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A Latino Perspective On by Richard A. Navarro Occasional Paper No. 06
About the author: Dr. Richard Navarro Dr. Navarro was an Associate Professor in Education at Michigan State University. He served as the founding Director of the Julian Samora Research Institute (1984-94) and also served as Co-Director of the Mexico-U.S. Consortium for Academic Cooperation. In the fall of 1997, he assumed his new position as Dean of School of Education and Integrated Studies (SEIS) at California State Polytechnic University. This paper was originally presented at the Mexican Higher Education Seminar, October 23-28, 1994 in Mexico.
SUGGESTED CITATION Navarro, Richard A., A Latino Perspective On International Initiatives In Higher Education, JSRI Occasional Paper #06, The Julian Samora Research Institute, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, 1997. A Latino Perspective On International Initiatives
It was Thursday, as I recall, of the third week in November 1989 when Michigan State University inaugurated the Julian Samora Research Institute. David Scott, then Provost of MSU, noted that earlier that week the world witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall. This symbol of the cold war served as a cold reminder of barriers we have constructed, even within our own cities, to separate people. Just as the Berlin Wall was coming down to reunite East and West Germany, so too the creation of a new Hispanic policy research institute would represent the destruction of a barrier to knowledge and access on and for Latinos. It was appropriate that the Institute was named for Julian Samora, one of the first Chicano Ph.D.'s in the country, and a mentor to over 50 Latino and other scholars on the Latino experience in the United States. A pioneer in the study of the U.S.-Mexico border, Samora demonstrated that the Chicano experiences the nexus of U.S.-Mexico relations, and nowhere is this integration more evident than along the 2,000-mile border shared by the two countries. Described as a "scholar activist," Samora devoted a lifetime of scholarship and activism to the belief that knowledge should be transmitted not only in the classroom, but in the community, where it could make a difference in the lives of people who would not otherwise have access to the halls of academe. From the beginning, the Julian Samora Research Institute has been committed to the development of scholarship on the conditions and contributions of the Latino population in the Midwest of the United States, particularly in the state of Michigan. Scholars such as Dennis Valdes, Joseph Spielberg Benitez, Alicia Chavira, Anne Santiago, Refugio Rochín, Zaragosa Vargas, Jorge Hernandez-Fujigaki, among others, have documented the Latino migration to the region dating from the late 1800's. Latinos, mostly of Mexican origin, but also including Puerto Ricans and Cubans, were drawn to the region's rich agricultural and logging industries, and later expanded to fill the labor demand created by industrial development, particularly in the areas of steelwork, automobiles, and meat packing. Some came directly from Mexico to the Midwest, drawn principally to the major manufacturing centers, while others followed the agricultural migrant stream from South Texas north to Michigan, Ohio, and other states. The decline in labor demand by the leading industries in the region has only modestly slowed the migration to the region. The larger cities continue to attract new arrivals despite the lack of high wage manufacturing employment opportunities. In part, this continued migration can be explained by the universal impact of the recession which contributed to the decline of the major industries. But continued migration to the region may also be due to other factors such as higher rates of poverty in the communities of origin, higher quality of education in receiving communities, higher wages in service sector jobs, relatively lower levels of discrimination, and in general, a higher standard of living, even among the working poor. It was in this context of developing a new research institute with a dual outreach and policy studies mission, which brought the Julian Samora Research Institute to the attention of a newly created program for Mexican communities abroad, established by President Carlos Salinas de Gortari in 1990. The Consul General from the Mexican Consulate in Chicago, Alejandro Carrillo Castro, and the newly appointed executive director of the program, Dr. Roger Díaz de Cossio, visited the Julian Samora Research Institute in June of 1990 to learn more about the Institute and to find opportunities for linkage with Mexican-American scholars on issues of common concern. Later that same year, exactly 12 months after the inauguration of the Julian Samora Research Institute, Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari recognized Julian Samora for lifetime achievements on behalf of the Mexican-origin population in the United States. Two other prominent Chicanos joined Samora in becoming the first Chicanos to receive the Award of the Aztec Eagle - César Chávez, the famous civil rights leader and farmworker organizer, and Americo Paredes, an anthropologist and folklorist who has chronicled the music and cultural traditions of south Texas and Northern Mexico. It is significant that higher education figured prominently in these efforts to reach out to the Mexican-origin population in the United States through the Programa para las Comunidades Mexicanas en el Extranjero. In the following year, 1991, the Julian Samora Research Institute joined the Inter-University Program for Latino Research, the Programa para las Comunidades Mexicanas en el Extranjero, and the State of San Luis Potosí, in organizing the first Symposium for Academic Cooperation Between Mexican-American and Mexican Institutions on Studies of Mexican Origin Populations in the United States. This historic event brought together