Mexico City Reception
U.S. Ambassador's Residence, Mexico City
January 25, 2007
Thank you, Ambassador Garza, for that nice introduction. Many thanks to you and Mariasun for your generous hospitality. And thank you for your service to our country. All of us from Texas are deeply honored to join you here in Mexico City as your guests this evening. All of us are proud that a graduate from the University of Texas serves as Ambassador to Mexico.
This occasion is an opportunity to greet old friends and to make new ones. It is a pleasure to share your company this evening. There are many University of Texas alumni here with us, and they are living examples of our long bi-cultural exchange between Mexico and Texas. In fact, there are 1,200 UT alumni in Mexico. I salute all our Texas Exes with a Hook 'em, Horns, and thank you for joining us.
Mexico has sent many great students to our University, and they have returned to this country to do great work. I might add that there are nearly 300 students from Mexico enrolled at UT this year. This includes undergraduate students, graduate students, and students in professional schools. They are our next generation of Texas Exes from Mexico, and we're pleased to welcome them to the UT family and to make them feel at home in Austin. They too will make their mark on the world.
For many years, The University of Texas at Austin has cultivated a healthy, bilateral relationship with students, educators, scholars, business leaders, researchers, and alumni from Mexico. Today we are interconnected, as good neighbors should be. We are collaborators in education, in commerce, in scientific research, and in the arts. It's vitally important that our ties remain close, that our interactions remain open and effective, and that our partnerships be strengthened by ever new, evolving, and creative initiatives.
I agree with what Ambassador Garza said in his wonderful graduation speech at UT's Commencement ceremony last year: “Building walls does not speak America to me.” Nor does it speak to me and my colleagues at the University of Texas. We believe in building bridges.
My predecessor at the University of Texas – President Larry Faulkner – called for a Latin American initiative that would first and foremost strengthen our
university's connection with Mexico – because Mexico is our closest neighbor, and our largest source of students from Latin America. Our University has made significant
progress in this effort, but to be perfectly candid, we need to do more. And I am here to pledge to you that we will do more. I am fully committed to supporting
our existing programs, to expanding our efforts, and to establishing more interconnections between UT and Mexican educational institutions, businesses, cultural
organizations, and other enterprises. I want the University of Texas at Austin to be Mexico's gateway to the north– in education, health care, energy, research,
entrepreneurship, and academic study.
Our work is already under way. This is important work for our University, but it is also important work for Texans outside the University – Texans in business and in law and government. I'm delighted to say that we have a large delegation here tonight from the Austin community. I am especially glad that Senator Kirk Watson and Representative Pete Gallego are here, along with Board of Regents Chairman James Huffines and his wife, Patty. Thank you all for joining us.
There are far too many UT-Mexico exchanges for me to mention here, but let me tell you about a handful of our current initiatives:
In Business:
The Executive MBA program at Mexico City, now in its eleventh year, is offered by UT's McCombs School of Business jointly with Monterrey Tech's Santa Fe campus. This unique program enables mid-career executives to pursue the Texas MBA without interrupting their executive careers in Mexico. McCombs School faculty members travel to Mexico City and meet with their students on alternating weekends.
In Law:
The UT Law School is home to the Texas-Mexico Bar Association and has organized several programs for Texas and Mexican judges. It is also home to the Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison Chair in Latin American Law, which hosted Mexico's foreign minister in Austin two years ago.
In Health Care:
• For the past nine years, many of our UT pre-med students have spent a semester at the University of Guadalajara's medical school, studying public health and medical terms in Spanish.
• Our Nursing students and Nutrition students are participating in Spanish-language studies and clinical practice in Mexico.
In Science and Technology:
• UT implemented a program with CONACYT -- Mexico's National Council for Science and Technology -- as part of CONACYT's efforts to encourage the creation of high tech enterprises in Mexico. UT's technology review board at IC² -- the University's entrepreneurial think tank – has mentored and assisted CONACYT in searching for new technologies.
• UT has also collaborated with CONACYT and leading Mexican institutions to establish the International Center for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials. The Center has supported more than 40 visits to UT by Mexican scientists and graduate students. The Center has promoted the enrollment of Mexican students in UT science and engineering programs and has provided Mexican researchers with access to UT laboratories and equipment.
