About the Trip

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Dina Habib Powell are leading the first-ever high profile delegation of U.S. college and university presidents to Asia in conjunction with International Education Week 2006. Steadman Upham, President of The University of Tulsa, was selected to join this delegation to promote U.S. higher education.

The group will travel Nov. 10-19 with planned stops in Kyoto and Tokyo, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; and Beijing, China. The delegation will meet with students, university officials, government and business leaders, and the media to carry the message that the U.S. welcomes and values international students who want to study in the United States.

This historic pairing of the U.S. government and higher education leaders follows from a commitment made at the U.S. University Presidents Summit on International Education co-hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings in January 2006. The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is organizing high-level delegations of college and university presidents, each led by a senior U.S. Government official, to key world regions to promote the value of U.S. higher education overseas and engage in discussions on the future and importance of international education.

University presidents selected for the delegation include:

William Brody, President, Johns Hopkins University
Stephen M. Curtis, President, Community College of Philadelphia
Philip W. Eaton, President, Seattle Pacific University
Adam W. Herbert, President, Indiana University
Karen A. Holbrook, President, Ohio State University
Shirley Ann Jackson, President, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
David W. Leebron, President, Rice University
Bernard Machen, President, University of Florida
H. James Owen, President, Piedmont Community College
John B. Simpson, President, University at Buffalo, SUNY
Steadman Upham, President, The University of Tulsa
Henry T. Yang, Chancellor, University of California, Santa Barbara

The participating universities and colleges were selected for showing leadership in international education. The trip is being organized and funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. State Department.