President Louis Caldera was a featured speaker at the 10th meeting of the American Council on Education Conference in Tucson, Arizona recently. The conference theme, “Educating All of One Nation,” was designed to help universities better plan for, respond to and meet higher education needs of our increasingly diverse society.
Caldera spoke about the magnitude of the challenge faced by universities in the United States, where 70,000 engineers graduate each year, in a world where a million engineers graduate each year in China and India.
Caldera said part of the answer is to focus on bringing more minorities into the higher education system through community and business partnerships. He said community partnerships like the ENLACE program at UNM, which provides mentoring and tutoring for minority students, is important.
He also noted that business partnerships are vital and that the business community must engage in supporting public academic programs in all institutions, not just the elite institutions. Caldera said funders need to recognize that the majority of minority education takes place in the public universities.
The American Council on Education is the major coordinating body for all the nation’s higher education institutions.
Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627