FEBRUARY 9, 2015
www.HispanicOutlook.com
Entrepreneurial MFA Program forPresidents Innovators
VOLUME 25 • NUMBER 9
Training Future Leaders Latino Graduation Rates Propelled
LATINO KALEIDOSCOPE
The Future Is Us By Carlos D. Conde
here was an old saying about U.S Latinos not too long ago that “we were the people of the future and always will be.” We kept growing and running as fast as we could but seemed to getting nowhere. We’re still on that journey and it certainly was not to be as long as suggested in Robert Frost’s epic poem, “The woods are lovely dark and deep but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.” It wasn’t too long ago when the Spanish-speaking minority was known as “the Sleeping Giant”, a catchy phrase partly due to their lethargic existence, and there was some truth to it. That has been cast aside as the U.S. Latino is finally making strides after years of socioeconomic lumbering along, dependent more on the benevolence of friends and benefactors than on our own initiatives. As we leave 2014 and move into 2015, there are many indicators that foretell that though we are still a U.S. minority group, we are coming into our own after existing for many years as a bifurcated society, and in some socioeconomic areas, still being held hostage to the dominant U.S. group, white America. The year 2015 portends a good one with more progress for U. S. Hispanics who are approaching a breakthrough era after years of challenges and disappointments and in some aspects, a failure to seize the moment. We keep growing and are destined to become the second largest group behind the white population, more than doubling our numbers. However, there have been some adjustments by the institutions tracking population growth and while the numbers are still substantial for the U.S. Latino community, the last upward projection is now geared downward. In an earlier calculus, the Pew Research Bureau, which tracks population growth and trends, said the U.S. Hispanic population would more than double to 29 percent by 2050. Now it’s saying the Hispanic population is expected to reach about 106 million in 2050, lower than the initial prediction by almost 30 million but still a significant increase. Until now the U.S. Hispanic population has been one of the fastest growing. Since 1970, it has increased an amazing 592 percent, the result of being fed by new arrivals from Latin America and Mexico and a high U.S. Latino birth rate. During that same period, the U.S. population over-
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all grew 56 percent. There have been a lot of projections by competent entities recently on the actual growth of the U.S. Hispanic population extending to 2050 but there have been as many conflicting predictions and explanations. Currently, the trend is a decline in immigration, mostly illegal and mostly from Mexico and Central America, although the recent exodus of unaccompanied Central American children would have you think otherwise. Once the largest group of migrants, legal and illegal, Mexicans have slowed their migration north due to better economic conditions at home and a tougher U.S. border watch. They also no longer seem beguiled by a gringo land of milk and honey as in the past and leave it to other adventurers; however, this ethnic group is still the largest and has more family ties in the U.S. than any other immigrant group. The gap has been taken up by the Asians which have a larger population growth. The Census Bureau estimated that in 2013, the Asian population grew to 19.4 million, a growth rate of 2.9 percent and Hispanics grew to 54 million, a 2.1 increase. In 2014 President Obama gave “deportation relief,” a euphemism for not collaring illegal aliens, to more than half of the over 11 million illegal population, and unceremoniously sent them home as in the past. More than three-fourths are from Mexico, South America, Central America and the Caribbean. Mexico has an estimated 5,850,000 and Central America includes 1,700,000. All have to meet certain immigration criteria to avoid being deported but as it has been with past amnesties, many will skirt the requirements and stay anyway. Regardless of the U.S. Latino status, U.S. born, legal or illegal, there’s no denying its growth and the better times that come with it. The poverty rate has dropped and the median household income increased 3.5 percent to $40,963, much higher than for other groups. The downside is that Hispanics are over represented among the poor, making up 28.1 percent of the more than 45 million poor Americans and 37 percent of the children live in poverty.
Carlos D. Conde, award-winning journalist, former Washington and foreign news correspondent, was a communications aide in the Nixon White House. Write to him at CDConde@aol.com
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Contents 6
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José Bowen Leads Goucher College into an Era of Change by Gary M. Stern
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Training a New Class of Future College Presidents by Jeff Simmons
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Nely Galan, Latina Dynamo
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Pérez Emphasizes Education as Ticket to Middle Class
by Sylvia Mendoza
by Jamaal Abdul-Alim
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First Latino President of Fresno State is Homegrown Leader by Frank DiMaria
Cover: From left to right Top: José Bowen, Mildred García, Nely Galán Bottom: Thomas Pérez, Joseph I. Castro, Anna Solley
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Diversity & Leadership in the 21st Century by Anna Solley and Naomi Okumura Story
FEBRUARY 9, 2015
Published by “The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Publishing Company, Inc.”
Entrepreneurial College Leaders
Publisher José López-Isa Executive Editor Marilyn Gilroy Senior Editor Mary Ann Cooper Washington DC Bureau Chief Peggy Sands Orchowski Contributing Editors Carlos D. Conde, Michelle Adam Contributing Writers Gustavo A. Mellander Chief of Human Resources & Administration Tomás Castellanos Núñez Chief of Advertising Marketing & Production Meredith Cooper Research & Development Director Marilyn Roca Enríquez Art & Production Director Wilson Aguilar Digital & Social Media Coordinator Jenna Mulvey Web Development Director Ricardo Castillo Director of Accounting & Finance Javier Salazar Carrión Sales Director Magaly LaMadrid
Targeting Higher Education
Article Contributors Jamaal Abdul-Alim, Frank DiMaria, Marvin Lozano, Sylvia Mendoza, Miquela Rivera, Jeff Simmons, Anna Solley, Gary M. Stern, Naomi Okumura Story
Departments 3
Latino Kaleidoscope The Future Is Us by Carlos D. Conde
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OWN IT!
by Marvin Lozano and Miquela Rivera
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College Presidents the Learning Curve by Gustavo A. Mellander
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Uncensored
Editorial Office 220 Kinderkamack Rd, Ste. E, Westwood, N.J. 07675 TEL (201) 587-8800 or (800) 549-8280 Editorial Policy
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Back Priming the Pump cover Organizing 101: Helping Latino Students Handle Paperwork
by Miquela Rivera
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The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine® is a national magazine. Dedicated to exploring issues related to Hispanics in higher education, The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine®is published for the members of the higher education community. Editorial decisions are based on the editors’ judgment of the quality of the writing, the timeliness of the article, and the potential interest to the readers of The Hispanic Outlook Magazine®. From time to time, The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine® will publish articles dealing with controversial issues. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and/or those interviewed and might not reflect the official policy of the magazine. The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine® neither agrees nor disagrees with those ideas expressed, and no endorsement of those views should be inferred unless specifically identified as officially endorsed by The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine®.
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PROFILES
José Bowen osé Antonio Bowen, who became the 11th president of Goucher College on July 1, 2014, was not the likeliest candidate for the job. Bowen is a trained jazz pianist, a scholar who has written over 100 articles for music-related journals, and a former dean of fine arts at Southern Methodist University and Miami University. At a time when humanities are being challenged and the hard sciences and engineering applauded, music scholars aren’t often selected to lead top liberal arts college. But Bowen has broken the mold. Beside his specialty in music, Bowen is also known as a leader in how to use technology effectively in the classroom. His 2012 book, Teaching Naked: How Moving Technology Out of Your College Classroom Will Improve Student Learning, shows the potential benefits that technology yields in the college classroom as well as its limitations. Bowen suggested that even with technology, professors must still play the lead role in student learning and use technology as a tool only when it improves learning. Indicative of Bowen’s openness to innovation, Goucher is now accepting video submissions as part of admissions. A press release said that videos could now serve as the “crux of the application process.” Goucher College, located in a nearby Baltimore suburb of Towson, Md., had 1,440 undergraduates in fall 2013. Demographically, the student body consists of 68 percent white students, 9 percent African-Americans, 7.5 percent Latinos, and 3.5 percent Asian-Americans. Its tuition and room and board cost a combined $52,000. Hispanic Outlook asked José Bowen about how a music professor became a college president, his thoughts on making Goucher more open to multicultural students, and his ideas on video applications
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Leads Goucher College into an Era of Change By Gary M. Stern
and the use of technology in the classroom. HO: Jazz pianists and music scholars aren’t often selected as president of a leading liberal arts college like Goucher. Why do you think you were selected as Goucher’s president? Bowen: Yes, there aren’t a lot of jazz pianists running colleges. My job is to make other people sound better.
José Antonio Bowen
PROFILES Music is all about listening, knowing your partners, and not taking over. It’s absolutely a team sport. It also involves improvising in real time. All of these are great skills for running a college. HO: What skills do you bring to being a college president? Bowen: My training is as a scholar in music, but most of my most recent work is in higher education pedagogy. We know a lot more about learning and how the brain works. Higher education is at a period of dramatic change and technology is driving that change in many ways. Technology has changed our relationship to knowledge. In the old days, college was filling the vessel with content. Now students live in a knowledge rich world. They arrive with more knowledge on their phone than in any library or classroom. It’s no longer about access to knowledge; it’s about critical thinking, learning new things and most important, the ability to change. HO: So how can Goucher change to fit into this new environment?