representatives of Hispanic research and studies centers from institutions throughout the United States with colleagues from higher education and research institutes in Mexico. The culminating event of the Symposium was a resolution (El Plan de San Luis Potosí) for the establishment of an international organization of higher education institutions and scholars in North America. An ad hoc committee was established to develop a plan for the implementation of the resolution. Sixteen institutions from Mexico and the Untied States were represented on the Committee. In May 1992, the Mexico-United States Consortium for Academic Cooperation was inaugurated at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation headquarters in Battle Creek, Mich. The goals and activities of COMUNICA reflect the organizational and resource needs that have been identified over a period of years, particularly in relation to research on the Mexican-origin population in the U.S. and their origins in Mexico. Of primary importance is the progress of communities and the development of the capacity of Mexican-origin peoples to play increasingly important roles in the restructuring of hemispheric relations through stronger links and increased collaboration between academic institutions and organizations. The results of the establishment of the Consortium can be viewed in the activities of its charter members. Two members of the COMUNICA Board of Directors, Professors Sergio Quezada of the University of Queretaro, Mexico, and Manuel Luis Carlos of the University of California, Santa Barbara, are studying the affects of the North American Free Trade Agreement and intensified international agribusiness investment on the transformed ejidos (government land grant communities which have been privatized) of the State of Queretaro. The study focuses on changes in the ecology (land resources and natural environment), labor uses, and health and nutrition problems created by increased agrochemical farming. It also examines how increased privatization of land ownership, and production and cash flows have altered gender relations, class structure, and household economics. Professors Carlos' and Quezada's study is part of the UCSB-UAQ academic and research exchange program formalized in an agreement between the two universities in January 1991. The exchange program includes research collaboration, student training, and publication of research results. Although largely concentrated in the area of anthropology, the exchange program does have a multi-disciplinary composition, involving researchers and students from various disciplines. New areas of collaboration include the fields of communications and ecological environmental studies. Researchers and administrators from both universities regularly visit each others' campuses. The University of Arizona has built upon its strong base of binational academic cooperation in the areas of teacher education and summer language programs, to form linkages with several Mexican institutions, particularly in the north, for programs in health, immigration, and history and culture. The University of Arizona's Guadalajara Summer School, directed by COMUNICA Board member, Professor Macario Saldate, focuses on developing knowledge and appreciation of the language and culture of Mexico during three and six week sessions. Over 300 students attend the program each year, representing colleges and universities throughout the United States. The University also hosts the prestigious "Renato Rosaldo Lecture Series," for many years a forum for Mexican and Mexican-American scholars on the Mexican-origin population. The University of Texas, E1 Paso is perhaps the leading institution in sponsoring innovative educational cooperation initiatives with Mexico. Through its joint academic programs initiative and a waiver of out-of-state tuition requirements for its neighbors from Chihuahua, UTEP currently enrolls nearly half of all the Mexican undergraduates studying in the United States (approximately 1,200 in 1993-94). An advocate for developing an "integrated institutional approach" to internationalization and academic cooperation with other institutions, UTEP President Diana Natalicio has instituted a range of supports to Mexican nationals. These include tuition waivers, a student services office, and a placement service which helps the Mexican students pursue jobs with firms operating in Mexico. Through incentive programs and a merit system emphasizing internationalization, especially in Mexico, President Natalicio has also encouraged her faculty to pursue applied research projects in public health, education, and water quality. Through these projects, UTEP faculty members had the opportunity to work in cooperation with educators in Chihuahua, Juárez, and Tijuana. COMUNICA Board member, Dennis Bixler-Marquez, directs the Chicano Studies Research Program at the University of Texas at El Paso which reflects the institutional goals of integrating domestic issues with international ones. Among the research topics supported by the Center are Chicano Voting Participation in El Paso, Case Study of Chicano Youth at Risk, Mexican Broadcasts to Immigrants in the U.S., Cultural Defense of Mexican Schools Along the U.S.-Mexico Border, Chicano Empowerment, and El Calo de Ciudad Juárez. Courses taught by Center faculty also reflect this integration, including a course on the "Confluence of Mexican and Chicano Literature." These are only a few among many examples of academic cooperation in research, training and service-outreach between Mexican and U.S. institutional members of COMUNICA. However, even in the context of this dynamic and increasingly active environment of cross-border linkages, there is much that remains, particularly when one considers the growing importance of the Mexican-origin population in the United States, the limited knowledge base of the population on the part of policy makers, and the continued disenfranchisement of Latinos from mainstream society in the United States. To address these concerns, a few institutions and organizations have positioned themselves to broker enhanced U.S.