The CSUN Philosophy Department and a university will exchange faculty as part of a recent effort for both universities to learn more about Western and Chinese philosophies, university officials said.

A Chinese professor will be coming to CSUN to train faculty and lecture students in Chinese philosophy in the near future as part an agreement made in Summer 2005 with Shanghai Normal University’s philosophy department to exchange faculty every year, aid Gregory Velazco y Trianosky, Philosophy Department chair. The agreement has no specific term limit, he said.

Trianosky went to China in June 2005 and gave one lecture at the university on western philosophies.

“It was an amazing experience,” Trianosky said.

The faculty exchanges started because the Shanghai Normal University teaches its students traditional Chinese philosophy, but lacks an understanding of the western philosophy, he said.

CSUN’s Philosophy Department teaches western philosophy and does not focus much on Chinese philosophy, Trianosky added.

CSUN’s relations with China has grown closer in the past eight years as part of an effort to enhance relations, said Justine Su, director of the China Institute at CSUN.

There may be an increase in involvement with CSUN and China as more professors and students are interested in going to the country, Su said.

Learning the Chinese philosophy at CSUN is more of a struggle, though, because students here do not have a background in Chinese languages, while the students in Shanghai know English well enough to understand the lectures, Trianosky said.

CSUN students and faculty are not the only ones to visit. Several Chinese students and lecturers visit CSUN to take classes and be guest speakers, said Louis Rubino, Health Sciences professor.

“It gives us an international presence, (and) gives the university an opportunity to expand,” Rubino said.

The China Institute has been at CSUN since 1982, and is dedicated to developing the relationship between the university and China.

Philosophy is not the only department to have connections to China.

Rubino came back from China about one month ago, where he gave a presentation called an “Introduction to American Hospital Administration.”

Rubino has been working at CSUN for seven years and has co-coordinated, along with Ellen McFadden, trips to China, where he has several contacts, he said.