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Visits strengthen UD ties with Romanian university
2:57 p.m., Oct. 31, 2006--Arno Loessner, associate professor in UD's School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy, a fellow in the Institute for Public Administration and a faculty fellow in the Center for International Studies, recently returned from his fourth trip to Romania, where he facilitates the University's ongoing relationship with Babes-Bolyai University. His visit was sponsored by the Fulbright Program. At Babes-Bolyai (pronounced Babesh-Bowl ya ee) Loessner serves as a member of the International Advisory Committee for the Department of Public Administration, where he teaches public administration and economics and is a member of the board of editors of the Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences, a journal published by its Department of Public Administration that emphasizes comparative research. During his visits, Loessner has taught courses in English to grad students in public administration. The courses include microeconomics applied to issues in public administration and the management and governance of nonprofit organizations. He also has lectured to undergraduates in public administration in a classroom with more than 300 freshman students. Additionally, Loessner advised Elias Arellano Banda, a UD graduate student who also has visited Babes-Boyai. Arellano's master's thesis, Benchmarking of Public Administration Higher Education Practices and Policies for Adaptation in Developing and Emerging Countries: An Examination of Romania and Peru, looks at the ways in which Babes-Boyai has adapted American higher education practices in the development of its Department of Public Administration. As part of his research, Arellano spent seven weeks in Romania this past spring. Upon completing his degree in UD's School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy, he plans to return to his native Peru. He may encourage higher education studies for students there in the area of public administration, a discipline that is not currently offered by universities in Peru. Loessner first visited Babes-Bolyai in 2002 as part of an international visiting team from the Salzburg Seminar. That group met with the university's leadership to help it transition in a post-communist environment. Loessner also participated in a planning conference in 2004 and with a Fulbright in 2005 and 2006. The university has some 45,000 students and serves as an economic development generator in Transylvania. It also works to bring about intercultural understanding in a community made up of Romanians, Hungarians, Roma and German-speaking Romanians. “The university's Department of Public Administration is one of the finest in Europe,” Loessner said, adding that “the mayor of Cluj-Napoca, the city where Babes-Bolyai University is located, is a former member of the faculty of the department. The department is involved in several public service projects of applied research that have made a significant difference in the quality of life of that community and Romania.” Loessner noted that, UD and Babes-Bolyai University have executed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to facilitate working together. “It is my hope that we will have students from Babes-Bolyai enroll in our graduate programs in the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy and that our cooperation will extend to joint research projects. As part of our MOU, others from the University of Delaware will visit Babes-Bolyai to teach and advise,” Loessner said. “The chairman of their Department of Public Administration visited our campus last year and spoke with students in the Department of Political Science and International Relations and the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy,” Loessner said. “Romania will join the European Union in January 2007 and students and faculty there are excited about the opportunity to be associated with our University,” he added. Article by Beth Thomas |
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