When higher education meeting immigration laws

Scott Thomas Immigration battle and its effects on higher education

Though the immigration debate has sparked tempers on both sides, as well as made politicians nervous and talk show hosts boisterous, the effects can be seen anywhere in the United States. One of these areas not examined as frequently is higher education in the United States.

Modern-day American universities often embrace diversity and welcome students and faculty members from different cultural backgrounds.

As Bob Seese, director of the International Office, said in an e-mail interview “In brief, (bringing in international faculty and students) helps Texas State to have a diverse faculty which brings knowledge and viewpoints that help to enrich the teaching and research missions of Texas State.”

Though many people associate the word immigration with day laborers and people who cross the border illegally, many are people who come here legally to fulfill desired services. According to the Migration Policy Institute, the number of Mexican-born professionals, such as those hired by universities, living in the United States has more than doubled since 1995. According to the Texas Tribune, in 2007 the number was estimated at 552,000. The tribune states this is an increase of more than 20 percent annually.

Furthermore, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, the estimated number of Mexican immigrants in the United States in 2008 was about 12.7 million.

Students and faculty members can be more difficult to recruit because of laws dealing with immigration and who can enter the country. An article in the New York times about the effects of immigration laws on private businesses shows how people from other countries with a desired skill set can be fast tracked into the country. It illustrates this point with a programmer hired by Google. However, it also illustrates the technicalities even these immigrants can face, such as bringing in family members. Though this is talking about a private business with international offices, this anecdote is used to illustrate a larger issue — That even when someone has clearance to enter a country there can still be frustrating technicalities and difficulties. Sees said the most frustrating thing about recruiting international faculty members comes from the lengthy processing times required be the United State Customs and Immigration Services. Indeed, according to the US Customs and Immigration Services Web site, to obtain a permanent residence card (most commonly called a green card), one must submit, • Evidence of inspection, admission or parole into the United States • A copy of the approval notice sent by the US Customs and Immigration Services • A job offer letter from an employer • Two color photos taken within 30 days • At least three different types of forms •

Any other evidence establishing eligibility

Or, as Kosaku Narioka, international student at Texas State, put it simply, “There is a lot of paper work to fill out.” He did downplay it by saying “it’s not a huge deal.” Of course, Narioka is here not for a job offer, like faculty, but on a student visa to study. He came to the United State after going to a Japanese University for two years. He has described coming to the United States as positive with little trouble. However, by any standard, the paperwork can be lengthy.

Seese said that Texas State departments look for the most qualified applicants when hiring, whether they live abroad or not. The departments hire the faculty. It’s the job of the International Offices to get them into the country and keep them here. However, even after faculty members are hired, it can be troublesome keeping them in the country. Few stories can illustrate this as well as that of Byounghak Lee, a professor at Texas State’s physics department. He originally came to the United States on a visa. When that expired last Spring, it became illegal for him to work and receive compensation. Lee obtained a green card, which grants him permanent residence status, in July. However, it was months before obtained the card. During that time his inability to be paid caused a financial strain which he now says has been alleviated somewhat by the provost providing back pay.

Lee said he never believed his situation could devolve into being deported back to his native South Korea. However, Seese said in the past 10 years one faculty member has had to leave the country because of immigration status. So, even though a status from a temporary work visa can expire, that does not mean that individual will be deported. However, even in the realm of higher education, it is not unheard of for professionals to have to leave the country after working here.

Lee’s story illustrates how difficult immigration can be on an individual. However, his problem is also connected to groups’ difficulties in dealing with immigration law. Lee’s problems arose because the International Office messed up a deadline, he said. Lee said after talking with other faculty members he learned the office is understaffed and overworked. Lee said he has seen members of the department responsible for hiring international faculty underprepared and ignorant of immigration law.

“They don’t know the procedures,” he said. “People get in trouble because of it.” Lee, like Narioka, said he has enjoyed his time in America and people have “done their best to take care of me.” He also says the university is more aware of the complications of hiring international faculty members.

One of the concerns of the complication arising from legal immigration is it can lead to illegal immigration, as is argued by the Migration Policy Institute. It is unclear how much illegal immigration would be curtailed by loosening standards. However, one thing is clear: it is difficult to enter the country legally.