-Mexican academic cooperation. However, even these innovative binational initiatives only indirectly impact the Mexican-origin population in the U.S. despite the potential for identifying common issues of concern which are addressed from a binational perspective. The Institute for International Education has launched an innovative program with funding from the U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post-secondary Education to stimulate academic mobility, resolve course credit transfer issues, and overcome other obstacles which inhibit student exchanges between Canada, Mexico and the United States. The North American Regional Academic Mobility Program, or RAMP, focuses on promoting trilateral training of future engineers, business leaders, and professionals in environmental fields in Canada, Mexico and the United States. One of the major obstacles which must be overcome to facilitate more student exchanges, particularly those which are part of joint degree/training programs, is the absence of a regional system of cooperation in evaluating and recognizing basic educational preparation and professional status. The problem is that neither Canada nor Mexico have the equivalent of the U.S. voluntary regional accrediting bodies. One university, the Universidad de las Americas in Mexico City has attempted to rectify this situation with accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Universities. This is the only university in Mexico accredited by a U.S. accrediting body. Nevertheless, it is not clear that U.S. accreditation agencies can or should be in the business of evaluating institutions outside the U.S. Indeed, it can also be argued that Universidad de las Americas is in a class all its own as a bilingual institution, started nearly 50 years ago by U.S expatriates living in Mexico City. Instead, the Secretary for Public Education in Mexico has initiated a program which focuses on programmatic evaluation and recognition of all Mexican higher education institutions in order to establish national standards of quality. RAMP is an alternative approach to the problem of harmonizing standards across institutions. RAMP provides a "framework for evaluating academic program equivalency through a growing body of student exchange and a systematic comparison of course contents and program requirements." Through an informal consortium of Canadian, Mexican, and U.S. universities, representatives meet to describe and evaluate their courses in standardized, transferable credit units. They review institutionally established criteria such as prerequisites, linguistic competency requirements, credit transfer requirements, and evaluation procedures. Agreements are then reached between institutions, establishing parameters within which students must complete their studies. The home universities nominate students, but the host institution has the final decision on acceptance. Finally, students pay tuition at their home institutions and pay no additional tuition at their host institution. Personal requirements such as housing, meals, insurance and transportation remain the responsibility of the students, but host institutions provide some assistance. The IIE provides the administrative leadership for the consortium and the overall framework to facilitate academic cooperation. Admittedly, this is a labor intensive process of expanding educational opportunities and institutional cooperation for Mexican as well as U.S. students, but compared to traditional student exchange and overseas studies programs, this approach makes the international experience an integral part of the requirements for the academic majors. Another binational initiative has been launched by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) in collaboration with the Mexican Association for International Education (AMPEI). The WICHE/AMPEI US.-Mexico Educational Interchange Project, with support from the Ford Foundation, seeks to promote improved interaction between western state higher education institutions and Mexico. Three key components of this multifaceted effort have already been instituted. The first was an Educational Leadership Conference co-convened by Rector Luis Baez Llorens of the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, and President Diana Natalicio of the University of Texas, E1 Paso, and held at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California in May 1994. The objective of the conference was to foster leadership in binational collaborative education efforts. Participants included institutional/system presidents and rectors, institute directors and administrators, state higher education executives, and other educational policy experts. The seminar presented successful strategies for involving internal constituencies such as legislators, community representatives, non-governmental organizations and foundations in binational cooperative efforts. The second is the Teacher Training Initiative. Through a consortium of host western schools and colleges in the U.S., Mexican teachers and university faculty will receive a waiver of tuition as well as assistance in securing housing and some specialized counseling and ESL services in order to obtain advanced training and Master's degrees in fields related to their assignments in Mexico. The objective of this initiative is to develop a cadre of educators in Mexico for training a new generation of teachers. The third component of the WICHE/AMPEI Educational Interchange Project, is a comparative research project on higher education in Mexico and the United States. The Educational Leadership Conference in May already heard the preliminary results of that study, which suggests that institutions could learn a great deal from their counterparts regarding the focus of undergraduate education, faculty responsibilities, school-college linkages, and higher education/government linkages. In addition, similar challenges to higher education are driving the reform agenda in each country, including a perceived decline in educational quality, increasing enrollment demands, increasing diversity within the work force, rapid advances in technology, and global economic competition. In addition to a publication of its results, this component of the project will also produce a directory of Mexican institutions, and describe their international activities. A few institutions have also established trilateral programs, intended to develop common areas of concern to Canada, Mexico and the United States. The North American Forum at Stanford University which evolved from the earlier Americas Program, is comprised of a program of research, education, and public outreach on issues of economic, political, and social dependencies between Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., and on changes and challenges of the institutions within these countries. The Forum is giving particular attention to expanding upon the strong base of Mexico-U.S. research at Stanford University, to include the implications for the U.S. and Canada of changing economic and political conditions in the Hemisphere and abroad. Specific topics to be addressed include: the effect of increased economic integration on U.S. communities that represent various stages of the industrial process; the evolution of firm and industry in response to the pressures of increasing international competition; the impact of increased trade and investment with Mexico and Latin America on U.S. labor; and the role of the state, non-governmental organizations, and international institutions in the promotion of innovative enterprise in a competitive international environment. Fiscal and financial policy harmonization in the context of increased integration will also be explored. The North American Forum, with support from the Ford Foundation, will study the challenge of integrating countries at vastly different levels of development while ensuring that integration leads to an improvement in the standard of living across all countries and social groups within those countries. The project titled, "Economic and Social Policy Options in North America and the Caribbean Basin," will undertake a series of sub-regional case studies to assess the impact of integration at the macro- and micro-level and will evaluate policy strategies as well. Equity concerns will be a particular focus of this project, which will assess changes in access for potentially marginalized groups in the context of liberalized regional market economies. Anticipating an expansion of NAFTA, the North American Forum will also launch an effort to use a case study approach to investigate the impact of integration. The North American Forum is also providing a forum for addressing difficult policy choices. Recently, they hosted a meeting on Canadian agricultural policy choices. Noting the conflicts which exist between agreements in the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, and the GATT, the conference was designed to suggest types of stabilization policies which are compatible with both internal and external constraints. Similarly, the North American Forum convened a conference at Stanford to attempt to resolve the tuna-dolphin controversy in the context of NAFTA. Once again, conflicts between international agreements like NAFTA and GATT and domestic laws like the Marine Mammal Protection Act in the U.S. pose a dilemma for countries seeking to lower trade barriers. Because Mexican fishing fleets use techniques that potentially endanger dolphins, enforcement of the Marine Mammal Protection Act has resulted in a U.S. embargo of tuna caught in Mexico. Only through dialogue on such issues as the priority of international or domestic laws can such conflicts be resolved. The university provides an excellent forum for debating these issues before they become a crisis in relations between countries. Even in the case of the tuna-dolphin controversy, where no resolution was reached, the role of the university in facilitating the dialogue was an important service which will make the task of the new environmental dispute resolution commission easier - in forming as a side agreement of the NAFTA. If it is possible to identify such a broad range of common concerns which require a binational perspective for resolution, why haven't we seen this approach towards issues affecting the fastest growing minority population in the U.S., almost all of whom originate from this hemisphere? I am aware of only two institutions which have started with a problem facing Latinos in the U.S. and developed innovative binational solutions. The first problem is the underrepresentation of Latinos in engineering field. With assistance from the Ford Motor Company, the University of Detroit Mercy, and the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey have teamed up to simultaneously address the problems of the underrepresentation of Latinos and the need for engineers who understand the culture, business customs and language of Mexico to create the Mexican-American Partnership (MAP). MAP students are accepted and enrolled in various fields of engineering at each institution. In addition to their regular courses, they receive instruction in either Spanish or English. In the summer following their first year, students participate in a seven week intensive program at "Monterrey Tech" where they not only increase their Spanish language skills, but also learn about the culture, industry and history of Mexico. During the second summer, students participate in a "co-op job" in a U.S. automobile facility learning about the design and manufacturing of cars from practicing engineers. The third year is spent entirely in Mexico, studying as well as completing a 4-month co-op assignment at an automobile facility in Mexico. This experience is particularly