Universidad de Guadalajara joins ASU in California

Arizona State University and Universidad de Guadalajara signed a cooperation agreement October 2 in ASU’s Los Angeles-based California Center to begin collaboration between the institutions’ film schools, open new online education opportunities for Hispanic students and engage in other projects. ASU President Michael Crow and UdeG President Ricardo Villanueva Lomelí endorsed the agreement to reinforce teaching, research and cultural exchanges between the two schools. The University of Guadalajara Foundation – USA will be the lead representative for the Mexican university in ASU’s California Center. “One of the things that we’re trying to do at ASU, in a part of the United States that was occupied from Mexico, has been to make certain that as we evolve as a university, we evolve with the closest possible cultural, intellectual, political, economic, transcultural connections and awareness that we could possibly structure our institution around,” Crow said. “This relationship is a part of that effort.”

UdeG will staff a working space in the California Center and have access to other resources within the facility for academic and cultural activities with the LA community. “There are more than 2 million people from the Mexican state of Jalisco living in the United States; 58 percent of them live in California, and for them to have a presence from their home university would be invaluable,” Villanueva Lomelí said.