• UT has created a joint venture with the state of Nuevo Leon called INVITE, which helps Mexican entrepreneurs to develop commercialization strategies and find business partners in the U.S.
• In September, I signed an agreement with the governor of Nuevo Leon to establish a global innovation center in Monterrey that will help develop the kind of business opportunities that provide access to international markets and capital.
• Also last year, UT helped to launch Tech-BA, which is sponsored by the Mexican Ministry of Economy. Tech-BA brings established Mexican technology businesses to Austin and provides them with office space and support for expansion into U.S. and international markets.
In Education:
In Cuernavaca and Monterrey, our College of Education students gain firsthand knowledge of the Mexican education system by teaching English in Mexican schools. The Texas population has 700,000 K-12 students with marginal English abilities, so this program can prepare future Texas teachers to be effective educators in our state.
In Architecture:
The North American Sustainability, Housing, and Community Consortium includes UT Austin, Monterrey Tech, and UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), among others. This four-year exchange program in architecture will expose students from Mexico, the U.S., and Canada to urgent problems of urban housing and sustainable development in North American cities.
UT is proud of its academic reputation, international visibility, and leadership in Latin American Studies. Our Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies is widely regarded as the best Latin American program in the United States.
Over the past 14 years, UT is fourth in the nation in the number of Mexican Fulbright students studying on our campus.
We have made a very strong institutional commitment to Mexican studies and Mexican-American studies. As part of the Lozano Long Institute, UT's Mexican Center was established in 1980 to promote greater knowledge and understanding of Mexico and to coordinate the advancement of Mexican studies at UT.
We have more than 60 “Mexicanists” on our faculty, establishing us as one of the largest research and teaching institutions outside of Mexico.
UT entered into an agreement with the Ford Foundation in which our university provides support for Mexican students who have earned a Ford international fellowship for graduate school. These fellows usually come from indigenous communities in Mexico.
In addition, the Lozano Long Institute and the Mexican Center sponsor conferences and lectures that discuss a broad range of Mexico-related topics. For example, our internationally acclaimed Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs, in conjunction with the Lozano Long Institute, will present a conference on NAFTA in February, and in March a symposium on the first 100 days of the Calderón presidency.
Next year, we intend to present a major conference here in Mexico City entitled “Deepening the U.S.-Mexico Collaboration beyond NAFTA.” We view this conference as a great opportunity to bring together UT's expert voices with those in Mexico – particularly from Mexican universities – to exchange ideas and discuss how we can strengthen our associations. And I'm happy to note that the Dean of our Graduate School – Victoria Rodriguez – was born in Mexico and is an expert on Mexican politics. She will be deeply involved in these conferences.
This reception here today signals the beginning of a new era for the University of Texas at Austin. For the past eight years, we have engaged in many partnerships with our colleagues in Mexico. And we've made great advances together. Now we're ready to accelerate the pace. We're eager to continue our record of success and to further expand those achievements in even greater collaborations.
For that reason, I am pleased to announce that UT's Vice Provost Terri Givens is now in charge of a Mexico Working Group on our campus. This working group will bring together campus leaders who will be looking for ways to coordinate our UT-Mexico efforts. Vice Provost Givens' group will be seeking new ways to create synergy between our campus and Mexican institutions, to strengthen our existing relationships with Mexico, and to create new opportunities for exchange.
On our campus we are fond of saying “What starts here changes the world.” Tonight we are honored to begin a new era of “What starts between Texas and Mexico changes the world.” We invite you all to become active participants in that transformation.
You have not seen the last of me. Tonight is not the end of our interaction. I will be back to Mexico to give support to our mutual projects and programs. Terri Givens and our campus leaders will be back as well. And I invite you all to come to Austin and be our guests at the University of Texas. Our doors are open to you.
I know there are 500 people here, but I look forward to meeting each of you before the reception is over. Thank you for joining us this evening. And thank you, Texas Exes, for staying in touch with your university. You are a very important part of the University of Texas legacy, and we are grateful for your continuing support.
Before I leave the podium, I would like to present a gift to Ambassador Garza as a token of our appreciation for his kind invitation to Mexico City. We have brought a gift from Texas for you, Ambassador. In fact, we've even brought the artist himself – UT Professor Ken Hale. Ken, would you come up here and help me make this presentation?
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