The diplomats, most of them high-ranking officials in their countries, are involved in a one-year program sponsored by the Harvard Center for International Affairs. According to Bianca Walker, program specialist in the UT International Office, program participants are selected for their contributions to the study and conduct of international affairs through diplomacy, commerce, and communications.
Walker, who coordinated the visitors' Austin agenda, said that she had arranged a meeting with LBJ School students because the Harvard Fellows expressed an interest in interacting with students.
During their talk, some of the speakers urged countries to promote learning and to assume a posture of tolerance. "There is no superior country," said Ama Agnes Mundi, a women's issues advocate in Cameroon who is also the chief of the Division of Administration and Finance at the University of Yaounde II. "We all have weaknesses and strengths."
Guanajuato Governor
Vicente Fox Quesada, Governor of the State of Guanajuato in Mexico, was at the LBJ School on March 19 as part of the UT Austin Mexican Center's Distinguished Mexicans in Texas Lecture Series. He was accompanied by U.S. Ambassador to Mexico James Jones.
According to LBJ School Professor Victoria Rodríguez, one of the hosts during Fox's visit, the governor came to Austin to sign a student exchange agreement.
During his talk, Fox discussed the political and economic challenges facing Mexico. He outlined a program to revitalize Mexico that included complete political reform, full decentralization of power, and economic reform. According to him, the revitalization program should also involve "a true separation of and collaboration among legislative, judiciary, and executive powers."
"After 60 years of following a worn-out political model, Mexico faces the pressing need to renovate its political, economic, and social life to meet the challenges of a modern world and the urgent needs of a population searching for a better life," he said.
Argentinean Students
For the fourth year, the LBJ School's Office of Conferences and Training sponsored a group of Argentinean students from the Fundacíon Universitaria del Río de la Plata for a week-long visit to the LBJ School.
The program, part of a month-long seminar, is designed to enhance the political, social, and economic knowledge of Argentina's future community leaders.
During their visit in February, the students heard presentations on the U.S. federal system and the presidency, information systems policy issues, the role of the U.S. in the world, openness in government, and the Texas experience with "reinventing" government. The presentations were made by LBJ School Professor Elspeth Rostow; Gary Chapman, Director of the 21st Century Project; UT Government Professor Lawrence Graham; Paul Leche, Texas Department of Human Services Assistant General Counsel; and Billy Hamilton (LBJ Class of '75), Deputy State Comptroller.
City of Kumamoto Representative
Kenshi Osugi, from the City of Kumamoto, Japan, came to the LBJ School for six weeks this spring. During his visit, Osugi participated in a number of classes and talked to students interested in internships with the City of Kumamoto.
Brown Bag Lectures
In addition to the brown bag talks given by speakers featured in the cover story, other visitors met with students this spring to discuss current issues.
In April, UT Austin Provost Mark Yudof presented a "State of the University" address at the LBJ School.
In March, Austin Independent School District member Ted Whatley and Alan Ross, a professor of pediatrics at Columbia University, gave two separate talks. Whatley's lecture was entitled "How to Save the Last Urban School District." Ross, who is also a visiting professor of public health at UT San Antonio, gave a talk called "A View of the Dayton Accords from an Underground Mental Asylum in East Mostar."
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