San José State University’s College of Applied Sciences and Arts Dean Charles C. Bullock and Associate Dean Alice Hines both participated in the signing of a memorandum of understanding, though they were in different countries and time zones.

Dean Bullock was present at the signing of the agreement in Hanoi between San José State University, the U.S. Agency for International Development and Cisco Systems that outlined the ways in which the partners will work together to meet the objectives of the Social Work Education Enhancement Program. The SWEEP project is funded with a grant from USAID that allows SJSU to work with eight Vietnamese university partners to enhance social work education at the universities to produce job-ready social workers for Viet Nam.

The signing ceremony took place Nov. 13, at 9 a.m. in Hanoi, with participants present via telepresence from San Jose, Charlotte, North Carolina (where Cisco is headquartered) and Ho Chi Minh City. SJSU Mohammad Qayoumi and USAID Mission Director Joakim Parker both signed the MOU that had earlier been signed by CISCO in the United States. Administrators from the partner universities participated in person in Hanoi and via telepresence from Ho Chi Minh City. Hines joined in from the Cisco offices in San Jose, where it was 6 p.m. on Nov. 12.

Hines called it “an excellent illustration of how technology can be instrumental in bringing people together across cultural (and temporal) boundaries.”

View more photos at the USAID flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/usaid_vietnam/sets/72157637622002363/)page.