I encourage all to listen to yesterday's May, 14, 2024 hearing that took place at the Texas State Capitol in the Texas Senate. For the record, out of 214 that submitted their registration requests, 148 witnesses testified. 
"Love our students and young people whose testimonies were so powerful and soulful. Bill author Andrew Creighton and his party are unmovable. However, it must dawn on them every now and then the eloquence and unmatched force of our Gen Z youth that would give anyone with a heartbeat some pause."
Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.
Regarding the Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education—SB 17 Testimony
May 14, 2024
Good afternoon, my name is Angela Valenzuela and I am a concerned member of the University of Texas faculty but speak as a private citizen.
I am here today because I am deeply disturbed by the animus of policymakers against our Gen Z youth in the form of unceasing policy campaigns against them.
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| UT Gen Z Student, Lacey Reynolds |
These hurtful campaigns get manifest passive-aggressively in the form of withholding school funding and turning “everything education” into a market. This gets manifest assertively and aggressively by attacking our youth in the form of physical and psychological violence (as we’ve witnessed in recent days), as well as in the form of book bans, abortion bans, and the banning of programs and people that are disturbingly and incorrectly characterized as a threat.
This is so disrespectful. The 60 or so people who were terminated at UT are a part of our Central Texas community. We cross each other at the grocery store, local events, and public gatherings. Such mischaracterizations of these staff—and our faculty—is best understood as an attack on our Gen Z youth.
We we are witnessing a workshopped and strategically planned political strategy intended to make Gen Z small, docile, and unthreatening. We must repeal SB 17.
This is an offensive policy agenda. Thank you for listening.
Testimony to the Texas Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education
for a hearing on Senate Bill 17, Antisemitism, and Campus Free Speech
"Monitor the Ban on Discriminatory DEI Policies"
May 14, 2024
Cameron J. Samuels
Antisemitism exists. I would know because I faced it as a Jewish student. Classmates denied the Holocaust, my school administration challenged and restricted access to Holocaust books, and I was sprayed in the face with cologne because someone thought it was a good idea to “gas the Jew.” These acts of ignorance, bigotry, and violence were intimidating and harmful to my learning and well-being. This is a serious issue that needs to be addressed, but never in my life would I have told you that banning DEI is a solution.
DEI is not discriminatory but a solution to all forms of discrimination. Texas is exceptionally diverse, and our diversity makes us great. Sen. Creighton, your Senate Bill 17 has wreaked havoc on students. It has caused exceptionally more harm than it will ever give you pleasure and comfort with your White privilege.
If we are to address antisemitism and all forms of hate, we must repeal SB 17 and implement robust measures to prevent discrimination and bigotry throughout Texas. If we are to safeguard free speech, we must not conflate antisemitism with international politics. Instead of banning DEI and arresting students exercising free speech, which has been an immense overreach of state authority, let’s give students what they deserve.
I'm Cameron Samuels, demanding a SEAT at the Table with Students Engaged in Advancing Texas. My pronouns are they/them. Let’s invest in DEI and divest from war.
I'm still savoring the sweetest of 5 graduation ceremonies I attended last week—and they were all so wonderful. The point is that Latina/o/x Spanish-speaking culture has a place not just at UT, but in the state of Texas. I was honored to have played a role in the actual ceremony. However, my deepest respect are in order for organizers Liany Serrano Oviedo, Luis Santos, and Katherine Ospina who reached out to the Hispanic Quality of Life Commission that resulted in Austin City Council Member Chito Vela reaching out to LULAC for funding support.
The Texas Exes financed the after-graduation fiesta that happened later in the day on May 9th. This whole story is a testament to not just the power of culture, but also with respect to civil rights and the important work of our community based institutions and leadership.
Thanks, as well, to the Sneha Dey and KXAN news and other press that covered this impressive event. All so inspiring!
-Angela Valenzuela
Graduating students raised funds and took the lead organizing smaller ceremonies meant to highlight their identities and cultural heritage.
