthropy.”
Many foreign countries don’t offer tax breaks to those who donate, so that might deter them from giving money to OU, Kotowski said.
International contributions haven’t necessarily arrived in Athens as checks.
Chubu University in Japan, gave OU 175 cherry trees that were planted along the Hocking River in 1979. In November, OU President Roderick McDavis and Provost Pam Benoit visited Chubu to celebrate the school’s 50th anniversary.
Chubu also invested in the former Burson House, renamed the Yamada International House in 2003.
The largest individual, international donation to OU in recent years came from Fred Harris, an American artist based in Japan.
Harris, who served as a visiting artist at OU in the late 1990s, provided materials for the Yao Ceremonial Artifacts Collection in Alden Library, valued at about $86,000, Kotowski said.
In 1996, Harris donated thousands of materials, many of them rare, Asian art books, to OU’s libraries. The books were valued at more than $100,000.
“Ohio University’s partnerships with Asian entities afford economic strength and academic opportunities that would not be possible on our own,” McDavis said, in an emailed statement. “Our future relevancy and distinction in the higher education community depends upon our ability to sustain international linkages such as these.”
In mid-April, OU will host the International Alumni Family Reunion, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Center for International Studies.
Many of OU’s partnerships with international countries are considered memorandums of understanding, a broad agreement between the university and another entity.
“As a result of these experiences, our graduates are better prepared for the global leadership challenges that lie ahead,” Benoit said, in an emailed statement.
Claire Kormann, a senior studying political science, traveled to Vietnam last summer through a program in the Global Leadership Center, not through one of OU’s partnerships.
“It’s definitely something that a lot of people should be exposed to,” Kormann said of traveling abroad. “It’s been fantastic in the sense that’s I’ve made some lifelong friends through it, not only in the states, but in others places in the world.”
While in Vietnam, Kormann said she visited families who were affected by Agent Orange, a chemical warfare tactic used by the U.S. during the Vietnam War in the 1960s and early 1970s.
“It really has changed me as a person, going through something like that,” she said.
Partnerships also help bring more international students to the university, Edmonds said.
China, which has the most partnerships with OU, also has the largest population of international students on the Athens campus with more than 800 enrolled by Fall 2014.
“The world is changing and Athens is a small piece of the action and we want to make sure that our students feel very much a part of the world when they graduate,” said Lorna Edmonds, vice provost for Global Affairs.
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