01/26/2015 Financing a College Education

JANUARY 26, 2015 www.HispanicOutlook.com VOLUME 25 • NUMBER 8

MFA Program for Innovators Latino Graduation Rates PropelledTomorrow Fund for Hispanics Improving Financial Aid Access

JANUARY 26, 2015 www.HispanicOutlook.com VOLUME 25 • NUMBER 8

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2015 AAHHE Keynote Speakers

AAHHE proudly announces its 10th Annual National Conference

March 12-14, 2015

Embassy Suites Dallas-Frisco Hotel, Frisco, Texas

Tomás Rivera Lecture:

Anthony P. Carnevale, Director and Research Professor of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce

Keynote Speakers:

Mark Schlissel, President, University of Michigan

Maria Harper-Marinick, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost,

The Maricopa Community Colleges

Richard Durán, President, Oxnard College

Elva Concha LeBlanc,President, Northwest Campus, Tarrant County College District

Ted Martinez, Jr., Past Superintendent/President of Rio Hondo College & Director, National Community College Hispanic Council Leadership Fellows Program

Robert Vela, President, San Antonio College

Conference Book Author: Alicia Gaspar de Alba, [Un]framing the Bad Woman

For conference registration, please visit the AAHHE website: www.aahhe.org

H I S P A N I C O U T L O O K | J A N U A R Y 2 6 , 2 0 1 5 | 2



InApril, 1961, fresh out of college and Army duty,I had started my first job as an AP correspon-dent in Austin when I was sent to Corpus

Christi, Texas, to meet and interview a boatload of sun-baked Cuban revolutionaries picked up at sea by afreighter and disembarked at the seaport.

They were part of U.S. trained freedom forces sentashore in a mini D-Day invasion to retake the island andwere either killed or captured or escaped out to sea inan unexpected debacle.

In sea-parched voices, the survivors castigated theU.S. for leaving them high and wet on the shores ofCuba’s Bay of Pigs without the promised backup supportwhile Fidel Castro’s forces hammered them in a rout.

The planning had started with President Eisenhowerand was passed on to incoming President John Kennedyand carried out by a bumbling Central Intelligence Agency.

The objective of the so-called Cuban freedom fighters,a 1,400-man invasion force trained by the CIA, was togo in and crush Castro’s revolutionary army and returnCuba to a U.S. style democracy.

Castro knew in advance of the invasion and his armymopped up the beaches with the poorly trained insurgents.The U.S. air support got there late and also got lost andincoming President Kennedy cancelled a second wave.

The alternative became making Castro’s Cuba apariah country which impacted the island’s population,depriving them of fundamental life’s necessities unlessits leaders changed its socialist/police state ways for aU.S. style democracy.

This was 55 years ago and the Castros, Fidel andRaul, still rule the island although Fidel, the originalcaudillo, is now in retirement but supposedly still influ-encing the tenets that drove the original governance.

President Obama has taken the appropriate step inwanting to ameliorate relations with Cuba after decadesof U.S. punitive policies and actions that have not worked.

It ain’t going to be easy. The U.S. Cuba community andits supporters in Congress aren’t about to let it happeneven if the Castro brothers were to abdicate their controland announce they were going into the priesthood.

Castro’s revolution settled in after incidents like theCuban missile crisis involving Russia and sporadic en-counters with Cuban exiles trying to upend the Commu-nist regime which has endured.

In 1962 the U.S. imposed an economic boycott andsevered all formal relations with the island nation making

it a crime for U.S. citizens to even buy a bottle of rum ora Cuban cigar, much less do business or travel to Cuba.

Isolating Castro’s Cuba, politically, socially, and eco-nomically, has not achieved the desired results and hasadded to the hardships for most of Cuba’s island popu-lation, many of whom were not even born when the Cas-tro brothers took over.

Meanwhile, exiled Cubans in the U.S. have fared wellwith our government’s benevolence and entitlements notavailable to other refugee groups.

The Dry Foot/Wet Foot policy of 1995 allows all Cubanrefugees who touch U.S. soil to stay while other undoc-umented immigrants, dry or wet feet, get booted back towherever they came from.

Earlier, Operation Peter Pan brought in 14,000 Cubanchildren from Castro’s Cuba. In 1965, President LyndonJohnson’s created freedom flights which in 8 yearsbrought 250,000 Cubans to the U.S.

In 1966, Congress passed the Cuban Adjustment Actfor Cubans who arrived illegally and after two years of im-migrant parole they became permanent legal residents.

In 1980, the U.S. accepted 125,000, Cuban refugeesin the Mariel boatlift, 3,000 of them criminals and lu-natics which the U.S. later sent back.

The Cuban Migration Agreement of 1994 allowed35,000 “rafters” to stay and admitted 20,000 Cubansa year under a lottery system.

Other immigrant/minority groups should have it sogood. The Cuban-American population is 2 million andboasts three U.S. senators. The largest U.S. Hispanicminority, Mexican-Americans, numbers 34.6 million andconsiderably less influence or none on the illegal Mexi-can problem.

President Obama attempts to forge a new era of rec-onciliation in U.S.-Cuban relations are baby steps, likeopening a U.S. embassy in Havana and opening up bank-ing and trade but holding up on tourism and travel, oncea cash cow for Cuba.

“If you’ve done the same thing for 50 years and noth-ing’s changed, you should try something different if youwant a different outcome,” he said.

The president has a point.

Carlos D. Conde, award-winning journalist and formerWashington and foreign news correspondent, was apress aide in the Nixon White House. Write to him [email protected].

The Cuban Crisis: Déjà Vu All Over AgainBy Carlos D. Conde

LATINO KALEIDOSCOPE

4 | H I S P A N I C O U T L O O K | J A N U A R Y 2 6 , 2 0 1 5

Contents6 New Ad Campaign for

Hispanic Scholarship FundStrikes a Chordby Sylvia Mendoza

9 The Tomorrow Fund forHispanic Students – Making aDifference in North Carolinaby Gary M. Stern

12 Helping Latinos Break DownBarriers to Financial Aidby Marilyn Gilroy

15 Udacity’s Nanodegree – MoreQuestions Than Answersby Frank DiMaria

18 More Data Supports ActiveLearning in the Classroom –Especially for First-GenerationStudentsby Angela Provitera McGlynn

JANUARY 26, 2015

6

9

12

15

Cover: Graduate image by FotoliaPhoto composition by Wilson Aguilar



Departments3 Latino Kaleidoscope

The Cuban Crisis: Déjà Vu All Over Againby Carlos D. Conde

21 Scholars’ Cornerby Jasmine M. Haywood

22 Book ReviewTwo Nations Indivisible: Mexico, theUnited States, and the Road AheadReviewed by Mary Ann Cooper

Back Priming the Pumpcover Dealing With Drama Queens

by Miquela Rivera

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Published by “The Hispanic Outlook in HigherEducation Publishing Company, Inc.”

PublisherJosé López-Isa

Executive EditorMarilyn Gilroy

Senior EditorMary Ann Cooper

Washington DC Bureau Chief Peggy Sands Orchowski

Contributing EditorsCarlos D. Conde, Michelle Adam

Contributing WritersGustavo A. Mellander

Chief of Human Resources & AdministrationTomás Castellanos Núñez

Chief of Advertising Marketing & ProductionMeredith Cooper

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Art & Production DirectorWilson Aguilar

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Director of Accounting & FinanceJavier Salazar Carrión

Sales DirectorMagaly LaMadrid

Article ContributorsFrank DiMaria, Jasmine M. Haywood, Sylvia Mendoza

Angela Provitera McGlynn, Miquela Rivera, Gary M. Stern

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for HispanicScholarshipFund Strikes aChordBy Sylvia Mendoza


Actor Adam Rodríguez of the television series,CSI Miami, is standing in a different spotlightthese days. In the public service advertise-

ment (PSA) for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund(HSF), he is center stage but understated, far fromHollywood glitz. Instead he offers the spotlight toHispanic kids pursuing higher education – and urgesparents to find resources like HSF to get their chil-dren to college and beyond. In 30 seconds, he mightjust give his most convincing performance to date.

In the PSA Rodríguez says: “Today, one out ofevery four American kids is Hispanic. That meansmany of the future doctors who will care for us, theengineers who will build our cities, the scientists andentrepreneurs of our country, can be your kids. Weall know how hard it is for you to send them to col-lege. This is why we want you to know you are notalone… and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund helpsyou prepare, plan and pay for your kids’ college edu-cation...”

The ad is short, to the point and strikes a chord.HSF strives to make college education a top priorityfor every Latino family across the nation. The maingoal is to drive parents to the HSF website where theycan find resources and tips to help in preparing,planning and paying for their children’s college edu-cation. However, HSF wants them to see how theirchildren can go far beyond college to make an impacton their careers and in their communities.

“We want parents to recognize that in order for theirchildren to succeed and advance in a career, educationis critical,” says Fidel Vargas, HSF president and CEO.“They also need to know there is a web of people whosupport them, whether they know it or not.”

The ad is only one part of the multimedia cam-

paign HSF launched with the aid of The Ad Council,a nonprofit that produces PSA campaigns to addressthe most pressing social issues of the day and stimu-late action by raising awareness to effect positive so-cial change. The Vidal Partnership, a 100 percentminority-owned marketing communications agency,then created – pro bono – the new TV, print, radio,outdoor, and digital PSAs that ran during HispanicHeritage Month.

S C H O L A R S H I P S

New AdCampaign

Fidel Vargas




“We are the only Latino nonprofit that has tried aPSA campaign like this,” says Vargas.

Rodríguez and Edward James Olmos are doingthe commercials in English, while Jorge Ramos andMaria Elena Salinas of Univisión are doing the spotsin Spanish. The PSAs will run for a year. With thescholarship application process running from Janu-ary through March this year, they couldn’t come at abetter time.

Founded in 1975, the HSF has awarded over $470million in scholarships to date. More than $36 mil-lion was awarded in 2014. There are 60,000 alumnirecipients. In addition, HSF administers 1,000 GatesMillennium Scholars scholarships.

The competition is tough. The need is great. Morethan 80,000 scholarship applications flooded theHSF offices for the 2013-14 school year. Of these,25,000 were accepted. Of those, only 5,000 were of-fered scholarships.

The overabundance of applications is a good indi-cator that Latino students are becoming aware ofscholarship and financial aid opportunities to helpfund their education. Even though HSF is on a mis-sion to reach parents, perhaps the commercials canreach new or potential donors, as well. “We have thathuge gap of deserving students and not enoughfunds,” says Vargas.

Vargas explains how exceptional applications standout. “We are looking first and foremost for studentswho are doing well academically. Second, we want tosee how their heritage has impacted who they are andhow they are in leadership roles in their schools andcommunity. Letters of recommendation from teach-ers, pastors, mentors, supervisors, coaches, anyonewho has seen them in action in a positive way, canhelp tremendously. Last is the essay where they an-swer how they want to make an impact in their ca-reers and in their communities.”

Like a one-stop shop for parents and students, HSFalso offers workshops such as College 101 and Col-lege Camp that invite middle and high school stu-dents and their parents to learn about collegepreparation and financial aid opportunities. A YouthLeadership Institute is a three-day overnight confer-ence aimed at outstanding high school juniors thatteaches practical tools in how to apply to top univer-sities, how to find other scholarship opportunitiesand how to excel in college.

Once a student is awarded an HSF scholarship,support continues on an entirely different level. Asthe commercial states, these students will become

Today, one out of everyfour American kids isHispanic. That means

many of the future doctorswho will care for us, the

engineers who will build our cities,

the scientists andentrepreneurs of our

country, can be your kids.”Actor Adam Rodríguez in an ad for

the Hispanic Scholarship Fund

Adam Rodríguez



leaders of the future. HSF holds intimate receptionsin various cities celebrating the scholars and their ac-complishments. Annually, 150 of the top HSF Schol-ars are invited to the National Leadership Conferenceto foster leadership skills, career development andfocus on making community service and philan-thropy a way of life. There are ongoing networkingopportunities for the students, as well.

The bottom line is scholarships often change a life.Vargas himself could be the poster child for HSF

success stories. The eldest of eight children, with par-ents who emigrated from Mexico, he became a six-time recipient of HSF scholarships.

Graduating with honors from Harvard University,Vargas went on to earn his MBA from Harvard Busi-ness School. At 23, he became the country’s youngestmayor of a major city – Baldwin Park in Los Ange-les – and worked at various companies over the years,as well as a variety of boards and commissions, in-cluding the HSF board.

Early on as a student, HSF gave him the opportu-nity to hone his leadership skills and talents, buildconfidence, and develop a work ethic through his ed-ucation that helped build a successful career and anaffinity for community service. As a result, his tiesand commitment to HSF grew strong and binding.

“The investment the organization was making inme was huge,” he says. “They think you’re worthy ofreceiving the scholarship and support. I felt the re-sponsibility and obligation to give back. I promisedI’d do something to give back.”

He did. Selected as one of the Top 50 Young Leadersby Time magazine, one of the Top 30 Young Hispanicsby Hispanic magazine, and one of the 101 Most In-fluential Latinos by Latino Leaders magazine, his jour-ney brought him full circle back to work with HSF.

All this success was made possible before the daysof PSAs, but in its 40-year history, HSF has never wa-vered from its mission.

Today the PSAs are only the beginning of a newwave of outreach for HSF, says Vargas. He praises histeam of dedicated staff members who are visionaryand practical. With the help of Wells Fargo and Tar-get, they are working on a 2.0 technology buildout.

“The most critical thing we’re working on is theDigital Initiative, using technology, an interactivewebsite, apps and other cutting edge methods toreach the public sector,” he says. “It is an investmentwe need to make to reach out to even more studentsand parents.”


HSF Not Only for Undergrads While working on

her doctorate that re-volved around cul-tural influencesaffecting Latina stu-dent success, Dr. VastiTorres applied for anHSF scholarship –and got it. “It came ata critical time in mylife. It was a godsend.”

That scholarship allowed her to finish herPhD in the 1990s and work her way throughthe education system to her current positionas dean of the College of Education at theUniversity of South Florida-Tampa.

Recently inducted into the HSF AlumniHall of Fame, she has come full circle. Ad-dressing a new generation of teachers, shewants them to see potential.

“I didn’t speak a word of English when Icame here from Cuba, so I ask teachers toassess, but treat each student as if she wereyour next dean.”

Torres promotes and supports HSF, andnotes there 25 scholarship recipients at USF.

We are the only

Latino nonprofit that has

tried a PSA campaign

like this.”

Fidel Vargas, HSF president and

CEO



Shortly before Cuban-born Diane Evia-Laneviwas due to graduate from Flagler College inSt. Augustine, Fla., in 1987, congressional cut-

backs to Pell Grants nearly forced her to take a se-mester off. Those reductions cut her scholarship inhalf. Since she worked in the admissions office on awork/study grant and knew the dean well, the deanof admissions convinced the college president to pro-vide additional grants to avoid delaying her gradua-tion. Years later, Evia-Lanevi decided to launch a schol-arship fund to ensure that many other students didn’tfall into the same financial bind.

In 2009, Evia-Lanevi and her husband IngemarLanevi, the CEO of TransCirrus, a cloud computingstartup, and former general manager at Net App, es-tablished The Tomorrow Fund for Hispanic Students,based in Durham, N.C. In five years, it has raisedmore than $500,000 to bestow 15 to 30 scholarshipsannually to low-income and working-class NorthCarolina-based Latino students.

To be eligible, students must be nominated by thecollege and have graduated from a N.C. high school,be a first-generation Latino attending college, admit-ted to a public or private two-year or four-year college,write a personal statement and maintain a minimum2.5 GPA. “We’re looking for a student with drive anddesire and has a financial aid gap that is surmount-able,” said Evia-Lanevi. Most winners have a 3.4 orhigher GPA.

The fund is proving that a state-run organizationcan offer modest grants that help Latino students getover the hump of college financing. It has no paidemployees and beyond nominal administrative feessays that “every dollar donated to the fund is awarded

for scholarships.”“We wanted to help kids who were in the same sit-

uation we were in. Our mission is to get kids to degreecompletion,” said Evia-Lanevi, a former journalist atthe Miami News. It doesn’t intend to offer full schol-arships but provides missing funds that can throw alow-income Latino student off the college track.

P R O G R A M SS C H O L A R S H I P S

Diane Evia-Lanevi

The Tomorrow Fundfor Hispanic StudentsMaking a Difference in North CarolinaBy Gary M. Stern


To get it off the ground, Evia-Lanevi and her hus-band donated $12,000 the first year and $30,000 sub-sequently. Now the board raises about half of all grantmoney. The fund issued grants in 2010 for $28,000to 30 students, averaging $1000 each. “If you’re lowincome, grants of $500 to $1000 can make a differ-ence,” she said.

To make the fund easier to operate, it works underthe auspices of the Triangle Community Foundation.Triangle manages the funds administratively, dissem-inates emails to colleges to nominate students, mon-itors the selection process and notifies winners.

Scholarships start at $2,000 and can rise to $15,000.In 2014, the fund awarded about $140,000. Grantsmust be applied for annually, but are renewable, andfees vary yearly, depending on need.

The Tomorrow Fund solicits five nominations eachfrom 10 N.C.-based colleges including UNC-Chapel,UNC-Charlotte, Salem College, Meredith College andGuilford College. Colleges must provide some specificfunding for the student, which the fund supplements.

Of the approximately 100 Latino students that haveearned grants, about 95 are still involved and only fivehave dropped out. The most common reasons fordropping out are family issues or financial instability.

