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Why You Always So Political? The Experiences and Resiliencies of Mexican/Mexican American/Xicanx Students in Higher Education [Podcast]
No full textAs of 2018, only about one in ten Mexican/Mexican American/Xicanx (MMAX) students graduate with a college degree. Drawing on in-depth interviews, participant observations, pláticas, document analyses, and literature on race, space, and racism in higher education, Why you always so political?: The Experiences and Resiliencies of Mexican/Mexican American/Xicanx Students in Higher Education (Viva Oxnard, 2024) by Dr. Martín Alberto Gonzalez documents the narratives of 20 MMAX undergraduate students at a private, historically and predominantly white university in the Northeast United States. Utilizing counterstorytelling as a research method, Martín Alberto Gonzalez argues that the racially hostile campus environment experienced by MMAX students at their respective university manifests itself as a form of educational-environmental racism. By providing culturally relevant counterstories about racism in higher education, this book offers an accessible tool for teaching and learning about the harsh realities of Students of Color who attend predominantly white universities.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose new book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars
Mindful Wonderment: Using Focus Groups to Frame Social Justice
Get PDFIn the recent past many professional schools of education in the United States have embraced social justice as central to their mission in preparing teachers, counselors, and administrators to work in preK-16 settings. This article documents our initial inquiry guided by mindful wonderment into an effort to frame social justice as a collective collaboration involving support staff, faculty, and administrators within a graduate school of education. A series of focus groups made up of members of a school of education considered the commitment to social justice not only for its preK-16 candidates but also for transforming the environment and culture within the institution
Faculty Senate Monthly Packet February 2025
Get PDFThe February 3, 2025 monthly packet includes the agenda, appendices, and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held February 3, 2025
Cultural Ecology in the Urban Landscape: Lessons from Ancestors
No full textFriends of Tryon Creek Executve Director, Gabe Sheoships, will share a presentaton that draws cultural differences and parallels between Indigenous stewardship practices and western models of environmental engagement, sharing examples and lessons from his work. This includes a recent strategic plan redraft for the organization and best practices for co-stewarding a public, state natural area that sees 600,000 visitors annually. How might or how have communities come together amidst ongoing, serious challenges to their lifeways and culture
Investigating Environmental Controls on Temperature Dynamics in an Urban Stream
Get PDFWater temperature is a critical environmental variable influencing aquatic ecosystems. This study investigated the factors controlling stream temperature and thermal stratification in Rock Creek (RC) and Bethany Lake, an urbanized watershed featuring an in-line irrigation pond and buried wastewater infrastructure. Previous research suggested that subsurface water flow might drive temperature shifts in Rock Creek during summer periods when flow from Bethany Lake ceases. From 2023 to 2024, continuous temperature and stage monitoring, combined with statistical methods including principal component analysis and random forest regression, were used to evaluate seasonal temperature dynamics and their controlling factors. Results confirmed that seasonal reversals in temperature trends occurred within Rock Creek, though these may have been strongly influenced by monitoring techniques and thermal stratification. During summer periods, Bethany Lake did not flow into Rock Creek, and within Rock Creek above and below Bethany Lake there was negligible streamflow. Solar irradiance emerged as the most influential parameter for stream warming during these periods. Unexpectedly, lake elevation had a measurable influence on Upper RC stage, suggesting hydrologic interactions that are not yet fully understood. Piezometer data indicated that variability in subsurface water elevation was correlated with fluctuations in Bethany Lake elevation, but only within piezometers near the middle of the study reach. Despite this, there was no measurable fluctuation of stream temperature in relation to subsurface water elevation. This study underscores the importance of understanding interactions among anthropogenic modifications, hydrologic connectivity, and environmental controls on stream temperature. These findings have implications for urban stream restoration and management, particularly in mitigating thermal stress on aquatic species during low-flow summer periods. Furthermore, in these low-flow settings, commonly used hydrologic measurement techniques and instrumentation may lack precision to identify fine-scale processes and connections. Isotopic techniques (tracer or natural abundance studies) or other methods may need to be applied to have a more accurate understanding of surface-subsurface hydrologic exchange
Model Explanations for Gender and Ethnicity Bias Mitigation in AI-Generated Narratives
Get PDFLarge Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly utilized in diverse applications, ranging from professional content creation to decision-making systems. However, their outputs often amplify the biases present in their training data, perpetuating stereotypes and reinforcing societal inequities, particularly regarding gender and ethnicity. Such biases can cause tangible harm, especially for underrepresented groups, and require awareness and effective mitigation strategies.
