INVITATION: Equity and Social Justic in STEM Education.

My colleagues at UT are addressing a great topic, Equity and Social Justic in STEM Education.  Happening soon! -Angela

Texas Tech Meets Enrollment Criteria to Qualify as Hispanic-Serving Institution | Texas Tech Today | TTU

This is truly historic.  Hats off to Texas Tech for obtaining this.  Among other things, it means that federal dollars will be flowing in to support this mission.  Check out Texas Tech's President's comment on the matter:

“This is an important distinction for Texas Tech University,” said President Lawrence Schovanec. “We will be one of 10 Carnegie Tier One institutions to receive this designation, which will greatly benefit our continuing efforts in educating and graduating a diverse student population. Eventually, it will result in increased federal funding and offer other opportunities for funding channels previously unavailable.”

They embrace "running parallel to the state demography."   If this isn't already the case, the University of Texas at Austin is going to start competing more heavily, I would think, for the students that Texas Tech is now going to get—or is already getting.  Not a bad thing, in my view.

Angela Valenzuela


Texas Tech Meets Enrollment Criteria to Qualify as Hispanic-Serving Institution | Texas Tech Today | TTU

With a record enrollment of Hispanic undergraduate students during fall 2017, Texas Tech University has met the enrollment criteria to be recognized as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) by the U.S. Department of Education. This fall marks the first time the undergraduate student body has surpassed 30,000 students, with 30,759 undergraduates enrolled, 27.8 percent of which are Hispanic. Total enrollment for the university is 37,010, also a record.


In addition to other requirements, an institution designated as an HSI shows at least 25 percent of its full-time undergraduate students are Hispanic. With 2017 as the qualifying year for Texas Tech, the university is on track to that official designation beginning in 2019, resulting in access to new federal funding of more than $8 to 10 million that may be available after the application period that year.

Click to enlarge.

“This is an important distinction for Texas Tech University,” said President Lawrence Schovanec. “We will be one of 10 Carnegie Tier One institutions to receive this designation, which will greatly benefit our continuing efforts in educating and graduating a diverse student population. Eventually, it will result in increased federal funding and offer other opportunities for funding channels previously unavailable.”


Elizabeth Sharp, interim vice president of the Division of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, said steps have been taken campus-wide to help the university achieve HSI status.


“An HSI committee has been formed to guide our efforts in identifying ways we can make Texas Tech University more responsive to the needs of Hispanic students and to identify new funding opportunities that will be available to Texas Tech,” Sharp said. “We are creating a Texas Tech website that explains the benefits of HSI status of one of the committee’s initial responsibilities.”


In addition to meeting the HSI enrollment criteria for the entire student body, Hispanic enrollment this semester accounts for 38.8 percent of first-time freshman students.


“We know that the number of Hispanics in the state demography has been increasing,” said Ethan Logan, associate vice president for Enrollment Management. “For us to match that in terms of an increase in enrollment means we’re running parallel to the state demography, and as a public institution of higher education, we should mirror that to the best of our ability.”


Logan said in addition to a changing state demography, there are other factors contributing to an increase in Hispanic students at Texas Tech. One is the recruitment of students in groups that have been historically underrepresented on college campuses.


“We have been proactive in expanding our undergraduate outreach to as many students as possible, including underrepresented minorities, first-generation college students and students from depressed or low-socioeconomic backgrounds,” Logan said. “As the high school population of potential college freshmen becomes more Hispanic, that obviously translates into recruiters connecting with more students within that ethnicity.”


Another factor in the changing student body is a shift in the way second- and third-generation students view higher education, particularly in regards to how far they will travel from home to attend an institution. Nationally, most students attend a university within 100 miles of their home. Logan said at Texas Tech, most students travel much further than that, but research shows Hispanic students are more hesitant than the average student to head to a college or university located far from their families.

“I appreciate that from a cultural perspective, but I also think this may be a first-generation idea of college, and as we start to get into the next generation, that’s starting to transition,” Logan said. “Additionally, while we have a significant population of people of Hispanic origin in this area, West Texas is slow in the growth of the total population of people in comparison to the metropolitan communities in the I-35 corridor.


“It means that the Hispanic students we are seeing at Texas Tech are a little more mobile and not as hesitant to move across the state to receive an education. The brand and the promise of a higher education experience at Texas Tech University is appealing to people from farther out in our state, and they are more willing to accept the challenge of moving from their home base to participate in higher education.”


Reaching HSI enrollment status means Texas Tech continues to make strides in diversifying the university, an important investment when it comes to higher education, Logan said. Diversification brings together different cultures, views, experiences and ideas to students from all backgrounds.


“The element of diversity is not limited to ethnicity,” Logan said. “In comingling different types of diversities, we enhance the opportunities to develop new knowledge and research, and we also give people a broader understanding of the world. I hope we continue to consistently appeal to more and more students who want to attend Texas Tech.”