After five years of running the fund, the most im-portant thing Evia-Lanevi learned is, “We’re betteroff granting money to fewer students at larger quan-tities,” she said.

Statistics show that the Latino population is gainingprominence in North Carolina. It now has the 11thlargest Latino population of any state, and the medianLatino age is 25, compared to 40 for whites. But ofthe 35 percent of the student population that attainsundergraduate degrees, only 16 percent is Latino.

One Latino who is thankful for the Tomorrow Fund’sefforts is Alberto Aguilera, a chemistry major and sen-ior at Appalachian State in Boone, N.C. He said thescholarship “enabled me to actually have the ability toattend college.” He received a $5000 stipend the firsttwo years of college, which spiked to $12,000 his junioryear and dipped to $9000 his final year. Since he paysout-of-state tuition, Aguilera said the award “served asthe pillar that has sustained” his education.

Concentrating on academics was difficult because ofthe financial hurdles that he faced. “When the TomorrowFund stepped in, things began to change and today Ionly worry about how I am going to perform and givemy all,” said Aguilera. Last semester Aguilera made thechancellor’s list after taking four upper level courses.

Jessica Perianza, another Tomorrow Fund schol-arship winner, is involved in a dual-degree programwith Meredith College and North Carolina State Uni-versity. She is earning a bachelor of arts in mathe-matics from Meredith and a bachelor of science inindustrial engineering from N.C. State and is slatedto graduate in May 2016. Her goal is to become aproject manager at an engineering or consulting firmand eventually launch her own business.

Perianza was nominated for a scholarship by DanielGreen, an associate provost at Meredith and TraceyRay, an assistant vice provost at N.C. State. She alsohad to write a personal statement and provide familyincome data. Last year her scholarship was worth$4000 and in 2014 it rose to $12,000.

The scholarships from the Tomorrow Fund “havefundamentally allowed me to follow my dreams of

1 0 | H I S P A N I C O U T L O O K | J A N U A R Y 2 6 , 2 0 1 5


When the Tomorrow Fundstepped in, things began

to change and today I only worry about how

I am going to performand give my all.”

Alberto Aguilera,

a chemistry major and senior at

Appalachian State in Boone, N.C.

North Carolina Governor Hunt and Diane


becoming an engineer. I currently would not be ableto afford being in school without their aid,” she said.

Moreover, Perianza also participated in the Tomor-row Fund Latina mentoring program at Meredith.Her mentor Celia Scerbo worked at Self-Help, a com-munity development lender that helps minorities ob-tain business loans in Durham.

Tomorrow Fund board member Brendan Moylan,the COO and co-founder of Sports Endeavors, a firmin Hillsborough, N.C., calls the fund “an investmentin N.C.” Students apply for “gap funding” and mustdemonstrate they’ve exhausted all other financial pos-sibilities. The funding encourages them to participatein the college community in lieu of working part-time jobs.

Moylan said the fund collaborates with both thestudent and the college. “The school has to demon-strate a financial commitment to the student as well.The application is filled out jointly by the school andstudent,” he said.

“The fund is making schools rethink how they canproactively address the needs of this group of studentsand families. Some of the students are not eligible fortraditional sources of financial aids (Pell Grants, otherfederal funding) so schools need to find other sourcesof aid to help support the students,” Moylan stated.

Launching a successful fund requires several stepswhich Evia-Lanevi recommends as part of any similardevelopment effort. These include: 1) reaching out

to a nonprofit institution to explore whether to workunder their umbrella or turn into an independentnonprofit organization; 2) coming to terms withfundraising obligations; and 3) developing relation-ships with local colleges.

In five years,

The Tomorrow Fund

has raised more than

$500,000 to bestow

15 to 30 scholarships

annually to low-income

and working-class

North Carolina-based

Latino students.

H I S P A N I C O U T L O O K | J A N U A R Y 2 6 , 2 0 1 5 | 1 1

P R O G R A M SS C H O L A R S H I P S

Diane receiving donation from Mexico’s Cónsul General in North Carolina, Carlos Flores Vizcarra.


I N N O V A T I O N S & P R O G R A M S



HelpingLatinosBy Marilyn Gilroy

Break DownBarriers toFinancial Aid

Latinos are going to college in greater numbersthan ever but they continue to receive the low-est average total financial aid award amount of

any group, according to research presented last fall byDeborah Santiago of Excelencia in Education. Fig-ures from the U.S. Department of Education showthat Hispanics received an average award of $7,925compared to $9,563 for Asian-Americans, $9,400 forwhites and $8,991 for black students.

Santiago said that getting financial aid is still toohard for Latinos. She attributed the difficulties in ob-taining more financial aid to several factors which arepart of the Latino student profile including: being thefirst in family to go to college; enrolling part time ata community college or Hispanic-Serving Institution(HSI); and working more than 30 hours per week.

Excelencia first reported on the financial aid issue in2005 but there has been little improvement despite ef-forts in the last 10 years to mitigate existing barriers. Asa result, Latinos often turn to private loans and othermore expensive sources to help pay for education. Orthey forgo higher education altogether because of whatSantiago has dubbed “the affordability crisis.”

Finding Solutions at Local LevelsExcelencia has been working to identify what can

be done at community and institutional levels to im-prove financial aid for Latinos in the hope that thesesuccessful strategies might serve to influence state andnational policies. One emerging model is from thecity of San Antonio where officials took a collabora-

tive approach to increasing Latino access to financialaid. For the past few years, the city has been workingon a goal that calls for 50 percent of the adult popu-lation to have some kind of college credential by 2020.

Noé C. Ortiz




To help reach that goal, the Diplomas Project waslaunched in 2011 with support from a Lumina Foun-dation grant. A key piece of that effort was eliminat-ing roadblocks to financial aid, one of the barriers tocollege access and completion.

“We knew that everyone was running around try-ing to help and to make things happen but in orderto have an impact, we would have put a structure inplace to make our efforts more coordinated andmore successful,” said Noé C. Ortiz, director of stu-dent financial aid for process improvement, compli-ance, and reporting at Alamo Colleges.

This led to a partnership across different sectorsand institutions to remove financial aid as an obstaclefor students and their parents. The outcomes of theproject have been released in a two-year case study,The Impact of Financial Aid on Student College Accessand Success: The San Antonio Experience, co-authoredby Ortiz and Eyra A. Pérez, who was executive direc-tor of the San Antonio Education Partnership and isnow CEO of Partners for Educational Engagement.

Higher education administrators and communityofficials decided that they needed to join together andbuild an infrastructure to get more students into andthrough college. While there were some mechanismsin place, such as Cafécollege, a citywide informationresource to assist prospective college students, the fi-nancial aid piece was more complicated. And gettingall of the essential partners on the same page was noteasy.

“There were some hard conversations that tookplace,” said Pérez. “But we knew we could do goodand improve things if we tackled the problem to-gether and focused on one big goal.”

Both Pérez and Ortiz know that for many Latinos,a big part of access to higher education is about find-

ing money to go to college. But as reported in na-tional surveys, many Latino students and their par-ents say applying for financial aid and using theFAFSA form is difficult. In some cases parents do notunderstand all of the information that is needed andin other cases, the process is just “too much trouble.”

The need to break through the financial aid barrieris especially critical in San Antonio because the cityhas a 72 percent Latino population, making it thelargest majority-Latino city in the United States.However, based on 2011 American Community Sur-vey data, there remains a 20 percent degree comple-tion gap between Latino adults and the overall adultpopulation of the city.

According to Ortiz, the financial aid initiative isfounded on the premise that the truest impact occurswhen issues that impede student progress are ownedby the greater community.

“The importance of this work is the collaborationamong different partners to reach and assist studentsto overcome a primary obstacle in going to college –financial aid,” he said. “In San Antonio, financial aidis everybody’s responsibility.”

How financial aid became everybody’s responsibil-

Eyra A. Pérez





ity is detailed in the case study which recounts the ef-forts of many partners in San Antonio to get morestudents into and through college. The process ofbringing together the many components to create afoundation that would be community-wide waschallenging, to say the least.

“There was a huge amount of layers,” said Pérez.“And getting K-12 involved was really important. Asa partnership, we had to look at where we have been,where we are, and where we want to go… together.”

But as synergy developed around the project, it be-came more evident that the potential of creating andimplementing something far-reaching was there. Lo-gistics called for the training of hundreds of volun-teers – who at first knew very little about financialaid – to help students fill out forms which can havemore than 100 questions. In the first year, 2012, morethan 981 students received help in completing theFAFSA; in 2013, that number rose to 1078.

Ortiz said he has been pleased with the results andthe project is on track to meet its goals for this year.For him the numbers have a very personal dimension.

“I have had students tell me that without one- on-one assistance they would not have applied for col-lege and financial aid,” said Ortiz.