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Maria Crane/The Texas Tribune
Liany Serrano Oviedo crouched in her yellow graduation dress, stared at the mirror and carefully blotted her tears with a wipe. It was a rare moment for the 22-year-old University of Texas at Austin senior to be alone and gather her composure.
Serrano Oviedo had been in high-performance mode all Thursday morning, making laps to get everything ready for the Latinx graduation ceremony she planned, sometimes breaking out into a jog to get from one side of the venue to another.
But she had a moment of frailty while talking with a donor who helped sponsor the event. All of her hard work in the last four years — getting her degree and organizing Thursday’s ceremony — was for her Venezuelan parents, she said.
“This graduation is a big deal because a big chunk of it is bilingual,” Serrano Orviedo said. “And my mom's English isn't that great. And so this ceremony is one where I know 100% she's understanding everything that's being said.”
For decades, subsets of Texas college graduates — from Latinx to LGBTQ students — have organized intimate events separate from the larger commencement ceremony to celebrate the completion of their degrees in the context of their identities and cultural heritage.
But this is the first year UT-Austin and other Texas public universities cut funding and staff support for such ceremonies in response to Senate Bill 17, a new state law that bans diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Students across the state like Serrano Oviedo fought tooth and nail to rescue cultural graduations, often taking on the burden of planning and finding funding for the ceremonies. The Latinx graduation ceremony took place days before UT-Austin’s commencement, which will be held Saturday.
“It doesn't matter how many obstacles you're going to throw at our community,” said Serrano Oviedo. “We're still going to thrive and we're going to find other ways.”
Maria Crane-Liany Serrano Oviedo assigns roles to organizers prior to the ceremony as she was helping guide and organize the graduates at the ceremony. “This really, really is a big deal because they're joining a cohort of Latinos who pretty much faced all odds to be able to get into higher education and stay there,” she said.
For years at UT-Austin, thousands of Latino family members would pack the on-campus Gregory Gymnasium at the end of the school year to see their graduates walk the stage. Some graduates used to wear serape soles made of traditional Mexican cloth. It was the only ceremony where the program was read in English and Spanish.
The now-defunct Multicultural Engagement Center would also pay for surprises for the families, like live Latin bands and food and floral decorations that matched the serapes.
But to comply with SB 17, public universities in Texas have shuttered the multicultural centers that used to organize cultural graduation ceremonies like the Latinx celebration.
Lawmakers who supported the passage of SB 17 last year argued that DEI programs and training were indoctrinating students with left-wing ideology and forced universities to make hires based on their support of diversity efforts rather than on merit and achievement.
The ban did not stop students in the graduating class of 2024 from organizing their own event. Serrano Oviedo and other seniors raised $9,000 with help from Latino leaders across the state. Austin City Council Member José “Chito” Vela secured a local performing arts center for the students to host the ceremony off campus. The League of United Latin American Citizens, the oldest Latino civil rights group in the U.S., stepped in to pay for that venue.
Students graduating this year have already been shaped by a unique set of global and political forces. Many of them graduated high school and entered college in the thick of the pandemic, which means they missed out on a formal ceremony back then. And now they’re leaving at a time where pro-Palestinian protests have broken out across campus, including UT, leading to dozens of student arrests.
On Thursday, as UT-Austin history professor Emilio Zamora adjusted the satin hood for one student at the Latinx ceremony, he called the survival of the tradition “a declaration of independence” from public institutions.
“These students are demonstrating they will have the final say,” he said. “It is a demonstration of our resilience. The university has failed us, but we have risen to the occasion with our youth.”
Under the pink and purple lighting of the nearly-full auditorium, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles clapped, cheered and clapped again.
Cultural ceremonies often elevate themes that are important to those groups of students — like family to the Latinx community — and aren’t always part of university-wide graduations.
“Gracias a mi mami y papi”— “Thank you to my mother and father” in Spanish — one students’ graduation cap read. Another one read, “Sus sacrificios y apoyo son la razón por la cual lo logre”: “Your sacrifices and support are the reason I made it.”
