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Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo.
It's the oldest university in the western hemisphere.
It was founded in the 1500's.
As a result of this, we've developed a friendship agreement with the university that's -
Autonoma - that's becoming an implementation agreement
which means we're goint to have faculty and student exchanges
we're going to be going back and forth across
several of the schools, the college as well as
the School of Education and other schools.
Now here's the important thing.
Ultimately why is this so important?
We are here to serve students and it's important that we have enriching experiences for our students.
You've already seen that we've had students who were on the sites.
They're doing all this archeology work,
but the culture -
the culture of the Dominican Republic is something
that's beyond the experience of just going diving
Columbus was buried on the island for many years and the church where Columbus was buried is still
there.
The remnents of the oldest hospital in the western hemisphere
is still there in Santo Domingo.
There to be seen.
The house that Christopher Columbus's son
built in Santo Domingo is still there
and the kinds of things that Jeff talked about earlier - La Isabella -
he talked about six boats still being in the bay - wrecks in the bay.
One of them is quite likely Christopher Columbus's boat
and with the help of the government and Francis
we're looking to see if we can
locate it.
The other things that are important is
when we were down in the Dominican Republic just a couple weeks ago we also met with
the directors of the USAID,
Aid for International Development.
Their concerns in the Dominican Republic have to do with improving public health,
improving economy,
and to help do responsible tourism, eco-tourism.
Well, in our school, we have a department of recreation, parks, and tourism studies
that are partnering
with us
to develop a proposal to go down and develop the sites as national sites.
At the same time we have a department of applied health sciences that does community
public health work.
They'll be involved in the local communities in a participatory way
to make sure that tourism is done in a way that doesn't
exploit local people but involves them in the project.
We hope through the archaeological museum - through the Mathers Museum that
we'll be able to develop restorations, recreations of Taino villages
and therefore the impact
on economy
in a real important way to local people that involves local people should be done
in responsible ways, something that we can be proud of in the university.
At the same time
if we're going to do this responsibly and well
the water systems in the Dominican Republic - most people drink water out of bottles.
So one of the things we need to think about is how we develop
water systems where the water is safe to drink.
At the same time being a tropical country there are tropical diseases that are often vector born
like malaria,
dengue fever,
diseases that rats
will produce.
So we have a responsible mission there also with our applied health science department to do this.
I want to tell you - where's the future go.
Under lock and key right with an IU flag flying over it
we have -
how many artifacts would you say?
Several thousand artifacts under lock and key in La Isabella that came out of the
original village
waiting to come down Francis's lab
and we're facilitating
their coming down to the lab including
a spoon that comes right out of Columbus' own house.
We also have - Charlie alluded to it -
we found a French
ship - a slave ship
that we're just about to get permission, I think, Francis, right?
I'm not going to push him on that
but
the idea here is that this is part heritage - we want to see this,
you know, our goal is not to take off all of the value,
valuables and sell them
that's the providence of the Dominican government.
What we'd like to do is develop as a memorial site,
that's historic,
that respects the environment,
that respects the history and the culture of the place.
If we do responsible things like this,
then I think IU's reputation,
our contribution to prosperity and peace in our own backyard is important. We
need to be a leader, a paragon for others to follow, and that's our goal.
Now in the future we also have relationships with Bonair.
Charlie Beeker is doing work down in Bonair on some ships.
We're also talking about - you're familiar with Captain Morgan, the pirate,
on the rum bottles.
He has a ship off the coast of Haiti which I believe is actually in Dominican water.
There's some potential talk about this and Haiti's a country that's awfully bereft
in terms of public health.
So if we can use these kinds of entrees to do other kinds of economic and public health development
this is wonderful and our students get the benefit
by being part of this cultural interchange with the local university
this is exactly what we hope to do.
Now you've had
the benefit and I think the privilege
of seeing a lot of things that will eventually be on the National Geographic special
and we're just in the process of signing a contract to IU legal services,
the
legal counsel,
and
part of that agreement is also to do 3 or 4 more shows including one on the
Taino
and, you know, if Columbus' ship happens to show up or the artifacts show up
there's another program right there so
look forward to other
exciting things to be coming in the next few years.
Now I would be remiss as dean if I wouldn't say at the end before I send you out there to look at
the artifacts,
these things cost money
if anybody would like to
make a contribution to the excavation work
we're very happy to accept contributions - dean's shake hands like this so I'd be remiss not to say
that.
This is good
responsible work and
we would appreciate using any contributions in an ethical and productive way
so thank you for coming, thank you for your attention. Please go look at the artifacts.
[applause]