Lessons LearnedThe San Antonio study examines successes, chal-

lenges and lessons learned in building the program.It offers concrete examples for proactive communi-ties to improve college success for Latinos. The strate-gies in San Antonio included:

1) Student Aid Saturdays San Antonio with a goalof offering free guidance and assistance to com-plete federal and state college financial aid ap-plications. Research by the Central TexasStudent Futures project showed that Hispanicstudents who complete a financial aid applica-tion were 350 percent more likely to enroll incollege. A special need in San Antonio wasreaching out to undocumented students.

2) Financial Aid Curriculum for High School Stu-dents which involved a curriculum to be taughtin high school economics classes in response toTexas legislation mandating such education andtraining. The curriculum reaches approximately8,000 high school students and might be ex-panded to earlier grade levels in middle schools.

3) Financial Aid Council of San Antonio was cre-ated as an organization of financial aid admin-istrators from higher education institutions inthe area as well as representatives from commu-nity-based organizations. The council hosted aFinancial Aid Summit to further its goals.

Fortunately, says Pérez, the success in San Antoniowas not a matter of re-inventing the wheel becausethe city tends to have a collaborative nature.

“San Antonio’s financial aid journey was foundedon the recognition that pockets of excellent effortand widespread collaboration already existed in ourcommunity,” she said. “The initial work focused onstrengthening and connecting those efforts, payinghomage to the very good work that has occurred andthe goodwill that has been built.”

That goodwill remains, she said, because everyonerealizes that they have “partners at the table.”

Officials at Excelencia hope that San Antonio’sgrowth, diversity, and leadership in strengthening theopportunity for success of its community, will pro-vide a useful case study for other communitiesthroughout the United States. In this context, theybelieve San Antonio’s journey can also inform na-tional discussions on financial aid outreach and sup-port, especially in terms of partnership developmentand data use to propel financial aid initiatives.

The importance of thiswork is the collaborationamong different partners

to reach and assiststudents to overcome a

primary obstacle ingoing to college –

financial aid.”Noé C. Ortiz, director of student

financial aid for process

improvement, compliance, and

reporting at Alamo Colleges.


Udacity’s Nanodegree –More Questions Than AnswersBy Frank DiMaria


Asan experiment, Stanford professors Se-bastian Thrun and Peter Norvig puttheir course outline for “Introduction

to Artificial Intelligence" on the Internet. Over 160,000students in more than 190 countries enrolled in theirfree online course. Sensing an opportunity, Thrun,who was the brains behind Google’s driverless carand Google glass, founded the for-profit institution,Udacity. Udacity offers affordable, interactive onlinecourses that empower students to advance their edu-cation and careers in technology. Thrun hopes to de-mocratize education by creating an alternative ap-proach to the current model of higher education.

To that end, last fall Udacity, along with AT&T, be-gan offering what it calls the nanodegree. The nan-odegree is designed and taught by leading technologycompanies, like Google, Cloudera, Salesforce and Au-todesk. These companies, says Udacity, know whichtechnical skills they need to hire for and which newskills their employees need.

Currently Udacity offers four nanodegrees: Front-end Web developer, full stack Web developer, dataanalyst and iOS developer. Nanodegrees are project-based courses in which participants enjoy the supportof Udacity’s community of coaches and fellow stu-dents. Those who complete a nanodegree are certifiedfor the skills they learn through this new educationalpathway. AT&T promises to fully recognize graduatesfor entry-level software jobs.

But Udacity’s nanodegrees are not for the averagestudents enrolling in MOOC, looking for a cheapway to skill up to impress their bosses or get a pro-

motion. At first blush Udacity’s nanodegree appearsto be open to the public and inexpensive. In realitystudents may only request to be placed on a waitinglist and Udacity “invites” them to take the course at a

L E A D E R S H I P / R O L E M O D E L SI N N O V A T I O N S & P R O G R A M S

Sebastian Thrun




later date, if they pass muster. Once invited to partic-ipate, applicants must prove they’ve mastered pre-requisite concepts through a readiness assessment.

And then there is a matter of the cost. Participantsin the courses pay $200 per month. Depending on aparticipant’s skill level and time commitment, Udacityanticipates that a course can take six months to a yearto complete. That means students may have to comeup with $2,400 for just one course. To defray costs,Udacity has recruited seven organizations to offerscholarships to needy participants.

The prerequisites which Udacity requires are notskills possessed by the average MOOC participant.For example, to be considered for the front-end Webdeveloper course students would have had to havecompleted an online programming course and ex-plored the options for learning HTML, CSS (Cas-cading Style Sheets), and JavaScript. Participants mustalso be able to solve and describe a solution to a mathor programming problem and must be able to devoteat least 10 hours per week to the course.

Although Udacity’s nanodegrees at first may seem likea more economical way to get an education beyond highschool, in all likelihood they will not force America’scolleges and universities to close up shop. “The nanode-

gree does not replace the undergraduate experience… Idon’t see it as an alternative to a college education,” saysFiona Hollands, PhD, associate director/senior re-searcher, Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education,Teachers College, Columbia University.

Although nanodegrees focus heavily on specificskills, Hollands, who published a report last Maytitled, MOOCs: Expectations and Reality, hesitates toeven call them vocational training.

Given the advanced prerequisites required, the nan-odegree is not likely to attract the average potentialundergraduate. “You’ve got to come in with somevery strong technical skills to start with. I don’t thinkthey are targeting 18-year-olds right out of highschool,” says Hollands. “It looks like they are targetingpeople who already have a degree or have a goodamount of a degree or are already in a job. I don’tthink they are doing (the nanodegree) as an alternativeto a degree.”

Udacity did not respond to HO’s request for an in-terview for this story. Even Hollands has found that“they don’t like to talk to people.” That leaves manyunanswered questions and concerns about Udacity’snanodegrees. The most pressing of these questionsis: Why are Udacity’s partners making the studentpay for job training?

“Nonodegrees are being offered to a very targetedaudience with specific skills being addressed,” saysHollands. “My biggest concern is not that this is goingto replace a liberal education; my big concern is thatmaybe AT&T should be paying people to do thistraining on the job, not forcing them to pay for theirown training before they get a job.”

The questions, says Hollands are: Where wouldworkers normally learn these skills if Udacity did notoffer nanodegrees? Isn’t this something that AT&Twould train people to do itself?

Since a nanodegree can cost a student up to $2,400it is not a solution for the low-income student. Norare they replacements for vocational training offeredat America’s community colleges.

Workers bring specific skills and capabilities to a job.To keep up with the latest technology in a field, em-

You’ve got to come inwith some very strong

technical skills to startwith. I don’t think they

are targeting 18-year-olds right

out of high school,”Dr. Fiona Hollands, associate

director/senior researcher, Center

for Benefit-Cost Studies of

Education, Teachers College,

Columbia University



L E A D E R S H I P / R O L E M O D E L SI N N O V A T I O N S & P R O G R A M S

ployees are required to grow professionally. Hollandsworries that if nanodegrees gain legitimacy in America’sworkforce, employers will begin forcing their workersto take nanodegree courses at the employee’s expense.“That’s part of any profession, going back and learningmore on a regular basis. But that’s usually part of the jobnot something you go off and do on your own time,”says Hollands. “With the nanodegree employees are pay-ing for the courses and are spending their own time onit before they even get hired.”

The front-end web developer course promises tomake students proficient in HTML, cascading stylesheets and java script, three programing languages forthe Internet. When these languages are no longer invogue, will employers require their workers to pay foranother nanodegree and take the course on their owntime? “What’s going to happen to these people who(show up with) very specific skills in a high tech, fast-moving industry?” asks Hollands. “Will these workersbe out of date in short order?”

AT&T will accept the nanodegree as a credential forentry-level jobs and has reserved 100 internship slotsfor course graduates. However, it is unclear if these in-ternships are paid positions and, if they are, what theypay. AT&T has not yet hinted at the duration of theseinternships. “If they are not paid at market rate,” saysHollands, “AT&T is getting trained employees at a lowcost. Are they hiring them with benefits? Are they hiring

them as consultants or is there a long-term prospecthere?”

Typically interns do not have any prospect of job se-curity. When internships end, interns are either thankedfor their services and sent on their way or they’re hired.With a steady stream of nanodegree graduates in thepipeline, AT&T has the pick of the litter when an interndoes not work out. “It’s a great way for companies toget people trained in exactly what they need and it looksto me it could be a source of low-cost labor. Maybe I’mbeing a bit extreme but these are the questions I wouldwant to ask before I got too excited about the real goodbehind these nanodegrees,” says Hollands. “There issome value in them, but I’m just concerned if it is abenefit to the student or actually a burden on them.”