This year, Texas Tech also yielded a record 16 National Merit Scholars, and a record-breaking number of Presidential Scholarships, more than doubling last year’s total.


“The success of students in all areas of study is evidence that our university is committed to creating innovative learners who will go on to impact their communities in Lubbock, across the state and beyond,” Schovanec said.

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Find Texas Tech news, experts and story ideas at Texas Tech Today Media Resources or follow us on Twitter.

Most Americans Are Unhappy At Work

This is a sad commentary about work in America. I strongly recommend reading Karl Marx' theory on alienation which I imagine most Americans have never read.  It is not only a humanizing perspective that actually calls for political democracy which is what we seek in our country, too, it also applies well to labor concerns and struggles today.  Here is a helpful piece. Marx: Capitalism and Alienation.

-Angela



Most Americans Are Unhappy At Work

Susan Adams , Forbes Staff

Are you feeling satisfied with your job? If not, you are among the majority of Americans—52.3%—who are unhappy at work, according to a new report by the Conference Board, the New York-based nonprofit research group.
Every year since 1987, the Board has run a job satisfaction survey. Nearly three decades ago, 61.1% of workers said they liked their jobs. That number has slid over time, reaching an all-time low in 2010 following the Great Recession, when only 42.6% of workers said they were satisfied in their jobs. It has been ticking back up since then but rose only .4% since last year.
The survey asks workers how they feel about various parts of their experience, including job security, wages, promotion policy, vacation policy, sick leave, health plan and retirement plan. On all of those measures, workers were happier in 1987 than they are now.
The only exceptions: physical environment and quality of equipment. But there were only small gains in those categories. Some 54.6% liked their physical environment in 1987 versus 56.4% today, and 54.7% liked their equipment in 1987, compared to less than a percentage point more today, 55.2%. The report’s authors speculate that the increase in telecommuting offers a partial explanation, as people prefer working at home to being in the office and employers are responding by rethinking and improving equipment and workspaces.

I’m surprised that the equipment number isn’t higher, given how much faster and more powerful computers are today versus the ‘80s, when some of us remember those big, clunky, slow machines. But maybe we expect more from our computers these days and at least at Forbes, my Dell desktop crashes more frequently then I’d like and more often than that slow but reliable Compaq I used in the early days.
As the prospects for long-term work with the same employer have eroded and employees have been saddled with ever-higher health plan deductibles and payroll deductions, the two categories where workers’ satisfaction fell the most were job security and health plan, both declining by at least 11 points since 1987.

Recommended by Forbes

The report also looks at satisfaction gains in the short term. As for income, the results highlight the gap in satisfaction between those earning well and those at the bottom of the income scale. Workers making more than $125,000 were the most satisfied, with 64.1% saying they were happy with their compensation, compared to 59.6% in 2011. Only 24.4% making under $15,000 were satisfied—also no surprise. That’s down from 27.3% in that group who were satisfied in 2011. In the mid-range, 44.4% of those making between $50,000 and $75,000 said they were satisfied, versus 45.8% in 2011.
What makes employees happiest at work? “Interest in work,” which 59% said satisfied them and “people at work,” which 60.6% said they liked.
What worries workers most: layoffs. Even though hiring has picked up, only 46.6% of employees say they feel satisfied with their job security, compared to 48.5% before the recession. That’s way down from the 59.4% who said they felt they had job security in 1987.
Finally the report has some interesting data comparing men’s and women’s satisfaction at work. Men are happier in their jobs, with 47.8% saying they’re satisfied versus 46.3% of women. There is also a sign that the glass ceiling persists, observes the report, shown in the differing satisfaction about promotion and compensation. Among men, 26.1% say they’re satisfied with their promotion prospects versus 21.4% of women and 38.3% of men are happy with their wages versus 34.3% of women.
The Conference Board relied on Nielsen, which conducted a mail survey of 5,000 households and got responses from 1,673 workers.

Poll finds most Texans think DACA program should be extended

state-government

By Jonathan Tilove - American-Statesman Staff

0

Updated: 7:03 p.m. Monday, October 23, 2017 |  Posted: 1:16 p.m. Monday, October 23, 2017

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Posted: 6:13 p.m. Monday, October 23, 2017

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Highlights

The DACA issue will play a role in the Senate race between U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke.

The poll also found most Texans want Confederate memorials to add historical context or be moved to museums.

Most Texans did not think it was important to pass legislation regarding transgender bathroom policies.