Bowen: The college has to rethink liberal arts. I’ve said to the faculty that we need a value proposition that is more compelling and that customers want. Then we have to do the second part, which is to make sure we actually deliver it. Most of higher education is like a magic show that says “trust us.” We need more vigorous assessments. We need to make sure students can write effectively, tell facts from opinion and judgment, do qualitative analysis, know how to do their taxes, handle big data and communication on their own, and make good decisions. In the past, we didn’t measure those things. We’re going to develop our value proposition, determine what people will pay for, and make sure we do it better than anyone else. HO: How are video applications a sign of Goucher’s adapting to this new environment? Bowen: We are the first institution which will accept a video instead of a transcript. It still requires two pieces of high school work, a writing sample or something they present like a dance recital or science experiment. It’s simple, and students understand it, and not everyone has access to computers. Making a video
The video application was created to reach those students who were like me and didn’t have anyone to tell them about the college application process. It says this place will welcome you.” José Antonio Bowen, president, Goucher College
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PROFILES levels the playing field. Writing a college application on your phone isn’t a fair fight. lf a student has a computer and does a hundred drafts and has a high school teacher and parents helping them, versus someone whose parents haven’t gone to college, that’s not a fair fight. A video is more authentic, and that’s a more fair way to evaluate potential. HO: What message does it send to Goucher applicants? Bowen: Goucher is inclusive. We care about potential and not just privilege. We want to start a conversation with students of all backgrounds, not just those who went to elite private schools that make up the largest population of students. HO: Describe the ideal Goucher student. Bowen: Goucher is full of students who are undeclared in their major. Most students want to make a difference in the world, but aren’t sure what their major is going to be. Goucher is all about social justice, inclusion and respect. We have students of very diverse backgrounds. In fact, 27 percent of our students receive Pell grants, which is very high. HO: Goucher costs more than $50,000 a year. What is being done to make the college more affordable? Bowen: We know that 60 percent of parents reject a school based on sticker price. But many don’t know that all schools discount price based on merit and need. In fact, no poor student pays the sticker price. Goucher offers both need and merit awards. In fact, 85 percent of our kids get money. It means there is needs based money and scholarships for students who have outstanding grades or artistic talent. We’re a Division 3 college so we don’t have athletic scholarships. It’s the price you pay that matters. HO: Demographically, this country is 16 percent Latino and 15 percent African-American. But Goucher has about 9 percent African-Americans and 8 percent Latino. What can be done to increase those numbers? Bowen: They hired a Latino president who has been on the job 100 days. One of the first things he did was to change his admissions policy and open the door wider. The video application was created to reach those students who were like me and didn’t have anyone to tell them about the college application process. It says this place will welcome you. HO: How specifically do you welcome students at Goucher?
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Bowen: Two things that make a campus good to go to (for minority students): one is the more kids who attend and look like you. Even if the campus were 50 percent minority, if the other kids didn’t talk to you, it would make a difference. We have an inclusive value system. The athletes here talk to the kids with the pink hair and nose rings. Our core mission was to be academically rigorous and be a place where students could be nurtured on this idyllic campus. HO: Your background? Bowen: I’m from Fresno, Calif. I picked cantaloupes in the summer. I was valedictorian in my class of 650 students. My counselor thought I should attend the local state university in Fresno. My mother didn’t speak a lot of English but she knew what valedictorian meant and yelled at that counselor and told him my son could do better. She grabbed an application to Stanford and told me to fill it out. I got accepted. HO: Your message to Latino students? Bowen: Apply to super-stretch schools. At expensive schools, you often pay less money. Our community hasn’t done a good job of explaining that. HO: Your book Teaching Naked explores the role technology can play in the classroom. Describe it. Bowen: Technology has made it easier to access content, but the value of the classroom is based on the interaction. Education isn’t about content acquisition; it’s about change. Smart people aren’t smart because they know a lot of stuff. Smart people know how to change minds. That doesn’t happen by watching PowerPoint. Having more TV channels didn’t make us better informed. The value proposition of faculty is not about how much they know; it’s about they can help you to learn change. HO: And you’ll be training faculty in this area? Bowen: I spent the last three years doing workshops for faculty, helping other faculties change. I’m going to model it and offer workshops. HO: Two years from today, what major changes do you expect to happen at Goucher? Bowen: The biggest will be engaging the faculty with the need to do more and integrate learning across campus. If the faculty is on board with the idea that change is the new normal at a liberal arts college, we’ll be fine.
P ER A L OD G ER RA SMHSI P / P R O G R A M S
Training a New Class of Future College Presidents By Jeff Simmons
I am in my third presidency now. And I can always go back to the presidents who were there (in the MLI program) when I was a student. We’ve all become this amazing network of support.” Mildred García, president of California State University, Fullerton.
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LEADERSHIP/PROGRAMS ildred García desired to scale the ranks of academia and step into the president’s office. She had taught at community colleges, comprehensive institutions and research universities, including LaGuardia Community College and City College (both within the City University of New York system), Montclair State University in New Jersey, Pennsylvania State University, and Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York City. Her ascendancy continued as she assumed higher managerial posts at Montclair State University, Hostos Community College, also within the CUNY system, and LaGuardia. It was while serving as vice provost for academic affairs at Arizona State University that her career trajectory was cemented. Her supervisor, the university’s provost, nominated García to take part in the first class of a novel program fashioned for aspiring leaders of academic institutions. “I was in the very first class in 1999. This was something new. There wasn’t a lot of hype about it,” she says, brimming with enthusiasm about the experience. “It was a class of diverse individuals, people of color, women, all dealing with major demographic issues happening in this country.” The endeavor, the Millennium Leadership Initiative (MLI), was conceived by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ (AASCU) AfricanAmerican presidents to ensure that a new generation of higher education leaders reflected the evolving, diverse landscape of the country, particularly as the population of minority students escalated on campuses. The program identified Hispanic, African-American, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders who already were in high-level positions and exploring career advancement to presidential or chancellor positions. Individuals can only be considered once nominated by presidents, chancellors and other chief executive officers. García soon after became the initiative’s first graduate to be appointed as a college president, stepping into the post at Berkeley College in New York and New Jersey in 2001. Six years later, she became president of California State University, Dominguez Hills, where she was the 11th female – and first Hispanic – president. Three years ago, in June 2012, she was appointed as the fifth president of California State University, Fullerton. “I am in my third presidency now,” she says. “And I can always go back to the presidents who were there (in the MLI program) when I was a student. We’ve
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Gladys Styles Johnston
all become this amazing network of support.” García’s experience is emblematic of the influence of a program that draws raves from graduates – called “protégés” – for carefully identifying talented individuals not equally represented in the highest ranks of many academic institutions. Since 1999, 484 protégés have graduated from the initiative. More than a third have advanced significantly in their careers, and more than 80 graduates have become presidents or chancellors. Like García, several already have embarked on second or third presidencies, bringing MLI's influence to 100 presidencies, gaining ground in a domain traditionally underrepresented by individuals of color and in particular, Hispanics. Gladys Styles Johnston, one of the founders of the initiative, recalls how it was conceived amid widening concerns about the lack of diversity in academia’s upper echelons. “The main issue for us was as we were going to grow older, who was going to replace us, and we were afraid that not one of us would be replaced by people who looked like us unless we did something ourselves,” she says. “That was the genesis of the discus-
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P ER A L OD G ER RA SMHSI P / P R O G R A M S sion. We wanted to ensure that women and minorities would be in the leading positions rather than have headhunters tell us ‘we can’t find them’.” Currently, an 18-member steering committee comprised of presidents and chancellors, each serving three-year terms, rigorously reviews nominations, which have increased steeply over the years. Thirty protégés are selected each year from an average of 60 nominations. Candidates, she says, must possess a terminal degree or have significant experience as a senior executive, however, equivalent experience in government or the private sector is acceptable. The 2014 class of MLI protégés was evenly divided among gender, and about a sixth of the 30 protégés were of Hispanic heritage. They included a chief of staff at Texas A&M University-San Antonio; vice president for students affairs at South Dakota State University; vice provost for undergraduate studies and student success at Eastern Washington University; a dean of the College of Education at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin; and, the dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. “We are dealing with a very special group of bright, intelligent people who, given the opportunity, there is nothing they can't do,” says Johnston, noting how successful nominees must be able to demonstrate leadership experience that is necessary to achieve a presidency or chancellorship or to advance to vice
The best thing about the program is that it’s practical, it’s real world; it’s not academic or theoretical. We cover different types of issues that you are going to face if you become president…” Eduardo M. Ochoa, president of California State University, Monterey Bay
Eduardo M. Ochoa
president or provost. The selected protégés then take part in an annual four-day institute, which is held every June in Washington, D.C. This year’s class, chosen in early 2015, will converge on June 7. At the institute, presidential faculty and other experts provide insights into leadership issues and provide skills training and advise them in career counseling sessions. “For four days they are involved in seminars, all conducted by sitting presidents and chancellors, telling them what they do, what mistakes they made,” she said. “We try to prevent them from making the same mistakes.” The experience allows participants to determine if a presidency is a realistic goal and gives them the opportunity to develop skills, including how to work with elected officials to achieve their goals. That skill is illuminated by an excursion that caps off the annual institute. The protégés are required to contact their congressional delegation from the Senate and House and set up appointments with those individuals, and on the last day, sitting presidents accompany them to a series of meetings. “That teaches them how to ask for things, what
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they should or should not do,” says Johnston. The conclave also offers an eye-opening experience into the lives, and livelihoods, of some of the nation’s top higher education leaders. They discuss the challenges and obstacles faced, both large and small, in warts-and-all discussions. “It’s a safe haven for us to discuss issues, put them on the table. We can come up with our own objectives and solutions to major issues that need to be addressed,” Johnston says. During the jam-packed days, the protégés become much closer. “I watch as they blend with each other, become protective of each other and hang out together,” she says. The experience does not end when the four days conclude. After graduating from the institute, participants make a commitment to pay it forward and assist future protégés in the program. In fact, the graduates successfully envisioned creating a scholarship fund to pay for those candidates whose institutions would not pay the costs for the institute. Additionally, graduates are assigned a mentor – a sitting president or chancellor – who guides them in their careers. Often the graduates are invited to visit their mentors’ campuses, attend board meetings, meet with Regents and staff, and participate in activities. “They see things up close and personal,” Johnston says, and “see that things are not as they have read them in a book.” While the initiative has led many to college presidencies or chancellorships, it also has enlightened others that they are not equipped to serve in those positions. “By the time they finish the institute, they say ‘this
is the best experience I had, and what this taught me is that I don’t want to be a president’. It’s atypical but it does happen. People realize this job is much more than they expected,” she says. Graduates, as well, don’t necessarily follow the desired path to college presidencies. One person has since taken on an ambassadorial role, another assumed a position as a deputy secretary in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and others have joined the U.S. Department of Education. One graduate, Eduardo M. Ochoa, who has served as president of California State University, Monterey Bay since 2012, says the initiative’s instructors play a valuable role in the program’s success. “It had a wealth of sitting presidents that were giving their time to the students,” says Ochoa. “The best thing about the program is that it’s practical, it’s real world; it’s not academic or theoretical. We cover different types of issues that you are going to face if you become president that you really don’t experience until you reach that level.” The range of topics presented in the seminars involves everything from how to assess budget situations to analyzing government issues to dealing with the media. Discussions involve how to carefully navigate between being a leader and a constituent-builder, and delegating versus adopting a more hands-on approach. Like García, Ochoa also notes the strong relationships that are formed early on, and that last a lifetime. “You develop a great network of fellow alumni of the program as they progress in their careers,” he says. “You have this extended network of people with whom you bond.”