The success of Udacity’s nanodegrees could hingeon numbers. At this point it’s not clear how many jobsare available for the individuals trained through Udac-ity’s nanodegree program. Hollands fears that Udacitymight be training too many people for too few jobs. “Ifthere are 100 job openings and they are enrolling 80people, we’re fine. If they’re enrolling 10,000 peopleand there aren’t 10,000 job openings then we’re goingto have the same problem we had with for-profit uni-versities who are training people for jobs that don’t ex-ist,” says Hollands. “It’s entirely possible that other em-ployers beyond AT&T would hire nanodegreegraduates, but no one knows that yet.”

Fiona Hollands



Does the latest empirical research support theprior studies showing that student engage-ment in class, that is, active learning exer-

cises that add to or replace the lecture format,enhances student academic performance? Indeedit does. A new study reinforces earlier researchshowing that active learning classroom strategies,while enhancing academic performance of all stu-dents, work particularly well for minority and first-generation-to-college students.

In a recent report, Getting Under the Hood: Howand for Whom Does Increasing Course StructureWork? published by CBE-Life Sciences Education,last fall, authors Sarah L. Eddy and Kelly A. Hogan

found that “a moderate-structure” intervention in-creased course performance for all student popula-tions, but worked disproportionately well for blackand first-generation students – closing the achieve-ment gap with continuing-generation students.

The relationship between first-generation collegestudents and the Latino population is a significantone. According to The National Conference of StateLegislatures, the U.S. Census Bureau predicts thatby 2020 almost 25 percent of college-age adults willbe Latino. Many Latinos are first-generation col-lege-goers. Today, almost 50 percent of Latino un-dergraduates’ parents have never enrolled in orcompleted college.

R E P O R T S

More Data Supports ActiveLearning in the Classroom

Especially for First-Generation StudentsBy Angela Provitera McGlynn

g

Source: Getting Under the Hood: How and for Whom Does Increasing Course Structure Work?, CBE-Life Sciences Education, 2014.



R E P O R T S

We know that Latinos are the largest minoritygroup in the United States and the fastest growingas well. While certain states have larger concentra-tions of Latinos than others, rapid growth of theLatino population is occurring throughout the na-tion and the Latino population is younger thanother groups – ensuring their larger presence in theschool system.

If we discover pedagogical strategies that narrowthe black-white achievement gap and the first-gen-eration-continuing generation achievement gap, byvirtue of the current and future demographic pic-ture, we will make progress in narrowing theLatino-white achievement gap in higher education.

In the Getting Under the Hood study, researchersdisaggregated student data by racial/ethnic groupsand first-generation status in order to identifywhether a particular intervention, namely, in-creased student participation in a moderate coursestructure in a biology course, would work better forparticular student groups. They found that addingmoderate student engagement active learning exer-cises to the course structure (to be described below)had several beneficial effects. Students:

• consistently reported completing the assignedreadings more frequently;

• spent more time studying for class; and• felt an increased sense of community in the

moderate-structure course.

Following experimental protocol by using low-and moderate-structure courses for comparison,the moderate-structure group experienced the fol-lowing pedagogical differences:

Guided-Reading Questions: Twice a week, stu-dents were given ungraded, instructor-designedguided-reading questions to complete while readingtheir textbook assignments before class. Instructorsset expectations that the daily activities would beincorporated into the course.

Preparatory Homework: Students were requiredto complete online graded homework associatedwith assigned readings before coming to class andwere given support and coaching to complete theassignments.

In-Class Activities: Course content previouslycovered by lecture was moved into the guided-read-

… active learning

classroom strategies,

while enhancing

academic performance

of all students,

work particularly well

for minority and

first-generation-to-

college students.

Kelly A. Hogan



ing questions and the preparatory homework sothat on average, almost 35 percent of each class ses-sion could now include activities that reinforcedmajor concepts, study skills, and higher-orderthinking skills. The rest of the course time the in-structor set up activities, delivered content (lec-tured), and handled course logistics.

Most participants in the study were first-year col-lege students. All sections of the course were taughtby Hogan to eliminate teacher bias. Three sectionstook a more traditional, lecture-based course andthree sections enrolled in the moderate structurecourse involving more student participation. Theclasses averaged almost 400 students so the samplesize was ample to draw significant conclusions.

Essentially, the study showed that while all stu-dents benefited from engaging more actively in thecourse, black and first-generation students experi-enced the most profound positive effects. Themoderate structure group students had test scoresthree percentage points higher than the control lowstructure group and significantly fewer studentswho failed exams. While this is impressive, thescore increase for black and first-generation stu-dents was more than six percentage points.

The score increase for black students cut in halfthe black-white achievement gap. For first-genera-tion college students, the score increase eliminatedthe gap between first-generation and continuing-generation-to-college achievement gaps.

Hogan, co-author of the study and director of in-structional innovation for the College of Arts andSciences at the University of North Carolina atChapel Hill, says that the study doesn’t explain thedifferential benefits across groups. She does note,however, that for students arriving at college withpoorer study skills, a more active approach to learn-ing teaches those skills.

Hogan also added that minority students andfirst-generation students are less likely to participatein class and more likely to report feeling intimi-dated and/or isolated when they start college. Shehypothesizes that they may benefit more from amore structured class environment that demandspreparation, participation, and collaboration.

Many other studies have shown the beneficial ef-fects of active learning demanding more student in-teraction. However, most of those studies did not

break down the positive effects by demographicgroups.

Certainly, the National Survey of Student Engage-ment (NSSE) and the Community College Surveyof Student Engagement (CCSSE) have shown overand again the importance of active learning andstudent engagement for academic success.

Eddy and Hogan created an experimental designthat shows what survey data has told us all along.However, this kind of experimental data is invalu-able in proving the point. The results are verymeaningful.

In a recent New York Times article, co-authorSarah Eddy, a postdoctoral fellow in biology at theUniversity of Washington, noted that their studyemployed only a “moderately structured” coursedesign and wondered what the effects would be onacademic achievement if they moved even furtherfrom the traditional lecture.

In that same article, Hogan said that she wouldlike to see the results replicated in a variety of set-tings – small classes, less selective colleges, human-ities or social sciences courses, etc.

We now have more than 30 years of researchshowing that students who are actively engaged inand outside the classroom with the course contentand with their classmates are more likely to be aca-demically successful and to complete a degree. Weknow that sense of belonging and feelings of com-munity play essential roles in student persistence.Likewise, we know that student engagement en-hances not only student success but also the devel-opment of critical thinking skills so necessary intoday’s world.

In a time when college graduation rates, particu-larly for minorities and first-generation students,need to improve dramatically for the United Statesto remain globally competitive, it is extremely use-ful to have data such as presented in the Eddy andHogan study that shows the kinds of interventionsthat are particularly effective with these under-served populations.

Angela Provitera McGlynn, professor emeritus ofpsychology, is an international consultant/presenteron teaching, learning, and diversity issues and the au-thor of several related books.

R E P O R T S



From the Scholars’ Corner

Throughout my academic journey, frommy first day in kindergarten to the celebra-tions for academic achievement, my per-sistence can be attributed to the supportand encouragement of family and friendswho valued my success. I was raised bytwo parents who beat the odds and madeit out of el barrio at a time when unem-ployment was high and housing opportuni-ties were low. My parents constantlyencouraged me to challenge the statusquo and be assertive in an educational sys-tem that was inequitable. They remindedme that I should command respect andmaintain a go-getter attitude. What I didnot realize at the time was that their con-scious efforts to embed resistant capital inme would drive my academic fervor.

My pursuit to embrace scholarship in thename of service and social justice is fueledby my racial and ethnic identity. Thus forme, the personal becomes political as a fe-male scholar of color contending withracialized practices. Throughout my life, Ihave had to constantly negotiate my black-ness and defend my Puerto Ricanness si-multaneously. My own personal racializedand gendered experience as a darkerskinned Puerto Rican woman, particularlyin the Midwest, has led me to (re)defineand (re)create my Afro-Puertorriqueñaidentity and has come to be a journey to-ward forging a new critical consciousnessfor me. Declaring blackness together withLatino origins contests the identity politicssurrounding Latinidad. As an Afro-Latinawho has borne the brunt of racialized dis-

course both in white spaces as well as inintra-Latino spaces, I have a deep under-standing of racial politics and a passion tochallenge intra-Latino prejudices and effec-tively participate in the struggle for equityand inclusion. Through my research I hopeto foreground the experiences of Afro-Latinos in higher education, (de)constructnotions of Latinidad, and contribute to anexpansion of academic attainment withinthe Latino community.

On my journey to the doctorate, therehave been many stepping stones along theway that have provided affirmation on myquest to dismantle the master narrative inthe academy. One has been my experienceas a 2013 American Association of Hispan-ics in Higher Education (AAHHE) fellow.With the support of my advisor, Dr. RobinHughes, I was selected to be a part of thisdistinct program. As an AAHEE fellow, Iwas given the opportunity to present myresearch and receive meaningful feedbackfrom faculty. AAHHE also provided a plat-form for me to connect with my mentor,Dr. Anthony De Jesús, a fellow Nuyorican,who provided invaluable advice for me as Iprepared to start my dissertation. My ex-perience as an AAHHE fellow felt muchlike Sunday dinner at Abuela’s house. I wassurrounded by mi gente, gained consejosfrom those who have gone before me, andreconnected with mi familia. Moments likethese with AAHHE familia are instrumentalin remembering that we are all in la luchatogether.

