[APRU-DLP] UNAM participation

[Dr. Manuel Uribe Alcocer.]

Dear Zita:
I am writing to you on instructions of Dr. Adolfo Gracia, Director of
the Institute.
The initiative of starting an association among the Pacific Rim
Universities is highly commendable.
As mentioned before in our calls, in Mexico we don’t have any academic
program on Marine Biology at a level similar to the U.S. college, so we
thought fit to implement a temporary course taking advantage of the
programs such as “Jóvenes hacia la Investigación” or “Verano de la
Investigación Científica”, in which young students (about 16 years old)
can work with researchers in areas of their interest. Unfortunately we
have had a slow response from the High School System of the UNAM, and we
haven’t been able to ascertain our fruitful participation in the joint
effort you have proposed.
An additional difficulty lies on the time tables since the working
period in these programs is restricted to the students summer vacation,
and during this epoch annual vacations of academic and administrative
staffs of the University are also included.
For these reasons we find incompatibility among the dates proposed by
the UCSD or the Far East University and our own, because during the
administrative staff vacations, University installations are shut off,
including the gear to establish communications through the internet.
Once employees will be back, likely participating students would have to
return to their schools, in Mexico City or elsewhere, with no time to
discuss their results with their counterparts in UCSD or FENU.
For these reasons will not be able to participate in the initiative of
joint work on this occasion. Nevertheless we are interested in exploring
possibilities of associating in future proposals, expecting we have the
times and the means to establish fruitful academic ties within the APRUN
and we are very grateful for your leadership and you efforts in this
direction.
Sincerely,

Dr. Manuel Uribe Alcocer,
Jefe de la Unidad Académica de Ecología Marina,
Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología,
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
www.icmyl.unam.mx
Tel. (55) 5622 5842; Fax. (55) 5616 0748.
E-mail: muribe at mar.icmyl.unam.mx