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| Entire Audience Including Candidate at UTB Forum |
If a student has studied public speaking but still cannot stand in front of an audience and articulate his thoughts, he has not been taught. If a university has programs to teach civic engagement, offers political science, government and history courses, but almost none of their students vote or show any interest in government, the teaching has failed.
If the 13,000 combined enrollment students of the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College represent the future of participatory democracy in Brownsville, we have no future.
Students at UTB/TSC give no indication they will be more involved than the 95% of Brownsville registered voters who ignored the most recent city election. Their professors, administrators and their institutions are failures, inept at what they are paid to do. 151 participated in early voting at the Mary Rose Cardenas Hall polling place. Project 100% Vote sponsored by the Center for Civic Engagement has been embarrassingly impotent as one commenter noted months ago: "UTB's Project 100 percent Vote is a joke. The turnout is EXTREMELY dismal for the polling site at the University. They have access to address, e-mails, etc. for all students and staff, and they couldn't even send info to students. I know lots of the blame should be placed on the apathy of students, but if you're going to lead a get-out-the-vote charge, then actually take charge and do it."
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| Father Armand Matthew |
Grumpy Father Armand Matthew, paid handsomely to run the school's Center for Civic Engagement headquartered at the Cueto Building has not moved students to fulfill the center's stated mission: "Higher education has a responsibility to develop the next generation of active citizens, and campuses must be good residents in their own communities. When a campus achieves both these aims they are what we call a truly engaged campus."
UTB's candidate forums started out in the school's spacious Gran Salon with extremely sparse attendance. Last year's TSC trustee candidate forum was attended by only half of the trustee candidates. The two candidates who snubbed the event, Dr Reynaldo Garcia and Ramon Champion Hinojosa were on to something as they were elected despite their disrespecting the event.
More recently, the City Commissioner Candidate Forum was moved to the much smaller Salon Cassia with perhaps two dozen students in the audience. Last night's District 3 City Commissioner Forum was attended by the six ladies pictured above, along with candidate Debbie Portillo and the photographer, Gilbert Velazquez, but zero students.
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| Debbie Portillo Addresses Tiny Audience At UTB, No Students |
As long as democRATS remain in control we will remain in the sewer.
ReplyDeleteThe Fascist/Republican party will hardly leads us to the promise land. It boils down again to the simple fact that we must create enough relevant voter participation. The current institutions of higher learning have apparently failed to engage young voters into going to the polls. (Spectacular understatement). However, we must continue to try to find pertinent remedies for our current demise in voter turnout.
DeleteWorse yet, where was Martin Sarkis? talk about a lack of participation! he's a candidate still, isn't he? Just changed my vote to Portillo.
ReplyDeleteBefore you changed your mind to Portillo,were you already familiar with each candidates platforms and ideas to make Brownsville a more viable city? Or were you just trying to be clever by countering with a tepid point about Sarkis (the other candidate in the runoff) for not participating enough in the election? You sound like one of those very,very low information voters. How shallow and flakey can you be? You're focusing your "concerns" in very irrelevant places. Is that all there is to your thought process when it comes to changing your vote? I'm embarrassed for you.
DeleteHi, Kimbo! Is Sarkis paying you per comment? Make sure he itemizes it on his finance report.
DeleteYears ago, Julieta Garcia remove the voting from UTB when a student dared to challenge one of her hand picked TSC Board Candidates. Students were no allowed to vote when it was not consistent with Juliets "plan". Students at UTB don't really know what is going on, because Juliet doesn't want them to think critically....a challenge to her authority. