M. I. T.

In his pine-paneled, air-conditioned office, Eugenio Garza, president of Monterrey's big Cuauthemoc Brewery, reached for the phone and began calling numbers in the city's well-filled business directory. What he had to say was brief and to the point: "Tecnologico needs more money." In the next mail came the first trickle of what later amounted to a flood of checks made out to Monterrey Institute of Technology, a Mexican model--complete to the famed initials--of the U.S.'s Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Rams. Thanks solely to such private contributions, Tecnologico last week was setting the pace for Monterrey, Mexico's fastest growing (pop. 280,000) industrial center (steel, glass, paint). On the tree-shaded, 148-acre campus, some of the 1,365 students were settling down in a new dormitory designed in the modern style of the school's eight other buildings. Between classes, blue-sweatered members of the Borregos (Rams), Tecnologico's U.S.-style football team, watched builders at work on a stadium that will eventually seat 45,000. In the 20,000-volume library and well-equipped laboratories, other students were busy on courses from elementary bookkeeping to advanced engineering.

Bespectacled, greying Brewer Garza, who heads the governing board of Monterrey's M.I.T., began plugging for the school soon after graduating from the U.S.'s M.I.T. in 1914. Not until 1943, when the war boom left them desperately short of technical help, did his fellow industrialists in Monterrey take him seriously. Even then, it required persuasive arguing ("You'll be insuring the future industry of the country") to get a dozen of the biggest companies to pledge a total of $2,200,000 for buildings and grounds, plus a percentage of their annual income for operating expenses.

The Raffles. By offering adequate salaries, a decided innovation in Mexican education, Garza put together a top-grade faculty. From the beginning, entrance requirements were high and student charges low (a top of $20 a month for tuition, $60 for room and board), with plenty of scholarships available to qualified applicants from anywhere in Mexico.

A giant raffle for the school's benefit (with one local dealer donating three new cars as prizes) became one of Monterrey's big annual events. Grocers, butchers and other small merchants responded generously to campaigns aimed at giving all local business a stake in the school. With more than enough on tap to meet its 60% operating deficit, Tecnologico last week got a rousing boost from outside. In Mexico City, 600 miles to the south, executives in the U.S. industrial colony (including branches of General Electric, Westinghouse, Goodyear) opened a drive for $58,000 to boost the school's endowment.

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