The Consortium makes it possible for graduate students from Mexico, Canada and the United States to gain knowledge and experience in sustainable community development and environmental planning.
Students participate in formal courses and as interns in community-based programs.
The nine universities in the Consortium have achieved prominence for their work in community-based planning, participatory development and environmentally sustainable planning. The project promotes information exchanges, curriculum development and innovative use of distance learning methods. The first year of the project was devoted to planning for the student exchanges in the second and third years, and to exchange of information on the school programs, curriculum, faculty, and the environment within which each school functions. During the second year of the project 17 students were exchanged. In January 2000, students and faculty from Consortium schools in the U.S. and Mexico will take part in a one- week course on watershed and urban development issues.