development
Lehman Provost and Latin American Professor are Part of Historic Delegation to Cuba
Lehman Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
Anny Morrobel-Sosa and Professor Teresita Levy, an associate
professor of Latin American and Puerto Rican Studies, were part
of an historic delegation that could have long-range ramifications
for future higher education partnerships between U.S. colleges
and Cuba. The two represented Lehman—one of 12 institutions
in attendance—as part of the International Academics Partnership
Program (IAPP) organized by the Institute of International
Education (IIE) this past October.
Morrobel-Sosa and Levy referred to their historic trip as
transformational on both a personal and professional level. Along
with the IIE delegation, they spent a week meeting with public
dignitaries, educators, and students in Havana and several other
cities around the country. The Obama administration’s restoration
of diplomatic ties for the first time since 1961 has created a
sense of exciting possibilities between the two nations, but
educators are proceeding slowly, according to Morrobel-Sosa.
She emphasized the importance of developing long-term and
lasting relationships with Cuban officials. “It’s like discovering a
new world,” Morrobel-Sosa said. “The Cuban university leaders
are eager to participate in the expansion of knowledge and the
creation of new ideas.”
Professor Levy is interested in taking a leadership role in the
school’s development of a Cuban partnership with Lehman and
is optimistic that with thoughtful planning, cooperation, and
institutional support, an eight-week, six-credit course could be
developed at Lehman by the summer of 2017. For Levy, the visit
to Cuba was a return to the island after conducting graduate
research as a student at the CUNY Graduate Center in 1999
and 2000.
On a personal level, Morrobel-Sosa found the experience of
traveling to Cuba transformational. As a native of the Dominican
Republic, she was able to communicate fluently with the people
she met and felt that the strong connection was at least in part
fueled by a shared history. In addition to this kinship, there was
another personal connection. “I have a relative who is alive
because she had surgery in Cuba,” she said. “She had a tumor
behind her right ear and the family couldn’t afford the operation,
so they flew to Cuba. I was gratified to see the training that
Cuban doctors received, that saved the life of one of my relatives.”
During the trip, Morrobel-Sosa and Levy visited six of the nation’s
44 schools with the IIE delegation, including the Universidad de
Ciencias Medicas de La Habana, its prestigious medical school,
and the Instituto Superior de Arte, the nation’s impressive art
institute. As part of the itinerary, the academics also spent an
evening at the home of the ambassador to the European Union
and met with Cuban ambassadors from Belgium, Brazil, Norway,
and Canada.
— David Koeppel
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1. Old Havana streetscape.
2. The town square in Matanzas, Cuba.
3. José Martí National Library.
4. One of the rooms in the Cuban National Archives in Havana.
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Lehman Today
In January, Lehman College’s Chief Librarian Kenneth Schlesinger
was one of a group of ten CUNY librarians and archivists to
go to Havana. An organizer and co-leader of the delegation,
Schlesinger’s second trip to the island (his first was in 2010) left
him optimistic that the two nations can work together to facilitate
research and scholarship.
The goal of the trip was to tour libraries and archives and meet
with Cuban colleagues. As the group mission statement explained,
they hoped to “promote international scholarly relations, increase
understanding and goodwill, and demonstrate the proactive
leadership of CUNY Libraries.”
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