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“UTSA
in the News” is a synopsis of items that have appeared in periodicals
mentioning UTSA, its faculty, staff, students and programs. March 2002 Local congressional and business leaders
have crafted a $500 million proposal designed to expand the number of
San Antonio defense contractors that can compete for work in support
of homeland security. As part of the plan, a partnership made up of
locally based Frontline Systems Inc., the U.S. Air Force, an AT&T
subsidiary and the University of Texas at San Antonio has been assembled
to launch a pilot program. Specifically, the Air Force has agreed to
pay UTSA to provide specialized information security training to Frontline
employees. Backers are looking to UTSA long term to expand its faculty
and curriculum in order to become a national training center for small
businesses in the field of information security. Students of history now have access to collections
celebrating local African American women and black women's organizations.
Last month, four new collections were made available at the University
of Texas at San Antonio archives. They include records from the San
Antonio Chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, San Antonio
Mother's Service Organization records, the Gertrude Batiste papers and
the Hattie Elam Briscoe Papers. "This is not your mother's stock market"
was the subject of our conversation at the University of Texas at San
Antonio's second annual Great Conversation. This was a very imaginative
event with 52 different conversations and more than 400 participants
at the event held at the Instititute of Texan Cultures. Leading the
stimulating conversations, were UTSA professors and invited community
leaders. Mexican President Vicente Fox will honor five San
Antonio women as part of the International Day of the Woman. The list
includes UTSA College of Education and Human Development Dean Blandina
Cardenas. Cardenas, is also a former U.S. civil rights commisioner.
The awards are bestowed on women of Mexican American descent in leadership
roles. The National Security Agency has designated
the University of Texas at San Antonio as a Center for Academic Excellence
in Information Assurance Education. The designation means the university's
curriculum and faculty meet or exceed NSA standards to teach information-assurance
security. It also makes UTSA eligible to apply for grants from the NSA
and the National Science Foundation. UTSA is one of 36 universities
in the nation with the Center for Academic Excellence in Information
Assurance Education designation and is the only one in Texas. A new permanent exhibit at the Institute
of Texan Cultures, "Texans: Footprints and Imprints opened with
a reception Friday. The exhibit features almost 40 pairs of shoes and
signature footwear from anonymous ancestors and the private closets
of notable men and women, representing different ethnicities, experiences
and occupations. Donators include President George W. Bush, Red McCombs,
Lyndon Baines Johnson, Henry B. Gonzales, Dan Rather and Lance Armstrong. A gallery of Latino art: migrant farm
workers picking crops; a car driving on a Los Angeles freeway; an extended
family making tamales. The poignant themes in University of Texas at
San Antonio president Ricardo Romo' s office reflect the experience
of Mexican immigrants and their descendants in the U.S. A noted Mexican-American
historian, Mr. Romo says the artworks relate to his field of study and
his life growing up on San Antonio's impoverished West Side. (San Antonio Express-News 2/17/02 3J) Three dozen local artists are donating
their work for an auction benefiting the Sen. Gregory Luna Memorial
Endowed Scholarship at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Established
by family, friends, former legislative colleagues and constituents of
the longtime Texas legislator, the scholarship began shortly after Luna's
death in November 1999, with the endowment announced Nov. 17, 2000,
Luna's birthday. A portion of the fund is earmarked for Lanier High
School's graduates, Luna's high school alma mater. If you want to understand where women
are today, look at where they were 30 years ago. Back then, higher education,
key to any hope for a well-paid career and professional status, was
an uneven, rocky playing field. In a study released last year, the National
Council for Research on Women said that although women are more than
46 percent of the total work force, they hold down just 12 percent of
the jobs in science and engineering. "All of the colleges in the
United States are producing only 60 percent of the engineers needed.
We have to import engineers from out of the country. We need to tap
the potential of women, who are half the population," said Zorica
Pantic-Tanner, dean of the College of Engineering at the University
of Texas at San Antonio. She is only one of 11 female engineering deans
in the country out of more than 340 engineering institutions. (San Antonio Express-News 3/27/02 1B) Acclaimed Mexican novelist Carlos
Fuentes forecasts a bilingual 21st century for America with a fully
integrated U.S.-Mexico labor market where the free flow of labor is
the norm and migrant workers are protected and respected. "The
migrant is not a criminal," Fuentes told an audience of 1,400 during
a lecture Wednesday at the University of Texas at San Antonio's main
campus. Comments or
questions to Kris Rodriguez
(krodriguez@utsa.edu)
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