SAU, Cuban University Sign Historic Agreement

University of Artemisa Proctor/President Carlos Eduardo Suarez Ponciano speaks Wednesday during the agreement signing event. On the left is SAU President Trey Berry.

Southern Arkansas University and the University of Artemisa in Cuba signed an agreement Wednesday in the rotunda of the State Capitol, formalizing an academic exchange between the two universities.

SAU President Trey Berry called the agreement a first-of-its-kind partnership. The universities plan to exchange three students at a time. He also said the university hoped to send faculty members and its jazz band to Cuba, and to collaborate with the University of Artemisa on research projects. 

“We hope the opportunities will be limitless,” Berry said. 

Berry said the process that led to the agreement, which took more than two years, went smoothly, despite the “usual” restrictions on Visas and communications.  

SAU also hosted a delegation from the University of Artemisa this week, including President Carlos Eduardo Suarez Ponciano, artist Abel Alfonso Castro and art student Yoan Perez Nunez. The delegation’s plans were to visit the Clinton Library, Heifer International and the Arkansas Arts Center after the signing.

Castro and Nunez are working on a concrete friendship mural project that will be “a twin,” Berry said, of one painted in November by an SAU delegation to Artemisa. SAU Honors College Director Ed Kardas and art professor Steven Ochs led that delegation, and Ochs will be assisting the visiting Cubans with their mural.

At the signing, Kardas translated for Ponciano at the signing event. Ponciano said, “Today is not the end. It is the beginning of a strong relationship …” He said agreements like this are a step toward making higher education part of a solution for the problems people worldwide have. 

He also said he hoped the document the universities signed would be a living thing and be revised as needed by people from both working together. Ponciano said, too, that friends are essentially to making this work and SAU’s representatives were his friends.

Berry repeated the sentiment and also said, “Today is not about politics. Today is about people and possibilities. Education has always been a bridge between people and cultures. Education is also a bridge to understanding. Today, we continue to build that bridge …”