In 1998, Kent Zumwalt, professor of finance and real estate at the College of Business, took a turn at teaching Down Under.
Quite by chance, he was asked to fill in for a faculty member at Murdoch University in Perth, who was going on sabbatical for a year. Zumwalt jumped at the chance and taught there for several years before moving to the University of Western Australia, also in Perth, where he started teaching the Distance M.B.A. program.
“I arranged to go back and forth every six month, teaching at Colorado State in the fall and at UWA in the spring,” he says.
Although Zumwalt negotiated his Australian teaching job on his own, the idea of such a partnership piqued the interest of Dean Ajay Menon, ever on the lookout for potential global collaboration.
“Ajay visited me there, and because he is interested in building partnerships around the world, he thought UWA would be a good fit,” Zumwalt says.
Menon began meeting with administrators at the UWA to work out the details of a memorandum of understanding.
“It took years to get it done,” Zumwalt says. “Because I was familiar with the university, I’ve been able to help in getting some of the pieces together.”
Zumwalt says the mission is to create common research and educational relationships between the two institutions.
“My aim is to get students and faculty to take a semester or even a year to study and teach at UWA,” he says. “I’m also doing some research with a couple of Aussies. We have similar interests and we’re taking advantage of that. Since I’m in finance, and finance is similar in Australia, it’s easy to collaborate.”
In the spring, a faculty member from UWA will visit Colorado State, the first of what Zumwalt hopes willbe many others.
“I think our faculty and students will enjoy Australia,” he says. “Perth is an attractive locale; it sits on the coast, about where San Diego is on our map, and has beautiful beaches. Aussies are wonderful people who have a great sense of humor.