By Jasmine M. Haywood – 2013 Graduate Fellow and current doctoral candidateand graduate research assistant, Higher Education & Student Affairs, Indiana University



Interesting Reads

Yes! We Are Latinos!by Alma Flor Ada (Author), Isabel Campoy (Author), David Diaz (Illustrator)Thirteen young Latinos and Latinas living inAmerica are introduced in this book cele-brating the rich diversity of the Latino andLatina experience in the United States.Each profile is followed by nonfiction prosethat further clarifies the character’s back-ground and history, touching upon impor-tant events in the history of the Latino American people.2013. 96 pp. ISBN: 978-1580893831. $18.95 Cloth.Charlesbridge Publishing, Watertown, Mass., www.charles-bridge.com (800) 225-3214

In and Of the Mediterranean: Medieval and Early Modern Iberian Studiesby Michelle M. Hamilton (Editor), Nuria Silleras-Fernandez (Editor) The Iberian Peninsula has always beenan integral part of the Mediterraneanworld, from the age of Tartessos andthe Phoenicians to our own era and theUnion for the Mediterranean. The es-says in this volume examine what itmeans for medieval and early modernIberia and its people to be consideredas part of the Mediterranean.2014. 336 pp. ISBN: 978-0826520302. $34.95. Vander-bilt University Press, Nashville, Tenn., www.vanderbilt.edu.(615) 322-3585

Immigration Nation: Raids, Detentions, andDeportations in Post-9/11 Americaby Tanya Maria Golash-Boza Immigration Nation provides an analysisof the impact that U.S. immigration policyhas on human rights. In the wake of 9/11,the Department of Homeland Security wasfounded to protect America from the threatof terrorist attacks. Pundits and politiciansnearly always frame this debate in termsof security and economic needs, but here,Golash-Boza addresses the debate with the humanrights of migrants and their families at the center of heranalyses. 2012. 224 pp. ISBN: 978-1594518386. $28.95 paper.Paradigm Publishers Boulder, Colo., www.paradigmpub-lishers.com. (303) 245-9054

Two Nations Indivisible: Mexico, the UnitedStates, and the Road Aheadby Shannon K. O'Neil. 2014. 264 pp. ISBN: 978-0199390007. $21.95 paper. Oxford University Press. NewYork, N.Y., http://global.oup.com, (800) 445-9714

A friend of mine was recently surfing theInternet looking for cruises she could bookfor herself and her family. She was exas-perated because the ones that were thebest value for the money were unaccept-able for one main reason-- they includedstops in Mexico as part of their itineraries.She didn’t feel safe going there after reading horror sto-ries about kidnappings and the influence of the drug car-tel there. Are her fears exaggerated? Of course, but lookat things from her point of view.

Headlines tell stories of decapitated human heads arethrown onto a crowded dance floor in western Mexico,and Mexican drug cartel dismembering the body of arival and then stitching his face onto a soccer ball. Theseare the sorts of news reports that dominate the media.They also find their way into movie plots and TV shows.There is no question that they are shaping Americans'perception of Mexico as a dangerous and scary place,overrun by brutal drug lords. It’s not all hype, of course.In the last six years, over 60,000 people have been mur-dered in narco-related crimes.

What hasn’t made headlines, however, is the political,economic and social transformation that Mexico has un-dergone in recent years. Mexico has become a functioningdemocracy, allowing its citizens to have greater voice andopportunities to begin building and shoring up a newlyemerging middle class. Their populace is becoming bettereducated and there is less poverty to contend with there.Why isn’t anyone talking about it?

In Two Nations Indivisible, Shannon K. O'Neil is talkingabout it. She goes one step further. She not only shines aspotlight on the state of current affairs in Mexico, she alsomakes a forceful argument the United States should domore to promote Mexico’s transformation and stop vilifyingits neighbor to the south. The burgeoning Mexican-Ameri-can population in the United States, she notes, makesMexico and the United States permanently joined and in-divisible. She says it’s in our best financial, political and so-cial interests to not treat Mexico as an adversary to bepilloried. Instead the U.S. should work with Mexico and“forge a new relationship with them.” Opponents of freetrade won’t like her argument that Mexico has helped U.S.companies become more competitive in the global market.She concludes that this has created more jobs in the U.S.;others would argue the opposite is true. O’Neil bases heropinion on her own experiences in Mexico City and otherparts of the country. The narrative is sprinkled with well-developed personal anecdotes of those experiences.

With immigration back in the headlines due to Presi-dent Obama’s executive action on deferred deportation,this book gives a historical perspective and blueprint forgoing forward for these two “nations indivisible.”

Reviewed by Mary Ann Cooper



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One of the eight comprehensive universities in the Indiana University system, IU Northwest is located in metropolitan Northwest Indiana, approximately30 miles southeast of Chicago and 5 miles from the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The campus has a diverse student population of nearly 6,500students and offers primarily Baccalaureate and Master degrees in a variety of disciplines. Undergraduate and graduate programs are available in artsand sciences, business and economics, education, nursing and health professions, public and environmental affairs, and social work. The campus is alsohome to the IU School of Medicine Northwest. IU Northwest emphasizes high quality teaching, peer-reviewed research and creative activity, communityengagement, and service. As a student-centered campus, IU Northwest is committed to academic excellence characterized by a love of ideas and achievementin learning, discovery, creativity and engagement.

Tenure-track positions are available in the College of Arts and Sciences starting in the Fall semester, 2015. Interested candidates should review theapplication requirements and submit their application at the listed web site. Questions regarding the position or application process can be directed tothe indicated contact person.

Assistant Professor, Biology: Apply online at http://indiana.peopleadmin.com/postings/1308, Contact Peter Avis, [email protected]

Assistant Professor, Chemistry: Apply online at http://indiana.peopleadmin.com/postings/1331, Contact Nelson De Leon, [email protected]

Assistant Professor, Psychology: Apply online at http://indiana.peopleadmin.com/postings/1352, Contact Mary Ann Fischer, [email protected]

Applications must be completed online and require the following documentation uploaded: a letter of intent, the names and contact information forseveral references, curriculum vitae, and descriptions of teaching and research interests. Positions require a PhD or terminal degree. Contact theappropriate individual above for any additional requirement, information and dates for full consideration as they do vary.

Indiana University is an Affirmative Action Equal Opportunity Employer committed to excellence through diversity. The University activelyencourages applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

The University of South Florida System is a high-impact, global research system dedicated to student success. The USFSystem includes three institutions: USF; USF St. Petersburg; and USF Sarasota-Manatee. The institutions are separatelyaccredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. All institutions have distinctmissions and their own detailed strategic plans. Serving more than 47,000 students, the USF System has an annual budgetof $1.5 billion and an annual economic impact of $4.4 billion. USF is a member of the American Athletic Conference.

Administrative and Executive Positions: Director (Advancement) (College of Business) Director of Development (Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute) Sr. Director of Development (Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute) Assistant Director of Student Employment (Career Services) Director (USF Health) (Development, Grateful Patient Program) Director of Internships and Career Readiness (Career Services)

Faculty Positions: College of Engineering Associate/Full Professor (CyberSecurity) (3) Professor, Samual L. and Julia M. Flom Endowed Chair, Professor (Chemical & Biochemical) College of Medicine Assistant/Associate/Full Professor (School of Therapy) Postdoctoral Scholar Research (Dept. Of Surgery) Chair & Professor (Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurosciences) Assistant Professor (Epidemiology & Biostatistics) Assistant Professor (Office of Educational Affairs) College of Public Health Assistant, Associate, Full Professor (Health Policy Management Assistant Dean (Teaching Innovation & Quality Enhancement) Assistant/Associate Professor (Global Health) (2) Assistant Professor (Community & Family Health) Postdoctoral Scholar Clinical (Dean's Office) College of Arts & Sciences Assistant Professor (Psychology) (USF Sarasota) Assistant Professor (Organismal Biology) (USF Sarasota) Assistant Professor (School of Mass Communications) Assistant Professor (Communication Sciences & Sciences) Open Rank Faculty (Cryptography) Assistant Professor (Psychology) (USF St. Petersburg) AP of Graphic Design (Verbal & Visual Arts) (USF St. Petersburg) Instructor of Anthro. (Society, Culture & Lang.) (USF St. Petersburg) College of Behavioral Community Sciences Assistant, Associate, Full Professor (Criminology) Assistant/Associate Professor (Speech-Language Pathology) Associate Professor (Rehabilitation Counseling) College of the Arts Instructor (Director of Band) Assistant Professor (Photography & Digital Media) College of Education Instructor (Elementary Education) (2) Open Rank Faculty Tenure Track (Cybersecurity Education) Instructor of Statistics/Math (Biological Sci) (USF St. Petersburg) Honors College Instructor IFor a job description on the above listed positions including department, disciple and deadline dates: (1) visit our Careers@USF Web site at https://employment.usf.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/Welcome_css.jsp; or (2)contact The Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity, (813) 974-4373; or (3) call USF job line at 813.974.2879.