Mildred García
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I NENAODVE AR TSI HO INPS/ R&O P L LE R OMG OR DA EMLSS
Nely Galán, Latina Dynamo By Sylvia Mendoza
acing off with mega entrepreneur Donald Trump in the television show The Celebrity Apprentice didn’t much faze Nely Galán. Dubbed the “Tropical Tycoon” by The New York Times Magazine, she was a self-made media mogul herself, earning her first six figures before she was 30 years old. As owner and president of Galán Entertainment, she had already been quite successful as a television producer of more than 600 different types of shows in English and Spanish, including the acclaimed The Swan. As the first Latina president of Telemundo – and one of the first Latina producers in Hollywood – she was all about constantly challenging herself professionally, which gave her a springboard for paying it forward in areas that mattered to her personally. Trump’s show, for example, gave her a chance to earn $250,000 for her charity of choice, Count Me In. Since then, Galán has started many new ventures, including her latest – The Adelante Movement, an organization dedicated to empower, inspire, and mentor Latinas to become financially independent entrepreneurs and community leaders. “I’m about changing with the times and finding your own emerging markets,” Galán explains. “If you keep doing what’s comfortable, you’re not changing with the times, you’re not growing.” Featured in HBO’s The Latino List documentary as one of the most influential voices in the Latino community, she founded The Adelante Movement to provide a forum for Latinas to aspire to bigger and better – in voice, presence, income, and impact. “The Adelante Movement was created for all of us to unite socially, economically and politically,” Galán says. “I’ve learned that the world is our oyster, ours to truly have – but only if we are bold enough to take it.” The mission of The Adelante Movement is stated
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on its website in a way that brings a personal element to its global outreach: “We are now the emerging economic market in this country. We need to take ourselves to a higher place for the sake of our children. We need to own more businesses, raise more money, bring franchises to our families, pay for our children’s colleges and become a powerful voice for our community.” Serving on the board of the Coca-Cola Advisory
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LEADERSHIP/ROLE MODELS Committee for three years, Galán learned from CocaCola research that Latinas are the economic emerging market in this country and that they control $1 trillion dollars in purchasing power, she explains. “There’s no traditional way of looking at things any more. You have to take a leap of faith to find your own path and make an impact,” says Galán. She wants Latinas to be financially savvy and responsible for their own futures, their own happiness and their own fulfillment – and be a voice in their communities by voting. There is a place for Latina entrepreneurs in the American business arena. “There’s power in Latina influence but we need to segue into mainstream America while being authentic in both worlds. The advantage is that you win in both worlds.” The Leap of Faith It wasn’t an easy path for Galán, who, as a first generation immigrant from Cuba, credits her parents’ work ethic and faith for her own. “I had the choice at 25 to start a business. I had the choice at 29 to not give up. Then I had to take the leap of faith. I had no mortgage, no kids. At 29 when my efforts weren’t working, I had a conversation with God and asked, ‘Really? You’re not going to even throw me a bone?’ but there was a deep faith in me where I believed, even in those difficult times, that bad things happen
for a reason and things would work out for the best.” And they did. After years of tireless effort and risk taking, her business and reputation grew solid and strong. Now, with The Adelante Movement, she can share her journey, her highs and lows, accomplishments and hard lessons learned to help other Latinas invest in themselves and in their futures. Patience, hard work, long hours and getting over instant gratification are the keys. “The missing piece of the puzzle is sacrifice. Live beneath your means to help yourself in your future.” It may be extreme for many, but it obviously worked for Galán. For five years, she rotated five outfits, lived in a four-story walk up in New York, never took a vacation, and started investing and saving. “If you don’t have a year’s salary in the bank, you need to find another way to make money – no fun stuff until you reach that goal,” she says. Even now, her early practices are habits. “I never pay retail for clothes. Ever. I could fly first class and I do sometimes, but when I fly with my kid, I never fly first class. I don’t ever want him to feel entitled. I look at young girls now who vacation two or three times a year and I ask them, why? How? ¿Qué es eso? You have to take care of yourself financially first, then have faith in the road you choose, then have fun.” And you have to stay focused, she says. Her favorite book is Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Her favorite investment
The Adelante Movement was created for all of us to unite socially, economically and politically. I’ve learned that the world is our oyster, ours to truly have – but only if we are bold enough to take it.” Nely Galán
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I NENAODVE AR TSI HO INPS/ R&O P L LE R OMG OR DA EMLSS is in real estate – preconstruction, dorms, city sales, foreclosures. “It’s like playing Monopoly. The day an investment closes, flip it and double your investment.” Her favorite slogan is “Don’t buy shoes. Buy buildings.” Her favorite part of The Adelante Tour is securing powerful guest speakers from all walks of life such as Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Rigoberta Menchu, Treasurer of the United States Rosie Rios, and best-selling author Sandra Cisneros – and seeing the impact of their stories on young audiences. For those just venturing into the world of entrepreneurship and community leadership, there will be risks, she says. It will be scary and there will be setbacks. But they almost always move a woman and a business forward. She brings up Richard Branson, Virgin Group founder, whose first privatized Virgin Galactic space flight crashed last year. “It’s just a setback,” says Galán. “In the quest for something that will be huge, of course there will be setbacks.” But setbacks are a chance to get things right. “Sometimes even I feel like I’m going backwards. Estas loca, right? All you have to do is stop and reassess. If you don’t stop and reboot, you won’t learn.” Filling the Void Not having completed her higher education, Galán felt a void in her heart and life. Taking another leap of faith a few years ago, she stopped working completely and dedicated herself to school, financing her own education. “I was so advanced career-wise but I skipped the developmental stages of my life. I felt 65, not 45. At 18, I went to work and didn’t go through the rites of passage that allow you to grow with that perspective of youth. I thought, ‘How can I be so smart about business but still feel the void?’” Finishing her bachelor’s degree and earning her master’s and doctorate in clinical and cultural psychology, she found her voice on an entirely different level. Her dissertation was developing a hyper-focused entrepreneurial program for Latinas that was the core idea for The Adelante Movement. “I finally felt congruent – a grown woman, solid and mature, two parts coming together. I knew the timing was right. Three graduations in four years. It was such a magical experience to walk.” When she earned her PhD, her gift to herself was a trip around the world in a private jet. “For once I felt it was finally okay to splurge.” In true Galán style, the trip brought more than
R&R and celebration. It brought a new perspective and great appreciation for her life, bringing her full circle to her beliefs and mission. “What I saw in all these countries I visited was that there is no place in the world like here, where the American Dream is alive and well. So what are we waiting for? What is the void you need to fill?” Walking The Walk Galán believes it is never too late, no matter your age, to become your own best advocate for acquiring abundance. “Ground yourself,” she says. “Your life can change in two years, dramatically. It takes just two years to radically shift your life.” She emphasizes that it doesn’t have to be a linear path, just a path that is congruent to self-growth. Another big lesson she learned while in school was from an 80-year-old, who was a foremost expert on Freud. She told Galán, “Be a super expert on something. One thing. What is it for you?” “Finally I can say it’s mastering entrepreneurship. I feel like I walk the walk. This is the purest place of me. I’m more grounded with a humility that’s an important Latino aspect of success. Not to be ‘pobrecito’ but to harness power from a sense of what’s important.” She wants to follow in the footsteps of Mazal Renford, Israeli diplomat to the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women, who travels the world initiating programs that help empower women to become financially stable and a foundation of their communities. She has started that mission with The Adelante Movement. Galán returns to her belief that Latinas have so much going for them – but they have to believe that, too, and that their lives can be rich in every way. “We have to get out of the thought that we can’t live a life of abundance, that it’s unattainable. It’s attainable. We will reframe what the word means and make it tangible for Latinas.” Her own life is an example of abundance that also affects thought, work ethic, mission and mentorship. Being featured on Celebrity Apprentice lit a fire in Galán that she hopes translates to The Adelante Movement. “I was the only Latina entrepreneur and I had to get over the feeling of being ‘less than.’ I was never less than. I’m an entrepreneur. That’s a constant in my life. We have to aspire to not be marginalized. That’s what I want Latinas to know from The Adelante Movement.”