For some students and faculty, celebrating the accomplishments of Latinx students is a critical recognition of the hard road they journeyed on to get their degree. Latino college students are often the first in their family to get a college degree. That makes cultural ceremonies, which acknowledge the generational sacrifices and obstacles that families have overcome, all the more significant.
They’re also an important gesture if Texas universities want to continue to recruit, retain and graduate Latino students, supporters say.
Despite being designated a Hispanic-serving institution, UT-Austin’s enrollment still lags behind in representing the state’s makeup. Hispanic residents represent the biggest share of Texas’ population — 40% — but only about 25% of students at UT-Austin are Hispanic.
“The cornerstone of a successful Texas is to be doing all of [these cultural events]. In essence, it’s going to affect academics and how people of color perceive the state,” said Katherine Ospina, a UT senior who raised the funds to pay for the ceremony. “Texas is an extremely diverse state and we need to capitalize on that diversity.”
Domingo Garcia, the president of LULAC, the Latino civil rights group that covered the cost of the venue, said he worked two jobs to be the first in his family to graduate from college. Preserving cultural graduations in the face of the DEI ban sends a signal that Latino culture has a place in the state, Garcia said.
“People don't understand the sacrifices that parents, many of them working class, have made to have that son or daughter attend UT and what they've gone through to get to that place,” said Garcia, who is a former state representative. “To not be allowed to celebrate your culture, to celebrate who you're from and what your family's from, it's really immoral.”
Ospina said she could not let the class of 2024 be “lost in the ether” of a post-SB 17 reality.
On Thursday, as the last few family members filtered out of the venue with their graduates at the end of the ceremony, Serrano Oviedo balanced a stack of leftover orange cords and a plastic H-E-B bag.
Serrano Oviedo said she is trying to secure funding from the city of Austin for future ceremonies. A new round of students will have to step in to do the work of organizing, but she’s hopeful the tradition will continue.
“Everything the state Legislature and university threw our way, we overcame,” Serrano Oviedo said.
Ikram Mohamed contributed to this report.
The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
Disclosure: H-E-B and University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This is a powerful, evidence-based piece on a study by Paradigm that explains well a dynamic in hiring practices that results in white candidates having at least twice the chance of getting hired relative to Black, Brown, nonbinary, disabled, and female candidates of any race—including within firms that are explicitly committed to a diverse workplace.
Key quote based on study results:
Because white people – and white men in particular – historically have been the majority group in most organizations, especially in leadership roles, job candidates recommended through employee referral programs are disproportionately white and male, Paradigm co-founder and CEO Joelle Emerson said.
Related to this, as you can read for yourselves, is that referrals stand a much better chance of getting hired in contrast to others who simply apply for a given position. Another valuable resource is a USA Today investigation of diversity within our nation's most powerful companies which found the following:
The top ranks are still predominantly white and male, while women and people of color are concentrated at the lowest levels with less pay, fewer perks and little opportunity for advancement. (Guynn & Fraser, 2023)
I do hope that this equates to a wake-up call for employers who may either be confused or are not getting the actual truth of what DEI is in the workplace and beyond, as this shall be consequential to workplace productivity. Expressed differently, DEI policies and practices will affect the bottom line, especially considering the growing presence of a non-white population that constitutes an ever larger share of the U.S. workforce.
-Angela Valenzuela
Reference
Guynn, J. & Fraser, J. (2023, Feb. 16). Corporate diversity database: A USA TODAY investigative series inside the nation’s most powerful companies, USA Today.
Flashing a polished resume, a sharp cover letter and a LinkedIn profile doesn’t guarantee a foot in the door.
Making the shortlist – let alone the final cut – is not just a matter of sterling credentials. It’s still largely a matter of who you know. And nothing counts more than a company insider putting in a good word with a hiring manager. But research shows these employee referrals don’t give everyone a fair shake.
White candidates are almost twice as likely to be hired as those from other racial and ethnic groups, even in organizations committed to diversity, according to new findings from diversity strategy and consulting firm Paradigm.
