February 2002 University Reporter

By Anne-Marie Kent

During the spring 2001, Professor Betty J. Diener of the College of Management taught marketing and environmental management as a Fulbright scholar in the MBA program at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. She says, “Tsinghua is a sort of combination Harvard-MIT. It is China’s leading science and technology university.” Most of China’s leaders, says Diener, are Tsinghua graduates and the premier of China, Zhu Rongji, is the dean of Tsinghua’s MBA program. This, Diener, says, is something “that would have been inconceivable only a few years ago!”

“The topic of environmental management is especially important to China, which is simultaneously trying to move to a market economy and join the World Trade Organization. They are trying to clean up one of the most polluted environments in the world,” says Diener. She adds, “The air pollution is visible – a thick brown haze reaches to the ground most days in Beijing, due primarily to the use of high sulphur coal by utilities and industry. Eight of ten rivers are undrinkable, with declining catches of fish. There is little or no wastewater treatment. And Northern China is experiencing major drought causing subsidence in major cities like Beijing.” During her stay, Diener was able to lecture not only at Tsinghua but also throughout the country, visiting universities and research groups throughout the country and Tibet.

Drawing upon her experience and past work with the World Resources Institute (WRI), a group that provides information, ideas, and solutions to global environmental problems, Diener is now involved in efforts to develop new curricula for use in Chinese MBA programs. These programs will require that their students have exposure to coursework in environmental management. She says, “I expect to return to China in April in order to train the Chinese faculties who will be teaching environmental management courses.”

The Fulbright Scholarship Program, which funded Diener’s work, bestows grants on approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals a year to lecture or conduct research abroad. A similar number of visiting scholars received awards to come to the United States primarily as researchers. Jemadari Kamara, associate professor and chair of the Africana Studies Department, also received a Fulbright last year to teach the theory and practice of applied community development at Université Gaston Berger de Saint Louis In Senegal. Also, a Fulbright award brought from Tunisia Fredj Maatoug, an assistant professor from the Department of History at the University of Tunis, to teach on the foreign policy of John F. Kennedy regarding the Third World.

Fulbright Scholar Aids Environmental Management in China