Hsi Lai University has been going through some changes. They changed their name to the University of the West. I guess they figured that Hsi Lai sounded too ethnic and a little odd in the American context. I kind of like the new name. They have a new president. He's Lewis Lancaster, the former chairman of UC Berkeley's Buddhist Studies graduate group and a scholar of international repute. This is a real coup for them and raises their academic profile tremendously. http://www.hlu.edu/uwest1/president.html They are rolling out a whole lot of new majors. They have been offering their Ph.D. in Buddhist studies and an MBA. Recently they put in programs in history, philosophy, English etc. They are planning a graduate program in Chinese and an MPA. They are working up a Ph.D. in education. http://www.hlu.edu/uwest1/newdirections.html They have started a project to put in DL. Their first two DL classes will be webcast in real time, kind of as experiments, to remote sites in San Diego, Fremont Ca. and Taiwan this summer. I hope that they expand their DL offerings soon. They are putting in continuing education classes. Some are kind of cool. They are hoping to use their Chinese connections to bring in monks from the Shao Lin monastery to teach martial arts, for example. They have also upgraded their speakers series. The director of the Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient in Paris will speak about his research among the Daoist communities in China and the director of the Cultural Heritage Division of the National Center of Research of Italy will speak on using virtual reality in reconstructing cultural heritage sites, both in May. WASC candidacy is still on track. http://www.hlu.edu Here's photos of their campus (I particularly like the pink flamingos): http://www.hlu.edu/Photo_Documentary/Campus_Picture/CampusPics.htm
