The campus-wide initiative offers new class, internships for USC students.

1. Daily Trojan
Oct. 18, 2006
Pg. 3
U.S.-China Institute offers overseas opportunities
The campus-wide initiative offers new class, internships for USC students.
By CHARLES ASHTON
Contributing Writer
A new USC institute aimed at bringing the United States-China relationship under
the academic microscope intends to provide students an edge in a future job market
by offering new classes, minors, internships and overseas study opportunities.
The new offerings will be centered on building students’ knowledge of an
international relationship that those involved with the new' USC U.S.-China Institute
said to be increasingly important.
“This is a campus-wide initiative," said Clayton Dube, the associate director of the
institute.
He said the institute is calling upon various departments and faculty members to
help develop new educational offerings for graduates and undergraduates, which
will range from helping design a Web site for the institute to taking a semester of
specialized classes in China.
Dube and others involved with the institute said it would be defined by its goal of
studying the ties that bind the United States and China from a social science
perspective and furnishing policy-makers and the media with objective information.
“It’s going to be a major operation.” said Stanley Rosen, a USC political science
professor and member of the U.S.-China Institute steering committee. “It will be very
beneficial to USC; it will put USC on the map when it comes to Chinese studies.”
The institute is funded by the USC provost’s office, though Dube would not disclose
the dollar amount. “It’s enough to get us started,” he said, adding that it’s a
“substantial sum of money.”
The institute will be sponsoring its first conference in April, titled “The Future of
U.S.-China Relations.” Academic researchers and public policy advocates are slated
to participate.
University officials decided last summer to create the institute after taking note of
China’s increasing influence on the U.S. economy, said members of the institute
steering committee.
They said too little research is coming from think tanks and other colleges and
universities on the U.S.-China relationship, and the institute aims to fill that void
with social-sci-ence research sponsored by USC.

2. “This is a pretty significant deal,” said Jim Ellis, USC senior executive director of
Global initiatives and a member of the U.S.-China Institute steering committee.
"There's a lot happening in China from a social standpoint. The better we
understand it, the better off we’re going to be — as a world.”
Institute steering-committee members stress that the information the institute will
provide to policy-makers, business leaders and journalists will be objective.
“This does not have a partisan or ideological slant." said Elizabeth Garrett, USC vice
president for academic planning and budget and a member of the steering
committee.
She said that although think tanks conduct research similar to what the U.S.-China
Institute will be undertaking, “they tend to come at issues with a point of view" and
focus on "what piece of legislation is going to be in front of Congress Tuesday.
“We try to figure out the right answer," she said, "not the Republican or Democratic
answer."
Garrett said the considerable amount of research the inst itute will be undertaking
will offer students "an opportunity to grapple w'ith what it is to produce knowledge,
not just receive knowledge.”
Although the institute has a social science focus, students with a wide range of
abilities and interests will be included to help build the new institute from its small
beginnings to a fully developed form, Dube said.
The institute has yet to hire a faculty director to oversee the institute and is
operating out of temporary offices in Ronald Tutor Hall until it moves into
permanent offices in the Jefferson Building, next to the Dental School; Dube said he
hired the first staffer for the institute last week.
Videography, journalism, publishing, Web design and research represent some of
the opportunities students can take advantage of at the new institute to explore
their passions and hone their skills, said Dube, w'ho has heard from many interested
students.
“I’ve been inundated with phone calls,” he said.
Dube said he will start recruiting students in November to help create and maintain
a Web site for the institute. He expects the site to have a major W'eb presence and
resemble a successful China-focused Web site he oversaw as a previous UCLA
faculty member.
A new geology course, a minor and an overseas summer study program are also
under consideration, Dube said. The new offerings will all examine the relationship
between the United States and China through a social science lens, he said. The
institute will offer many internships, he said.
Dube envisions the overseas study program lasting six to eight weeks and involving
specialized classes and seminars that will give students “hands-on experience” in

3. conducting research in China. He said he expects students to have their first
opportunity to participate in this prosram in the summer of 2008.
“Teaching them in China and using a Chinese city as the subject being studied (will
represent) the best possible opportunity to learn about the new China and how that
China is connected to the United States,” Dube said.
He also said the university will be hiring five to seven new faculty members to teach
new courses developed by the institute and existing courses that will be overhauled
on the recommendation of the institute.
He said the institute will be “working to infuse the study of contemporary China
throughout the curriculum.
“We ought to include some things about that place where one out of every five
human beings lives — China,” said Dube.
Dube said the institute has yet to undertake any research but will be asking faculty
members and graduate students for research proposals next month. He said
approved projects will receive funding early next vear.
"I am struck bv the energy present here and the opportunity we have," he said.
Dube said USC students who take advantage of coming educational opportunities
created bv the institute will have the edge in a job market in which knowledge of
China is an increasingly valued commodity.
"By the time the average I SC student has grandchildren, the Chinese economy will
be the largest in the world." he said. "You can choose to ignore China, but China will
be a part of your future."