NEW YORK -- Cornell President Hunter Rawlings will be part of a select group of university presidents participating at the U.S. University Presidents' Summit in Washington, D.C., in January. Rawlings was invited to attend by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, who are hosting the summit.

Joe Wilensky/Cornell News Service

President Hunter Rawlings narrates a slide show of images from his recent trip to China at the public session of the Executive Committee of the Cornell University Board of Trustees meeting at the Cornell Club in New York City Dec. 8.

Rawlings talked about the summit at the Cornell Club in New York City Dec. 8, when he addressed the Executive Committee of the Cornell University Board of Trustees at the public session of the committee's meeting. Rawlings also recapped his recent China trip with a narrated slideshow.

Reporting on other Cornell news, he noted that early admissions are up 10 percent compared with this time last year.

The purpose of the university presidents' summit, scheduled for Jan. 5 and 6, is to focus on the U.S. government's partnership with U.S. higher education "on international education in the national interest." Said Rawlings, "[The U.S. is] falling badly behind on key points." Recounting his November trip to China, where he signed an agreement with Peking University in Beijing establishing the new China and Asia-Pacific Studies (CAPS) program major, Rawlings discussed his keynote address at the Beijing Forum in the Great Hall of the People. "It does give you goosebumps to stand in that hall and give a talk," he said.

While in China, Rawlings also launched the first collaborative engineering seminar between Tsinghua University and Cornell. Tsinghua University will be participating in next year's engineering workshop in the United States, which will focus on nanoscience. The location of the conference is not yet set, and it remains difficult for engineers in China to obtain the necessary visas and paperwork to leave the country, Rawlings noted.

The engineering seminar was "substantive stuff," Rawlings said. "This wasn't just having a nice meeting and handing out business cards -- this is engineering and computer science and information science."

Rawlings showed the trustees one of the widely publicized images of himself playing table tennis with Tsinghua University President Gu Binglin. Gu, a former table tennis champion, beat Rawlings in two close games.

"The pingpong broke the ice," Rawlings noted. "We really had a good time."

Rawlings also updated the trustees on the upcoming capital campaign, which is still in the silent nucleus fund phase.

"Now is the time to be making key pledges to get our nucleus fund where it needs to be," he said.