USF is an equal opportunity/equal access/affirmative action institution, committed to excellence through diversity in education and employment.


Michigan State University seeks a strong, collaborative leader to serve as the Eli andEdythe L. Broad Dean of the Broad College of Business and Graduate School ofManagement. The Dean will articulate a compelling vision for the College that buildson the school’s competencies and is characterized by distinctiveness in its programsof research and teaching such that the school continues to play a central role inthe University’s drive to develop solutions to tackle the most important challengesfacing business and the broader society today. These challenges include theglobalization of talent, markets, and supply chains; the drive for sustainability; andincreasing pressure for accountability from governments, students, and businesspartners. The Broad College is well-equipped and well-positioned to capitalize onthe tremendous opportunities these challenges create.The Broad College has a strong reputation for academic excellence in its researchand teaching programs. Building on core themes of leading through teams, globalvalue chain management, and strategic analytics, the College continues to enhanceits reputation in both the academic and business communities. The Broad College ishome to five highly regarded academic departments and the School of HospitalityBusiness, a leading school in its field. The College has a large and selectiveundergraduate business program with specialized academic and career advising.Students benefit from labs that support wide ranging experiential learningopportunities. The College offers highly ranked full-time and EMBA programs,specialized masters programs, PhD programs, and a wide range of ExecutiveEducation offerings. Long a leader in international business, the Broad College ishome to the Academy of International Business, hosts a Center for InternationalBusiness Education and Research (CIBER), and provides students withunmatched study abroad opportunities.The new Dean will build on the international reputation of Michigan State Universityand increase the Broad College’s visibility at home and abroad. It will be particularlyimportant for the new Dean to foster strong partnerships with a global and diverseset of internal and external stakeholders, including students, other colleges, alumni,and corporate leaders. The Dean will lead the College around a shared strategy toposition it for future competitive success, and, in concert with the University’scurrent capital campaign, generate financial resources to make that vision a reality.The new Dean is expected to further strengthen the College’s teaching programs,diversify and deepen its intellectual capital base, develop fund raising from alumniand others, and leverage the resources of the University and the College.The University has retained the executive search firm of Russell Reynolds to assistwith the search. Applications, nominations and inquiries should be directed inconfidence to:

Mirah HorowitzRussel l Reynolds Associates

260 Homer Avenue, Su ite 202Palo Alto, CA 94301-2777

Emai l : Mi rah.Horowitz@russe l l reynolds.comElectronic submission of appl ication materials is strongly

encouraged.MSU is an affirmative-action, equal opportunity employer. MSU is committed toachieving excellence through a diverse workforce and inclusive culture that

encourages all people to reach their full potential. The university activelyencourages applications and/or nominations of women, persons of color,

veterans, and persons with disabilities.

DEAN


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California State University, San Bernardino invites nominations and applicationsfor the position of Dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.Reporting to the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, the Deanprovides academic and administrative leadership to the eight departments in theCollege. These departments are Anthropology, Criminal Justice, Geography andEnvironmental Studies, History, Political Science, Psychology, School of SocialWork and Sociology. The College has twelve baccalaureate degree programs andeight graduate degree programs. The College also hosts seven additionalprograms: Military Science (Army ROTC), Aerospace Studies (Air ForceROTC), Ethnic Studies, Human Development, Islamic and Middle EasternStudies, Model United Nations and Model Arab League Programs, and ParalegalStudies. Additionally, the College maintains a total of ten Centers and Instituteswith each of them focusing on leveraging faculty, staff and student expertise forthe benefit of the region we serve. The Centers and Institutes in the College arethe California Council on Economic Education, Center for Criminal JusticeResearch (CCJR), Center for Islamic and Middle Easter Studies, Center forIndigenous Peoples Studies, Center for Labor Studies, Center for the Study ofHate and Extremism, Center on Aging, Community Counseling Center, Institutefor Child Development and Family Relations (ICDFR) and Learning ResearchInstitute.The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences has approximately 87 tenuretrack faculty and 4600 FTEs.MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:Candidates should have an earned doctorate in one of the disciplines in theCollege of Social and Behavioral Sciences and be eligible for a facultyappointment at the rank of Professor with tenure in one of the College’sdepartments. Some variation from these requirements may be made forindividuals with an outstanding record of academic or administrative leadership.

Candidates should also possess:• Five years of progressive administrative experience;• Successful experience in university or administrative settings including strategic planning, policy development,

and personnel and budgetary management;• Commitment to excellence in teaching, research and service;• Commitment to student achievement and faculty development;• Understanding of and commitment to the principles of shared governance; • Understanding of and appreciation for the disciplines within the College; • A record of intellectual/creative contributions to their discipline;• Evidence of effective community involvement and leadership;• Experience working at an urban-minority serving institution preferred; • Commitment to diversity in all its forms;• A history of successful development and fundraising activities; • Excellent communication skills.SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION:Application Deadline:Review of applications will begin on January 30, 2015, and will continue until the position is filled.Application Procedures:The applicant is asked to submit a cover letter, resume and the names, e-mail addresses, and telephone and faxnumbers of three references. Please submit application materials at http://agency.governmentjobs.com/csusb/default.cfm or mail to: Dr. Terry Ballman, Chair, Office of the Provost and Vice President for AcademicAffairs, Search Committee for Dean of the Social and Behavioral Sciences 5500 University Parkway, SanBernardino, CA 92407. For confidential inquiry, please contact Dr. Ballman at [email protected] Requirements:The successful candidate(s) is required to complete a background check prior to assuming the position. Fingerprinting is arequirement of this position.The person holding this position is considered a “mandated reporter” under the California Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Actand is required to comply with the requirements set forth in CSU Executive Order 1083 as a condition of employment.This position adheres to CSU policies against Sex Discrimination, Sexual Harassment, and Sexual Violence, including DomesticViolence, Dating Violence, and Stalking. This requires completion of Sexual Violence Prevention Training within 6 months ofassuming employment and on a two-year basis thereafter. (Executive Order 1096)California State University, San Bernardino is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. We consider qualified applicantsfor employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression,sexual orientation, genetic information, medical condition, disability, marital status, or protected veteran status.This position may be “Designated” under California State University's Conflict of Interest Code. This would require the filing of aStatement of Economic Interest on an annual basis and the completion of training within 6 months of assuming office and every 2years thereafter. Visit the Human Resources Conflict of Interest webpage link for additional information:http://hrd.csusb.edu/conflictInterest.html

California State University,San Bernardino, acomprehensive regionaluniversity, is one of 23 CSUcampuses with approximately18,000 students, 464 full-timefaculty, and 46 undergraduateand 31 graduate degreeprograms. In addition to theCollege of Social andBehavioral Sciences, theUniversity consists ofColleges of Arts and Letters,Business and PublicAdministration, Education,and Natural Sciences. Off-campus programs areoffered at the Palm DesertCampus. The University issituated 70 miles east of LosAngeles, offering easy accessto beaches, mountains anddesert resorts. The rapidlyexpanding metropolitan areaoffers a wide variety ofcultural and recreationalopportunities. Housing costsare significantly below thoseof Los Angeles and OrangeCounties.

DEAN, COLLEGE OF SOCIAL ANDBEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

(ADMINISTRATOR IV)

California State University, San Bernardino is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to a diversified workforce.


