[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 88 (Thursday, June 27, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1158]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 IN RECOGNITION OF THE PACIFIC AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION 
                      SCHOOLS COUNCIL INAUGURATION

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. GARY L. ACKERMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 26, 2002

  Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to enter into the Record a 
recent speech given by a distinguished former Member of this body, 
Former Congressman Lester L. Wolff before an Assembly of Asian 
educators on May 20th in New York. Congressman Wolff served as Chairman 
of the House Asian and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee and is now Chairman 
of the Pacific Community Institute.

  Inauguration of the Pacific American International Higher Education 
                            Schools Council

       With a new look and focus after two decades of service, the 
     Pacific Community Institute (PCI), continues to work towards 
     its purpose of creating a community of interests in the 
     Pacific Rim. With those goals in mind, I am proud to announce 
     today the inauguration of the Pacific American International 
     Higher Education Schools Council.
       Because the United States was originally an off-shoot of 
     Europe, there is a historical tendency to think of the U.S. 
     as an Atlantic nation only. However, the United States has 
     historically been involved in the Pacific since 1784, its 
     Pacific Coast is longer than the Atlantic Coast, and the 
     State of Hawaii is in the Pacific. The commitment of the 
     United States to the Pacific has also been sealed in active 
     diplomacy and several wars for freedom and democracy.
       The basic principle of the Pacific Community Institute 
     (PCI) is to promote community, based upon respect for 
     individuals and the traditions of its members. Building on 
     ties of trade and kinship, which have long existed among the 
     countries of the Pacific Rim, PCI seeks to facilitate 
     interaction and cooperation toward the solution of common 
     problems. PCI aims to obviate such problems by enabling the 
     nations of the Pacific Rim to explore together, at the 
     working level, means to contemporary activities, and new, 
     creative solutions to the common concerns. PCI is 
     supplementary and supportive without competing with existing 
     organizations.
       PCI believes that true community may be facilitated by the 
     revolution in communication and information technology, but 
     that it must be created by people in concert, in person. For 
     that reason, PCI remains committed to facilitating face-to-
     face interaction as significant step toward building a 
     climate of cooperation. The advent of the World Wide Web has 
     made the task of the PCI simpler in some respects, by 
     permitting the movement of information in a more efficient 
     manner. Yet without a sense of the human being sending an e-
     mail, or the organization maintaining a website, the 
     official, the executive, or the academic who may be seeking a 
     solution remains uncertain and unconvinced.
       The Pacific Community Institute seeks today to promote 
     international education based on the concept that both sides 
     of the Pacific can learn from each other. PCI is currently 
     working to develop a graduate level, Western-style curriculum 
     in business. The role of the PCI is to oversee the content of 
     the program, curriculum, the credentials of the instructors, 
     and performance of graduates. In general, PCI fosters the 
     idea of appropriate conferences designed to enhance the sort 
     of personal contact that makes an e-mail message a genuine 
     commodity, and not a nuisance.
       The Pacific Community Institute, in its role to improve 
     inter-relationships, understanding, and economic well-being 
     within the nations of the Pacific region, is in the process 
     of organizing such an organization: The Pacific American 
     International Higher Education Schools Council. The Council, 
     composed of an elite professional group of Academicians, will 
     create and oversee an MBA program to meet the high standards 
     of the International Community and the special needs of the 
     educational requirements of young people residing in the 
     Pacific Rim.
       Selected to head the Council is Dr. Wayne Patterson who has 
     served as Dean in Residence of the National Council of 
     Graduate Schools. Invitations to participate in the Council 
     have been extended to: Dr. Orlando L. Taylor, Dean of 
     Graduate Schools at Howard University, former Chair of the 
     Board of Directors of the Council of Graduate Schools; Dr. 
     Marcia Welsh, Provost and V.P., Academic Affairs, Adelphi 
     University; Dr. Sung Lee, former Vice Provost, Michigan Tech, 
     now executive at Carnegie Mellon; Dr. Thomas Maresh, former 
     Dean of the Graduate School at Oregon State University; Dr. 
     J. Kent Morrison, President at Walden University; Dr. Robert 
     Ringold, Provost at Purdue University; Dr. Robert Rudd, 
     former Dean of School of Business at Charleston College and 
     have met with a strong positive response.
       The Pacific American University was founded in 2002, as a 
     division of the Northern Institute of Business Management, an 
     affiliate of The Pacific Community Institute, Inc., in order 
     to bring the highest quality of American-developed higher 
     education to students in China and other Pacific region 
     countries. The initial degree offering by the Pacific 
     American University is the Master of Business Administration. 
     The curriculum is designed to be aligned with many MBA 
     programs in the United States.

  The Pacific American University is a research-oriented private 
university dedicated to providing educational experiences of 
exceptional quality, based on the traditions of American higher 
education, to students of high academic potential in China and in other 
countries throughout the Pacific region. Further, the University is 
dedicated to attracting and sustaining a cadre of faculty who are, 
through their teaching and research, committed to the development of 
distinguished and compassionate graduates and to the quest for 
solutions to human and social problems.

                          ____________________