President Rodríguez, of the center-right Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC), ranks public education among the top priorities of his administration. Despite the rapid expansion of schooling during the 1960s and 1970s, the economic crisis of the 1980s left a legacy of high repetition and drop-out rates, as well as uneven school quality across regions, social groups, and educational levels. President Rodríguez is committed to increasing the secondary enrollment rate by 10 percent in the next four years. To achieve this, he proposes an ambitious program of expanded educational technology, distance learning opportunities, and scholarships for needy students. He also envisions a key role for the small, growing private sector in educational reform, and is currently studying a school choice model in which the state finances teachers' salaries at tuition-free religious private schools.

The institutional divisions between the sixth and seventh grades are marked by a large number of drop-outs and elevated failure rates in the first year of secondary school. Understanding the ways in which young people negotiate this period, he suggested, would provide insight into the complex, interrelated variables that limit educational achievement and opportunity. "In Costa Rica, we find that children who live near schools are not attending, and many times they are not going to work, either. We need to look into school quality and the shock that students experience during the transition stage," the President said. He encouraged Leah Rosenbloom, a graduate student in Latin American Studies, to continue her research on the transition from primary to secondary school in rural Costa Rica.

Education is pivotal, Rodríguez said, to economic and social development in a rapidly-changing, globalized environment. Tourism and high-tech services are important new sectors of Costa Rica's economy, and require increased levels of human capital. A well-educated workforce is critical to attract greater foreign investment and ensure that all Costa Ricans share in these new opportunities. He cited the Intel Corporation's recent decision to locate a $300 million production center - expected to provide 2,000 jobs - near the Costa Rican capital as evidence of the small nation's comparative advantage in the high-tech field. In addition to a labor pool that is quick to learn, frequent flights from the U.S., wide-ranging business services, long-term stability, and a well-established judicial system make Costa Rica a sound option for multinational firms. Rodríguez is also hoping to widen Costa Rican markets by allowing the private sector to compete with state-owned companies under a regulatory policy. Within this globalized structure of progress, what is most important for Costa Ricans to preserve? "Solidarity, tolerance, local development, and our traditions of peace and civility," the President replied. The challenge, he said, will be to retain these values as Costa Rica shifts from an agrarian-based society to a more urban one. Angelina Snodgrass Godoy, a graduate student in Sociology who studies citizen defense organizations in Central America, asked Rodríguez to elaborate on Costa Rica's public security crisis. A sharp rise in crime has resulted from weak interpersonal relationships, economic displacement, violence in the media, and international drug trafficking, which have accompanied the urbanization process and demands of the global economy. In this context, Rodríguez stated, it is critical to restore public confidence in the state apparatus. As a congressman, Rodríguez pressed to create a greater number of permanent positions in the police force. Such positions would not be vulnerable to the change of government every four years, contributing to a more professional - and less political - institution.

Professors Beatriz Manz and Bernard Nietschmann both commented on the relative flexibility of Costa Rican immigration policy. Twelve to 15 percent of the Costa Rican population is foreign born, the majority from Nicaragua. Costa Rica's approach to immigration is less stringent than U.S. policies, Rodríguez said, and concentrates more heavily on legal immigration than enforcement of the border. Currently there is an amnesty in effect for refugees of the destruction associated with Hurricane Mitch.

President Rodríguez also addressed Prof. Drew Dougherty's questions relating to the role of the humanities in Costa Rican society. He explained that higher education had traditionally been oriented toward the humanities, and a rich endogenous literary tradition exists. Although unfamiliar to most North American audiences, Costa Rican poets and novelists such as Jorge de Bravo, Fabián Dobles, and Joaquín Gutiérrez are important agents of local cultural production. Rodríguez offered to send a set of Costa Rican literary works to the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, a valuable resource for UC Berkeley students and faculty.

The meeting with President Rodríguez and the First Lady provided a unique exposure to the "inside track" of Costa Rican politics and contemporary social issues, and a valuable opportunity for Berkeley students and faculty to exchange opinions and ideas with a sitting president.