All is fair in love and sport

The Bowl Championship Series is a collection of 5 bowl games that take place after the regular college football season is completed. The top two teams in the final BCS standings play one another in the national championship game. There are a few problems however. Many times, as we have seen in recent years, it is difficult to determine exactly which two teams are the best in the nation. Another problem is that only a select few conferences get automatic bids to play in these prestigious games.
There are 11 conferences in the Football Bowl Subdivision and only six of the conference champions are automatically represented in the BCS (Big east, Big-12, Big-10, Pac-10, SEC and the ACC). Then there are five other conferences whos champions are guaranteed nothing for winning their respective conferences.(Mountain West, Western Athletic, Mid American, Conference USA and Sun Belt) What is the point of having conferences if the conference champion doesn’t have a chance to win a national title?
The benefits of the Bowl Championship Series are as follows. Revenue generation is second-to-none. College football is a multi-billion dollar industry, and that’s why we have seen congress try to step in and implement changes. Under the BCS system, every single regular season game has more importance than ever. The pressure to win every game is immense because one loss could potentially cost a team their season. For example, Texas last year.
What the BCS system prevents is having an equal playing field for all the teams in the Football Bowl-Subdivision (formerly division 1-A). In the Football Championship-Subdivision (formerly division 1-AA) every conference champion is represented in the playoff field as well as a few at-large bids. A playoff decides a true nation champion whereas the BCS leaves shades of grey and open debate. There is no arguing that this creates a lot more emotion and attention, but is it fair..? After all, equality is what this great country is based on, right?
Just this past year, the University of Oklahoma was voted into the national championship game over the University of Texas after Texas had beaten them head-to-head earlier in the year. Both teams only had one loss on the year, but the BCS polls decided that OU’s tougher schedule was enough to get the nod to play for the title. Oklahoma would go on to lose in the title game and Texas would go on to beat Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.
In the 2003-2004 season USC was third in the BCS poll after the last regular season game leaving OU and LSU to play for the title. USC dominated their opponent in the rose bowl game and was voted number one in the Associated Press poll but LSU won the national championship game.
In the 2004-2005 season Auburn, who plays in the SEC conference,(an automatic BCS qualifying conference) went undefeated and was left out of the national championship game.
Tim Griffin, writer for ESPN.com, thinks that the coaches poll should be made public because it opens criticism to why coaches picked who they picked, and helps eliminate block voting which is where all the coaches from a certain conference vote for the top team in their conference so their schools can receive more BCS money.
Many rules have been changed since the beginning of the BCS existence. More and more flaws are revealed every year to where BCS officials have to tweak the rules to make it as fair as they can. However, until they can include every conference champion in the mix, there will be an unleveled playing field.
This year we are seeing controversy unravel in front of our eyes yet again. With one week remaining in the regular season, there are still six undefeated teams. (Florida, Alabama, Texas, Texas Christian, Cincinnati and Boise State) Florida and Alabama will face off this Saturday eliminating one undefeated team, but leaves the possibility of having five undefeated teams at the end of the regular season. This means that three undefeated teams will not be playing for a national championship. Never before has there been an occasion like this. If the polls hold up then the winner of the Alabama-Florida game will face Texas in the BCS national championship game leaving TCU, Cincinnati and Boise on the outside looking in. The only logical fair way to settle something like this is through a playoff.
In an article written by ESPN college football analyst Chris Low, earlier this year the Mountain West Conference, who does not receive an automatic bid into the BCS series, submitted their proposal for an eight-team playoff where the top eight teams in the final BCS standings will play in a playoff tree to decide a national champion. The playoff idea was rejected however because there is already tons of money generated from many different bowl game sponsors.
In an interview with the Texas State director of sports information, Rick Poulter said, “Many teams who play in the lower tier bowl games actually lose money by traveling to these games.” If there was an eight or even 16-team playoff that would eliminate a lot of teams from traveling to mediocre bowl games who hardly anyone shows up to anyways. I propose a 16-team playoff where every conference champion receives an automatic bid and then the next top 5 teams in the final BCS standings will receive an at-large bid. The first round games would be played at the site of whichever school averages a higher attendance between the two and then having the quarter-finals round played at four regional sites which will be the four big BCS venues. (Rose bowl, Fiesta bowl, Sugar bowl and Orange bowl). One of the four major sites will host the national championship in rotation of years. The semi-finals round could be hosted by the Cotton bowl and one of the other four venues in rotation as well. This will make deciding a champion fair while still getting big advertising money from the five major bowl sites.
In a student poll I conducted on the Texas State University campus, 68 percent of students would rather see a playoff determine the nation champion over the current BCS system. Most people cited that they think it would simply be more exciting to watch and would eliminate controversy.
There is no question that the BCS has been a huge success in terms of dollars generated, but the bottom line is that the system is unfair, and all the nation wants to see is a fair shot for every team to win a national title.