Because white people – and white men in particular – historically have been the majority group in most organizations, especially in leadership roles, job candidates recommended through employee referral programs are disproportionately white and male, Paradigm co-founder and CEO Joelle Emerson said.
“In both our personal and professional lives, our networks tend to be composed of people who look like us," she said. “You essentially have a self-perpetuating cycle."
Job applications were more diverse than referrals in most companies Paradigm studied.
Black candidates represented 3% of employee referrals but 5% of all job applicants; Latino and Hispanic candidates 4% of employee referrals but 7% of all job applicants; and Asian candidates 28% of employee referrals but 40% of all job applicants, Paradigm found.
“All of this compounds and becomes a disadvantage for candidates of color,” Emerson said.
Emerson says the Paradigm study comes at a critical moment for organizations as the workforce shrinks and the nation grows more diverse.
Most organizations her firm works with already struggle to hire, advance and retain employees from underrepresented groups – people of color, women and nonbinary people, disabled people, veterans, and the LGBTQ+ community, Emerson said.
“This should be a bit of a wake-up call,” she said. “You very likely have gaps in hiring, performance management, promotions and employee experience that are disadvantaging groups of employees that are currently underrepresented, but growing as a relative proportion of the overall workforce.
Emerson said if employers can't remove those obstacles now, they will struggle to attract the best employees in the future.
The Paradigm study also counters misleading narratives from anti-diversity activists who claim that diversity, equity and inclusion programs discriminate against white people and give underrepresented groups an unfair advantage in hiring and promotions, according to Emerson.
“The data shows that simply isn't the case,” she said.
A USA TODAY investigation of the nation’s largest companies found that the top ranks are predominantly white and male, while women and people of color are concentrated at the lowest levels with less pay, fewer perks and little opportunity for advancement.
Popular in organizations across industries, referral programs are often considered a win-win-win. Job applicants with a personal recommendation have the inside track. Employers get vetted candidates who start sooner and stay longer. And the employee who dropped a friend’s name collects a cash bonus.
“For many companies, they are the primary or a top source of hired employees,” Emerson said.
Referred candidates have a much better shot than job hunters who submit their resumes online or who apply through recruiters, staffing agencies and career fairs.
Paradigm looked at data from more than 2 million job candidates and found that referred candidates were over 4.5 times as likely to get hired.
Research studies have raised concerns about referral programs for years as have anti-discrimination regulators.
In 2018, Payscale research found that referral programs benefited white men more than any other demographic group. White women were 12% less likely, men of color 26% less likely and women of color 35% less likely to receive job referrals than their white male counterparts, the compensation data provider found.
"It is recognized that employee referral programs can jeopardize diversity efforts, particularly if your current workforce demographics are not diverse," Payscale's pay equity strategist Ruth Thomas said. "We also know from studying ethnicity pay gaps that lack of professional networks is a driver of pay gaps."
The analysis by PayScale found that a woman hired through a referral program got on average a $3,700 increase in pay, but a man hired through a referral program got more than twice that.
"Unless the workforce is racially and ethnically diverse, exclusive reliance on word-of-mouth should be avoided because it is likely to create a barrier to equal employment opportunity for racial or ethnic groups that are not already represented in the employer's workforce,” the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says on its website.
In 2017, tech firm Palantir settled a lawsuit by the Labor Department that alleged it discriminated against Asian job applicants in several types of technical jobs.
The problem, the government said, was that Palantir relied too heavily on employees to refer job candidates – more than half of hires came through an employee referral program – disproportionately excluding Asian applicants.
Palantir said the Labor Department’s analysis was flawed.
Emerson said employee referrals are a smart way for organizations to staff up.
“Who wouldn’t want to hire someone who has a proven track record with colleagues and can work well with the people already in your organization?” Emerson said.
In the past, organizations diversified job referrals by encouraging employees to think about people in their networks who hail from diverse backgrounds.
“Given the anti-diversity backlash we’re seeing right now, many companies may be less likely to do this right now,” Emerson said.
But employers can still improve the fairness of employee referral programs, she says.
◾ Ask every job candidate the same questions and evaluate their answers using the same criteria.
