1. My work as a mathematical missionary
William Yslas Vélez
Department of Mathematics
University of Arizona

2. Privilege
Most faculty at top research universities have attended the best schools Minorities are not at the top schools Thus, Moreover, there is a lack on contact between faculty and the minority community

3. Drop in foreign applicants worries engineering schools
The article states that a smaller applicant pool allows “administrators the option of admitting students who previously would not have made the cut, including more domestic students. But educators are loath to move the bar if it would lower the quality of the talent pool.”

4. Resetting the bar for graduate admissions
Education in the U.S. is different from other countries.
We believe in a liberal arts education.
We have constructed a system of education for our undergraduates, and when they complete it, we treat them contemptuously.
If this is what academics think of U.S. students, imagine what they think of minorities?

5. My work to increase diversity in the mathematical sciences
Why me? My life experiences were an asset My upbringing in the Mexican culture (See the November 2018 issue of the Notices of the AMS) I have always been the only Chicano mathematician I was told by a mathematician that I was the poster child for failure in graduate school In fact, I was a tremendous success, but I need to explain this

6. For my generation it took miracles for minorities
to succeed in mathematics

7. My mother as a miracle worker
Davy Crocket and the Alamo Is education for minorities? A minority perspective

8. Undergraduate study
Nine units of Ds in my first semester Bored (sometimes inept) instructors The atmosphere was not overtly racist, but it was not friendly to Mexican-Americans The only advice I received as an undergraduate was bad advice

9. Undergraduate study
Nine units of Ds in my first semester Bored (sometimes inept) instructors The atmosphere was not overtly racist, but it was not friendly to the Mexican-Americans In my sophomore year I decided I was going to earn a PhD in math or physics, in spite of poor grades

10. Undergraduate study
Nine units of Ds in my first semester Bored (sometimes inept) instructors The atmosphere was not overtly racist, but it was not friendly to the Mexican-Americans In my sophomore year I decided I was going to earn a PhD in math or physics, in spite of poor grades Everyone turned me down for graduate school, except Purdue Graduated in 1968, then off to the navy, where I did two tours to Vietnam on two different aircraft carriers, got married.

11. Getting into graduate school
A miracle I got an early out of active duty in the navy because the ship I was on, the U.S.S. Kearsarge, was decommissioned Graduate schools either turned me down or accepted me without funding Purdue A phone call to the license bureau

12. Graduate school
The first month my algebra class selecting an advisor My connections to the community I taught 2 courses per semester throughout my five years in graduate school. Started with new graduate students My brother-in-law was a bricklayer Cultural differences Summer, 1974 Impediments can be assets

13. Entering the profession
No interest in becoming a professor Member of the Technical Staff, Sandia Laboratories

15. Entering the profession
No interest in becoming a professor Member of the Technical Staff, Sandia Laboratories A miracle-returning to academia A graduate student told me that the only reason I was hired by the department was because I was a minority The number of Chicano mathematicians in doctoral granting universities in 1980

16. David Sanchez, UCLA and University of New Mexico
Chicano research mathematicians at Ph.D. granting institutions in the Southwest in the late 1970’s
David Sanchez, UCLA and University of New Mexico
Richard Griego, University of New Mexico
William Velez, University of Arizona
Joaquin Bustos, Arizona State University
Richard Tapia, Rice University
Joaquin Armendariz, University of Texas, Austin
Bill Torres, New Mexico State University

17. Chicano mathematicians hired by Ph. D
Chicano mathematicians hired by Ph.D. granting institutions in the Southwest in the next fifteen years

18. Hiring practices of research universities
No interest in hiring faculty that look like the local population Mathematics departments look like missionary schools The impact on the minority community Why the lack of minority representation? Are mathematics departments racist?

20. Vietnam War Memorial http://math.arizona.edu/~velez/namesonthewall.pdf
wall.pdf

21. Vietnam War Memorial http://math.arizona.edu/~velez/namesonthewall.pdf
wall.pdf

23. NSA now hires Chicanos from the border
This was back in the 1990’s. Certainly things have changed since then. The CIA and community colleges What rules do you have in place that serve to hinder mathematical talent We value creativity, yet we evaluate knowledge

24. Minorities are invisible in academia
Do faculty recognize the underrepresentation? Graduate Programs: Preparing students for the future or for the past?

25. Demographic Self-Study: How well is the department educating the US population? A self-study should include how many mathematics majors and minors there are at the undergraduate level, broken down by US citizen-international, male-female, and underrepresented minorities. This same data should also be provided for graduate programs.
These self-studies should be part of individual research proposals to funding agencies, and the evaluation of individual proposals should be impacted by the self-studies of the department. If a department cannot provide evidence that it is producing a diverse workforce, then grants should go to other departments that more clearly support the goals of the funding agencies.

26. National Science Foundation
Guided by the Strategic Plan, NSF established a performance area focused on broadening participation: to expand efforts to increase participation from underrepresented groups and diverse institutions throughout the United States in all NSF activities and programs.

27. Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century
Consensus Study Report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine
RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE ON REVITALIZING GRADUATE STEM EDUCATION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
RECOMMENDATION 3.1—Rewarding Effective Teaching and Mentoring: Advancement procedures for faculty, including promotion and tenure policies and practices, should be restructured to strengthen recognition of contributions to graduate mentoring and education.

28. RECOMMENDATION 3.2—Institutional Support for Teaching and Mentoring: To improve the quality and effectiveness of faculty teaching and mentoring, institutions of higher education should provide training for new faculty and should offer regular refresher courses in teaching and mentoring for established faculty.

29. RECOMMENDATION 3.3—Comprehensive National and Institutional Data on Students and Graduates: Graduate programs should collect, update, and make freely and easily accessible to current and prospective students information about master’s- and Ph.D.-level educational outcomes. In addition, to make appropriate future adjustments in the graduateeducation system, it is essential that comprehensive datasets about the system, its participants,
and its outcomes be collected in a standard format, be fully transparent, and be easily accessible
and transferable across multiple computer and statistical analysis platforms.

30. Some reading An absolutely true diary of a half-time Indian
Sherman Alexie
An Indigenous People’s History of the United States
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Uprising: The Pueblo Indians and the First American War for Religious Freedom
Jake Page

31. Advising as an Aggressive Activity http://math. arizona
Advising as an Aggressive Activity Mathematics Instruction, an enthusiastic activity -instruction-an-enthusiastic-activity/ Graduate Programs, Preparing students for the Future or for the Past? Inreach is the new Outreach AugustSeptember_2015.pdf Whom should we recommend for graduate study?