Global Colloquium of University Presidents
April 4-5, 2011
The University of Pennsylvania welcomed the fifth meeting of the Global Colloquium of University Presidents on Monday, April 4 and Tuesday, April 5, 2011. The Colloquium is an invitation-only meeting of some 25-30 university presidents from around the world. Each president is accompanied by a faculty expert on the chosen topic. The Colloquium meets annually to discuss a topic of immediate concern to leaders in higher education at universities around the world and of particular and timely interest to the Secretary-General and the international community.
University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann is a founding member of the Global Colloquium of University Presidents, which is sponsored by five leading American research universities – Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University – on behalf of the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
The topic of the 2011 Colloquium was "Empowering Women to Change the World: What Universities and the UN Can Do."
Speaking on the occasion of International Women's Day 2010 and the 15th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995), Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted that "gender equality and women's empowerment are fundamental to the global mission of the United Nations to achieve equal rights and dignity for all…. But equality for women and girls is also an economic and social imperative. Until women and girls are liberated from poverty and injustice, all our goals – peace, security, sustainable development – stand in jeopardy."
Photos by Stuart A. Watson