Nearly 60 percent of Texans want to extend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects from deportation some 124,000 Texans who arrived as children and remained in the country illegally, according to results of the University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll released Monday.
Answering a separate question, slightly more than half oppose the immediate deportation of unauthorized immigrants living in Texas, according to the internet survey of 1,200 registered voters conducted Oct. 6-15. It has an overall margin of error of 2.83 percentage points.
President Barack Obama created DACA in 2012 by executive action. President Donald Trump rescinded the Obama orders in September and gave Congress six months to come up with a permanent plan on what to do about DACA recipients.
Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, which conducts the poll, said the difference in answers to the deportation and DACA questions indicates that Texas voters, Republicans included, have some give on immigration questions.
RELATED: Poll: 49% of Texans disapprove of Trump, but GOP support strong
When asked, “Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: Undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States should be deported immediately?” 25 percent strongly agreed, 19 somewhat agreed, 21 percent somewhat disagreed, 30 percent strongly disagreed, and five percent expressed no opinion.
But here is how the DACA question was framed: “As you may know, a program begun in 2012 prevents the deportation of young people who were brought to the United States illegally as children, completed high school or military service, and have not been convicted of a serious crime.”
Fifty-nine percent of respondents said they support continuing that program, 30 percent said it should be ended, and 11 percent said they didn’t know.
Senate race
As the fate of DACA unfolds, it is expected to be a defining issue in the 2018 U.S. Senate race between Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and his likely Democratic rival, U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of El Paso.
Cruz is a fierce critic of DACA, who had pledged as a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 to rescind on his first day in office what he considered an unconstitutional action by the president. He is fond of saying his immigration policy can be articulated in four words: “Legal, good. Illegal, bad.”
O’Rourke is a staunch supporter of extending DACA to protect people who, he said, know no other home but the United States and are, in his view, as American as his own three children.
While 86 percent of Democrats and 39 percent of Republicans in the Texas poll want to continue DACA, opposition among Republicans is driven by those who identify with the tea party. Sixty-nine percent of tea party Republicans oppose DACA, compared with 41 percent of other Republicans.


Sixty-four percent of Hispanic respondents want to keep DACA, while more than 1 in 5 said they would support doing away with it.
On the immediate deportation of immigrants lacking legal status, 50 percent of white voters, 37 percent of black voters and 36 percent of Hispanic voters would back that policy.
Most respondents — including 67 percent of Anglo voters, 45 percent of black voters and 44 percent of Hispanic voters — believe local law enforcement should cooperate with federal immigration authorities. But Texans were closely divided on whether local law enforcement officers should always be allowed to question a person’s immigration status or only if that is the local police agency’s policy. Forty-four percent said always, and 45 percent said that should be a matter of local discretion.
Other issues
The survey found that while most Texans do not want to simply remove Confederate memorials, a slight majority believe they should be moved to museums or have some additional historical context added where they stand.
Eight percent of respondents would simply remove the memorials, 30 percent would move them to museums, 22 percent would leave them where they are while adding historical context, and 34 percent would leave them as is.
Nine percent of Republicans support removing or relocating the Confederate memorials, compared with 75 percent of Democrats.
The survey also noted that “some Texas leaders prioritized restricting access to public restrooms for transgender people in the recently concluded legislative session” and asked, “How important do you think it is that the Texas Legislature address this issue?”


Twenty-four percent said it was very important, 19 percent said somewhat important, 15 percent said not very important, 36 percent said not at all important, and 6 percent didn’t know.
That legislative effort, championed especially by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and backed by Gov. Greg Abbott, was stopped cold in both the regular and special legislative sessions by House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, and his lieutenants.
On guns, a majority of Republicans believe that more guns would make the country safer, while an even larger majority of Democrats believe the opposite.
Altogether, 52 percent of the registered Texas voters surveyed said they thought gun control laws should be made more strict, 13 percent said they should be less strict, and 31 percent wanted them left as they are now.
On Obamacare, half of Texans want to repeal it and 38 percent want to keep it. Of those who want to repeal it, 57 percent want to replace it with an alternative, while 38 percent don’t want to replace it.

The No Man's Land Beneath the Border Wall

John Kelly and the Language of the Military Coup by Masha Gessen

Buenos días, good morning.  Happy Monday!  The "language of the military coup" should concern all Americans.  Here's an apt summative quote:

When Kelly replaced the ineffectual Reince Priebus as the chief of staff, a sigh of relief emerged: at least the general would impose some discipline on the Administration. Now we have a sense of what military discipline in the White House sounds like.

I post this in the interest of us all having our eyes wide open....

-Angela 

 

John Kelly and the Language of the Military Coup

By Masha Gessen

11:27 A.M.

When he talks about “the best” Americans, John Kelly means dead Americans—specifically, fallen soldiers.

Photograph by Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post via Getty

Consider this nightmare scenario: a military coup. You don’t have to strain your imagination—all you have to do is watch Thursday’s White House press briefing, in which the chief of staff, John Kelly, defended President Trump’s phone call to a military widow, Myeshia Johnson. The press briefing could serve as a preview of what a military coup in this country would look like, for it was in the logic of such a coup that Kelly advanced his four arguments.

