The UW community welcomed Mr. Gorazd Žmavc, the Republic of Slovenia's Minister for Slovenes Abroad to the Seattle campus on Wednesday, October 18. About twenty-five UW students of Slovene, faculty alumni of the UW-University of Ljubljana Scholars Exchange, and members of the local Slovene-American community met with Minister Žmavc and two of his deputies at a reception in the Smith Room of Suzzallo Library. Our UW and Seattle area delegation stressed the value of online instruction in Slovene language originating out of Slovenia directed to the children of Slovene-American families; and advocated for expanding and replicating the the broad-based partnership between the University of Ljubljana and UW that has existed since 1979 as a model for strategically diversifying Slovenia's academic, cultural and entrepreneurial presence in the U.S.
The reception was sponsored by the UW Libraries and Seattle's Slovenska miza, an organization bringing together local Slovenes, Slovene Americans and students and friends of Slovenia.
A news article (in Slovenian) about the event can be found here