This Saturday, Bruce Murphy, president of Nicholls State University, will be travelling to Cuba for a week on a “Presidential Mission” sponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. 

Nicholls State University is one of the 420 public colleges and university members of the association. Periodically, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities holds meetings and trips to make contacts and expand opportunities for higher education in America. 

“There are two purposes. One purpose is for us to tell them what opportunities we have for their students and faculty, and the other one is for them to tell us what opportunities they have for our students and faculty,” Murphy said.

Murphy and his wife (along with about 20 other presidents and their spouses) have been invited to attend this year’s meeting in Cuba.  Murphy will be privately funding the trip; he felt it presented the perfect occasion to spread the Nicholls name.  With Obama’s recent announcement to open up relations with Cuba, the organization thought that higher education should be one of the first things presented in discussions.  

In Cuba, Murphy expects to visit the Cuban department of education, as well as various universities in the region. He intends to promote the maritime management program, the petroleum technology and safety management program, the marine biology/environment program, the sugar institute, the business school, the nursing school, the teachers education program, the culinary institute and division I sports. 

“I think if somebody wants to come to this country, if somebody wants to get an affordable education, and also play sports, Nicholls is a pretty good place to do that. All of that, I think, is a good selling point,” Murphy said. 

By stressing the overall “homey” feeling of the Nicholls campus, the president of the University hopes to encourage Cuban students to attend. He also wants to stimulate interest in the programs at Nicholls that target areas of importance to the Cuban culture.

“Can you imagine if we had a relationship and we could send our culinary students to Cuba for a semester, and they sent their instructors here and we had an exchange? I hope we have the opportunity to do that.  I want to put something together so we can get the conversation started,” Murphy said. 

Murphy said this trip will play an integral part in his four imperatives that he formulated when he first came to Nicholls: student opportunity and success, innovation, internationalization and serving the needs of the region. 

“This is an opportunity to develop the success of students.  It’s kind of innovative because no one’s done it before here, and my third, internationalization, means two things.  We not only bring students here, but at the same time, we have more opportunities for study abroad. So this really plays into the strategic plan I set forth.”