Argument 1. Those who criticize the President don’t know what they’re talking about because they haven’t served in the military. To demonstrate how little lay people know, Kelly provided a long, detailed explanation of what happens when a soldier is killed in battle: the body is wrapped in whatever is handy, flown by helicopter, then packed in ice, then flown again, then repacked, then flown, then embalmed and dressed in uniform with medals, and then flown home. Kelly provided a similar amount of detail about how family members are notified of the death, when, and by whom. He even recommended a film that dramatized the process of transporting the body of a real-life marine, Private First Class Chance Phelps. This was a Trumpian moment, from the phrasing—“a very, very good movie”—to the message. Kelly stressed that Phelps “was killed under my command, right next to me”; in other words, Kelly’s real-life experience was recreated for television, and that, he seemed to think, bolstered his authority.

Fallen soldiers, Kelly said, join “the best one per cent this country produces.” Here, the chief of staff again reminded his audience of its ignorance: “Most of you, as Americans, don’t know them. Many of you don’t know anyone who knows any of them. But they are the very best this country produces.”

The one-per-cent figure is puzzling. The number of people currently serving in the military, both on active duty and in the reserves, is not even one per cent of all Americans. The number of veterans in the population is far higher: more than seven per cent. But, later in the speech, when Kelly described his own distress after hearing the criticism of Trump’s phone call, the general said that he had gone to “walk among the finest men and women on this earth. And you can always find them because they’re in Arlington National Cemetery.” So, by “the best” Americans, Kelly had meant dead Americans—specifically, fallen soldiers.

The number of Americans killed in all the wars this nation has ever fought is indeed equal to roughly one per cent of all Americans alive today. This makes for questionable math and disturbing logic. It is in totalitarian societies, which demand complete mobilization, that dying for one’s country becomes the ultimate badge of honor. Growing up in the Soviet Union, I learned the names of ordinary soldiers who threw their bodies onto enemy tanks, becoming literal cannon fodder. All of us children had to aspire to the feat of martyrdom. No Soviet general would have dared utter the kind of statement that’s attributed to General George S. Patton: “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.”

2. The President did the right thing because he did exactly what his general told him to do. Kelly went on a rambling explication of speaking to the President not once but twice about how to make the call to Myeshia Johnson. After Kelly’s son was killed while serving in Afghanistan, the chief of staff recalled, his own best friend had consoled him by saying that his son “was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed. He knew what he was getting into by joining that one per cent.” Trump apparently tried to replicate this message when he told Johnson that her husband, La David, had known what he was signing up for. The negative reaction to this comment, Kelly said, had “stunned” him.

A week earlier, Kelly had taken over the White House press briefing in an attempt to quash another scandal and ended up using the phrase “I was sent in,” twice, in reference to his job in the White House. Now he seemed to be saying that, since he was sent in to control the President and the President had, this time, more or less carried out his instructions, the President should not be criticized.

3. Communication between the President and a military widow is no one’s business but theirs. A day earlier, the Washington Post had quoted a White House official saying, “The president’s conversations with the families of American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice are private.” The statement contained a classic Trumpian reversal: the President was claiming for himself the right to privacy that belonged to his interlocutor. But Myeshia Johnson had apparently voluntarily shared her conversation with her mother-in-law and Congresswoman Frederica Wilson by putting the President on speakerphone.

Now Kelly took it up a notch. Not only was he claiming that the President, communicating with a citizen in his official capacity, had a right to confidentiality—he was claiming that this right was “sacred.” Indeed, Kelly seemed to say, it was the last sacred thing in this country. He rattled off a litany of things that had lost their sanctity: women, life, religion, Gold Star families. The last of which had been profaned “in the convention over the summer,” said Kelly, although the debacle with a Gold Star family had been Trump’s doing. Now, Kelly seemed to say, we had descended into utter profanity, because the secrecy of the President’s phone call had been violated.

4. Citizens are ranked based on their proximity to dying for their country. Kelly’s last argument was his most striking. At the end of the briefing, he said that he would take questions only from those members of the press who had a personal connection to a fallen soldier, followed by those who knew a Gold Star family. Considering that, a few minutes earlier, Kelly had said most Americans didn’t even know anyone who knew anyone who belonged to the “one per cent,” he was now explicitly denying a majority of Americans—or the journalists representing them—the right to ask questions. This was a new twist on the Trump Administration’s technique of shunning and shaming unfriendly members of the news media, except this time, it was framed explicitly in terms of national loyalty. As if on cue, the first reporter allowed to speak inserted the phrase “Semper Fi”—a literal loyalty oath—into his question.

Before walking off the stage, Kelly told Americans who haven’t served in the military that he pities them. “We don’t look down upon those of you who haven’t served,” he said. “In fact, in a way we are a little bit sorry because you’ll have never have experienced the wonderful joy you get in your heart when you do the kinds of things our servicemen and women do—not for any other reason than that they love this country.”

