Professor praises provost on summer travel safety

Editor,
As a director of Conexiones 2010, I very much appreciate Tricia Remark’s recent article, “Provost: Juarez Unfit for Travel.”  

Conexiones/Mexico, under the auspices of the University Honors Program and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, has served as many as 600 UNM students with a Spanish language/Mexican culture program of studies since 1986, located in our field center in Morelia, Michoacan.

This year we arrived at the sad decision that security issues both at the border and in Michoacan were elevated to the extent that our ability to present the program was compromised. Rather than cancel the program altogether, I decided along with co-directors to avail ourselves of the opportunity to relocate Conexiones 2010 to Nicaragua.

Long aware of the superb resource of Casa Xalteva in Nicaragua, we made the contacts and did the work necessary to quickly expedite the transition. Like Richard Schaefer, faculty mentor for the Cross-Border Issues Group (traveling to Morelos, not Michoacan — the one small error in the article), we are very gratified and appreciative of UNM’s intelligent and mature response to the issues of violence and security in Mexico. The UNM administration reposed trust in program directors to determine the viability of their programs. Aware of the value of international programs, particularly programs in Latin America, to the research and educational mission of UNM, the administration has been consistent in terms of concrete support.

Vice Provost Richard Holder is to be commended for his considered statements following the tragic and ugly deaths of UTEP students on the highway south of Ciudad Juarez on May 31. Provost Suzanne Ortega is likewise to be commended for her support to the Conexiones program at a moment of crisis. Thanks to her support, we were able to move the program to a safe location while avoiding a ruinous financial impact on students.

For many of us who were attuned to the situation of Nicaragua during the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship and the subsequent “Contra Wars” of the early 1980s, it was odd to think of Nicaragua as the tranquil destination of 2010. That society, however, has moved on and all those involved in Conexiones 2010 look forward to applying the Conexiones model of integrated Spanish and cultural studies in that setting. It’s an administrative and pedagogical challenge we welcome.

Our decision to relocate our program away from Michoacan on a temporary basis is particular to that location in Mexico and particular to our program. We are pleased that other programs in other locales continue to enjoy the support of the UNM administration.

Summing up, I commend Tricia Remark for a fine article, and I commend UNM for the policies the article addresses. We look forward to returning our program to Michoacan. The nation of Mexico is immensely important to the United States and equally important to the state of New Mexico. I am pleased that UNM is opting to stay engaged at a dark moment in Mexico’s national life.

Sincerely,
Michael A. Thomas, Ph.D.
Director, Conexiones 2010