What’s It Like to Work for a Chinese University?

David Zupko has managed to find himself in the right place at the right time. After graduating from Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a temp job in his hometown, at Loyola University Chicago. Being back on a campus felt like going home. He spent the next two and a half decades in academe, working at Loyola, at the University of Chicago, and as deputy registrar at Yale University.

Along the way, Zupko met his wife, Julia, a fellow administrator. When she took a job running career development for the Schwarzman Scholars Program, a new international college at Tsinghua University, in Beijing, Zupko and their daughters, Natalia, now 11 years old, and Josephine, 9, came along — a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the family. He originally expected to be a trailing spouse, focused on helping his children acclimate to life in China. But soon several administrators at Tsinghua realized, “Hey, we have the former deputy registrar at Yale just sitting around reading the newspaper in the library,” Zupko says. After being hired initially for some spot work, in June he was named associate dean in the office of international affairs. He’s believed to be the first foreigner to be appointed to such a prominent post at a major Chinese university since institutions there reopened following the Cultural Revolution.

Zupko talked about what it’s like to take a high-profile job at a time of geopolitical tensions, the differences and similarities between Chinese and American universities, and how his young daughters are schooling him in Mandarin.

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Your appointment was major news in China. Why do you think people were so fascinated?

Within 24 hours of the news’ being posted on the university website, it had 175,000 views. Then it became the most viewed item. It was picked up by the Beijing media and by the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. I was trending. I found myself in this room with all these media outlets, answering questions. It was a crazy moment. You work in higher ed, you don’t think you’ll ever be called on to do that. There was a little bit of “Hey, what’s this Westerner doing in this big role? Is Tsinghua going to change?” It’s not.

What I told the Chinese media, what I tell people around here, is Tsinghua is already an international place, and to change the fabric of the university would be an incredible disservice. What makes Tsinghua great has got to remain. That’s not being sacrificed in the name of internationalization. But still I think my appointment signaled this shift. To have somebody who is a foreigner, who has the kind of title that previously only people in the [Communist] Party were getting, is a big deal. Because it signals that things are changing really fast.

As you note, high-level administrative jobs at Chinese universities have to be approved by the party. Did you have any qualms?

I didn’t have too many second thoughts. It’s a governmental agency. It’s just like I was dealing with an agency. It wasn’t scary or anything like that. It was a conversation. It all seemed pretty regular. It didn’t set off any of those “Oh, man, what am I doing? I’m in over my head” alarms.

What’s the substance of your job?

I’m focused on a component of Tsinghua’s global strategy — to make the campus more welcoming to international students. We want to figure out what it is that international students are concerned about, what will make their transition to China smoother, and what are the obstacles that those students are facing, from an administrative and from a cultural and community side of things. They wanted somebody who was going to be a very visible person, who was going to be pretty vocal about this stuff, who was going to go from department to department to make sure that things worked.

Was it difficult to adapt to working in a Chinese university?

I keep getting questions about the differences, but really there are a lot of similarities. A difference is that you don’t see the kind of partying on campus. Students study here, and they study a lot. There isn’t this transformation that happens on Friday night or Saturday night that you see on U.S. campuses. But there are so many familiar things: You have a registrar, you have the idea of the provost. You have faculty councils and course evaluation and all these things that are familiar in the U.S. I think that’s allowed me to be successful here.

Chinese culture places tremendous importance on education. This is well known, but I didn’t really know what that meant until I came here. The idea that education is closely tied to societal contribution directly connects institutions to national goals. The link between history and societal value, and how these fundamentally define knowledge acquisition, helps shape the emerging model of higher education in China. In practice this leads to frequent re-evaluation of educational effectiveness, strengthening of programs, and a certain responsiveness to the goals of the country. I fully acknowledge my bias toward education, but given the deeply held value of education here, if you want to start to understand China, study how China educates its young people.

I know many American academics worry about the effect of the current contentious relationship between the governments of the two countries. Do you worry that geopolitical concerns could have a chilling effect on student exchange, research partnerships, and other collaborations between Chinese and American universities?

Yes, I am concerned. The United States and China have worked for decades to become close partners in education and research. I’m not sure a closer academic tie exists between any other two countries. It is important that our partnerships continue, because they foster a mutual understanding while advancing research to help solve the biggest challenges we face in the world today. In this respect, our academic partnerships are transcendent; they become bigger than just the countries they represent.

What does the current situation look like from China?

It’s far more muted here. I don’t actually see there being a lot of feeling of tension. People here are committed to maintaining strong connections because, first and foremost, the academic pursuit, the research pursuit, the development of knowledge is an incredibly important thing for the world. And that shouldn’t be something that is affected by the waxing and waning of these political times.

Are there ways that higher education, both institutionally and through individual researchers, can be a bridge between the countries?

Institutions and academics can look to challenges faced by both countries for opportunities to improve or develop collaboration. A few areas that come to mind are smart cities, aging populations, the climate crisis, and biomedical and agricultural research. It’s good that institutions of higher education are already partnering to solve these problems — this is a benefit from all the years that have been devoted to building a strong relationship. Institutions should be committed to protecting research and exchange programs. By providing that space for these to continue, higher education, be it Chinese or American, can help the two countries achieve something together they could not achieve on their own.

Not to put too much weight on your shoulders, but do you feel like a representation of that sort of collaborative relationship?

Thank you for qualifying it, because I wouldn’t want to overstate my role or overinflate my sense of importance. But I do think that my appointment was a big step to say to people throughout the world, Look, you can come work here in China and work for a university like Tsinghua and be successful here.

How has your perspective shifted on China after living in Beijing for two years?

This idea of the good of society and good of the country — it’s a different thing here. In the United States, nationalism can be a beating-your-chest kind of thing. Here it’s more about common people, about how we’re all connected as a country.

And how have your daughters adjusted to China?

They are in a bilingual school with primarily Chinese kids, not in an expat program, so they could really learn Chinese. They achieved fluency in 18 months. It’s absolutely astounding. My older daughter’s accent is so good she startles people. My younger daughter, it turns out she’s very good in math, and she’s only ever had math in Chinese here. She said, “Yeah, Dad, I just look at the characters and know what they mean.” They’re bilingual, which I don’t think would have happened in the U.S. And they also understand a lot of the Chinese culture, which definitely wouldn’t have been the case in the U.S. Looking back at it, I threw these kids into the deep end of the pool. And now it’s like, you can translate for your parents.

This article has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Karin Fischer writes about international education, colleges and the economy, and other issues. She’s on Twitter @karinfischer, and her email address is karin.fischer@chronicle.com.