We here at Stanford are very pleased with the quality of the papers and discussions at the CIES annual meeting. About 1000 people attended, probably the most ever in our 49 year history. The Gender Workshop, which consisted of three sessions, including the Eggersten Lecture by Nelly Stromquist, was attended by more than 150 people. They got an intellectual treat--the morning panel, Nelly's excellent analysis, and the afternoon discussion of the Lecture, produced a serious rethinking of gender dichotomies. The South Africa panel on Thursday morning featured the first video conference in CIES history, linking in Jonathan Jansen, education dean at the University of Pretoria, with the panel. The Kneller lecture, by Weifang Min, the Vice-President of the University of Beijing, was an important recounting of China's economic and higher education policy over the past generation, and the present challenges facing higher education in the next decade.

We want to thank all the participants for their contributions to the meeting. It was wonderful to see all of our old friends, all the international participants, and all the new students involved in
international and comparative education. The field is definitely becoming more lively.

Did we move beyond any dichotomies? Perhaps. I think that we developed some new ideas about many of the traditional ways we think about international education, about the methodologies we use, and about the way we characterize the educational and social problematic.

Now that the meeting is over, we are already planning next year's conference in Hawaii, our 50th anniversary. Everyone should start saving for the trip--this is going to be a special opportunity to
enjoy a tropical paradise while engaging in high quality academic and policy discussions on an increasingly crucial issue in world development.

In the coming year, we are going to strengthen the Society financially and increase our membership base. It is important that each one of you get a friend or colleague to join the Society. Memberships are so inexpensive ($51 for professionals and $26 for students) that we should be able to bring in at least 200-300 new members by the end of this calendar year. I would like everyone who brings in at least two new members to e-mail the Society's secretariat, so we can publish an honor roll in the next newsletter.

Sincerely,

Martin Carnoy