Arizona Association of Chicanos for Higher Education

Photo Journal of Conference 2004

Annual Conference

Restructuring

 Arizona Universities:   Chicano/Hispanic Perspectives

        Friday, November 12, 2004 , 8:00 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.

Arizona State University , Tempe , Memorial Union

AACHE’s Mission

The purpose of this organization is to provide a forum for the discussion of issues related to Chicanos in Higher Education and to cooperate in providing workable solutions to these issues.

For more information, please visit our web-page:  www.aache.org.

We dedicate  the 2004  AACHE annual conference

to Edward “Bunchy” Guerrero, from

Globe- Miami , whose service as an

Arizona legislator greatly

benefited the public

interest.

QDEP

 RIP

Arizona Association of Chicanos for Higher Education (AACHE). Consisting of nine chapters, AACHE is a statewide Chicana and Chicano non-profit organization. Founded in 1983, AACHE was established to promote equitable educational and employment opportunities within Arizona colleges and universities. This is actualized through faculty recruitment and retention efforts, scholarship programs, MEChA leadership workshops, community involvement, and the annual AACHE conference. AACHE provides a forum for discussion of Chicana and Chicano higher education issues and identifies workable solutions to these issues.

Arizona State University                       Program                Friday, November 12, 2004

AACHE Annual Conference

Restructuring Arizona Universities: Chicano/Hispanic Perspectives

Abstracts

Chronological Order

PLENARY I: Arizona State Legislators and Chicano/Hispanic Higher Education

Featuring:

• Steve Gallardo, State Representative, Co-Chair
• Jorge Luis García, State Senator
• John Loredo, State Representative
• Tom Prezelski, State Representative

In light of the recent state and federal elections results, how do we begin to rethink policies, strategies and tactics to chart a course of progressive future with the restructuring of Arizona ’s universities?  This plenary offers a perfect opportunity for Arizona state legislators to share and discuss information gleaned from the elections and how to use it to chart a course toward a progressive future in P-20 education.

PLENARY II: Chicanos/Hispanics and the Restructuring of Arizona Higher

Education: Population Growth, Challenges, and Solutions

Featuring:        

• Dr.  Michael Crow, President, ASU
• Dr.  John Haeger, President, NAU
• Dr.  Rufus Glasper , Chancellor, MCCCD

Institutional leaders will speak on how their institutions will be affected by proposed statewide reorganization of universities, especially addressing the impact on Chicano/Hispanic access to higher education and quality of education.  In addressing how restructuring will affect Arizona , each will take into account changing demographics and offer institutional and personal perspectives regarding present unique challenges and future solutions.

LUNCHTIME KEYNOTE ADDRESS:  Elitism Under the Guise of Accessibility

Dr. José Colchado, Professor in Educational Leadership, NAU

The Arizona Board of Regents has undertaken significant changes in the operation and structure of the three present state universities and other proposed universities. There are, fundamentally, two justifications given for the changes proposed: the inability of the state to continue to fund universities at their present levels and the need for the state to make post secondary education accessible to more students. In this presentation the position that the Regents "Changing Directions" Initiative and the Restructuring of the State University System will relegate poor and minority students to the "regional" universities and community colleges will be examined.

PLENARY III: No Latin@s Left Behind? Issues and Questions from ASU at

the West Campus

• Dr. Gloria H. Cuádraz, Associate Professor, Department of Language, Cultures, and History
• Dr. Alejandra Elenes, Associate Professor, Women’s Studies Department
• Dr. William Simmons, President, ASU at the West Campus Academic Senate
• Marisol Silva , TRIO (SSS) Program, ASU at the West Campus

Faculty and Staff from ASU West will address how the plan to restructure higher education in Arizona will affect Chican@/Latin@ students.  In this light, panelists will discuss the response from ASU West faculty, staff and students as presented in an alternative plan that calls for the evolution of ASU West to become a Public Metropolitan Research Institution.  The panelists propose that this alternative vision will offer quality access to Chican@/Latin@ students.

PLENARY IV: A Presentation by the Northern Arizona Task Force on Higher

Education

• Dr. Susan M. Fitzmaurice, Dean of the College of Arts & Letters, NAU
• Dr. William Grabe, Professor, English Department, NAU
• The Honorable Liz Archuleta, Coconino County Supervisor and Coordinator of Multicultural Outreach at NAU
• The Honorable Joseph Donaldson, Mayor of the City of Flagstaff

This presentation examines the challenges to the state restructuring of higher education of matters that are critical for the Hispanic communities of Arizona . These matters include guaranteed access to good quality education. The question of access involves ensuring that communities have choice of opportunities for higher education, including the guarantee of diverse pathways for students to gain baccalaureate degrees. The presentation also examines the challenges that restructuring present to guaranteeing students an integrated environment where undergraduate teaching, graduate teaching, and research combine to create a good quality education and excellent preparation for the economic development of Arizona and their communities.

PLENARY V: Admissions Requirement Changes: The Implications for Chicano/Latino Students

·        Tim Desch, ASU Dean of Undergraduate Admissions

• David Bousquet, NAU Vice President for Enrollment Mangement & Student

Affairs

·        Marita Gómez, U of A Director of Admissions & New Student Enrollment

In 2002, the Arizona Board of Regents implemented its Changing Directions

Plan, which allows the three state universities to differentiate their missions.  A part of this plan includes new admissions requirements that will be effective in Fall 2006, which will enable each institution to apply standards in distinctive ways.  Presenters from ASU, U of A, and NAU will discuss how their institutions will apply these standards.  In light of the growing Latino population in Arizona , this presentation will also examine how Latino students will be impacted by these changes.

