I think the definition of Hispanic-serving is based on the percentage of Hispanic students which is very high at Highlands.
The first year I was at UNM, a colleague and I went to career day at Highlands. Because Highlands lacked an Engineering program, we thought it would be an excellent opportunity to recruit some of their grads to Engineering at UNM, The gym was filled with recruiting tables which except for us were all either from the military or the Ivy League schools trying to recruit Hispanics. During the morning, not a single student came to our table. After lunch, a group of young women came to our table, looked at our materials, and then asked if they needed math to study engineering. When we said yes, there was a loud “Ugh” and they turned around and left. Only students we talked to the whole day. A few years later, David West would come down to UNM once a week to UNM on his bike to teach a software engineering course. Around that time, we had a very active NM Chapter of SIGGRAPH in NM. I worked a lot with Bruce Papier at Highlands who was running a wonderful computer art program at Highlands. I believe he too was pushed out during the Manny Aragon era. He passed away in Santa Fe a few years ago. But what I really want to write about is a related story to David’s at UNM. At UNM the Latin American (now Latin American and Iberian ) Institute is a prestigious research and teaching center. It’s founder-director and associate director were not Hispanics. In the mid-90s, Tom Benavides, a powerful NM legislator (http://insidethecapitol.blogspot.com/2004/05/most-excellent-sir-tom-benavides.html <http://insidethecapitol.blogspot.com/2004/05/most-excellent-sir-tom-benavides.html>) insisted the director and associate director be replaced by Hispanics and when UNM refused, the funding for LAI was removed from the UNM budget. The result was that UNM had to come up with funds from other projects to support LAI. Tom was a very popular legislator from the South Valley, so popular that there was a movement to create a separate county for the South Valley and name it after Tom. But then there was his downfall; drinking and wife abuse. When he lost a reelection, UNM seized on the opportunity and hired him as a legislative lobbyist. UNM then got back it’s funding for LAI without having to replace its leadership. At the time, I was teaching a lot of short courses in Latin America through the Ibero-American Science and Technology Education Consortium (ISTEC) which was started at UNM and was administratively under LAI. One of Tom’s duties (actually rewards) was to attend the yearly ISTEC conferences in Latin America as did I and usually Rose Mary. Tom was somewhat uncomfortable outside NM and speaking Spanish, so Rose Mary would often invite him to join us for dinner. I always learned a lot about the spotted history of NM. Ed _______________________ Ed Angel Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab) Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico 1017 Sierra Pinon Santa Fe, NM 87501 505-984-0136 (home) an...@cs.unm.edu <mailto:an...@cs.unm.edu> 505-453-4944 (cell) http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel <http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel> > On Oct 29, 2021, at 6:15 PM, Frank Wimberly <wimber...@gmail.com> wrote: > > During the era of which Dave speaks at New Mexico Highlands i had an > interview for a faculty position in the CS Department there. I wasn't a good > match because they were looking for someone in the area of computers and the > arts. Among my application materials I emphasized my ability to speak > Spanish, my family roots in Central NM, and our adoption of a young child > from Mexico. Someone told me that it was a mistake to mention the > relationship with Mexico because Aragon didn't consider Mexicans to be > Hispanic. To him that word apparently means someone from one of a few > families from Northern NM. > > At that time there was material that claimed that Highlands was the foremost > Hispanic serving university in the US. At the time I wondered, "What about > UCSD, UCLA, Arizona, UNM, UTexas, etc?" I think the answer lay in his > definition of Hispanic. > > Frank > > --- > Frank C. Wimberly > 140 Calle Ojo Feliz, > Santa Fe, NM 87505 > > 505 670-9918 > Santa Fe, NM > > On Fri, Oct 29, 2021, 5:39 PM Prof David West <profw...@fastmail.fm > <mailto:profw...@fastmail.fm>> wrote: > Manny Aragon was president of Highlands at the time of my program. He hated > me personally for no apparent reason other than my program was gaining > publicity and overshadowing his role as "savior" of Highlands. Also, his > Board of Regents assigned mission was to reduce the white faculty and > increase the Hispanic.Those efforts earned censure for the University, > multiple lawsuits by white faculty all of which Highlands lost; and > eventually Manny's firing as University President. > > He arbitrarily and "illegally" (circumventing the faculty and established > procedures) cancelled the program. Students demonstrated at Capital in > protest; dozens of industry leaders, and all of our clients, sent letters in > protest, students directly petitioned Manny to change mind — all to no avail. > > A little less than two years after cancelling the program, Manny was > convicted of embezzlement of federal funds and sent to prison for five years. > He was Speaker of the House in the state legislature before coming to > Highlands and nothing but a powerful and corrupt and self-aggrandizing > politician before coming to Highlands and wreaking havoc. > > davew > > > On Fri, Oct 29, 2021, at 3:33 PM, Russ Abbott wrote: >> Dave, Sounds like a wonderful program. Is it continuing? If not, why not? If >> so, how has the structure changed so that it sustains itself as an ongoing >> effort? >> >> -- Russ Abbott >> Professor Emeritus, Computer Science >> California State University, Los Angeles >> >> >> On Fri, Oct 29, 2021 at 12:40 PM Prof David West <profw...@fastmail.fm >> <mailto:profw...@fastmail.fm>> wrote: >> >> Pieter, >> >> Your plans are admirable and exciting.I wish you the best in this endeavor. >> If you would have any interest, I would be happy to share my experience in >> New Mexico developing and delivering an industry award winning program — the >> Software Development Apprenticeship. >> >> We totally blew up the academy. The program had no courses — instead we >> defined "competencies" that had to be demonstrated — acknowledged by peers, >> professors, and industry professionals — at five different levels: basically >> following directions or rote learning; applying knowledge solo; applying in >> different context; mentoring others / sharing knowledge; and making an >> 'original' contribution or extension to the knowledge. Everyone had to >> master all the "competencies" to level 3, but would vary widely by >> individual interest in which ones were achieved at higher levels. >> >> We had a "one room schoolhouse" where students worked in teams on real-world >> development projects alongside industry professionals, graduate students to >> freshmen mixed on each team. >> >> If we had packaged the knowledge delivered in the program into traditional >> semester credit courses it would have been the equivalent of two >> undergraduate and three graduate degrees. Subjects far transcended >> programming and other computer science topics to include business (of course >> since business constituted the vast majority of our projects), hard and soft >> sciences, writing, presentation, inter-personal and "soft" skills, >> philosophy and history (Computer Scientists and Software Engineers are >> abysmally ignorant of their own history and the thought foundations of their >> discipline), art (including computer graphics of course, but much more), and >> math (but probability and statistics and geometry instead of calculus). >> >> Students learned 'on-demand'. The project to which they were assigned would >> require some specific knowledge and they would "demand" that learning. >> Actually, every six weeks, students would complete a learning plan and the >> faculty had to combine them into a set of modules for lecture and >> presentation in the ensuing 6-week interval. All teaching took place in the >> same open lab/classroom, so everyone either directly or by "osmosis" picked >> up on what was being taught. >> >> The program was immensely successful. Our student body came from the poorest >> county in the poorest state (sometimes Louisiana would take first place) and >> were woefully unprepared for college. But they succeeded: one exemplar >> student entered the program lacking even rudimentary user skills like "cut >> and paste," but was a team leader and J2EE mentor at the start of his second >> semester. (He was also the only one who figured out why the Hero — movie of >> same name — did not kill the warlord unifying China in a wonderfully written >> essay.) >> >> Our student body was 70% minority (mostly because of where we were and the >> mission of the University) and 51-54 percent female. >> >> Half of the students in the first year of the program had papers (not >> student presentations but full papers) accepted to OOPSLA and Agile both >> conferences had a 90+ percent rejection rate). Every student was place in >> jobs, often before graduation and often with the companies who gave us >> apprenticeship projects. >> >> The preceding is just bragging, but I am very proud of what we did. >> >> We had two faculty, myself and Pam Rostal and both of us worked 70-90 hour >> weeks which would not be sustainable long term. We did attract a lot of >> attention and industry "superstars" would drop by to mentor in their >> particular area for 2-3 weeks at a time. >> >> If you have interest in any details, please ask off-list and I will be happy >> to respond. >> >> davew >> >> >> On Wed, Oct 27, 2021, at 12:25 PM, Pieter Steenekamp wrote: >>> The public education system in South Africa is largely broken. For those >>> who can afford it, we have very good schools, but the majority cannot and >>> the education options for them are bleak. >>> >>> I plan to do something about it. >>> >>> This is my second attempt. About three years ago I started a school as a >>> proof of concept with a radical model to have very high quality yet very >>> low cost education and it failed miserably. (I managed to make plans for >>> the kids and I don't believe any suffered from the experience - I pulled >>> the plug before too much harm was done). I've thought, and discussed it a >>> lot, and I'm ready to roll out my second, very different attempt. >>> >>> The basis of this is that there are plenty of resources available for free, >>> and provided you manage the environment properly, kids can and will teach >>> themselves. >>> >>> My plan is a model with two legs, both legs offering very high quality >>> education, but the first leg is relatively expensive and has "bells and >>> whistles" to attract the wealthy and the second is bare bones to make it >>> affordable for those kids whose parents can't pay. >>> >>> The profit from first leg schools then cross-subsidise the costs of the >>> second leg schools. >>> >>> The concept for both legs are copied from https://www.khanlabschool.org/ >>> <https://www.khanlabschool.org/> , adapted for local conditions of course. >>> The second leg schools will just be a low cost version, but the education >>> offered will still be world class. >>> >>> Our academic year starts in January. I'm working flat out to have my first >>> school of the first leg open in January 2022. Then to have the first school >>> of the second leg open in January 2023. Then to learn from the experience, >>> adapt and roll it out so that every child in South Africa has access to >>> world class education in five years time. >>> >>> Pieter >>> >>> .-- .- -. - / .- -.-. - .. --- -. ..--.. / -.-. --- -. .--- ..- --. .- - . >>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>> Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn UTC-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam >>> <http://bit.ly/virtualfriam> >>> un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >>> <http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com> >>> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ >>> <http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/> >>> archives: >>> 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ >>> <https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/> >>> 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ >>> <http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/> >>> >> >> >> .-- .- -. - / .- -.-. - .. --- -. ..--.. / -.-. --- -. .--- ..- --. .- - . >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn UTC-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam >> <http://bit.ly/virtualfriam> >> un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> <http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com> >> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ >> <http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/> >> archives: >> 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ >> <https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/> >> 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ >> <http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/> >> >> .-- .- -. - / .- -.-. - .. --- -. ..--.. / -.-. --- -. .--- ..- --. .- - . >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn UTC-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam >> <http://bit.ly/virtualfriam> >> un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> <http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com> >> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ >> <http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/> >> archives: >> 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ >> <https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/> >> 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ >> <http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/> >> > > > .-- .- -. - / .- -.-. - .. --- -. ..--.. / -.-. --- -. .--- ..- --. .- - . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn UTC-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > <http://bit.ly/virtualfriam> > un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > <http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com> > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > <http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/> > archives: > 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ > <https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/> > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ > <http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/> > > .-- .- -. - / .- -.-. - .. --- -. ..--.. / -.-. --- -. .--- ..- --. .- - . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn UTC-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: > 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
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