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LEADERSHIP/ROLE MODELS
Pérez Emphasizes as Ticket to Education Middle Class By Jamaal Abdul-Alim
hen U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Pérez spoke to a recent gathering of journalists about the need for a higher minimum wage and the importance of worker voices, he trumpeted the idea that leadership is an essential element for success. “Leadership is an indispensable, indispensable, indispensable characteristic of how we will succeed in this country in bringing shared prosperity to everyone,” Pérez said during a luncheon at the National Press Club. He commended states that are “not waiting for Congress” to act on minimum wage, paid leave and similar issues, “because they see that so many people need a raise.” He applauded leadership within the labor movement and nonprofits who lend support to the fast food labor protests. He hailed business leaders who are “rejecting the false choices” between higher wages and competitiveness, between collective bargaining and growth, between taking care of shareholders or employees but not both. “They understand that treating workers with dignity and respect isn't just a nice thing to do,” Pérez said. “It’s good for your bottom line.” And, although he made the remarks before President Obama took executive action on immigration reform, he cited the president as an example of the kind of leadership that is needed in Washington when Congressional leaders fail to act. Such is the substance and style of Pérez, who grew up in Buffalo, the son of Dominican immigrants who settled there. Recalling union shop jobs in the manufacturing city where he was raised as a way into the middle class, Pérez recounted his own work history – how he delivered newspapers on three different routes
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as teenager, shagged golf balls at a driving range, worked on the back of a trash truck, and at Sears. “And all of those jobs taught me the dignity of work and the value of whatever job you’re at, you give your best and work your hardest,” said Pérez, who eventually went on to become secretary of Maryland's Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. He also worked as a law professor for six years at the University of Maryland School of Law and as a
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Thomas Pérez
LEADERSHIP part-time professor at the George Washington School of Public Health. “He’s the quintessential Latino American dream story in this country,” U.S. Rep. Linda Sánchez, DCalif., told one news outlet when Pérez’s name was being floated as a possible successor to outgoing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. “It’s the story that you want to tell young Latino kids to inspire them to push themselves to be all that they could be,” Sanchez said. But hard work was only a part of the equation. Pérez credits his parents with teaching him and his siblings that “education is the great equalizer.” “That continues to be the case today,” Pérez said, whether it’s a four-year degree, an associate’s degree, online learning, on-the-job training, or an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers certificate. Pérez’s own education includes a bachelor's degree from Brown University in 1983. He also earned a master’s of public policy and a law degree from Harvard University. He and his wife, Ann Marie Staudenmaier, reside in Maryland with their three children. Higher education featured prominently in Pérez’s speech at the Press Club, not so much the elite colleges and universities, but community colleges – institutions he lauded for their ability to help people increase their lot in life. With plenty of labor statistics at the ready, Pérez spoke of thousands of expected job openings for computer support specialists and dental hygienists and surgical technicians. “And, in many cases, you get the necessary creden-
In many cases, you get the necessary credentials at a community college and then you build your way up the skills super highway,” Thomas Pérez, U.S. Secretary of Labor
tials at a community college and then you build your way up the skills super highway,” Pérez said. He said when people ask him about his job, he replies by telling them that the U.S. Department of Labor is match.com, “because what we do is we help make a connection, just the right fit, you know, between ready-to-work Americans, who want to punch their ticket to the middle class, and jobs and employers who need and want to grow their business.” “And the secret sauce of this match.com is very frequently community colleges that provide the critical training that enable people to move up that ladder,” Pérez said. At the same time, Pérez addressed the need to do more to smooth the postsecondary pathways to a middle-class job. “But we’re putting up, you know, the orange cones, and doing the roadwork to make that ride much, much smoother,” Pérez said, employing his signature style of using metaphors to delineate a particular challenge or situation. For instance, in arguing for a higher minimum wage, he said the “pie is getting bigger, American workers help bake it. But they’re not getting a bigger slice.” He lauded the private sector job growth that has taken place in 2014 as the best since 1998, but noted that a key distinction between private sector growth then and now is that in the late 90s, “the rising tide lifted more boats. It lifted the yachts and the rafts. It lifted the cruise liners and the dinghies.” He argued for paid leave, which he characterized as a “sleeper issue that will sleep no more.” “We stand alone, as the only industrialized nation on the planet where paid leave is not the law of the land,” Pérez said. “Why are we making people choose between the job that they need and the family that they love? Why aren’t we giving people more tools to be attentive parents and productive employees?” He stressed the need for a higher minimum wage, noting that the purchasing power of minimum wage is weaker than in previous decades. “Despite what you’ve heard on Capitol Hill, this isn’t a radical concept,” Pérez said. “The Congress led by Newt Gingrich passed it. Every president except two since FDR has signed it into law. Yet we’ve been stuck at seven and a quarter for five years.” But he remained optimistic about the nation’s ability to secure better wages for its workers. “We can do this. It’s our store. Just like it’s our economy. It belongs to all of us. It’s not functioning unless it works for everyone.”
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LEADERSHIP
First Latino President of Fresno State is Homegrown Leader By Frank DiMaria
there is any place in the world that could be considered the epicenter of agriculture it is Fresno, Calif. At least Joseph I. Castro, PhD, president of California State University, Fresno, believes so. That’s why last year on the 100th day of his presidency he established a Commission on the Future of Agriculture at Fresno State, one of many initiatives and programs he has implemented in his first year as president. The role that agriculture plays in the lives of San Joaquin residents, and in particular his family, is not lost on Castro, the grandson of Mexican farmworkers. “I’m the first of the eight presidents that Fresno State has had who grew up here in the San Joaquin Valley. I was born and raised here, and I’m the first California native to serve - and we’re in our 104th year. One of the things I’ve known since I grew up in the Valley is how important agriculture is to our entire region,” says Castro. The commission was comprised of both campus and industry leaders. Their charge was to review existing programs at the Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology and others across the campus and to make recommendations to strengthen those programs to better serve the region and industry. Fresno State, which has a student population that is about 40 percent Hispanic, should continue to lead in agriculture, says Castro. “Agriculture is the number one industry in the state of California. We feed the world in the San Joaquin Valley. We have 200,000 alumni and 160,000 of them live in the San Joaquin Valley. Many of them are in agriculture and world leaders in things like water and growing different crops like citrus, almonds, pistachios, grapes, a whole range of industries,” says Castro, who is Fresno State’s first
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Latino president and at 47, the youngest in the California State University system. The commission delivered its report on the eve of Castro’s investiture last May, and it was teeming with recommendations that have since been implemented. One of those was to create a new position that would be a conduit between the college and its industry partners. This professional coordinator is the individual who Fresno State’s corporate part-
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Joseph I. Castro
LEADERSHIP ners contact when they have internships or job opportunities available. “The position clarifies just one point of contact and serves as a great way for our industry partners to be more involved,” says Castro. For the most part Fresno State’s corporate partners have pledged, all things being equal, to hire only Fresno State graduates. “This new professional coordinator for internships and jobs will help us realize that goal,” says Castro. During its exploration, the commission found that community leaders were unaware of the positive effect Fresno State had within the community. To ensure those in the region are aware of the school’s initiatives and programs, it recommended a position that would enhance communications within the San Joaquin Valley and beyond. “We’re going to use multimedia approaches to get the messages out so the knowledge level of what we are doing is high,” says Castro. Currently the commission’s full set of recommendations is in various stages of implementation. Many require that Fresno State seek private sources of funding. “That was a unanimous perspective from our industry friends,” says Castro. “If we want
We have 200,000 alumni and 160,000 of them live in the San Joaquin Valley. Many of them are in agriculture and world leaders in growing different crops like citrus, almonds, pistachios, grapes, a whole range of industries.” Dr. Joseph I. Castro, president, California State University, Fresno
to go to that next higher level, we will need to have partnerships with industries to invest in our students and faculty and our infrastructure.” Although the commission has made its recommendations, its job is not complete. Castro found the input so valuable he has extended the commission and is aiming to improve Fresno State even further. Although not related to agriculture one improvement Castro is very excited about is his DISCOVERe tablet program. Implemented last August this program is so popular with Fresno State’s faculty that the school can’t accommodate all of those who wish to participate in it. “We have a wait list which is exactly what I had hoped for. We sought out volunteer faculty and we had 40 professors step up in this first phase,” he says. As part of the program, Fresno State provided tablets to 33 of the volunteer professors and offered professional development on ways to integrate them into their courses. Professors attended workshops that explored various apps designed to make the tablets an effective tool in the classroom. Likewise, students are welcome to visit the DISCOVERe Hub where trained student guides can get them skilled up on using tablets in the education environment. Guides also provide assistance with laptops, smart phones and other technology. A grant from the Fresno State Foundation provides each DISCOVERe student with $500 toward the purchase of a tablet. Because the program is platform agnostic students may choose an iPad Air (iOS), Asus MemoPad (Android) or Lenovo Thinkpad (Windows). The cost of the Asus MemoPad is completely covered by the grant. Each tablet comes bundled with one year of 4G Internet pro-
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LEADERSHIP vided by AT&T to ensure students can connect when they’re off campus. Five hundred dollars off a tablet is not the only financial incentive for students to enroll in the program. Since DISCOVERe professors were required to rewrite their courses with the use of tablets in mind, many opted to forgo traditional textbooks. “On average the students in the DISCOVERe program have saved 60 percent on textbook costs in this one semester over students who would take the same course in a traditional way,” says Castro. DISCOVERe students are not just saving money; they are also getting better grades. When Castro compared two identical courses taught by the same professor, one redesigned for the DISCOVERe program the other taught traditionally, he found that the students in the DISCOVERe version were earning a half a grade higher. “So we are seeing a difference in terms of their absorption and in terms of their achievement in the course. We are very excited about that.” Today’s college students are digital natives and Castro attributes student success in the DISCOVERe program to their adeptness with digital devices. However, he points out that 70 percent of Fresno State students are first-generation college students and over 70 percent receive Pell Grants. Many have never had the opportunity to use digital tools for education. In fact, a recent survey at Fresno State re-
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vealed that few are using tablets. “DISCOVERe gives them a tool that many of them did not have. We connected with AT&T on a partnership so they have a data plan that is affordable. They have 24/7 access wherever they live, whether in a rural area of Fresno county…or here in Fresno,” says Castro. “We’ve tapped into that interest that many students have and we’ve also been able to bridge that digital divide we have here in the San Joaquin Valley.” The work that Castro and the faculty are doing in the DISCOVERe program has caught the attention of the Gates Foundation. This year Fresno State will be one of seven institutions participating in the Transforming Universities Initiative. “This will enable us to work with other universities across the nation that are innovating in different ways,” says Castro. “That gives us a chance to learn some new things and to really develop and strengthen our programs.” Late last year Castro was appointed co-chair of the U.S. Department of Agriculture HACU leadership group, a national group that works closely with the USDA to advance Hispanic-Serving institutions that have agricultural schools and colleges. And American Association of State Colleges and Universities gave Fresno State two leadership awards last year: the Christie McCullough Award for advancements in its teacher education program and another for its leadership in diversity efforts.
