University of Alabama opens new Center for Cuba Collaboration and
Scholarship building
By Ed Enoch
Staff Writer
Last Modified: Thursday, October 15, 2015 at 11:35 p.m.
As the University of Alabama dedicated its new Center for Cuba
Collaboration and Scholarship on Thursday, the faculty and
administrators who helped pioneer the initiative praised the new space
as a sign of UA's long-term commitment to the program.
"One of the things this represents to me today is the roots of the
program are sinking deeper," said Robert Olin, dean of UA's College of
Arts and Sciences.
The center is a focal point for the partnership between UA and Cuban
institutions that offers students and faculty the chance to visit the
island nation for research, scholarly, performances and other trips
while also bringing Cuban artists and faculty to UA.
Olin and a gathering of other administrators, faculty and students
celebrated the dedication in the center's new suite of offices and
conference rooms in Capital Hall on the old Bryce Hospital campus.
For Olin, the new center is a sign that the program will live beyond his
efforts and those of others who helped established the university's
relationship with Cuba more than a decade ago.
Carmen Burkhalter, dean of the University of North Alabama College of
Arts and Sciences and a former UA faculty member, reflected on the
elements that helped the program be successful.
"We always followed the rules," she said. "We never followed
conventions. Convention dictated we were supposed to be frightened, we
were not supposed to trust …"
By following the rules required to travel but defying the conventions of
more than a half century of acrimonious relations between the U.S. and
Cuban governments, Burkhalter said the initiative was able to take root
and flourish.
Source: University of Alabama opens new Center for Cuba Collaboration
and Scholarship building | TuscaloosaNews.com -
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20151015/NEWS/151019758
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