Behind the Decision

Back in March, four Chinese students who were seniors at four American liberal arts colleges conceived the idea of spreading the word about the liberal arts philosophy in their home country. Very ambitious and high achieving students themselves, they wanted to let other motivated and adventurous Chinese students know that their own small colleges, and many others like them, offer a superior American education even though they are unknown in China. On August 5, I left the U.S. to join representatives from 11 other highly selective liberal arts colleges in Beijing for a 10-day tour of several major Chinese cities organized by the four now newly-minted graduates. Assisted by several other Chinese students at American colleges, they had secured sponsorship to cover all the expenses for the college reps and had pulled off a highly successful publicity effort. Very shortly after the start of the tour, however, a significant conflict arose with the sponsoring organization. What follows is the story I sent back to family, friends and colleagues partway through the journey.

August 11, 2009: We arrived in Hangzhou today around noon after a very pleasant two+ hour bus ride from Shanghai, and had a successful event this afternoon with presentations followed by interviews. We are quite the congenial group, which is particularly important as you shall see in the following story. The organizing group of four Chinese '09 liberal arts graduates, plus 2 current Grinnell students, is amazing. They are Victor from Wabash, Mike from Washington and Lee, Kevin from Colby, and Maggie from Grinnell, along with two other Grinnell students: Da, a rising sophomore, and Yining, an incoming first year. Their ability to think on their feet is incredible, and they really know how to capitalize on their resources. All in all, it has been a good experience, but it has not been without its challenges.
 
After arriving in Beijing last Thursday, we had a bit of a rest day on Friday; our official duties consisted of an afternoon meeting and an evening welcome dinner with officials of CEDCA, the education agency that was contracted by the organizing students to underwrite the expenses of the tour. The program was very busy on Saturday in Beijing: a long, long day of presentations, a college fair, interviews, and more presentations in the evening. The student turnout was in the neighborhood of 250. At the end of it all, we hustled to the airport and caught a flight to Shanghai, arriving at our hotel after midnight. (Thanks to prospective student Tony Deng and his father for this photo of my presentation in Beijing.)
 
On Sunday morning we met for breakfast and learned from our stalwart young organizers that things were not going well with CEDCA. The students had been very clear, including strong contractual language, that CEDCA was not to use the event as a marketing opportunity for their very expensive services (they charge upwards of $10,000 per family to “package” students' applications to U.S. colleges and universities), yet CEDCA people showed up at the Beijing event with a large banner promoting their services, and they solicited families to sign with them on the spot. The student organizers confronted the CEDCA people, but the latter refused to back down. From the beginning, we college reps had been quite clear with students and families that the use of an agency is not only unnecessary, but it's unethical to present essays or any part of the application that is not the student's own work; in fact, at the presentation in Shanghai covering the U.S. application process, the Wesleyan rep came right out and said, “Don't use an agency; you must do this work yourself.”  

We proceeded with the college fair, but before heading to lunch, Mike (one of the organizers) told each of us to proceed right away to the lobby for a quick meeting. When we stepped off the elevator, we were met by Kevin from Colby who told us to go immediately to our rooms, pack up and come back to the lobby in 10 minutes: things had escalated with CEDCA and the organizers had broken their ties with the agency.
 
We did as we were told, and 10 minutes later we were all bundled into cabs for the quick drive to the Shanghai Hilton. As Mike said, everything in China runs on relationships, and it turns out that Yining, the incoming first year at Grinnell, had a very important relationship: her father is an executive with ties to the manager of the Hilton which readily comped us for two nights' accommodations (which was quite a nice upgrade, I might add). After dropping our bags, we strolled across the street to a small restaurant where Da's parents ordered 20 incredible dishes, creating a fabulous Chinese banquet for us to sample. During the meal, Kevin revealed the details of the break with CEDCA, which turned out to be fairly sordid and even involved a threat on the part of the CEO to have his driver beat up Kevin, Mike and Victor if the group did not agree to disband and allow CEDCA to take over the rest of the tour. Recognizing that the colleges could not appear to be endorsing the use of agencies in general, and certainly not this particular one, the organizing students made the decision to carry on without CEDCA and to call on their resources to continue the tour on their own. They had informed the many prospective students who were expecting interviews that afternoon in Shanghai that there was a delay and a change in venue, and after our unbelievable lunch we went back to the Hilton where I interviewed 10 terrific students.
 

Lunch with Da and his parents

Meanwhile, the organizers were working hard to pull together an alternate plan for the rest of the tour – and the weather forecasters were predicting that Typhoon Morakot, which had devastated Taiwan, was bearing down on Shanghai. On the other side of the controversy, CEDCA contacted all the students who had signed up for the events in the remaining cities to tell them that they had been cancelled. Interestingly enough, however, some of the parents here in Hangzhou decided that this opportunity was too important for their children to miss, so they called in some chits and arranged for us to have the same schedule, only one day later. Somehow, and I don't really understand this, the regional government in Shenzhen has elected to pick up the tab for us in their city and apparently there will be some kind of official government shindig in our honor once we get there. The only disappointing element is that the event in Chengdu had to be cancelled altogether (the organizers had arranged for us to see pandas there), but instead, they have arranged another event in Guangzhou (without pandas).
 
After all the excitement on Sunday, we had some downtime on Monday morning, but in the afternoon we went on a hastily arranged visit to the High School Affiliated with Shanghai Normal University, a 4 year old school offering the British A-Level curriculum. 100% of its graduates continue to universities abroad, including 40% in the U.S. They were very glad to have us, and they turned out an audience of about 100 prospective students and families despite it being summer vacation. We met faculty and had a tour of this impressive school; all of us agreed that it was a bonus to be able to spend time in one of China's premier high schools. Apparently there is a school visit planned for Guangzhou as well.

With Jennifer from Barnard at the school in Shanghai

Throughout the tour thus far, Maggie, Mike, Kevin, Victor and Da (Yining had to leave us after the weekend) have been incredibly solicitous of our well-being and have handled the raging tumult as I could only hope to. They conceived this idea back in March as a way to give back to the colleges that benefitted them tremendously, and they sincerely want to raise awareness of the liberal arts college concept in China. They have given their lives to this extensive and complex project over the past few months and what they have accomplished is truly amazing. The only fault to be found is perhaps their naiveté in thinking that CEDCA would really abstain from using the tour as a marketing tool. Fortunately the college reps are a great, roll-with-the-punches crew. We are picking up some more expenses than we thought we might have to (mostly meals here and there), but so far the response from students and families has been excellent.

So although Morakot did not materialize in Shanghai, the tour has been through its own little typhoon but we are safe, well-cared-for, and grateful for this experience.

The tallest buildings in China in the gathering gloom preceding the typhoon that never came to Shanghai: