Media Credit: May-Ying Lam Teofilo Ramos of Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) speaks with Frederico Zaragoza of Alamo Community College during the Blanton Museum reception for "A Binational Meeting on Higher Education in Mexico and the United States."

A bi-national conference on education hosted by Mexico's National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education and UT began Thursday with welcoming ceremonies at the Blanton Museum of Art and will continue today at the Four Seasons Hotel.

Marco Muñoz, assistant director of the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of American Studies, said the conference was arranged to improve collaboration between universities on both sides of the border.

"We want to show Mexican universities that UT is the best option for collaboration, for exchanging students and for exchanging research," Muñoz said. "We are so close, it is natural for us to do research together, to share assets and to work together to solve common problems."

UT President William Powers invited the association to host the conference during one of his visits to Mexico last year, Muñoz said. Today's activities include appearances from Josefina Vázquez Mota, Mexico's secretary of education, and David Dunn, chief of staff for the U.S. secretary of education.

The association's executive secretary general, Rafael López Castañares, said the conference would serve to strengthen collaboration and inform others of Mexico's educational progress.

"Our main purpose is to let American universities, in particular UT, know about what kind of work we are doing, our quality of education and what research we are doing," Castañares said. "We would like to show our measure of dedication. [...] We know already that we have a lot of cooperation between Mexico and American universities, but we would like to improve on it."

The conference has brought together the largest gathering of presidents of Mexican universities ever to meet outside of Mexico.

University provost Steven Leslie helped welcome the conference attendees to UT during the opening event last night, saying he looked forward to an "open, candid conversation on higher education" that would both inspire new initiatives and strengthen old ones.

Muñoz said he did not think
political problems - such as the
ongoing dispute between UT-Brownsville
and the U.S. government concerning a border fence on the campus's property - would dampen their collaborative efforts.

"There are no borders on culture, no borders on education." Muñoz said. "There are no borders on intellectual development."

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