Speical Guests at the IU Vis

A very special group of people showed up today at the IU Visitor Center (for those of you that don't know, I work at "the front door of IU", representing the campus in recruitment and welcoming guests). They are representatives from the Shin-Hua Press in Beijing. Two reporters were from the Chicago area and one actually flew in from Beijing just for this visit.

IU is proud of say that a professor in our Political Science department was recently announced to be the first woman to win the Noble Prize in economics "for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons." Elinor Ostrom, is an engaging speaker; even at 76 years old, she is still young at heart and full of spirit. It is evident that she is passionate about her research in economic sciences. Her studies concern with how pools of users manage natural resources as common property.

The group of Chinese reporters came to interview Elinor, focusing on questions related to China's economic public policy. As most of Elinor's viewpoints are closely related to how the public should have responsibility in engaging in public policy and public environmental development, it was really interesting to think about how, with a known centralized government, the Chinese government will think of such "mind boggling" ideas.

I had the honor to be the only student at IU to witness this remarkable event, as I was the conveniently the only student employee staffed at the Visitor Center. I had the opportunity to talk to the reporters from Beijing about my school life, promote IU a bit and brag about the Business School. Also, I got to translate a bit while they were setting up the stage : ) This was the first press interview the Visitor Center had the opportunity to host, hopefully this will increase publicity for the center too...exciting stuff!