1986 Liggetts Return clipping -Sep.18

1986 Liggetts Return - Wilmington College student publication "The Hourglass" Vol 6,No.2 clipping -Sep.18 p.1&2

Picture Captioned: Mr. and Mrs. Liggett practice for a performance to benefit the Petaling Jaya Community College.

Liggetts Return from Abroad

by LORRAINE WISE

Donald Liggett, director of international education and professor of psychology, and Jeanne Liggett, assistant coordinator of the College/Community Skills program, have returned from a year's sabbatical in Malaysia and China

The Liggetts spent the major part of their year teaching at Petaling Jaya Community College (PJCC) in Malaysia.

On the way home, they spent a month in China: two weeks touring and two weeks with Liggett as a guest lecturer at Guangdong Teacher Training Institute in Gusangzhou (Canton).

They began their tour with a four-day stay in Taiwan.

Liggett has had a "long interest in Malaysia."  He organized a school for the Malays in 1961-63 and has returned a number of times.  However, this year was different in that PJCC "is largely a Chinese school." he said.

The three-year-old highly selective school of 150 students is much more like American junor colleges, Liggett said.  "It offers liberal arts and some business and computer courses.  Most of the students plan to finish their degrees in the U..S, but the first two years in Malaysias."

At Petaling Jaya, Liggett taught psychology, social science research methods and algebra.  Mrs. Liggett taught English as a second language to the Malays.

The guest lecturing was arranged through the Hong Kong office of the Institute of International Education and through Ho's Education Foundation in Hong Kong.

Liggett speaks Malay, but had to use an interpreter in China.  A tourist agency arranged for hotels and flights, but "we arranged our own tours, and traveled on public transportation through Beijing (Peking), Hanzhou, and Guilin," Liggett said.

Liggett has been at WC 14 years.  "Before that," he said, "Wilmington had enrolled one Malaysian student.  Now, largely due to my contacts, there have been around fifty."

The first student from Petaling Jaya to transfer to WC this fall is Ooi Huey-Tyng.  Liggett expects three more in January "if we can work out the Foreign Study Program."

Liggett's paper on Malaysia junior colleges will be published next month by the National Association for Foreign Student Affairs.

Mrs. Liggett is a professional story teller with an interest in folk literature from other cultures.  "During the sabbatical year, I was able to gather many folk tales that are new to me," she said.

While in Malaysia, the Liggetts instigated an alumni meeting in Kuala Lumpur.  Twenty-eight people attended – 15 of them WC graduates ranging from the class of 1986 back to 1973.

"It was an interesting year, politically, to be in Malaysia," Liggett said.  "There was a contested election for governor of Sabah.  The government bank was alleged to have made over $500 million in fraudulent loans.  And the elected head of one of the political parties was arrested in Singapore for fraud.  His bail was $40 million."

The Liggetts will speak about the China part of their trip at Fall Semester's first Convocation in Kelly Center, Sept. 25.  The Convocation is titles "Glimpses of China – Summer 1986.