Dr. Deborah Curtis, vice president of international relations and the Brennan Center at Niagara University, presented a case study based on her office’s work during the global coronavirus pandemic at Foreign Trade University’s Fourth Annual Forum on Internationalization of Higher Education 2020 on Nov. 5, 2020. The conference, “Sustaining and Enhancing Cross-border Partnership of Higher Education in the New Normal Context” was held in Hanoi, Vietnam. Representatives from 15 embassies and 35 universities, and more than 50 students attended on site, while an additional 30 universities, including NU, participated via zoom.
Dr. Curtis’ paper, “Response to the Pandemic from a Private, Binational US University’s International Office. A Bridge Apart, a World Away,” discussed the unique challenges that COVID-19 created for universities with campuses in two countries due to the different approaches their respective federal governments took to control the virus. The report also reviewed the actions taken by Niagara's Office of International Relations to keep students and colleagues safe and healthy and diminish the adverse impact to them, as well as the communication resources utilized and the teamwork and leadership displayed.