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COMMENTARY
Diversity & Leadership Introduction eveloping competent and effective diverse leaders is vital to the future of community colleges and student success, given the wave of retirement of CEOs within the next 3-5 years. The American Association for Community Colleges (AACC) 21st Century Implementation Team recently developed a new framework for leadership and revised the organization’s original recommended leadership competencies. (www.aacc.nche.edu/newsevents/Events/leadershipsuite/Documents/AACC_ CoreCompetencies_5_3.pdf). The revised areas of focus include organizational strategy; institutional finance, research, fundraising, and resource management; communication; collaboration; and community college advocacy. However, it is not clear if and how these newly-defined leadership competencies take into account the challenges of working in a global and diverse society or the context and fluidity of a new socio-politic-economic landscape. The National Asian Pacific Islander Council (NAPIC), the National Council for Black American Affairs (NCBAA), and the National Community College Hispanic Council (NCCHC) have reviewed
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The ambiguity of the times requires college leaders to have business acumen and to be strategic, agile and entrepreneurial.
in the 21st Century By Anna Solley and
Naomi Okumura Story
and discussed the AACC leadership competencies given their joint commitment to develop diverse transformational leaders. NAPIC, an AACC affiliate council since 2007 promotes leadership development of Asian-American/Pacific Islander administrators in community colleges across the country. NCBAA, founded over 40 years ago as the first AACC affiliate council, provides meaningful, stimulating professional development opportunities for its members in an effort to increase community college leaders of color. NCCHC, established in 1985 as an AACC affiliated council, is the nation’s premier organization for the preparation and support of Hispanic leaders in community colleges. At the November 2008 AACC Commission on Diversity, Inclusion and Equity meeting, commissioners discussed the critical need for a pipeline of more diverse community college executives. Taking this charge seriously, NAPIC, NCBAA, and NCCHC leaders collaborated and conducted a preconvention workshop leadership development, Breaking the Stained Glass Ceiling, at the 2009 AACC Convention in Phoenix. Their goal was to increase the number of diverse executive leaders together and to complement the three councils’ individual leadership efforts. The success of the first led the coalition to repeat four more successful workshops in Seattle, New Orleans, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The design focused on past and present diverse community college CEOs to share and discuss leadership pathways and challenges. Real-life case studies and perspectives fostered reflective dialogues on values, attitudes and mindsets critical to the success of a leader of color. American Council on Education (ACE) and university researchers also presented findings on higher education leadership
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COMMENTARY competencies and concepts. In addition, participants and presenters voiced the need for organizations such as AACC and the Association of Community College Trustees to relate leadership competencies to the changing climate and landscape of community colleges of the 21st century. Furthermore, the councils jointly led a spotlight session at the 92nd annual AACC convention in 2012. The session was entitled Help Wanted: Community College Leaders! A series of roundtable dialogues facilitated by diverse community college presidents stimulated thought-provoking requirements for 21st century community college leadership. Over 200 participants engaged in small groups and addressed essential competencies, desired experiences and important mindsets for community college leaders who will transform education. In addition, at the Diversity & Leadership in the 21st Century AACC Pre-Convention Workshop, research from ACE and a study conducted at California State University-Fullerton on 21st century leadership skills were presented. Participants discussed essential leadership competencies for transformational community college leaders, key leadership competencies that build upon diverse perspectives and multicultural approaches, and how best to develop these leadership competencies to ensure that new leaders will guide community colleges with vision and courage in a diverse environment. Findings and Recommendations Although workshop participants emphasized the knowledge of diversity and globalism as essential competencies, they surfaced the need to distinguish the complexities and approaches of inclusion and cultural competencies. For example, diversity is not just about race or gender, nor can cultural competencies be easily generalized. When asked to dwell further, participants shared that saying one believes in diversity is not enough. One must also share experiences. Another perspective distinguished diversity among internal and external communities. Internally, knowledge about the evolving needs of diverse student or employee populations is significantly challenging and complex. Externally, a competent leader must know the significant implications and consequences of organizations from the local Chamber of Commerce to state, national and international entities. Participants also voiced organizational knowledge as important. With political shifts and finan-
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Anna Solley
cial fluctuations occurring throughout the country, college executives must know legislative and policy implications, resource development and leveraging, etc. The ambiguity of the times requires college leaders to have business acumen and to be strategic, agile and entrepreneurial. The core values for community colleges of social justice and educational empowerment were important to participants. Yet, public scrutiny, transparency and accountability also required keen awareness and articulation. Seasoned and novice leaders discussed professional development as a critical necessity. Both shared the significant need to mentor and nurture the next generation of leaders. Novice and promising leaders voiced requests for networking and follow-up connections with experienced CEOs. The participants focused on attitudes or predispositions which community college leaders should possess or reflect. Such critical “soft skills” included vision, integrity, honesty and transparency, which are not always easy to measure or define. For example, a prepared or smart applicant could recite a “laundry list” of worthy and well-meaning values without
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COMMENTARY being disingenuous. Promising leaders were often vocal about being less inclined to compromise personal values and standards. Yet, seasoned leaders shared realistic situations or conditions, which required several participants to reflect more deeply about their laundry list. Such situational ambiguities suggested further development and dialogue for those moving into leadership roles and for those mentoring or hiring new community college leaders. The top nine clusters of essential competencies for each category included: Knowledge of • Globalism and being part of a global society • Diversity/inclusion/cultural competency • Funding/fiscal policy; resource development • Policy and political acumen; legal issues • Key aspects of the community college mission and system • Strategic planning • Assessment and evaluation • Technology and future trends • Teaching and Learning
Diversity is not just about race or gender, nor can cultural competencies be easily generalized. One must also share experiences. Ability to • Build and sustain partnerships and collaboration; team building • Nurture and cultivate others/mentor/professional development • Communicate; interpersonal skills • Navigate and affect change and innovation • Hire and challenge best people • Listen and view different perspectives • Be resourceful, adaptable, and agile • Deal and work with different internal and external groups of people and organizations; build consensus; advocate • Take time for self Attitudes/predispositions • Visionary • Courageous/risk-taking • Reflective; self-aware • Ethical behaviors or actions • Flexible, yet focused • Integrity, being genuine • Sense of humor • Transparency and accountability • Compassion, caring for and sustainability of self and others, including outliers
Naomi Okumura Story
As an important caveat, we suggest that leaders carefully apply or use these competencies as metrics. Without substantive discussion and surfacing assumptions, each person can perceive or define each differently. Potential candidates for leadership positions should not use the above as a “checklist,” but as professional and personal areas that require continuous reflection and cultivation of work experiences. HISPANIC OUTLOOK
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COMMENTARY Summary Seasoned and novice leaders indicated that knowledge of diversity and globalism are essential competencies for transformational community college leaders. In addition, it is critical to distinguish the complexities and approaches of inclusion and cultural competencies, to demonstrate fiscal and political acumen, to value collaboration/communication expertise, and to mentor and nurture the next generation of leaders. Transformational leaders must also possess vision, integrity, honesty and transparency. We encourage those involved in preparing or hiring future leaders to incorporate not only our leadership competencies, but to reflect and sustain deeper dialogues in the meaning or definition of each within the context and vision of their institutions and communities. We support the development of realistic rubrics to determine whether a potential leader or applicant is competent. Furthermore, we need to influence discussions about leadership competencies within the context of the constantly evolving associations or organizations to which we belong and participate. The Courageous Conversations panel has been a consistently successful capstone pre-convention workshop activity. Seasoned executives honestly and openly share the reality of being a diverse college leader under actual conditions, positive and negative. Participants are encouraged to ask tough questions. Presenters and participants become more reflective and self-aware about realities of concepts and issues, actions and behaviors that require courage and risk taking, and balancing expectations and values that are personal and professional. The activity demands going beyond a checklist of lead-
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ership requirements, and requires deliberative and reflective honesty. We will continue to perpetuate true organizational transformation through our Councils (NAPIC, NCBAA, and NCCHC), which are led by on-the-ground and diverse leaders who collaborate and provide real-life, meaningful leadership development opportunities together. Given that the demographics of our students and communities are continually evolving, we must commit to the development and hiring of diverse, competent, and effective leaders. We must also encourage and define new models for professional development and succession planning opportunities to establish a pool of candidates who not only have the requisite skills and knowledge, but also the mindset and capacity to be transformational leaders in our global society and changing landscape. Our students deserve success and we must hire the best! Written by Anna Solley, EdD and Naomi Okumura Story, PhD on behalf of NAPIC, NCBAA, and NCCHC. Dr. Solley proudly serves as president of Phoenix College, serves on the HACU Board, is the past president of the NCCHC Board, and is passionate about student success, empowering others, enabling change, and promoting diversity. Dr. Story recently retired as professor emerita from the Maricopa Community College District, where she led efforts in teaching and learning innovation, leadership and professional development. As a long-time diversity advocate, she currently serves as the NAPIC executive director and is redefining retirement as a social justice and learning journey.
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Own It! Entrepreneurial College Leaders By Marvin Lozano, EdD and Miquela Rivera, PhD he entrepreneurial mindset is at work among higher education leaders at New Mexico’s two largest 17 Hispanic- Serving Institutions – Central New Mexico Community College (CNM) and the University of New Mexico (UNM). That mindset’s components of Choice, Opportunity, Action, Knowledge, Wealth, Brand, Community, and Persistence (Taulbert and Schoeniger, Who Owns the Ice House? 2010) were all at play as they spoke of meeting the challenges they face. Dr. Katharine Winograd, president of CNM, has focused on keeping pace with change and continual shifts in funding and resources. The recent CNM STEMulus Center that opened this fall in downtown Albuquerque will include a prototyping lab, boot camps, accelerated learning programs and a coding and cybersecurity academy. The project is an example of Winograd’s leadership-- seeing the need to keep pace with change, addressing community needs and building upon students’ strengths. The CNM STEMulus Center could attract 2,000 students and support their development as entrepreneurs via its business accelerator program. “Community is in our name for a reason,” said Winograd. Understanding the people of the community and their needs makes for responsive programming and leveraging resources. CNM’s student body, the largest enrollment in higher education in New Mexico, is more than 46 percent Latino and includes many non-traditional and returning students and veterans. The STEMulus Center will focus on CNM students, helping tradesmen such as welders and machinists and artisans develop small businesses at the incubator. Another aspect of the CNM STEMulus Center addresses business and technology needs, offering cybersecurity training and coding (used in website, software and applications development). The STEMulus Center is a public-private partnership that includes Intel, PNM (Public Service Company of New Mexico), the City of Albuquerque and the State of New Mexico. Katherine Ulibarri, CNM interim president during Winograd’s sabbatical and who also serves is vice president for finance and administration, pinpointed the need for strategy and persistence when promoting innovation in higher education supported by public funding. For example, the Banner Assessment and Renewal Project is aimed at automating the community college’s business practices. Phase One automated the accounts payable invoice disapproval process, allowing those submitting invoices to be notified immediately if the bill was not accepted and shortening the resubmission, approval and payment time. Phase Two focuses on preparing the other financial and business processes-- payroll, human re-
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sources, accounts receivable, and financial aid-- to be further automated, saving time and money and promoting better service to students. Ulibarri noted that persistence and commitment help overcome the challenges that any systemic change and innovation might present. Both Winograd and Ulibarri agree that CNM’s reputation is part of the wealth they must manage. Taxpayers and private businesses must see that CNM is a good investment through its programs, processes and the preparation of students for a viable workforce. CNM’s reputation is the bedrock upon which they are building as they manage change and address challenges. At the University of New Mexico (UNM), Dr. Eliseo “Cheo” Torres, vice president for student affairs, talked about the challenge of securing resources for burgeoning needs, especially among first-generation Latino students. With limited state and federal funding available, Torres worked with a local grocery store owner to sponsor a scholarship-raising golf tournament with proceeds benefitting Latino students. A Hispanic-Serving Institution, UNM is also a Carnegie Level I Research University. The UNM Ron McNair and Research Opportunity Program (ROP) helps prepare undergraduate students for graduate school by providing them a faculty-mentored research experience, support (including seminars on applying to graduate school and a travel stipend to attend and present at conferences), advisement and an intensive summer research internship and GRE preparation. First-generation, economically disadvantaged and/or underrepresented students with GPAs of 3.0 or above in any major are eligible to apply. (Ron McNair, PhD was an African-American NASA Astronaut killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger launch explosion in 1986). At both CNM and UNM, the entrepreneurial mindset is crucial in seeing opportunities in challenges and using resources innovatively to serve all higher education students, including Latinos. That mindset fuels the persistence and commitment required to make it happen. Marvin Lozano, EdD is a faculty member in the School of Business & Information Technology at Central New Mexico Community College in Albuquerque. He is an experienced small business consultant, commercial banker and entrepreneur. He has been honored as a USDA National Hispanic Fellow and as a Sam Walton Fellow.
Miquela Rivera, PhD is a licensed psychologist in Albuquerque with years of clinical, early childhood and consultative experience. Dr. Rivera’s column, “Priming the Pump” appears in each issue of Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education. She lives in Albuquerque.
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College Presidents and the Learning Curve By Gustavo A. Mellander
housands of books and articles have been written on presidential leadership. It is an intriguing and always fresh subject. Some of the books are very good, some not. Many are instructive for both the novice as well as the seasoned professional. I must have read hundreds of them, since I was a college president for 20 years and taught leadership courses at several universities for more than 25 years. To write this column, I reviewed my class notes, leafed through some of my favorite leadership books and reread a list of thoughts I collected over the years. I also mulled over the lessons I learned in the School of Hard Knocks. A wise president once wrote, “We learn too late in life. Too many of us feel we have to do things our way. We wind up reinventing the wheel and all that. We should learn from the successes of others.” Many I fear continue to ignore his advice. Most leadership studies emphasize that successful leaders acquire as much background data as possible before they create a course of action. Data may not be king, but it is essential to make intelligent decisions. It is the lynchpin; without it many projects have collapsed. Nowadays, successful presidents also need to develop technical competence outside their area of expertise. One cannot blindly rely on a business officer or academic advisors. One must be at the very least literate in a number of areas, the better to judge the advice one receives. Over the years I have been called to assist troubled presidents. I have been astonished how many of those “leaders” didn’t know what was happening on their campuses. They had charged full-speed ahead sorely ignorant of the necessary and essential data they needed to make a decision. They invariably relied too much on the advice of others, some of who had vested interests opposite to the best interests of the president. So become your own business dean, your own academic dean, your own football coach, etc. Learn to ask the right questions. The legendary Clark Kerr, who led the California University System as its chancellor during its turbulent heydays, wrote:
T
“The university president in the United States is expected to be a friend to the students, a colleague to the faculty, a good fellow of the alumni, a sound administrator with the trustees, a good speaker with the public, an astute bargainer with the foundations and federal agencies, a politician with the state legislature, a friend of industry, labor and agriculture, a persuasive diplomat with donors, a champion of education generally. a supporter of the professions (particularly law and medicine), a spokesman to the press, a scholar in his own right, a public servant at the state and national levels, a devotee of opera and football equally, a decent human being, a good husband and father, an active member of the church. Above all, he must enjoy traveling in airplanes, eating his meals in public, and attending public ceremonies. No one can be all of
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these things. Some succeed at being none.” That was written nearly 50 years ago. Imagine how very more complex and demanding the presidency has become in the 21st century. We have vastly expanded our missions, academic programs and physical structures. Some presidents are responsible for virtual cities from daybreak to daybreak. Faculty and student policies have changed as well. Enormous private and governmental grants have affected the very fabric of our institutions. Students with no real training are expected to act as adults. Many don’t. Most colleges no longer assume parental responsibility for them. Some make the transition well, others still struggle. Recently, we have seen an increase in student tuition and fees way above the national inflationary rate. As a consequence, thousands of graduates are saddled with enormous debts and all too often with puny jobs. A disaster is looming. Historically, presidents have been consumed by their jobs and they frequently pass chores on to their spouses. Given their duties, many a male president has been a poor husband and a worse father. Female presidents have had similar shortcomings. All their time is consumed with official duties. Although the role of a president is very complicated, it is not impossible and can be very rewarding. It is said that it is lonely at the top -- and it is! It’s lonely at the bottom as well. But the salary and perks are much better at the top. If you are in any position and not happy over a long period maybe it’s time to update your resume and move on. It’s a job not a prison.
Presidents at a Glance Until quite recently, college presidents were invariably male, Caucasian and Protestant. Throughout the 1800s few women were permitted to even attend college. Some all-female colleges were established to address that shortcoming but nonetheless few women went to college. That has changed, slowly but surely. Today more than half of the enrollment at many colleges and, even in law and medical schools, is female. Twenty percent of college presidents are women and 14 percent are from minority groups. The average age for presidents is 56.6 years. Thirty percent never served as full-time faculty members. More than 80 percent have a doctorate. Just a few years ago most presidents were either English or history majors. The popular rationale was that the former knew how to write and speak well and that the historians had a deep understanding of human nature and thus both could cope with presidential duties. Those views were widely accepted and hardly challenged until several scholars studied the matter. They suggested a different explanation. They noted that an abundance of both English and history faculty limited their professional opportunities unless they assumed administrative positions. Times have changed and although most presidents have
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PhDs in a traditional liberal arts or science discipline, there have been many exceptions. Given a college’s unique situation and perceived needs, lawyers, accountants, politicians and businessmen have been appointed presidents. Most have done a credible job. Many presidents have classroom service and a research record. Employment as an academic dean or academic vice president has been the most travelled path to a presidency. That is particularly true in institutions where the faculty is deeply involved in shared governance. It is also interesting to note that when an institution suffers serious financial setbacks a board sometimes turns to a business officer as their next president.
Presidential Bon Mots Lists on “how to” exist ad nauseam. Many are very good, others are not. I list a few which worked for others and for me over the years. None are original with me, I wish they were. But as Anatole France wrote, “When a thing has been said, and well said, have no scruples take it and copy it.”
1. Follow the Ten Commandments. No, I am not a religious person nor overly moralistic. I just find the commandments represent the distilled wisdom of the ages. Follow them and you’ll lead a more successful and less stressful life. Presidents would be well served to follow them at work. Don’t lie, don’t cheat, be respectful of others, be responsible. 2. Some wag once said, “Never appeal to a person’s better nature – they may not have one. You will be more successful appealing to their self-interest.” That’s discouraging but very insightful. 3. Be comfortable being a leader. It’s a contact sport played on every campus every day. Presidents always face situations not covered in Administration 101. Further what worked last year may not work this year. Be inquisitive and flexible.
4. Develop business acumen. Many faculty hate to hear that a college is a business but it is. A college, private or public, must operate efficiently, create plans, hire and maintain good staff, raise money, recruit educators and so on. I know this issue is sensitive because the primary mission of an institution of higher learning is to educate. However, accomplishing that mission is greatly dependent upon the financial health of an institution. The best teachers and the finest facilities are possible only if the enterprise is financially sound.
5. Become a people person. If you don’t like people, work elsewhere. Dealing with so many diverse persons, their opinions and their goals is a daunting task. The plethora of problems that is possible when faculty, students, boards and the public interact are limitless. So you better like them, all of them.
6. Be tolerant. A president must be empathetic and sympathetic to many different issues, even if he/she personally disapproves. Colleges should be places where minority views have a forum. The potential crises that may arise as a college welcomes all perspectives will surely challenge the president’s diplomatic skills.
7. Be respectful of the institution’s traditions. Every school has a very distinct personality and history. Presidents can effect change but that change must be built upon the successful traditions of the institution. Many colleges have been educating people for longer than the new president has been on this earth.
Why do so many presidents feel they can completely revamp traditions and curricula their very first semester? Hubris and ignorance. Don’t be so sure that what worked for you at a previous job can be transplanted lock, stock and barrel to your new institution. The list could go on but it need not. It’s already a bellyful.
Suggested Readings
I won’t recommend a long list of readings, just two books. One is by Harold Dodds who was president of Princeton from 1933 to 1957. During those years, the university faced many hardships. The Great Depression caused significant financial shortfalls, leading Dodds to establish annual giving. It became a major source of income for the university. Also, during World War II, Princeton created an accelerated program so students could graduate early to join the armed forces. Despite these challenges, the university grew and prospered. Dodds was a very popular president throughout his tenure. He wrote the classic, Caretaker or Leader? The title tells it all. One can be a caretaker and coast along or one can take chances and try to be a transformative leader. Dodds favored the latter and spelled out strategies to move along those lines. More recently former president of George Washington University, Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, wrote Presidencies Derailed: Why University Leaders Fail and How to Prevent It. It is bound to become a classic. Trachtenberg notes succinctly: “University presidents have become as expendable as football coaches--one bad season, scandal, or political or financial misstep and they are sent packing. A derailed presidency can undermine an institution's image, damage its alumni relations, and destroy campus morale, but it can also cost millions of dollars. During 2009 and 2010, 50 college, university, and system presidents either resigned, retired prematurely, or were fired.” Presidents are increasingly publicly scrutinized by many diverse groups such as faculty, administrators, alumni, and the media. Internal problems become public. The media all too often gets seduced into one version and many young reporters quickly agree with unhappy students and faculty and blindly assume presidents are nefarious and incompetent. Some are but most aren’t. The study examines what went awry at several institutions and pointedly highlights early warning signs and what could have been done differently. An interesting read. Last word And so it goes. Don’t become discouraged – as Mark Twain once commented about Wagner’s music, “It’s not as bad as it sounds.” Good Luck! Dr. Mellander was a university dean for 15 years and a col-lege president for 20
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By Margaret Sands Orchowski
MOOCS MAY BE HOT, BUT STUDENTS PREFER FACE-TO-FACE PROFESSORS The anecdotal evidence is building up – though it probably will take colleges and university administrators a while, as usual, to admit it. Most students who pay their time and sweat plus vast amounts of money to physically go to a college campus to earn a degree, expect the professor to be there in person as well. The zeal of many college administrators, including increasingly those at community colleges, to save money by cutting back on campus-based professors and have them use videos online instead of lecturing, is already being over-used, abused and noticed by students. At Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) for instance, the only full-time professor and department chair of the once popular graphic design department, lives over 200 miles away. She makes it physically to the ocean-side campus only a few times a month for faculty/administrative meetings, while teaching five classes online. But she points out that a full-time professor in an academic department, lives full time in Hawaii; he does all his classes online, too. Students don’t buy it. One SBCC student, who chooses the best courses he can in order to transfer to the University of California next year, told me, “I avoid all online courses! The most important thing I’m getting on this beautiful small campus is face-to-face relationships with professors in subjects I care about. That is what college is all about.” NOW TWO LATIN AMERICAN STATES ARE IN THE TOP 10 Among the same old announcements in this year’s International Institute on Education’s (IIE) Open Door report on foreign students in the U.S., was a surprise. Among the top 10 source countries for foreign students were the usual China (31 percent), India and South Korea. But tied at 2 percent were two Latin American states: Mexico – has been on the list the past few years variously as numbers 7 and 10 – and for the first time, Brazil. Realities like these counteract the damaging perception among many Americans that most Latinos, especially those of Mexican heritage, are in the country illegally. The IIE list is another statistic showing that by far the majority of Mexican heritage people here are legal immigrants, citizens and yes, foreign students. Now if only the press will pick that up.
VOCABULARY ALERT Usually UNCENSORED’s vocabulary alert translates or clarifies what rigidly imposed politically correct words used to be, before that word was deemed offensive by some power or other. Such revised words include: “international student” instead of “foreign student”; government “investments” instead of “costs” or “expenditures; and “undocumented” instead of illegal immigrant. But it is also interesting to note how some common vocabulary is just used so often that it becomes meaningless. Two such overly used phrases originally meant to inspire students but now meaningless are: “awesome job!” which has come to replace the former way overused “good job”-- which was referred to in the movie Drumline about an intense drum coach, as “the most dangerous words you can ever tell a student.”
LIBERALS ENDORSE SUSANA MARTINEZ FOR GOP VICE PRESIDENT Last year UNCENSORED went out on an unusual limb to suggest that the Republicans would be wise to consider the impressive New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez to be their vice presidential candidate. Amazingly, two days after the November Democratic election drubbing, two liberal pundits at Brookings Institute in Washington D.C., said the same thing, Obviously, in trying to digest the fact that there are some powerful Latinos who are Republicans (even though they don’t run on ethnic identity as Democrats are wont to do), MSNBC Anchor Joy Reid admitted during a post-election panel that Martinez would be a great Republican choice for VEEP. “The GOP needs a good woman (and Latino),” Reid said, reflecting Democrat’s typical identity-box-think. Liberal pundit Bill Galston agreed. “Any Republicans would be foolish not to insist that Susana Martinez be their vice presidential candidate,” he opined. When asked if Democrats had any comparable Latina, no name came to mind. Even though Democrats recently have planted former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro as Secretary of HUD in a wildly open move to make the young Latino a VP nominee contender to balance a woman Democratic president (wow 3 checked boxes!), even Galston admitted that Castro lacked deep national experience-- a quality that, following Obama, the Democrats will try to avoid in the next election. Margaret (Peggy Sands) Orchowski was a reporter for AP South America and for the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. She earned a doctorate in international educational administration from the University of California-Santa Barbara. She lives in Washington, D.C., where she was an editor at Congressional Quarterly and now is a freelance journalist and columnist covering Congress and higher education.
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PROMISEES TO KEEP K H her Ed High Educatioon and thhe PPublic bl Tr Trust
Ameriican Counncil on Educa ucation’ss 9 An 97th A nuall MMeettting N E TW T ORK with w colleagues, LEEARNN new practical strategies, & A VANCE youur career at AD Higher Education’ss Most Essentiall Conference March 14–17, 20155 Wash i ngton, DC D
HIGHLIGH TS
RE GISTTER NO W : acc ean nualm eeti ng. org Michael Beschloss—Award-winning historiaan, NBC News presidential historian, storian, and contributor to PBS NewsHour Paul Krugman—Nobel — Prize winner, distinguished scholar at The City Univers niversity of New Y York, ork, and op-ed columnist for The New Yoork Times Janet Napolitan no—President of the University i of California and former sec ecretary of homeland security ACE Fellows Prrogram 50th Anniversary Celebration C
Joi n th e c onv ersa tion #A CEMMeetDC
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We are more than higher ed. We are a whole new category. We build. We innovate. We incubate. We develop an educated workforce and open new facilities. We improve lives. We save lives. We are the University of Central Florida and
We’re Hiring. In Orlando, the University of Central Florida has evolved into the nation’s second-largest university by implementing innovative growth strategies. But we aspire to be even better. Now, we’re hiring 200 faculty members for our 12 colleges. Visit ucf.edu/jobs.
UCF is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.
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Think UCF.