When Kelly replaced the ineffectual Reince Priebus as the chief of staff, a sigh of relief emerged: at least the general would impose some discipline on the Administration. Now we have a sense of what military discipline in the White House sounds like.

A previous version of this post misstated the timing of a political-convention controversy as it related to Gold Star families.

Masha Gessen, a staff writer, has written several books, including, most recently, “The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia,” which was short-listed for the National Book Award in 2017.

2. T

Rebuild Puerto Rico! by Dr. Edwin Melendez

I personally know and fully trust and respect Dr. Edwin Melendez, a professor at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at City University of New York, Hunter College. Here, Dr. Melendez is announcing an online web source Rebuild Puerto Rico for news, donation information, volunteer opportunities, events, policy, and help or assistance of multiple kinds that folks may have.

A recommendation that I heard about the other evening at UT in a symposium on the crisis in Puerto Rico is to send chlorine tablets instead of water bottles.  Bottled water takes up a lot of space on any kind of craft for transporting goods and is impractical over the long haul. Chlorine tablets are more efficient and can be used for purifying drinking water.

I also just learned the other evening about LifeStraws which filter out waterborne bacteria that make pretty much any kind of water safe to drink.  One LifeStraw is supposed to be able to sustain one person for a year.  I saw them priced at around $20.00 on Amazon.com. The advertising video is pretty disgusting, but they make their point.  Here's another video that's also helpful.

There's also a Facebook page that is raising funds for LifeStraws for Puerto Rico that you can link to here.

So check out the Rebuild Puerto Rico and among other things that we can and should be doing like making donations and addressing pertinent policy issues, let's find ways to send both chlorine tablets and LifeStraws to Puerto Rico.
 

Angela Valenzuela
c/s

Rebuild Puerto Rico!

by Dr. Edwin Melendez

October 1, 2017

The destruction caused by Hurricane Maria has never being seen before in Puerto Rico. The priority for everyone now, especially for first responders on the ground, is to save lives. However, recovery is estimated to take years.

In an effort to support disaster relief and recovery efforts, Centro has launched Rebuild Puerto Rico, an online information clearinghouse for the stateside Puerto Rican community and other allies. A Rebuild Puerto Rico newsletter highlighting new content on the online platform will be issued weekly and as needed.

Coping with devastating flooding, contaminated waters, and public health takes precedence. The electrical and communications infrastructure on the island has crumbled, and it may take months to restore power and to be able communicate with our loved ones. We know that they need food, water, generators, medicines, diapers, school supplies, and so much more. And very soon stateside Puerto Rican communities will receive a wave of migrants from the island that will need shelter and support.   

The question that many ask is “What can we do?” The response to the destruction and humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico has been heartening and many support events, fundraising campaigns and other initiatives are under way. But there is so much more to do.

Rebuild Puerto Rico is a collaborative effort. The Hunter College and Centro leadership are coordinating with the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, federal and stateside local elected officials, community leaders and organizations, and others to create an information hub, a clearinghouse where the Puerto Rican diaspora and others interested in supporting Puerto Rico can share information about recent events, solidarity events, policy issues affecting decision makers, call to action for donations and volunteers, help assistance, and other relevant information about the crisis.

Rebuild Puerto Rico will be staffed by volunteers across the nation. They will collect the necessary information for this platform to be effective. Centro has made a call for individuals and organizations that want to help Puerto Rico, not just in the emergency phase, but also in recovery and reconstruction. We need volunteers with skills in collecting and managing information, writing policy briefs, and helping with outreach and partnership.

Rebuild Puerto Rico is an extension of the work that Centro has been conducting for more than forty years, especially since the unfolding of the fiscal and economic crisis in Puerto Rico in 2015. Centro has served as a national convener and source of information to stateside communities. Our conferences and events provide a safe space to discuss difficult policy and political issues where participants acknowledge differences in perspectives yet seek to find common ground moving forward.

Rebuild Puerto Rico is created in the spirit of collaboration and collective action to solve the challenges for 9 million people, one people on the island and in the diaspora. We agree wholeheartedly with the New York Times editorial when they conclude:

Maria leaves a whole new level of recovery to be scaled. No one has yet estimated the full cost. Federal money will be the most critical factor, in the view of recovery specialists. They dare to hope the sweep of the hurricane’s destruction may provide a theoretical, if bleak, spark for long overdue modernization on the island. All Americans should rally forcefully behind their fellow citizens left suffering on the island as it labors to recover. It is up to mainland leaders not to stint on aid for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, however lacking they may be in political clout in Washington.

More than ever, the Puerto Rican diaspora must play an important role, no longer just with the ongoing humanitarian crisis on the island and disaster relief for the American citizens of Puerto Rico, but we also need to assist the thousands of people who are relocating to stateside communities.

