A warm congratulations goes to Dr. Havidán Rodríguez, who was announced yesterday as the 20thPresident of the University at Albany, starting in mid-September! http://www.albany.edu/news/79681.php. Havidán will become the first Hispanic/Latino President of any of the four-year SUNY campuses. http://www.timesunion.com/7day-breaking/article/Watch-live-at-1-30-p-m-SUNY-trustees-appoint-11232768.php Slowly but surely, progress is being made to increase access and inclusion in higher education at all levels (but we clearly have so much more work to do!).
In addition to being UTRGV’s Provost, some of you will recall that Havidán (a sociologist) is one of my co-authors on the research Alberto Dávila and I have been doing on Puerto Rico’s economic crisis (La Crisis Boricua) and how it is affecting island and mainland Puerto Ricans. (In fact, I will be discussing some of our results in an ASHE-sponsored panel on Puerto Rico: A Century of “Progress” under the Jones Act, on Monday in San Diego at the WEAI meetings (10:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.). The other panelists are Mark Hugo López, Pew Research Center; Mario Marazzi, Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico; and Edwin Meléndez, Hunter College CUNY. We hope to see you there!) Havidán was also on our panel of distinguished academic administrators (along with Cecilia Rouse, Princeton, and Adela de la Torre, UC Davis) at last year’s AEA Summer Mentoring Pipeline Conference, in East Lansing, Michigan.
Another barrier has been broken! This is a cause for celebration!!!
To those of you going to the Westerns, I look forward to seeing you next week!
Sincerely,
Marie Mora
