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Enthusiastic: one of the participants asking question related to the presentation in Auditorium of Management. (photo by: Distya Putri) |
University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM) is the only campus in East Java that was visited by lecturers of 12 universities in United States which are the members of ASIA Network Faculty Enhancement Program (ANFEP) on Monday (24/17). This event collaborated with Directorate of Research and Society Service (DPPM) of UMM and was held in the Auditorium of Economic Faculty UMM.
Co-director of ANFEP, Prof. Siti Kusujiarti PhD stated that UMM was chosen because of its unique characteristics. UMM was a part of Muhammadiyah foundation which holds Islamic values and integrates various study programs. She said,“We often heard about society services done by UMM. We want to learn about it”.
Siti continued, the purpose of this program is to give knowledge and information to the lecturers of Asian Studies. Later, the result of this program will be integrated into the curriculum in classroom and the researches done by the lecturers. There are three campuses that will be visited by ANFEP for three weeks in Indonesia, which are State Islamic University of Yogyakarta, University of Janabadra Yogyakarta, University of Muhammadiyah Malang, and Hindu University of Indonesia.
This event was focused on problems of social change, environment, religions, and culture. At UMM, those 12 lecturers followed presentations about research, society service, and technology development such as UMM environmental project (the establishment of PLTMH Sumber Maron in Karangsuko village, Malang regency). The chief of PLTMH UMM, Ir Suwignyo MT explained that on 2009, 1100 people who live around Sumber Maron use the electricity from PLN (State Electricity Enterprise). When PLTMH was built on 2014, the number of people using the electricity increased into 1800 people.
The presentation was also explained by the head of the UMM Study and Empowerment (LP3A), Dra Thathit Manon Andini MHum . She explained about research, seminars and talkshows about gender, women and children issues done by LP3A. Meanwhile, the head of the Indonesian Language Unit for Foreign Speakers (BIPA) explained about the local culture and religious differences in Malang. This discussion explored the harmony of cultured life in Malang with all its peculiarities.
The last presentation was conducted by a lecturer of International Relations program, Tony Dian Efendy MA about Chinese community in Malang. Compound identity influences the Chinese community in Malang. There are five kinds of identities that affect the Chinese community in Malang, which are identity as citizen, identity as ethnic group, identity related to religion, identity related to area of origin in Indonesia, and identity related to origin of ancestors in China.
This discussion evoked the enthusiasm of the participants because some lecturers were Chinese, one of them was Associate Professor of Asian Studies and Chinese Language of Belmont University, Prof. Qingjun Li PhD. She did many researches about identity and religions and her questions showed her enthusiasm about it. She also talked about Chinese immigrants in America.
Regarding to the cooperation with ANFEP in the future, Siti said that UMM has a great opportunity. "This is the beginning of the next cooperation. Because the participants come from 12 different campuses, so it is possible for UMM to make cooperation with those campuses”.
In his speech, Vice Rector I of Academic Affairs UMM Prof. Syamsul Arifin revealed that UMM always broadens international cooperation. UMM has cooperated with United States in several programs, for instance, UMM trained 70 volunteers from the organization of Peace Corps of US in 2015. (lus)
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