valuable for students in that they learn the differences in work environment, labor-management relations, etc. The last year is spent again in the U.S., including the co-op experience. In the end, the students have not only acquired their engineering degrees, but they are also uniquely qualified to join a cadre of professionals capable of working internationally across cultures. MAP views the bilingual and bicultural attributes of Latino students as positive characteristics which contribute to economic cooperation. Recently, the Chrysler Corporation joined Ford Motor Company as a major sponsor of MAP. Like Ford, Chrysler recognized their own need for bilingual and bicultural engineers. Of the 50 students that are currently enrolled in the Mexican-American Partnership, three-quarters are Latino and almost half are from Michigan. Other states sending Latino students include Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, New York, Ohio, and Texas. And, MAP is actively working in the community to further increase Latino enrollments in engineering. MAP students are developing interactive programs with area high schools that enroll large numbers of Latinos, through which they introduce young Latinos to specific areas of engineering. It could be that the MAP program will be driving the future of Mexico's auto industry. Ford has already committed to hire all of the MAP students, with the other companies lining up to hire graduates. The second problem which is being addressed through binational cooperation is the shortage of bilingual teachers in California. Just recently, California State University, Long Beach and the Mexicali campus of the Universidad Pedagogica Nacional agreed to a pilot program that will upgrade the preparation of Mexican trained teachers living in the U.S., enabling them to teach in California classrooms. All the students will be either California residents or U.S. citizens. They will enroll in courses taught by faculty from both institutions to first bring the educational background of the students up to the level of the bachelor's degree, and then help them earn credentials so they can begin teaching. Although the beneficiaries of the program will be the California public schools, the Universidad Pedagogica Nacional is paying most of the costs of the program. Two southern California school districts have already made commitments to hire the students as teacher assistants once they finish the first phase of the program. The jobs will assist them in financing the second phase of the program and also recruit them for long-term service. This program is not only a model of international educational cooperation, but it also recognizes the responsibility of Mexico for the education of some of the immigrants living in the United States who require bilingual education. In addition to these two innovative programs, I would like to propose three possible areas in which academic cooperation can be enhanced while directly addressing the needs of the Latino population in the U.S. The first builds upon the basic idea of the California State University pilot program - improving the quality of basic education for the Mexican-origin population through binational cooperation. The recent passage of Proposition 187, which denies social services and education to the undocumented immigrants living in California, highlights the problems already existing between the two countries. As stated earlier, the California State University program recognizes the fact that immigrants receive all or part of their education in the U.S. as well as in Mexico. Even without the presence of the undocumented, California still has difficulty providing quality learning opportunities to its Latino population. Mexico also faces a crisis in its basic education. Despite its efforts to emerge as a more developed country, education statistics place Mexico among the most underdeveloped countries, with more than half of its youth failing to complete the sixth grade; and, many of these coming to the U.S. It is in the interest of the U.S., as well as Mexico to improve the educational opportunities for the Mexican origin population. Whether the schools are in Mexico or in the U.S., services such as bilingual education and migrant education should be provided, as well as efforts to harmonize curriculum and teaching standards to enhance learning opportunities. Educators from both countries should be encouraged to engage in a dialogue on how to improve the performance of the Mexican-origin population through bilateral cooperation, much as educators at the university level are meeting to resolve inter-institutional mobility issues. The California State University pilot program is a good beginning. The second area for binational cooperation is migration. Recent evidence suggests that flows, patterns, and origin and reception areas have changed as rapidly as the demographics of the migrants themselves. A binational approach to study this movement of people is long overdue. Some of the issues which require exploration from this perspective are: · The role of diverse local social and economic conditions in the sending areas, as they influence the recent patterns of migration from Mexico to the United States. · The creation and use of social networks, or the process by which migrants obtain, share, and use information to access labor markets in the U.S. · Importance of regionality of sending areas in Mexico, and in the acquisition of social capital for migrants. · The nature of selectivity for specific sending towns, migrant groups, and receiving areas. · The impact of migration on the sending and receiving communities. · The socio-demographic and educational characteristics of the migrants. · The degree of success of migrants in the U.S. labor markets. · The process of adaptation in the U.S. · The frequency and nature of return migration and remittances. · The changes in social identity among migrants and migrant families across generations