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Marcel Danis, Vice-Rector Institutional Relations and Secretary-General, was part of the large Quebec delegation to Mexico last week. Although the mission, led by Premier Lucien Bouchard, was primarily aimed at trade links, there was also an educational component to the visit.
Concordia, along with the other universities represented, signed agreements of collaboration with the Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro (UAQ) and the Consejo de Ciencia y Tecnologia del Estado de Queretaro (CONCYTEQ).
Danis met with a number of Mexican administrators, including Rector Enrique Carillo Barrios-Gomez and Provost/Vice-Rector Fernando Leon Garcia of CETYS, with which Concordia and California State University have a trilateral agreement; Carlos Bazdresch Parada and Sylvia Ortega Salazar, of CONACYT, the major funding agency for Mexican graduate students; and Rector Francisco Barnes, Javier Cortes Rocha and Dorotea Barnes, of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM), which has an enrolment of 270,000 students.
Fred Francis, Assistant Director of the Centre for International Academic Co-operation, accompanied Vice-Rector Danis on the trip. He was delighted at the contact they were able to make with Concordia alumni in Mexico.
These included Eduardo del Buey (MBA 1974) and Diane Simpkovic (BA, Liberal Arts College), who are both working at the Canadian embassy, business executive Bruno Perron (BComm/AIESEC), Joan Maclean-Dagenais, an MBA student on exchange, and Yoshua Okon (BFA 1993), who is pursuing graduate studies in fine arts.
"These former students have, in one way or another, done
their alma mater proud," Francis said. "I told them
that we would definitely be in contact with them, probably to
explore the establishment of a Mexican chapter of the Concordia
Alumni Association."
