{"id":4758,"date":"1995-01-10T13:33:10","date_gmt":"1995-01-10T19:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/?p=4758"},"modified":"2025-06-06T12:10:23","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T17:10:23","slug":"the-last-j-term-1995","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/1995\/01\/10\/the-last-j-term-1995\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last J Term 1995"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When I arrived at IWU in 1987, students had to take 35 course units (roughly the equivalent of a regular course elsewhere), except that each course unit equalled 4\u00a0 hours elsewhere.\u00a0 Each faculty member taught 7 courses.\u00a0 A January term class provided students the opportunity to take at least the three additional courses needed for graduation (they needed 35 total), and could include an international (or domestic) trip in January.\u00a0 The trips were supported by federal loans.\u00a0 Faculty members were required to offer a\"\"\u00a0January term class, which might be international.<\/p>\n

Up until 1994, I had steered my services marketing class into a 3 night stay at the Palmer House (as the students viewed it) or 4 days of site visits (as I viewed it) in Chicago.\u00a0 That trip included a performance by the Chicago Symphony or the Lyric Opera, a discussion with Information Resources Incorporated (an early data-mining company), the marketing director of the Art Institute, etc.<\/p>\n

It was obvious to me, however, after my 1990 trip to China, that my “calling” was to take students overseas and share my background expertise and love of adventure with a January term class.\u00a0 What prevented that was that a member of the business department had a lock on the trip, and the chair insisted that (at the time), there could be only one business trip.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
There were still some Mao statues<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fortunately for me, Dr. Kieh, chair of the (nonexistent) International Studies Department \"\"(nonexistent because it was cobbled together with faculty who had appointments in other departments, but taught an International Studies class),\u00a0 offered me the opportunity to develop a course on Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast for International Studies credit.\u00a0 That was my 1994\u00a0 segue into teaching a travel course for almost 20 years at IWU.\u00a0 It started in China, but gradually expanded to East and Southeast Asia, to Europe, and in 2001, a trip around the world. Most were in business.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"The two memories that stand out the most to me from this\u00a0 \u00a0 trip both involved Xiamen, one of my favorite cities in China.\u00a0 Known as Amoy in earlier days, it had, on the island of Kulangsu, the “other” International Settlement (other than Shanghai) from imperialist days.<\/p>\n

With no cars, the island was pedestrian friendly, and still full of colonial remnants, including a well-deserved reputation for music.\u00a0 This trip, we managed to stay on the island, in what I thought was a wonderful old hotel, but which was so primitive that I feared I’d have to barricade the doors to keep student protesters out.\u00a0 It didn’t mollify the students that the Wall Street Journal staff was quartered in the same hotel–for them it was a reward!<\/p>\n

A funny story afterwards: I called to order the Far Eastern Economic Review (I was teaching an Asia Pacific freshman class at the time), and I got talking with Ms. Li, who worked for the Wall Street Journal Bureau in Beijing.\u00a0 \u201cOh, you must know Jim Macgregor, head of the Bureau,\u201d I suggested.\u00a0 \u201cHow do you know him?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cHe headed the only other group at Gulangyu Island when we were there several years ago.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI was there–wait, I remember your students.\u00a0 They were the ones who whined!\u201d\u00a0 Yes, IWU does have an international reputation!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The two buildings of the Peace Hotel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"\"<\/a>The second memory was finding a shop that could make the impressive scrolls that hung on so many public meeting sights in China.\u00a0 I commissioned one that celebrated the last January Term and the Weidade Jiaoshou and his xiansheng who were on it.\u00a0 The banner used to hang in my office, and is now safely secured in my apartment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I think this was also the year we stayed at the Palace Hotel in Shanghai, across from the more famous Sassoon House (now the Peace Hotel).<\/p>\n

I believe it snowed in Shanghai this trip or the previous one, and a visit to Fudan University (the IWU of China, as was Yenching in Beijing) furnished my lesson to business students for several years.\u00a0 China was energy poor, and heat was limited south of the Yangtze River.\u00a0 Shanghai was south of the Yangtze, and so the school was unheated.\u00a0 We saw students in their down parkas in a study room, preparing for final exams.\u00a0 In later years, I would point out that their Chinese competitors took studying seriously.\u00a0 As Thomas Friedman pointed out, “They’re hungry for your jobs.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I arrived at IWU in 1987, students had to take 35 course units (roughly the equivalent of a regular course elsewhere), except that each course unit equalled 4\u00a0 hours elsewhere.\u00a0 Each faculty member taught 7 courses.\u00a0 A January term class provided students the opportunity to take at least the three additional courses needed for … Continue reading “The Last J Term 1995”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-last-j-term-1995"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4758"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9629,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4758\/revisions\/9629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}