and experience. In exploring these issues with knowledgeable scholars, additional binational collaborative research projects should be identified. The knowledge emanating from this research will contribute to more effective policy development on migration issues in both Mexico and the United States. Migrants are a very heterogeneous population, both in terms of their group characteristics, as well as the characteristics of their communities of origin and receiving communities. The intention is to identify the relevant typologies for the purpose of creating policies to effectively address the issues which compel people to leave their communities of origin and come to the United States, to endure the conditions they encounter, and to make the necessary adaptations in their receiving communities. Further, the results from this research can serve as the foundation from which further studies might be launched to focus on related crucial social concerns such as educational attainment, access to health care, social welfare concerns, crime, and human rights. Why haven't we seen more academic cooperation to address these areas of common concern which directly benefit the Mexican origin population? Again, Proposition 187 is testimony to their importance, only I would argue that passage of such a law is not only the wrong solution, but it is racist and sustains barriers rather than contributes to their destruction. Indeed, Molly Corbett Broad, Executive Vice Chancellor of the California State University System, has suggested that higher education's commitment to improving recruitment, retention and graduation of underrepresented students in the U.S. should be the model for the systemic change required to internationalize our institutions. The two need not be in competition with each other for those scarce resources required to bring about change. But to work in harmony, they do require the institutional leadership, which states loud and often the institutional commitment; to set measurable objectives and frequently assesses performance; to provide and actively seek additional funding for this priority, and to provide a complementary reward structure for students, faculty, and staff. The development of the role of the Mexican origin population in providing this leadership is the third area for binational cooperation. Latino academics can and should be a resource for their institutions in developing initiatives for binational cooperation. To develop this resource, a leadership development program is required which identifies tenured Latino academics who are interested in future administrative roles, for an intensive seminar on the Mexican higher education system, in Mexico. Upon their return to their home institution, this cadre of future higher education leaders will be uniquely qualified to contribute to the internationalization of their institutions while also addressing the needs of their own population. This program might have the following three components: · A seminar on Mexican Higher Education: This seminar will provide an overview of the Mexican educational system, its history of development, its diversity, and recent reforms. Its curriculum will focus on major national and international issues, as well as the higher education reform agenda in Mexico and be taught by senior academic administrators, senior education officials responsible for the management of higher education, directors of binational initiatives, and other higher education experts. Included in the seminar will be visits to a diverse range of higher education institutions. · Mentorship: The knowledge participants acquire will be enhanced through the mentorship of a senior administrator at a Mexican institution of higher education. The purpose of the mentorship is: (a) to learn about Mexican higher education from an institutional perspective, and (b) to observe academic administration from the perspective of a senior administrator. · Seminar on Academic Administration in the U.S.: This seminar on academic administration in the U.S. is central to the preparation to assume future academic administrative roles, but it can also be beneficial to efforts in Mexico to improve the quality of its own administrative capacity. The seminar curriculum would cover the same major administrative issues as those included in the American Council on Education Fellows Program. These are just a few proposals for identifying common issues of concern which can be addressed from a binational perspective. In closing, I would like to suggest a few lessons which we can draw from the foregoing cases of bilateral and trilateral academic cooperation. · It is possible to contribute to different goals in mutually beneficial international initiatives. · Funding for these programs is available from corporations as well as foundations, when it can be shown that the needs of the private sector are also being served. · Harmonizing courses and degree programs is labor intensive, but yields much more than just the exchange of students. The mere fact that faculties are engaged in dialogues regarding knowledge transmission opens new possibilities for knowledge creation. · Resources exist within institutions, states, and federal governments to promote international academic cooperation, but accessing them requires new priorities and directions. · Institutional leadership is key to articulating the importance of internationalization, extending educational opportunities to underserved populations, and inciting behaviors that contribute to the development of innovative international responses to common concerns. · While most of the initiatives we have reviewed are valuable, path-breaking ventures from which educators and society in general can benefit, very little attention is given to one of our largest and most under-utilized resource for opening up U.S.-Mexican dialogue and initiating change -the Mexican origin population in the U.S. |
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