Up to date BCS standings.

Extra Credit -Donna Nall

Today was part of mass comm week here at Texas State University. One of the many events that went on this week was a lecture and question and answer session with Jim McNabb a man who has had over 40 years worth of experience in journalism and TV in Austin. He is also a singer/songwriter and hosts a journalism, media criticism blog at http://newsmcnabb.blogspot.com/. Jim was part of a panel that also included John Bridges who is the current editor for state and local Austin news at the Austin American Statesman. Bridges is a graduate of UT Austin and has been working at the Statesman for 20 years. Michael Pearson was also set to be on this prestigious panel but he absent for the discussion.

Jim McNabb was lively, energetic and seemed to have a genuine enthusiasm for all aspects of news, including the business side of news. He took us through a guided tour of the past 50 years of the news industry in the Austin area and gave us a little insight into the national spectrum of news as well. He explained the business model of the past and how news worked 50 years ago and continued into the present by explaining the current model for business and the fact the news industry is lacking any new models for business. The business of news is in bad shape, according to McNabb, because of the lack of a good marketing and business model for the current news industry. McNabb was passionate and stood up whenever he felt the need to speak. He was the Yin to Bridges Yang. Bridges was more more calm in his approach to public speaking by choosing to stay seated at all times and he took his time on questions and answered them in a much calmer manner.

Bridges expounded upon these ideas by answering questions from the audience about ad space, the internet, twitter and other such new technologies and how the current media outlets are learning to deal with and interact with these new technologies, in a profitable way. Bridges explained that ads on the internet are just plain cheaper and that local papers such as the Statesman are not brining in much revenue from this source of ad space and on top of that they are no longer selling as much classified ad space due to the advent of craig's list, ebay and other such on-line sellers. "Local news is too vital to fail.", said Bridges. Although the industry is struggling it has a committment to the community to succeed. We need to find a balance between new technologies and business models and those of the past. We need to find a Yang for this current Yin that we are facing in the newsroom, marketing room and business room.

What About the Weapon industry?

In the International advertising panel, Ashley Moran, Gretel Perera and Chaeles Webre were surprised by an unexpected question from one of the students in the audience.

“Do you know anything about the weapon industry?” an accented voice asked. The three panelists looked at each other, a long minute of silence sliced the discussion, “No,” said Moran, “no idea,” said Webre, “same,” said Perera.

What about the weapon industry? A quick research about PR and the weapon industry brought some interesting results:

One example for PR and weapons is the nuclear power lobby.The nuclear power industry is spending millions on public relations each year to revise the image of nuclear power from something dangerous, not to be touched, to something clean, green and desirable.

PR companies, have used an ex -Greenpeace spokesman to lobby for the nuclear industry in Congress and will not reveal how much they paid him.

Another example of PR and the weapon industry is the National Rifle Association, the most vocal and most recognized component of the "Gun Lobby." NRA it is best known outside of the shooting community as the most powerful advocate of individual rights to firearms ownership.

The most recent campaign of NRA in Congress was against the nomination of Sotomayor for Supreme Court judge. NRA has warned senators that a "yes" vote on Sotomayor will be included on its widely distributed candidate scorecard, the results are known to all.

So dear student, PR and weapon can be a good match, but your question was out of content. I guess you were not listening to what was said in the panel, maybe you were too busy tweeting or checking updates on your phone. One thing I can tell you for sure, you sure did a good job embarrassing yourself, stupid.

The past, present, and future of television news

by Nancy Pavlich

The past, present, and future of television news session had Patti Smith, president of KVUE-TV as a guest speaker for Mass Comm Week on Tuesday.

Smith was an inspiring guest speaker. She talked about all of the obstacles she has had to overcome to get where she is today.

She once had a professor give her a 'B' in a class where she knew she deserved an 'A', and when she asked about it he told her that women didn't belong in the news business.

"It didnt occur to me at the time that I was breaking gender barriers," said Smith.

She didnt give up, but worked harder and now Smith is the president and general manager of KVUE-TV, the ABC affiliate in Austin. " I absolutelly love what I do for a living," said Smith.

Smith is an example for Texas State students to continue to work hard for their futures.

