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Category: Front Page News Front Page News
Published: 20 October 2014 20 October 2014

 

Photo: Dr. Jesus Umberto Burciaga, UACJ Department of Humanities Chair (left) and WNMU President Dr. Joseph Shepard (right).

Silver City, NM – Officials from the Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez (UACJ), a university located in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; visited the Silver City campus on Friday, October 17 to sign an agreement with Western New Mexico University's Language Institute.

Both universities previously signed a Memorandum of Agreement in June during a visit by WNMU officials to the UACJ campus.

"We have signed a couple of agreements and we are here to put it into action, to bring new ideas forward, and to go further in developing our partnership," said Deirdre Dazan, UACJ Director of International Relations.

At least 17 UACJ officials met in Silver City with faculty and staff members representing several academic areas including education, social work, nursing, business, occupational therapy and Spanish. The meeting was designed to create dialog among representatives from both universities specific to the disciplines which both see as areas of opportunities for exchanges among faculty and students.

WNMU's Language Institute will be the first university program to experience the benefits of the agreement with the arrival of 30 Mexican students in November and another 50 students scheduled to be in Silver City in June. The UACJ students will be enrolling in intensive English immersion four-week courses.

"This is a real opportunity for our Language Institute to grow," explained Manuel Rodriguez, Director of the Language Institute. "The agreement is promoting the mobility of students for short term and summer programs with the Institute."

Several faculty members are scheduled to meet with UACJ officials in the coming weeks to develop exchange and research possibilities for professors and students.

Western New Mexico University has served the people of the state of New Mexico and its surrounding areas as a comprehensive, regional, rural, public coeducational university since 1893 and serves a student body diverse in age, culture, language and ethnic background.