This work explores gender and ethnicity representation in narratives created by generative AI describing 25 occupational fields defined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. We examine three large language models (LLMs)--Llama 3.1 70B Instruct, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and GPT 4.0 Turbo. Employing a novel approach that leverages model-generated explanations, we assess bias before and after mitigation using two metrics: Demographic Parity Ratio (DPR) and Total Variation Distance (TVD).
Our findings reveal that incorporating model explanations significantly improves demographic representation, reducing biases by 2%-20% across different models and occupations. Qualitative analysis of the generated stories indicates high levels of creativity, coherence, and inclusivity, demonstrating the potential of targeted interventions to produce equitable narratives. This research contributes a robust dataset of occupational narratives and a systematic framework for bias mitigation, advancing the understanding of LLM behavior and promoting ethical AI development. By aligning explainability with equity, this work underscores the critical role of transparency and accountability in the deployment of generative AI systems
Life Safety in the Reliability-Based Design and Assessment of Structures
Get PDFWe review the developments in life safety and the incorporation thereof in the design and assessment of structures over the last 50 years. Various measures of life safety are presented that have been developed according to the marginal life saving cost principle based on individual, societal and economic considerations. Target probabilities of failure, or target reliabilities, are central to modern structural design and assessment. These are derived either through back-calibration to existing practice or through life cycle cost minimisation, both of which yield comparable safety levels, and are underpinned by lower bounds from life safety. Life cycle cost minimisation is reviewed here, which considers all direct and indirect costs of failure including loss of life and limb, as well as the costs and efficiency of increasing reliability. We discuss the incorporation of life safety into reliability-based design and assessment through the concept of the Life Quality Index, which uses key societal indicators, namely, the GDP and life expectancy, and health economics as a basis for specifying minimum reliabilities for both new and existing structures. The current state of advancement of reliability- and risk-informed design, and recommendations for future developments in life safety are considered
Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Urban Ecology & Conservation Symposium March 17, 2025
Get PDFThese proceedings document the agenda and abstracts for presentations and posters from the 23rd annual conference organized by the Urban Ecosystem Research Consortium of Portland/Vancouver (UERC) which occurred on March 17, 2025. The UERC is a consortium of people from various universities and colleges, state and federal agencies, local governments, non-profit organizations and independent professionals interested in supporting urban ecosystem research and creating an information-sharing network of people that collect and use ecological data in the Portland/Vancouver area. The annual conference has an open call for abstracts. The UERC organizing committee selects the final oral and poster presentations, along with 2 invited keynote presentations.
UERC\u27s mission is to advance the state of the science of urban ecosystems and improve our understanding of them, with a focus on the Portland/Vancouver metropolitan region, by fostering communication and collaboration among researchers, managers and citizens at academic institutions, public agencies, local governments, non-profit organizations, and other interested groups.
The principal organizers span academic institutions, government agencies (city, regional, state and federal), private firms and non-profit organizations. Individuals from the institutions listed below have served on the steering committee. The diverse backgrounds and affiliations of those involved have allowed the UERC to bring together many important sectors of the natural resources community
Faculty Senate Monthly Packet April 2025
Get PDFThe April 2025 monthly packet includes the agenda, appendices, and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments given in the meeting held April 7, 2025
Perceptions About Potential Microplastic Interventions: a Study on Knowledge, Concerns, and Willingness to Pay
Get PDFAmong emerging contaminants, microplastics (MPs) are of particular concern due to their ubiquity across environments and the unique challenges posed by attempted removal. In-line washing machine filters are one potential tool for preemptively preventing a category of MPs from entering waterways. A sample of registered voters and environmental interest groups in Oregon were asked about their general knowledge and concerns surrounding microplastics, as well as their willingness to pay for high-efficiency washing machine filters. Findings show that less than a quarter of all respondents would be willing to pay full price for a high-efficiency filter, indicating a limited-scale early adopter program may be a more feasible implementation option. Up to 20% more people may support if part of the cost were to be covered by a government subsidy. Understanding consumer knowledge, characteristics, and willingness to pay (WTP) for filters across demographics can be particularly beneficial to researchers and policymakers looking to engage early adopters for this potential solution to the ongoing issue of MPs