This first issue of the Rebuild Puerto Rico newsletter includes two essays from Centro staff on current events and policy developments.

In “The Diaspora Helps Rebuild Puerto Rico,” Victor Martinez writes how the Puerto Rican diaspora has united and demonstrated its great sense of community in response to the loss of lives and the destruction caused by Hurricane Maria. Since the very beginning of this crisis, the diaspora has moved to help with supply drives, fundraisers, and the coordination of other events to help the island. As many members of the diaspora have said through social media: “I am here, but my heart is in Puerto Rico.”

In “Disaster Aid for Puerto Rico: Congressional Actions,” Kathya Severino Pietri summarizes recent developments undertaken by the federal government disaster relief efforts on the island. Many have expressed concerns that federal efforts have been insufficient in light of the severity of the crisis. Hurricane Maria caused billions of dollars in damages to Puerto Rico and left 3.6 million island residents without power, potable water, and telecommunications. The situation has quickly evolved into a humanitarian crisis.

'The Dangerous Case Of Donald Trump': 27 Psychiatrists Assess | The Last...

"Como la Flor," sung by Luz Zamora

So I'm not just a professor or blogger.  I'm also a shameless stage Mom.  So proud of our daughter, Luz Zamora, who’s poised to shine brilliantly in the music world. 

Her words from yesterday's Youtube post:

“Here is a video of me singing Como la Flor as made popular by Selena
Quintanilla. I used this recording as a pre-screening for a Commercial
Music degree audition. I had so much fun recording this and I hope y'all
will enjoy it too. Have a wonderful Monday"

The song was written by Selena's brother, A.B. Quintanilla III.  Luz is in her final year in musical performance opera at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, and this video is for her next move in life and career. 

Your Dad and I are so very proud of you, Luz Zamora! ❤️

Mami

Happy to share this publication by Education Policy and Planning Student, Andrene Castro.  It considers the very important role of African American K-12 educator activism historically and its meaningfulness and importance for us today.  It is a reminder that Ethnic Studies and educator activism tend to go hand-in-hand historically.

Angela Valenzuela

The Activist Work of K-12 Educators: Then and Now

By Andrene Castro October 7, 2017 1

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Black students’ educational needs are central to Black political and social activism. It is no secret that Black activism in institutions of higher education, particularly during the tumultuous decades from the 1950s through the 1970s, catalyzed new freedom struggles and enhanced the intellectual development of African Diaspora Studies in educational spaces. Yet, the activism of K-12 educators in public schools receives too little attention. While some education scholars have documented Black teachers’ activism since the late eighteenth century, public school teachers deserve broader recognition within Black activism historiography.
From the late nineteenth century through the present, parallel movements shaped teachers’ activism: the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education ruling to desegregate schools, Civil Rights and Black Power struggles, and the burgeoning women’s movement. Against this backdrop, Black teachers served as recruiting agents for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Civil Rights movement. They also called for schools to uphold the promises of desegregation, actually integrating schools and reforming school finance through more equitable allocation of resources.
Inspired by the campus movements of the sixties, the collective efforts of K-12 educators, students, and parents at Berkeley High School, for example, led to the development of the first Black Studies department in 1969. Despite this early move to diversify the K-12 curriculum, its legacy remains in flux. Today, many teachers are front-line activists fighting for the constitutionality of African American history and ethnic studies courses in public schools. And still intellectual activism and activist scholarship is often misperceived as a project only for academics, though Black teachers in K-12 settings have long embraced these pursuits. In fact, several scholars point to a strong lineage of sociopolitical activism in education. This scholarship highlights vanguards such as Anna Julia Cooper, Carter G. Woodson, Alain LeRoy Locke, and Sylvia Wynter—Black intellectuals who receive too little credit for advancing curricular theory.

Dunbar High School, Washington DC in 1917. Photo: The Crisis, March 1917, page 221

