A TRANSFORMATIONAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN ISU AND THE UNIVERSITY OF HAVANA

Earlier this year, Indiana State University completed an educational exchange agreement with the University of Havana. It will offer students and faculty opportunities to conduct collaborative research and study in Cuba. With this agreement, ISU joins nearly eighty other U.S. universities, including Harvard and the University of Alabama, who have agreements with Cuba’s oldest university.

“Indiana State University is pleased to include the University of Havana on our list of global universities with which we partner for educational exchanges,” said Dr. Christopher Olsen, ISU Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. “This will give us the chance to develop a wide-ranging set of opportunities for students, in particular.” Olsen noted that, given the size and comprehensive array of programs at the University of Havana, the partnership can develop similar to some of ISU’s other international relationships with institutions such as Edge Hill University (England) and the University of Zagreb (Croatia).

The agreement includes the Center for Hemispheric and United States Studies and its Latin American School of Social Sciences, also known as FLACSO, offering students and faculty the chance to gain a greater worldview on public policy, political science, social and natural sciences, humanities, and community healthcare. Indiana State anticipates that students will participate in study abroad beginning in January, 2025, as plans are underway for the first new faculty-led trips at that time. ISU students previously traveled to Cuba under an earlier agreement that had expired. Several ISU faculty, led by Cuba scholar Mike Erisman, Emeritus Professor of Political Science, have worked extensively on topics of Cuban history, political science, and public policy, and have long-standing connections with faculty at the University of Havana. Dr. Raul Rodriguez, Director of the Center for Hemispheric and U.S. Studies, plans to visit ISU’s campus in fall, 2023.

“This partnership is part of Indiana State’s ongoing efforts to further internationalize our campus and provide a global perspective to our students’ academic experiences,” said Dr. Chris McGrew, director of ISU’s Center for Global Engagement. “It will offer another option for

ISU students to leverage their ISU Advantage Experience Grants to study abroad. Dr. Jill Moore, Executive Director of the ISU School of Nursing, was part of the ISU team that traveled to the University of Havana in March, 2023, and she was impressed with opportunities that ISU students could access when traveling to Cuba. This is particularly relevant, she noted, in terms of ‘cross-cultural research with the University of Havana in the areas of nursing, social work, and human development and family sciences.’”