On March 21, 2016, a delegation of Yale University visited Peking University (PKU). Zhu Shanlu, Chairman of Peking University Council, along with several faculty members of PKU, received the guests at the Lusi Pavilion. Peter Salovey, President of Yale University, gave a speech on behalf of the delegation at the meeting.
After taking a tour around the Weiming Lake President Salovey recalled his experience of studying in PKU ten years ago. To express his warm welcome to this old friend of PKU, Chairman Zhu brought President Salovey to the David Packard Flat, the apartment President Salovey lived in.
Then, the visitors got to the Lusi Pavilion. To start the conversation , Zhu Shanlu sincerely welcomed the delegation again on behalf of PKU. Professor Rao Yi from the School of Life Sciences of PKU, gave a brief introduction of the Lusi Pavilion’s history, which showed the close and historical connection between PKU and Yale.
After that, Chairman Zhu began his speech. Firstly, he suggested that the two universities should not only strengthen their friendship but should also make plans for shared development in the future. He expressed that the contemporary trend of the development of universities in the world was inter-collaboration and communication. Under that circumstances, a new round of cooperation and construction of the worldwide universities was prospering and blossoming. And all universities were thinking about the next step, trying to determine the best direction and find partners under the belief of win-win cooperation.
"New directions for the further communication on the basis of the profound accumulation of our friendship will promote the cooperation between the two nations and also benefit the association of the East and the West” Chairman Zhu said. Then he mentioned that when he last visited Yale, he proposed to establish a liaison office for the two schools. Now the proposal has already been implemented and the office has been operating smoothly.
Next, President Salovey conveyed his gratefulness of the warm welcome given to him by PKU. Then he looked back on the history of friendship between Yale and PKU and also emphasized the accomplishments and more possibilities in the future.
"Students of both side have close connections, including various exchange programs. There are now 600 to 700 Chinese students studying in Yale as well as Chinese scholars coming to Yale on a regular basis” President Salovey said. And the future connection between the two universities should be strengthened even more. He committed that he would bring together the most important team to work on it.. He hoped that on the multiple basis of cooperation, the two sides could explore new ways that other universities hadn’t tried .
President Salovey used four words to describe PKU: unified, innovative, accessible, and excellent. He wished the collaboration in the future could be closer and closer, and and Chairman Zhu gave two specific ideas for the cooperation: The first one was to strengthen their cooperative research on Africa, and the second idea was to invite President Salovey to be an international consultant for the PKU 120th anniversary, which president Salovey accepted with great pleasure.
Written by Wei Yuchen
Edited by Li Ruoxue
