• Fairleigh Dickinson is one of a select few universities that the secretary-general has visited since being named to that position in 2006. And, this was his very first address in the state of New Jersey.
• The secretary-general, in his address, announced the development of the U.N. Academic Impact, a program that will bring together universities committed to working with the United Nations and helping advance its mission. Fairleigh Dickinson has been instrumental in this program’s development.
• Special guests at the Convocation ceremony included FDU alumnus Jae Kyu Park, BA’67 (R), the president of Kyungnam University in South Korea and the country’s former minister of unification, and Sun Joun-yung, former ambassador to the United Nations from South Korea.
• The secretary-general’s visit marked an important milestone in Fairleigh Dickinson’s longstanding partnership with the United Nations. As President J. Michael Adams said, “University founder Peter Sammartino embraced the idea and ideals of a world body. And he knew that having the U.N. headquarters nearby represented a rare opportunity to help students better understand the world.”
• In 1953, the University conferred an honorary doctoral degree upon the very first U.N. secretary-general, Trygve Lie. Since then, FDU has similarly recognized 11 other U.N. officials. Before this event, the most recently honored official was Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, then-U.N. under-secretary-general for public affairs, who received an honorary degree at the 2006 Commencement.
• Fairleigh Dickinson was one of the first universities in the country to earn accreditation as a nongovernmental organization associated with the U.N. Department of Public Information. This designation provides faculty and students special access to U.N. briefings and resources.
• In 2002, FDU created the U.N. Pathways Program and has since brought more than 60 seated ambassadors or heads of state to campus. In addition, the University has produced a series of videoconferences with ambassadors and U.N. officials broadcast live from U.N. headquarters and distributed to FDU’s two New Jersey campuses as well as other universities. U.N. events at FDU can be viewed online at the University’s Global Issues Gateway site at www.gig.org.
— A.C.
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