Ad/PR alumni panel

by Nancy Pavlich

During Mass Communication Week one of the sessions that I attended was the Ad and PR alumni panel. This panel was made up of four young women who have all graduated from Texas State University, and now work in the advertising and public relations fields.

The panelists had a lot of advice for the room full of Ad and PR students. They said that students should build up their resumes as much as they can while they are still in school. Students should join clubs, attend Mass Comm Week sessions, and network. "Not everyone is going to have a job waiting for you right when you graduate," said Michelle Martin, who works in non-traditional PR. It's important to get your name out there and establish yourself. "Think of yourself as a brand," said Ashley Molton, who works in a hispanic ad company in San Antonio.

The panelisits also had some encouraging words for Texas State students getting a degree in mass communications. "Texas State grads have excellent reputations, even over UT and Baylor," said Patti Kelly, who works for State Farm insurance. Molton said, "I think half of our company is from Texas state."

This may be encouraging for Texas State students who are getting closer to graduation. There are a lot of things that students have to worry about when it is time to choose your career. Molton said, "Your future is essentially in your hands."

The ever-changing world of social media

At Thursday's "Using New Media to Keep Up With the Changing Times," professional journalists from the Austin-American Statesman and the Texas Tribune spoke to Texas State students as part of the university's annual Mass Communication Week.

I really enjoyed hearing from these journalists because they provided a lot of hope when it comes to story-telling in the future. Having sites like Twitter and Facebook can really be an advantage to a newsroom when it comes to getting information out quickly to a mass audience.

The speakers present were Robert Quigley, social media director at the Austin-American Statesman; David Doolittle, internet editor at the statesman and Elise Hu, reporter for the Texas Tribune.

The panelists agreed that social media is likely to change (mentioning Google Wave), but that micro-bloging is likely here to stay. As journalists, it is important for us to keep up with and stay in tune with the new social media that come out, finding new ways to use them effectively.

A Whole New Mind

Daniel Pink is a man of many colors, and so he explains how it will be color that employers look for in the years ahead. As mundane tasks begin to be outsourced for cheaper labor, Pink explains how a Master's of Fine Arts is filling more resumes where MBA's were the old standard in "standing out." Today logical, linear, sequential and spreadsheet abilities are essential, but not everything, according to Pink. There are three forces he lists as responsible for tilting the scales: Asia, Automation and Abundance. For one, left-brain tasks are being sold off-shore to the millions of often-times better educated at a fraction of the labor cost. Secondly, automation, as Pink used the example of Turbo Tax, is making left-brain work more rudimized. Lastly, abundance, our country where everything is made on factory belts, is quickly cutting out the unnecessary human chain link where computer can do the job just as well. Using this information as a set-up for his new book, "Drive," Pink further commented on his thesis of a right-brained movement by taking it one step further; how are educators to facilitate right-brained development?
Pink went on to describe the three motivations of humankind. Motivation 1.0 was the primal operating system for humanity that included survival and procreation. We then moved on to Motivation 2.0, which Pink described as 'carrots and sticks,' and is what got us here. Motivation 3.0, which is where we are now, is built around autonomy, mastery and purpose. Autonomy is the urge to be self-directed, mastery is the desire to excel at something we enjoy passionately, and purpose is the human motive for being successful and leadership. In closing Pink described how humans have larger desires and that the science of motivation is in finding grander purposes behind the obvious and mundane. If curriculums can incorporate exercises that stretch the imagination and foster creative thinking, institutions will best prepare their students for the world ahead.

Media for Changing Times

Rob Quigley, Austin-American Statesman Social Media Director, Dave Doolittle, Austin-American Statesman internet editor and Elisa Hu, Texas Tribune reporter spoke about social media and it's role in an evolving print world.

They believe that even though new technology has distracted readers from newspapers, they have found a way to use it to their advantage.

Quigley told students that even though twitter might be replaced in the future, microblogging is here to stay. He urged students to keep up with social media trends like, google wave.

To illustrate the effectiveness of social media he pulled up the Statesman Twitter account on the projector and posted, "Speaking to students at Texas State about journalism and social media for #mcweek. Say hi!" From time to time he'd refresh the page to show live feed back.

Hu says posting on twitter has made journalism stronger, "Makes us more careful, we overcompensate making sure that we’re accurate over verify, made me a better journalist, makes me over verify stuff."

She told students that Twitter is a valuable source for crowdsourcing. She mentioned a story in which she was writing about solar panels and sent out a tweet asking if anyone had solar panels. The response was immediate and abundant.