A new international partnership at Syracuse University may allow students to collaborate on assignments with students from as far as New Zealand, London and India.

The partnership stems from a recent agreement between SU and the New Zealand-based Massey University, according to an SU News release. The Memorandum of Understanding formalizes the relationship between the College of Visual and Performing Arts and Massey’s College of Creative Arts that began five years ago.

VPA professors Kendall Phillips and James Fathers signed the agreement on behalf of the university. The two were joined by Mark Gilbert, the United States ambassador to New Zealand, according to the release.

As the link between the university and Massey, Phillips said he hopes to extend the connection to other schools and colleges at SU — eventually bringing students to visit and experience New Zealand.

“This agreement between Massey and Syracuse is the groundwork for a larger conversation between the two schools on what they intend to actually do in the future,” said Phillips, associate dean of global academic programs and initiatives in VPA.  

Both schools are already working on a project that could be passed between SU, Massey and all their international partners. The idea is still being explored, said Kingsley Baird, a professor in Massey’s College of Creative Arts, but it could allow students to move beyond the computer screen to meeting their overseas classmates in person.

SU, Massey and York St John University, based in the United Kingdom, partnered for a symposium on memory research in New York City, titled “Memory Works,” Baird said in an email. Baird said he hopes to bring students from Massey to work with peers from SU and York St John next year.

“Coming from different backgrounds, we are confident that the engagement between the students…will open our students up to different ways of thinking about and seeing their worlds and contribute greatly to their education,” Baird said.

By connecting Massey to SU, Fathers said both schools will not only develop a relationship between each other, but can pass information “like a baton” from one country to another across the world.

“We may start a project in Syracuse, pass it to students in London who then pass it on to the students in India, who then pass it to students in New Zealand and then back to Syracuse,” said Fathers, an Iris Magidson Endowed Chair of Design Leadership at VPA, in an email.

Fathers added that during his visit to New Zealand, SU and Massey began developing a joint project based on the role of design in disaster relief. The project is just a “stepping stone” in a relationship that, thanks to technology, will hopefully be able to “flourish,” Fathers said.

Published on September 23, 2015 at 10:05 pm

Contact Will: wzeitler@syr.edu