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WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY Volume 23, Number 2 September 5, 1996 Alumni and friends in Japan launch drive to raise funds for WMU About 500 Japanese alumni and friends 'I of WMU have organized a fund-raising campaign for the University in Japan. The "WMU Friends in Japan Endow- Broncos strike up the ment Fund," believed to be the first WMU fund-raising effort organized outside of band for the president the United States, is intended to promote When President Bill Clinton got up to speak Aug. 28 understanding of Japan and the Japanese in Comstock Township, he started by expressing his among members of the WMU community. appreciation for the Bronco Marching Band. "We The fund was launched with a $22,000 should begin by thanking the Western Michigan base, the result of two large private gifts, University Band," he said. "They've been wonderful and recently obtained tax-exempt status in today and we thank (them) very much." A few days Japan. Organizers have announced a con- before the visit, band director Stephen D. Grugin was certed gift drive that is expected to last contacted by a White House advance team about until the end of the year. performing prior to the president's speech at Merrill According to W. Wilson Woods, inter- Park. "Originally, we were just asked to play before national affairs, the move is highly unusual the event while people were gathering," he said. "We for residents of a nation with no history of discussed the possibility with them about playing private support for higher education. 'Hail to the Chief' and, once they came and heard us "This is an act of true generosity and an play, they wanted us to perform that when the presi- effort to promote understanding between dent arrived as well as to play after the speech too." the two cultures," Woods says. "All of the money raised will support American stu- dents." The funds will support travel to Japan and study in Japan by WMU students as well as the purchase of materials for use on the WMU campus in classes studying Ja- pan and its culture. For 35 years, WMU has maintained close ties with Japan and has sponsored Sabbaticals abroad provide new perspectives for faculty annual summer institutes for Japanese col- lege students in Kalamazoo. Building on From the emerging trade centers of a relatively short period of time, I had a businesses and government employees in those ties, international affairs staff mem- Southeast Asia to the picturesque coun- great group of professional friends over Malaysia and worked on research with that ber Michitoshi Soga, emeritus in physics, tryside of the United Kingdom to the bus- there as well. Malaysia became my second country's Ministry of Domestic Trade and worked closely for more than a year with tling cities of Scandinavia - these desti- home. I remain in touch with my col- Consumer Affairs. In addition, he con- Japanese alumni and friends and Univer- nations were among the locations chosen leagues in Malaysia through the Internet ducted other research in China and Nepal. sity officials to develop and help imple- by WMU faculty members as their homes and continue to do research with them." Besides providing him with fodder for ment the idea of the endowment fund. for the 1995-96 academic year. Quraeshi served as the Tan Sri Noah journal articles and monographs, the sab- The drive is sponsored by two Japanese Of the 27 faculty members granted sab- Distinguished Chair on the faculty of bus i- batical leave experiences have given baticals during last year, a number of them ness management at the Universiti decided to spend the time abroad. Four of Kebangsaan Malaysia, one of the two lead- (Continued on page four) (Continued on page four) those faculty members, who shared their ing business schools in the country. He experiences in a recent interview, returned wanted to work in that part of the world to campus this fall with broadened hori- because of his research interest in the Asia- Class project lives on with Allen popularity zons and renewed energy for teaching and Pacific region. He is the founding editor of A WMU classroom assignment that end of the show in the printed credits. research. the Journal of Asia-Pacific Business and was completed in 1975 has taken on a Newswoman Barbara Walters and Zahir A. Quraeshi, marketing, spent the the author of numerous articles on interna- life of its own and has become a source late night talk show host David year based in Bangi, Malaysia. Nancy tional marketing. of information for television talk and Letterman have both requested and re- Eimers and William C. Olsen, both mem- The focus of his research was on build- biography shows, newscasters and late ceived copies of the footage and the bers of the English faculty, resided in ing national competitive capabilities and night comedians. tape has been shown on such programs Cornwall, England. Robert Landeros, man- how some of the East Asian economies The student work of comedian Tim as "Extra" and "Inside Edition." Its most agement, lived in Sandvika, Norway. While have been able to accomplish that in a short Allen, a 1976 WMU alumnus, captured widely-viewed use so far was as part of all claimed to be revitalized from their period of time. By studying such countries and preserved on video, has been fea- a prime time special called "Before They sabbaticals, they also expressed a wistful- as Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Ja- tured on a number of recent television Were Stars," which aired on ABC in ness for their adopted homes. pan and South Korea, Quraeshi is hoping shows. Most recently, the Sept. 2 pre- 1994. "I had a very productive and beneficial to build a framework for industrial devel- miere week episode of the Arts and "I tend to save things for a while," academic experience there and got very opment in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Entertainment Network's "Biography" Pagel says. He notes that as recording used to Malaysia," Quraeshi said. "I really He conducted his research primarily at the series used the footage as part of its technology changed over the years, he enjoyed the gracious hospitality. It was university and at government agencies in hour-long examination of the life of the made an effort to copy many hours of almost like reverse culture shock coming Malaysia as well as at the nearby Institute popular star of the ABC series "Home classroom performances onto video cas- back. My colleagues here are super, but in of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. Improvement." settes, sometimes without even realiz- Quraeshi lived in Kuala Lumpur, The same footage has been borrowed ing all that was on them. He originally Malaysia's capital. He said his experience and is being considered for a mid- thought he had only three sequences Did you know? there really brought home how quickly that September episode of the "Oprah featuring Allen, but recently uncovered Winfrey Show" to be used in a program Since the beginning of WMU's part of the world is becoming a major a fourth routine in which Allen took part that will look at some of the country's twinning program with Sunway global competitor. in another student's filmed presenta- favorite performers before they were College in Malaysia in 1987: "You really have to go to Malaysia to tion. witness what is taking place over there," he well known. 'The period from the mid 1970s un- • More than I, I00 Malaysian said. "There is a dramatic, almost dizzying Thomas F. Pagel, communication, til about 1980 was a very interesting students have transferred to pace with which economic development is saved the footage along with videotape time with students," Pagel says. 'They WMU. being nurtured. Sitting back here suppos- of hundreds of other students from a were an unusual and energetic group • More than 100 have stayed on edly doing work on the Asian-Pacific re- television performance class he still and now that it's 20 years later, some of to earn graduate degrees. gion, it's all very vague. Until you go there teaches. He says it's among the earliest them have proven successful in a vari- • More than 500 graduate and and see what's happening, you don't under- video footage of Allen doing the kind of ety of careers." undergraduate degrees have so far stand and don't realize the strong industrial stand-up comedy for which he later Among other Pagel students from been awarded to Sunway trans- base they've established and the kinds of became famous. It already has shown the era were WOOD-TV news anchor fers. efforts that they're involved in. The Ma- up on national television more than half Suzanne E. Geha of Grand Rapids, a laysian government has a very dedicated a dozen times in recent years. In return 1973 WMU graduate; and Neil Smith, • Fewer than 5 percent have leadership and they are concertedly devel- for its use, Pagel says, he insists on the president and general manager of the dropped out, the smallest attrition oping their programs to move Malaysia up University receiving credit - either in New York Rangers hockey team, a 1977 rate of any student group. the economic ladder." the context of the tape's usage or at the graduate. Quraeshi also gave presentations for Two September 5, 1996 Western News Scholars to discuss Starting the new school year the Great Depression The first of six scholars who will present with both a toss and a toast their views this year on the economics of the Great Depression will speak at the University Wednesday, Sept.