The Pursuit of Equal Educational Opportunity: A Historical Analysis of the South Texas/Border Initiative

Abstract

The purpose of this historical study was to investigate how individuals articulated the call for the South Texas/Border Initiative, a legislative mandate that funneled unprecedented amounts of funding to underserved universities along the Texas-Mexico border region between 1987 and 2003. Utilizing archival sources, we conducted an analysis of the intentional shifts in funding critical to equity and access in higher education. The events surrounding the South Texas/Border Initiative are unique in that they represent purposeful Latina/o community and state-wide activism that challenged higher education funding inequities.

Examining Organizational Behavior of Hispanic-Serving Institution Computer Science Departments: Toward Servingness and Equity in the Field

“…The framework emphasizes that HSIs operate within the racialized U.S. higher education system, where institutions that enroll higher shares of racially minoritized students (which tend to be community colleges and less selective 4-year institutions) also receive less public funding (García, 2019). The García et al (2019) multidimensional framework emphasizes that to enact servingness in countering the White supremacist history of U.S. higher education (Carales and Doran, 2020;García, 2019;Wilder, 2013), HSIs should support Latinx students in three dimensions.…”

“…The first dimension involves managing external influences, or those entities outside of the HSIs that can nonetheless influence these institutions' capacities to fulfill their missions. These external influences include state legislators (e.g., Carales and Doran, 2020), federal agencies such as the NSF or the U.S. Department of Education (both of which administer specific HSI programs), alumni, boards of trustees, and community leaders (García et al, 2019, p. 771). In one example of managing such external influences, CAHSI members across the country came together to generate recommendations for the NSF to improve support for the research efforts of HSIs [American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), 2020; Núñez et al, 2021].…”

“…To address this complexity, scholars have conducted a comprehensive synthesis of all educational research on HSIs to develop a conceptual framework of servingness, which characterizes the qualities of HSIs that intentionally support Latinx and other racially minoritized students (García et al, 2019). This framework recognizes that HSIs operate within a long-standing historical context of White supremacy, which has limited racially minoritized communities' postsecondary opportunities (Carales and Doran, 2020;García, 2019;Wilder, 2013).…”

“…According to the servingness framework, within the context of White supremacy, HSIs negotiate with external influences outside of the university, such as state legislatures and federal funding agencies, to advance opportunities for Latinx and minoritized students (e.g., Carales and Doran, 2020;García et al, 2019, p. 771). The framework also posits that when enacting servingness, HSI personnel develop organizational structures for serving students, through activities including, but not limited to, mission state-ments, culturally relevant curricula, and programs for minoritized students.…”

Sci/Comm Scholars: A Facilitated Peer-To-Peer Working Group for Integrating Rhetorical and Social Scientific Approaches for Inclusive Science Communication

“…Founded in 1969, UTSA's funding and growth as an institution is linked to several key legal cases and legislation which lead to investment of money and resources to support research universities in South and West Texas. First, the Mexican American Defense League's (MALDEF's) represented two class action lawsuits (LULAC vs. Clements, 1987;LULAC vs. Richards, 1993) which articulated the disparity of educational attainment and employment rates in North Texas (higher per capita income and high density of higher education institutions, despite being geographically smaller) compared with South Texas (Carales and Doran, 2020). Concurrently with these cases moving through the legal system, the South Texas/Border Initiative (ST/BI, 1989) aimed to increase access to both undergraduate and advanced degrees through expansion of resources and programs across previously under-served regions of South and West Texas.…”