Faculty Position in Literacy EducationDepartment of Teaching, Learning and Culture

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

The Department of Teaching, Learning and Culture (http://tlac.tamu.edu) is seeking a tenuretrack faculty position at the assistant, associate, or full professor in literacy education in theCollege of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M University. The successful can-didate must have an earned doctorate in an appropriate field with specialization inliteracy/reading education, a strong scholarship record that is highlighted with leadership asa PI on current external federal funding. The responsibilities of the position include: main-taining an active research and publication agenda; actively obtaining external grants (esp.federal funding) to support research and elevate graduate programs; chairing and serving ondoctoral committees; working with diverse populations; working collaboratively with P-16schools, colleagues on and off campus, community, state and global partners, and teachingliteracy education courses at graduate and undergraduate levels. The salary is competitiveand commensurate with experience. This is a nine-month appointment. Applications are beingaccepted and review of applications will begin immediately for employment beginning August19, 2015. Review process will continue until the position is filled. Send electronic copy ofyour letter of application, curriculum vitae, one sample article, and names and contact infor-mation of three references to Ms. Tammy Reynolds, email: [email protected]

The Texas A&M University System is affirmative action/equal opportunity em-ployer dedicated to the goal of building a culturally diverse and pluralistic facultyand staff committed to teaching and working in a multicultural environment. Westrongly encourage applications from women, minorities, individuals with disabil-ities, and covered veterans. Texas A&M University is aware that attracting and re-taining exceptional faculty often depends on meeting the needs of two careers andhaving policies that contribute to work-life balance. For more information, visithttp://dof.tamu.edu/content/balancing-work-and-life

Faculty Position in Cyber STEM EducationDepartment of Teaching, Learning and Culture

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

The Department of Teaching, Learning and Culture (http://tlac.tamu.edu) is seeking a tenuretrack faculty position at the assistant, associate, or full professor in Cyber STEM education inthe College of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M University. The successfulcandidate must have an earned doctorate in an appropriate field related to Cyber STEM edu-cation, a strong scholarship record including leadership as a PI on a current federal grant.The responsibilities of the position include: maintaining an active research and publicationagenda; actively obtaining external grants (esp. federal funding) to support research and el-evate graduate programs; chairing and serving on doctoral committees; working with diversepopulations; working collaboratively with P-16 schools, colleagues on and off campus, com-munity, state and global partners, and teaching relevant research and education courses atgraduate and undergraduate levels. The salary is competitive and commensurate with expe-rience. This is a nine-month appointment. Applications are being accepted and review of ap-plications will begin immediately for employment beginning August 19, 2015. Review processwill continue until the position is filled. Send electronic copy of your letter of application,curriculum vitae, one sample article, and names and contact information of three referencesto Ms. Tammy Reynolds, email: [email protected]

The Texas A&M University System is affirmative action/equal opportunity em-ployer dedicated to the goal of building a culturally diverse and pluralistic facultyand staff committed to teaching and working in a multicultural environment. Westrongly encourage applications from women, minorities, individuals with disabil-ities, and covered veterans. Texas A&M University is aware that attracting and re-taining exceptional faculty often depends on meeting the needs of two careers andhaving policies that contribute to work-life balance. For more information, visithttp://dof.tamu.edu/content/balancing-work-and-life

CHANCELLORSouthern Illinois University CarbondaleUniversity President Randy J. Dunn and the Board ofTrustees of the Southern Illinois University System inviteapplications and nominations for the position of Chancel-lor of Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Founded in

1869, SIUC is the flagship campus of the Southern Illinois University System. SIUC is a strong,diverse, student-centered research-intensive and comprehensive university, with an emphasison service and accessibility to the region. Located 100 miles southeast of St. Louis, Missouri,SIUC is a Carnegie-classified high research public university offering thirty-four doctoral andprofessional degree programs, seventy-eight programs at the master’s level, more than onehundred undergraduate fields of study, and three associate degree programs. Approximately18,000 students are served through the Graduate School, the Schools of Law and Medicine,and eight other collegiate units including Agricultural Sciences, Applied Sciences and Arts,Business, Education and Human Services, Engineering, Liberal Arts, Mass Communicationand Media Arts, and Science.

Diversity is a hallmark of SIUC. Now in its second century, SIUC continues to rank amongthe nation’s top colleges and universities in the number of degrees awarded to students inethnic and racial minority groups. The University is also known for the diversity of its aca-demic offerings, its research agenda, and its strong presence in global education. The Uni-versity is a partner in more than one hundred international linkages and exchangeagreements, and conducts off-campus master’s, certificate, and baccalaureate completionprograms at locations across Illinois and on twenty military bases in thirteen states.

The position will be available July 1, 2015, or as negotiated. Nominations and applicationswill be examined on a continuing basis until a suitable number are identified for interviews.Candidates should include with their curriculum vitae, a letter of application describing theirrelevant experiences and interest. References will not be contacted without prior permissionof the applicant. All nominations and applications will be held in confidence except for fi-nalists. Please address applications, nominations, and communications to: Chancellor SearchAdvisory Committee, c/o Dr. John S. Haller, Office of the President, Southern Illinois UniversitySystem, 1400 Douglas Drive, Mail Code 6801, Carbondale, IL 62901. E-mail: [email protected]

Southern Illinois University Carbondale is anaffirmative action/equal opportunity employer.

For a copy of the complete position description and other materials related to the search, visit http://chancellor.siu.edu/search/

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Executive Positions ...............Page 26Chancellor.................................Page 29Dean of the College of Design .....Page 25Dean, Brad College of Business...Page 27Dean, College of Health Professions.....................Page 25Dean, College of Social and

Behavioral Sciences (Administrator IV)..................Page 28

Faculty Position in Cyber STEM Education, Department of Teaching, Learning and Culture .............Page 29

Faculty Position in Literacy Education,Department of Teaching, Learning

and Culture...........................Page 29Faculty Positions .......................Page 26Full-time Faculty

Job Opportunities ..................Page 24Full-time Tenured

Faculty Openings...................Page 30Tenure-track Positions, College of

Arts and Sciences..................Page 26

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Beware of drama queens on campus. The anxietynormally among most students approachingnew academic challenges serves as a motivator

to spur them to achieve. Drama queens, though,fuss excessively yet take little action to quell theirfears. Instructors often reassure students and offerhelp, but it becomes apparent that no amount of re-assurance is enough for a drama carrier. Latinosare no exception.

How can you avoid the emotional undertow ofdrama queen students? Spot them. Drama queenscome in both genders, different ages and variousethnicities. Typically charming and funny, talkative,personable and even vulnerable, drama spinnerscan be entertaining in and out of the classroom.There is a fine line, however, between the brief respitethey provide with a comment or story and a verbalonslaught that becomes disruptive. One sign of adrama hog: it’s all about them. There is seldom rec-iprocity in the relationships they form and little em-pathy or room for the plight of others. In the class-room, a supposed simple question can suddenly leadthe entire group down a rabbit hole of hyperbole andintrigue, derailing the lesson that is planned or thediscussion that is occurring. Individually, the dramaqueen will fuss about the horrible fate that may befallhim if the instructor doesn’t rescue him by loweringthe expectations, lightening the rules, raising thegrade, absolving any guilt or relieving him of any re-sponsibility.

And the drama carrier is prone to taking offenseeasily. The thin skin is not as much about genuinecriticism or feelings of self- worth; it is about beingvictimized and seeking rescue. And when things donot go as planned, the high-drama student will seeka reason for it that does not include personal respon-sibility. She will blame others: the group memberswere mean; the breakup with her boyfriend madeher unable to focus and complete the work; no onewould answer her texts requesting help. In a realbind, the student will blame the instructor (and some-times complain to departmental authorities) for notbeing fair, polite or competent. Any scapegoat in anystorm – one of the hallmarks of drama carriers.

If you are still having trouble spotting or distin-guishing between drama queens and the downtrod-den, ask yourself how you feel when you are aroundthem. A down-trodden person will be open to sug-gestion, listen eagerly, consider your points of view

and feelings and accept responsibility for what theydo. A drama queen will simply leave you exhausted.A new instructor may question his own ability or worthas a professional since the drama queen has theteacher questioning his own competence and judg-ment. A sympathetic adult might feel overwhelmedwith the stories and anxiety the student has spewed,as if an emotional undertow has undercut their foot-ing. Or you can find yourself treading lightly aroundthem, trying to avoid upset, trauma (yours and theirs)or more drama.

What to do?Avoid attributing the drama queen’s behavior to

the common stereotype of Latinos being overly emo-tional or highly expressive. Don’t explain it away usingyouth, inexperience or fear as reasons for the ex-treme anxiety and hyperbole. Instead, distinguishwhether or not the student’s fear or upset is propor-tionate, well-founded and genuine to the situationand respond only if it is. If it is much ado about noth-ing, do nothing. (The latter may anger the dramaqueen and result in an escalation of emotion andupset, but stand firm and avoid rescue).

Prevent a high-anxiety student from taking over aclass by monitoring the flow of discourse to avoidgetting off track. Set expectations and stick by them.(This is where an airtight syllabus helps). Regularlyreviewing course requirements, checking studentprogress and scheduling meetings with students dur-ing office hours strengthens accountability. Dramaqueens often quiet down or even disappear once theaccountability is clear and enforced. And the account-ability also provides a sense of fairness for all theother students who will comply and benefit from theclass.

The direct approach is best when working withLatino high school drama queens. When the hysteriaor exaggeration starts, call a halt. Request and modelbrief, objective statements. Appreciate and shareLatino students’ humor, yet remind them that theywill be taken more seriously by everyone if they pres-ent themselves calmly, and mete out the dramastrategically.

Miquela Rivera, PhD, is a licensed psychologist withyears of clinical, early childhood and consultative expe-rience. She lives in Albuquerque, N.M.

| H I S P A N I C O U T L O O K | J A N U A R Y 2 6 , 2 0 1 5

Priming the Pump…Dealing With Drama QueensBy Miquela Rivera, PhD


Documents

01/26/2015 Financing a College Education