The University of South Florida System is a high-impact, global research system dedicated to student success. The USF System includes three institutions: USF; USF St. Petersburg; and USF Sarasota-Manatee. The institutions are separately accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. All institutions have distinct missions and their own detailed strategic plans. Serving more than 47,000 students, the USF System has an annual budget of $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) Sr. Director of Development (Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute)
Director of Development (Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute) Director of Student Outreach and Support (Student Affairs) Faculty Positions:
College of Public Health Assistant, Associate, Full Professor (Health Policy Management) Assistant/Associate Professor (Global Health) (2)
Assistant Dean (Teaching Innovation & Quality Enhancement) Assistant Professor (Community & Family Health)
College of Arts & Sciences Open Rank Faculty (Cryptography) AP of Graphic Design (Verbal & Visual Arts) (USF St. Petersburg
Assistant Professor (Psychology) (USF St. Petersburg)
College of Behavioral Community Sciences Assistant/Associate Professor (Speech-Language Pathology)
Associate Professor (Rehabilitation Counseling)
College of Education Instructor (Elementary Education) (2)
Instructor of Statistics/Math (Biological Sci) (USF St. Petersburg)
Honors College Instructor I For 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.
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DEAN OF THE LIBRARY California State University, Bakersfield invites applications and nominations for the position of Dean of the Library. The person selected for this position will serve as the university’s administrative leader for the library and library services and will report to the Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs. Centrally located on a 375-acre site in the southern San Joaquin Valley, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, California State University, Bakersfield is a growing comprehensive regional university that serves over 8000 full-time equivalent students. A member of the 23-campus California State University system, CSUB is a designated Hispanic-serving university with a student body that reflects the diversity of the southern San Joaquin Valley. The University includes a branch campus in the Antelope Valley. TIME magazine recently recognized CSUB as one of the top colleges and universities (#39) in the United States based on accessibility, affordability, and completion. The Walter W. Stiern Library on the main campus opened in 1994 and houses nearly half a million volumes and provides electronic access to more than 34,000 periodical titles via its hundreds of computer terminals. The library is managed and operated by 26 staff members and faculty librarians. The library also maintains a branch library at the CSUB Antelope Valley campus in Lancaster, California. For complete advertisement, application instructions, and detailed job description for this position, please visit our webpage at http://www.csub.edu/provost/MPP%20Searches/index.html. California State University, Bakersfield is committed to Equal Employment Opportunity. Applicants will be considered without regard to gender, race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, genetic information, marital status, disability or covered veteran status.
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Urbana University is an Equal Opportunity Employer
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The Board of Trustees of Urbana University invites nominations and applications for the position of University President. Urbana University, recently acquired by Franklin University, is seeking an energetic President to lead the institution through the unique challenges of its postacquisition phase and into the future. The University, founded in 1850 and located in Urbana, Ohio, is the crown jewel of rural Champaign County where its vibrant 128-acre residential campus is home to more than 500 students with total University enrollment in excess of 1800. Students enjoy the safety of a small town with the convenience of being less than an hour from the metropolitan amenities of Columbus, Oh. Founded in 1850 and known for its deep commitment to student success, Urbana University offers a practically-oriented liberal arts education in a small college environment. With the noble vision of educating and developing individuals as whole persons, Urbana provides a student-centered quality education delivered by a committed faculty and staff with emphasis on providing a comprehensive educational experience that prepares students for fulfilling careers and responsible citizenship in a global society. The President will be responsible for providing vision and guidance to the institution in the achievement of its mission and will understand the demands of operating within the constructs of modern higher education. Duties will encompass all aspects of organizational leadership including academic planning, organization and oversight, financial management, strategic planning, student affairs and community relations among others. This position will report directly to the Urbana board of trustees. The successful candidate will be a proven senior leader within the academy and can demonstrate a track record of sound fiscal management, academic innovation, strategic thinking and confident leadership. Minimum qualifications include an earned doctorate and 5 years of executive leadership experience, including experience working collaboratively with multiple stakeholders and across divisions. Individuals looking for a significant career growth opportunity, including experienced Deans and Provosts, are welcome to apply. Urbana University offers a competitive pay and benefits package and will invite applications until the position is filled. The ideal candidate will assume the presidency in July, 2015. Applications can be submitted to Christi Cabungcal at Christi.Cabungcal@Franklin.edu and should include: • A letter of application describing relevant experience and qualifications and suitability for the responsibilities of the position • A curriculum vitae For nominations, further information or to request a confidential discussion, please call Christi Cabungcal at 614-947-6542.
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NEW YORK CITY COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
TENURE TRACK FACULTY POSITIONS FALL 2015 New York City College of Technology is a comprehensive college with over 16,000 students offering both Associate and Baccalaureate Programs. City Tech seeks candidates for tenure track faculty positions beginning fall 2015.
SCHOOL OF ARTS & SCIENCES
SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
African American Studies Anatomy and Physiology Anthropology/Geography Arabic/French Bioinformatics Chemistry Communications Economics English Mathematics Medical Informatics Philosophy Physics Psychology Spanish
Accounting Culinary Arts/Pastry Arts Dental Hygiene Health Service Administration Hospitality Management Hotel Management Human Services Law & Paralegal Studies Nursing Radiologic Technology/Medical Imaging Restorative Dentistry Vision Care Technology
SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY & DESIGN
ADMINISTRATION Academic Advisor Chief College Lab Technician Communications & College Relations Specialist Finance Coordinator Financial Aid Assistant Director Major Gifts Development Manager
EXECUTIVE Dean - School of Professional Studies
Advertising Design Computer Engineering Technology Computer Systems Technology Construction Management Digital Publishing Design Electrical & Telecommunications Engineering Technology Foundation & Graphic Design Game Design Illustration Mechanical Engineering Technology Mechatronics Engineering Technology
To Apply: www.cuny.edu Go to Employment. These positions are anticipated vacancies. The City University of New York is an Equal Opportunity Employer which complies with all applicable laws and regulations and encourages inclusive excellence in its employment practices.
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Index of Employment Opportunities in Digital Ads Administrative and Executive Positions ...............Page 31 Dean of the Library.....................Page 32 Faculty Members .......................Page 30 Faculty Positions .......................Page 31 President ..................................Page 32 Tenure Track Faculty Positions Fall 2015 ..............................Page 34 University President...................Page 33
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Priming the Pump…
Organizing 101: Helping Latino Students Handle Paperwork By Miquela Rivera, PhD
nconsequential or absurd as it seems, children must learn early to manage paperwork. From that first piece of art displayed proudly on the family refrigerator to the reams of paper trail coming home for years after, paperwork is inescapable. Electronic documents accumulate and a person can’t find what is needed among useless or unnecessary e-documents. Latino students who manage their information and paperwork well are at an advantage. They save time and stress, avoid “do-overs,” and reduce the nagging and frustration parents experience when a scramble to retrieve lost documents ensues. Parents help elementary school children get and stay organized by providing a space to empty backpacks upon arriving home, then sort and save important papers. That routine teaches the child to regularly prioritize and save her work. With young children, the parent also reviews the backpack’s contents and places important dates on a family calendar to avoid last minute crises created by forgetfulness or inattention. Watching the parent, the child learns to plan and pace themselves with work and play. A file folder for each class the child takes provides space where graded assignments can be kept. The child learns to track his own progress and to be prepared in case grades are not posted accurately or there is a question about work completion. In middle and high school the student needs two folders per class – one for work in progress and another for graded assignments. At the end of each year, parents and their children should sort through saved paperwork, purging what isn’t needed and saving exemplary work for a scrapbook or portfolio. (Sound familiar, like a student completing a degree or competing for a job? That’s exactly what it is – but the student is younger). Still not convinced that handling paperwork efficiently is important for children? Consider the youngster with an attention deficit who simply can’t seem to stay organized. Teaching paperwork management isn’t a cure-all for a student with focal challenges but it can help the student structure work and stay better organized. Children of divorce or parental separation often live in two houses and maintain custodial schedules with lots of transitions and changes. The 50/50 week-on/week-off arrangements seem acceptable to many parents, but they aren’t the ones living in a
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different house each week. Parents are often shocked when the number of their child’s transitions is pointed out after criticizing the student for being scattered, anxious or depressed. Each change of location or routine (and poor communication between parents) increases the chances of losing assignments or forgetting deadlines. An identical paperwork organizational system in each house and positive communication between parents can help the child keep track of what is where and avoid missing something when it is needed to study or prepare an assignment. Creating a paperwork management system helps develop the student’s self-esteem, too, because there is less disorganization and frustration by both parents and children. The parents’ need to doublecheck and backtrack decreases and the child feels relieved with less scolding and criticism. Keeping on top of paperwork relieves the student of unnecessary worry. School-age Latinos need to be clear-headed to focus on academics and enjoy the social aspects of school. A young Latino who manages all those papers isn’t concerned about where certain documents or assignments are; he can put his hands on them quickly. The Latino high school student who has been managing paperwork effectively all along is prepared to use the same principles when applying to college and seeking employment. Applications – blank forms, in process and completed – organized for safekeeping, spares the student the angst of misplacing important information, submitting unedited essays or missing deadlines. They are also prepared to seize opportunities that arise suddenly. Scholarships, conferences, internships and other announcements with short turnaround aren’t lost for lack of time to pull things together. With the guidance of a parent, teacher or school counselor, the student learns to complete applications and other forms accurately and on time. With that experience they are better ready to face the adult world of higher education, work, taxes, bills, and property ownership – and the paperwork that comes with it. Miquela Rivera, PhD, is a licensed psychologist with years of clinical, early childhood and consultative experience. She lives in Albuquerque, N.M.