BREAK OUT SESSIONS

“Preserving the History of AACHE:  A Call for Action”

Christine Marín

Archivist and Historian, Chicano Research Collection, ASU

Hohokam Room, MU208-B

The history and contributions of AACHE members and participants to the research and study of education in the State of Arizona has yet to be written. It is important for AACHE to document and preserve their activities, research agenda, records, and make them available to an archival repository such as the Chicano Research Collection at Arizona State University . In 1992, AACHE began the process of donating its archival materials to the CRC. It is important to continue with the process of field collecting and the donation of organizational records and data.

“The Real Threats of Prop. 200 for the Chicano Community”

Ed Delci

Arizona Hispanic Community Center

Rincón Room, MU225

Proposition 200 seeks to eliminate fraud in the elections process by obligating every Arizonan to demonstrate proof of citizenship to vote in every election held in the state.  On November 2, this initiative passed. Proposition 200 maintains that Arizona voters are empowered to enact a new law, via the voter initiative means, to control the inflow of undocumented people to Arizona and to deny them public benefits.

Proposition 200, the citizens protection effort, is a misguided and misleading effort to attack a particular community of residents in Arizona .  In its original language, its purpose is to limit and deny people who reside in Arizona , without legal documentation of citizenship or legal residence, benefits from any public service provided by the state of Arizona and its numerous public entities and municipalities.  It also proposes to control undocumented border crossings from Mexico into Arizona .

“Graduate Admissions:  Winning Competitive Admission to Graduate Programs with Institutional Financial Support”

Patricia Lazo

Recruitment/Retention Specialist, ASU Division of Graduate Studies, ASU

Cochise East Room, MU212-E

Graduate education insider's focus on assisting Hispanic students prepare to become competitive graduate applicants.  Topics include making the decision to pursue a Master's or Ph.D. programs, selecting programs/institutions, factors that influence selection committee, admissions application process, what you can expect in financial support, and navigating academic department cultures.  Returning students's questions are addressed to help individuals who wish to advance in their current careers by completing advance degrees.  Identification of the "homework" needed prior to the submittal of the actual application and distribution of a recommended timetable.  Inclusion of current data on where Hispanics attend graduate programs and how restructuring of universities will affect graduate education in Arizona .

“Chicanas: In Search of Peace, Happiness, Equality and Justice

or Is that Utopia?”

Rosemary Ybarra-Hernández, MPA, ABD, ASU

Cochise West Room, MU212-W

Have you ever stopped to count how many books, magazines, articles and videos you have by Latinas, Chicanas and Hispanas who provide you with  inspirational words to guide you to a better place?  They have a story to  tell.  As I grow older I can now reflect on my journey—one that I share  with many Chicanas.  We too have stories to tell.  They are not quite the  New York Times's Best Sellers nor do they seem to reflect the perfect lives  of our Non-Chicana/Latina sisters.  Join me in this interactive session and  connect with the realities of our lives and the struggle of our journeys as  we begin a new path.

This session will provide participants an opportunity to engage in a  powerful experience of discovery that will help them to recognize and honor  their own past, celebrate their uniqueness and create their own path—one  that is not Utopian and one that is reality.

“Think Tank Addressing Problems In Our Community”

Cleopatría Martínez, Ph.D.

Phoenix College

Gila Room, MU214

The session will provide open discussion from the audience regarding topics not limited to K-20+ education, such as, Latinos as voters and leaders and how do we hold Latino and non-Latino administrators accountable?  The goal of this session is to create a forum for thinking, not debate, and possibly identify plans for individual, if not collective, action to achieve some real changes. Because we so often hear what our weaknesses are, what we lack, and where we are failing, this session will be directed at identifying our strengths.

                                    NUESTRO CALMECAC

—To MEChA, First Annual Convocation, 2003

Inmediatamente después de nuestro primer grito,

se inicia nuestra educación

de la boca de la madre, el padre, la hermana y los hermanos,

la abuela, el abuelo, los tíos, la tía,

todos una voz de cultura afirmada.

Then school takes us into its four walls

and we struggle to say quién soy

as teachers mold our public side in English,

yet we struggle, win, sometimes lose, or stumble,

and most of us break those walls

with a high school diploma in hand.

¡Órale, raza!

We then, most of us, get a job and

enter el ciclo de la vida.

A few, the daring,

lovers of letters, numbers, and books,

receive a key to college, our beloved discipline,

and the struggle lasts four, seven years, or more;

at times books, professors, or assignments scare us,

y nos da ganas de regresar al barrio,

con la madre, el tío, la hermana, el padre,

but we pick up those books otra vez, again,

remember our successes from kindergarten to high school,

pull all nighters and long weekends of writing,

and rompemos esos university walls

with  a B.A. or B.S., an M.S. or M.A., a J.D. or a Ph.D. in hand.

Now, de seguro, the world, el ciclo de la vida,

es nuestro calmecac por vida.

—Túyoílosdemás  ©

 SPONSORS:

We gratefully acknowledge the Office of the Executive VP & Vice-Provost Milton Glick and Assistant Vice-President Loui Olivas , the Intergroup Relations Center , including Dr. Delia Sáenz, AACHE, President Corina Gardea of Phoenix College , Dr. Cordelia Candelaria , Chair of Chicana/Chicano Studies. We also appreciate the exhibitions displayed by the Hispanic Research Center and the Chicano Research Collection.  Finally, none of this could have happened at ASU without the active role and prominence that the Chicano Faculty and Staff Association plays.

2004 AACHE ANNUAL CONFERENCE COMMITTEE:

Dr. Edward Castañeda, Chair; Eva, Fatigoni, member; and Dr. Manuel de Jesús Hernández-G., member.