Anna Julia Cooper’s work as a teacher, leader, and innovator at M Street High School, later known as Dunbar High School in Washington, DC, encouraged Black educators to view their role not only as teachers, but also as intellectuals. Cooper’s contribution to M Street helped establish the school as a premier educational institution, boasting notable faculty and alumnae. Omissions of teachers’ intellectual activism are particularly damaging to Black educators who—without these role models—fail to recognize the broader contributions of Black scholars and educators in the social and political history of schooling in the US.
As the largest professional occupation in the US, teaching accounts for the most professional employees among college-educated white women, Black women, and Black men. While the profession is well received, most teachers receive too little credit for their efforts. Critical education scholars challenge the notion that teaching is an apolitical enterprise. Scholars such as Paulo Freire and Gloria Ladson-Billings argue that teaching is in itself a political act because education is inherently political.
Beyond this conceptualization, the teacher-as-activist is also an identity and a consciousness one comes to assume, characterized by explicit social and political orientations against racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, and classism. For Bob Moses, an educator and Civil Rights leader, his vision for economic and political freedom connects intricately with education: “When I was in Mississippi [in the 1960s], I saw very graphically how literacy mattered. Sharecroppers weren’t literate, so they were outside the economic arrangement. That’s what’s happening now in the inner cities. We’re growing young people who are outside the economic arrangements for the information-age technologies.”
Despite the commitment that teachers make to educate children, not all teachers are activists. Understanding when and where teachers enter activism begins with recognizing that public schools are social institutions rife with contradictions. As critical sites for socialization, schools reify dominant perspectives of anti-blackness, heteropatriarchy, Eurocentrism, and religiosity, often while providing a public good of “assimilationist” democracy.
A prominent example of this tension emerges from the historical and legal scholarship on school segregation and its impact on the teacher labor market. For example, teacher activists and researchers recounting teacher segregation in Chicago highlight discriminatory labor policies that subjected Black teachers to be newly classified as Full Time Basis Substitutes (FTBs). Despite doing the same work, this distinction amounted to different wages and benefits than white teachers received. Over the course of two years in 1967 and 1968, an organization called Concerned FTBs led more than a hundred schools in a strike against institutional and procedural racism and school segregation.
These histories reveal how societal tensions give rise to Black teacher activism. Even contemporary movements, such as Black Lives Matter, illustrate symbiotic relationships amongst movements, activism, and education. The Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of organizations demanding an end to state-sanctioned violence, considers public schooling a form of the state’s violent apparatus. With numerous policy initiatives addressing federal, state, and local inequities in school funding, excessive discipline and policing in schools, and the neo-liberalization of public schools—teacher activism is inevitable.

Civil Rights leader and education reformer Bob Moses at the Meridian Freedom School Convention, 1964 (Mark Levy Collection, Queens College Civil Rights Archives)

As a result of neoliberalism’s assault on Black youth and educators (i.e., closed schools, loss of Black anchor institutions, as well as the displacement of Black teachers), teachers have grown increasingly politicized. In May 2016 more than 1,500 teachers called in sick at 94 of Detroit’s 97 public schools. Similar activities repeated across the country in school districts in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. These massive protests or “sickouts” targeted many of the same practices waged in the aftermath of the 1954 ruling.
Beyond public demonstrations, forms of Black teacher activism consistently take shape inside the classroom through teaching and learning. These acts generally remain unnoticed and seldom catalyze the masses. However, many teachers express their activism through pedagogy, whereby texts become tactics. In this view, teaching-as-activism is indispensable to Black intellectual and activist scholarship. Teacher activists critique power, encourage intellectual curiosity, deepen self-identity and consciousness, and strive to make history culturally relevant for students.
Nevertheless, positioning teacher activism in this broader canon requires a degree of rupture. We must first acknowledge the traditions of teacher activism that enabled Black teachers, especially Black women, to “uplift the race, develop the community, gain for it the more equitable place in society it deserved, while creating for themselves important positions of leadership.” Second, we must recognize that teaching in schools does indeed “constitute legitimate and necessary forms of activist strategies.” This reconceptualization of activism parallels Black youths’ new age activism in the twenty-first century. At a time when there is a dire need to recruit and retain more teachers of color in the workforce, recognizing the activist work of K-12 educators is vital.

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Andrene Castro

Andrene Jones Castro is a PhD student in Educational Policy and Planning with a concentration in African & African Diaspora Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research primarily explores the cultural politics of race and gender in teacher labor markets, education policies, and the intersections of schools and communities. Follow her on Twitter @followurdrene.

So honored to be the recipient of the 2017 Latina Legend Habla Con Orgullo Award this Evening

Heartfelt thanks to Paul Saldaña, Dr. Nora Comstock, and friends for such a wonderful evening at the 2017 Habla Con Orgullo Awards Ceremony. Praise to all the nominees and winners because the incredible roster of outstanding individuals and organizations shows just how strong we truly are as a Latinx advocacy community here in Austin, Texas (see details below).  Watch out, world!  :-)

Speaking on behalf of those of us in Nuestro Grupo and Academia Cuauhtli, I'm deeply humbled by the recognition that I/we received this evening even as we are mindful of the countless numbers of those spearheading the cause for Ethnic Studies throughout the state of Texas as a whole.  This is indeed an invigorating movement that is grounded in a deep and historic struggle for curricular inclusion and respect.

Like us on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/AcademiaCuauhtli/ 

It is such an honor and privilege to labor in the service of our community which is so incredibly hard-working, talented, and committed to the creation of a more just world, frequently facing head on the harsh, political winds and ominous darkness that threaten to engulf.  


It is so encouraging to be a ray of hope, courage, and kindness for, and to, one another.  It is equally beautiful to reinforce relations, build trust, and deepen friendships through opportunities like these.

