A delegation of SUNY leaders, including SUNY Old Westbury's Vice President for Enrollment Services Mary Marquez Bell and Professors Zenaida Madurka and Fernando Nieto, recently visited Cuba to sign a historic agreement with the Cuban Ministry of Higher Education (MES) that opens the door for collaborations between the two university and higher education systems.
The educators and representatives from seven SUNY campuses joined SUNY Provost Alexander Cartwright to visit six Cuban education institutions and the U.S. Embassy in Havana, along with other cultural sites of importance. While in Havana, a Memorandum of Understanding was dually signed as an agreement to cooperate, promote, coordinate, and facilitate collaborations among their respective institutions, aiming to aid in developing areas of research and academia.
According to Cuban Vice Minister Aurora Fernández González, it is the first agreement that her Ministry has ever signed with a U.S. university.
In addition to the meetings with the MES, the SUNY delegation met with students currently enrolled in SUNY study abroad programs in Havana. These students demonstrated to representatives of both the Cuban and SUNY delegations that the new agreement is being built on a solid foundation of mutual respect and common goals.
To finish the week, the University of Cienfuegos hosted a meeting that gave the SUNY delegation the opportunity to sit down and meet with rectors from six provincial universities of Cuba. Areas of discussion for partnership and innovative exchanges of faculty, researchers and professional staff included: community health, language and Caribbean studies, information systems, art and design.