◾ Conduct candidate debriefs to explore why interviewers prefer one candidate over others.
◾ Do not disclose to interviewers that a candidate was referred by someone inside the company.
◾ Consider whether candidates gave stronger answers or have more relevant experience, or did they “vibe more” with interviewers.
What a touching day today at the Latinx graduation that had to get pulled together in 6 weeks because Senate Bill 17 made cuts to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs that resulted in the cancellation of our students' graduation ceremony.
SB 17 is part of a larger scorched earth policy agenda that is very racist and fearful of a browning America. All should read mine and Dr. Zamora’s piece on the matter: Zamora, E. & Valenzuela, A. (2023, Feb. 13). "Anti-DEI Law Implementation Has Been a Disaster," Texas Observer. As today's ceremony suggests, there's nothing to fear and everything to gain from a multi-ethnic and multiracial democracy—toward which we are abundantly poised—if we can only hold on to it.
Still, today we celebrated at the Austin Independent School District's beautiful Performing Arts Center, thanks in great part to student leaders associated with the organization, Latino Community Affairs, namely, Katherine Ospina, Luis Santos, and Liany Serrano Oviedo, as well as to Austin City Council Member Chito Vela and National LULAC that provided significant funding support for this event. The Texas Exes made possible an afternoon celebration for the parents and community.
Suzanne Gamboa with NBC Latino did her part, too, by bringing awareness to the predicament the students were in by informing everyone of their Go Fund Me campaign. They raised more funds than they needed such that the rest will go toward next year's graduation.
Incidentally, 70 percent of those graduating are first-generation students attending college, the overwhelming majority thusly from humble origins. How shameful for UT and the legislature to set up barriers for students like these when they are our best and brightest, not to mention our future as a state and nation. That they even pulled this graduation off to begin with is a testament to their will and power as members of Gen Z. SÃ se puede! Yes we can!
My husband, UT History Professor Dr. Emilio Zamora and I had the distinct pleasure of shaking the graduates' hands and sharing some remarks at the event, alongside student presenters, and a rousing keynote address by National LULAC President Domingo Garcia.
I just learned this evening that all of the students present today will get a free, one-year membership to LULAC! I look forward to seeing our students at our LULAC National Convention in Las Vegas this June!
I'm beyond thrilled that KXAN journalist Sarah Al-Shaikh honored me by using several of the photos I took today. Enjoy!
-Angela Valenzuela
Posted:
Updated:
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| UT Austin students raised thousands of dollars to put on a Latinx graduation that the university previously cancelled. (Photo: Angela Valenzuela) |
AUSTIN (KXAN) — A new state law left a group of Latino University of Texas students scrambling to make sure their graduation ceremony tradition went on as planned on Thursday.
The university canceled several minority graduation events it previously hosted for years. A new Texas law banned diversity, equity and inclusion offices at public universities, which cut funding for the ceremony.
Faculty and students said Thursday’s graduation sent a statement to the university: They’ll do it without their help.
“All of us share the same culture. It’s kind of sort of an
unspoken, just bond that all of us have.”
ANDRES AYALA, UT GRADUATE
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| Andres Ayala |
Hundreds of Latino students, professors and their families celebrated the Latinx graduation.
“We persevered and we’re here,” said UT graduate Andres Ayala. “We want to commemorate us and our experience as Latinos.”
For many of them, they’re the first in their family to get a college degree.
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| UT Austin students raised thousands of dollars to put on a Latinx graduation that the university previously cancelled. (Photo: Angela Valenzuela) |
“All of the individual parents shouting for them was the
sweetest thing ever.”
KATHERINE OSPINA, UT GRADUATE
Ospina and Ayala said the Latinx graduation has been a tradition at the university.
They said it’s the only program in the whole commencement week that has a translation, which can help parents fully experience the ceremony.
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| Katherine Ospina & Angela Valenzuela |
Three months ago the university cancelled this graduation and other minority graduation events as well.
A new Texas law banned diversity, equity and inclusion offices at public universities, which cut funding for the ceremony.