Thanks to all for their faith in us as we continue forward to both educate and liberate our children and ourselves in Austin, Texas! 

Here are a few photos from this evening below.  

Muchísimas gracias!

Angela Valenzuela

c/s 

 from Paul Saldaña--

 CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2017 HABLA CON ORGULLO AWARD NOMINEES & WINNERS TONIGHT!

Latino/a Community Leader – Demonstrated and proven leadership, advocacy, and action on behalf of Austin’s Latino community
- Jessica Robledo, Police Chief, City of Pflugerville
- Jill Ramirez, Chair, HQLI
- Vanessa Santamaría Dainton, KLRU Educational Services/First President Austin Council of PTAs, Advocate for Bilingual Education & Latino/Immigrant Families
- Zenén Jaimes Perez, Austin Commission for Immigrant Affairs/ TCRP
- Paula Rojas (Mama Sana)
WINNER - Denise D. Hernandez, Hustle for the Cause

Latino Community Organization – Outstanding organization, advocating, serving the needs, and/or making a positive impact on our Austin Latino community
- La Voz de Austin, monthly Hispanic/Latino publication focused on Latino news and quality of life issues
- Latinitas, a non-profit organization focused on informing, entertaining, and inspiring young Latinas to grow into healthy, confident, and successful Latinas. Our mission is to empower Latina youth through media and technology
- Latino Healthcare Forum, organization that provides vulnerable populations access to comprehensive, culturally competent, and quality primary healthcare services.
- Youth Rise Texas, Youth Rise Texas is an Austin, Texas based organization, largely comprised of young women and queer youth of color, who have been impacted by the incarceration or deportation of a parent or caregiver.
WINNER - Con Mi Madre, supporting Mothers/Daughters: Strengthen, Education, Support & Succeed, Young Latinas and their mothers enroll into Con Mi MADRE together and are offered an array of services including: mother-daughter conferences, college visits, campus meetings, community service activities, counseling, and mentoring throughout the year.

Latino Campaign/Cause – Outstanding advocacy initiative or cause during the last year having an impact on our Austin Latino community
- Jolt, Texas Based multi-issue org building political power & influence of Latinos in Democracy
- Sabados en Familia, provides free Cultural Art Activities for the Family at the Mexican American Cultural Center
WINNER - Save East Austin Schools (SEAS) Political Action Committee (PAC), grassroots East Austin Organization advocating for educational equity in AISD Bonds

Latino/a Legend – Has made a significant impact to our Latino community and exemplifies Legado, Liderazgo y Latinidad improving our overall Latino quality of life in Austin

Frank Rodriguez, Susana Almanza & Me

- Frank Rodriguez, Senior Policy Advisory, Mayor’s Office, Health & Human Services, Equity, & Latino Quality of Life issues
- Gloria Espitia, Retired Historian Austin History Center, Marketing Representative, ESB-MACC
- Susana Almanza, Co-Founder and Executive Director of PODER
- Dr. Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, UT School of Journalism/KUT, VOCES Oral History Project
WINNER - Dr. Angela Valenzuela, University of Texas Professor, Advocacy and Activism in Bilingual Education, Mexican American Studies/Ethnic Studies, and Academia Cuauhtli

In 5 Years, Dallas ISD Has Opened 20 Drop-In Centers For Homeless Students; More Needed

In 2014, the child poverty rate in Dallas was nearly 38%. In 2016 that number had dropped to 30.6%. While that number remains high relative to other large cities, it shows improvement (Dallas Poverty Rate). This drop may be a result of continuing gentrification taking place in Texas' cities as demands for new housing that meets the expectations of white collar newcomers to Texas increases where more affordable housing once stood.

One particularly bright spot in Dallas is Dallas ISD's effort to support its homeless students. In the last five years, Dallas ISD has gone from one homeless student drop-in center to 20. Student homelessness results from a number of factors that include poverty, issues at home, and in extreme cases the deportation of parents.

Dallas ISD plans to open five more drop-in centers by January 2018.
This article describes the great work taking place in Dallas ISD to help students in critical need  (Dallas ISD Drop-In Centers).

Mexican American Selena: It can be exhausting to be Mexican American

A student of mine in my Race & Ethnic Relations class this evening shared this scene from the movie, "Selena."  I must have seen this last when the movie first came out 20 years ago in 1997, starring Jennifer López.

After viewing it, I said, "This short segment is what totally made this movie for me." 

It conveys the difficulties of being Mexican and American, marginal in two worlds.

Movies and stories like this that express our truths are liberating, to say the least.

This one segment should find its way into every Ethnic Studies classroom in the nation.

We should also demand for bilingual education as a new default in public education—less because our languages are a resource and more because they are our right—a right that aligns to our original claim to the lands where we currently live—and from which our ancestors never departed—as Mexican Americans in the U.S.

Peace/Paz,

Angela Valenzuela

c/s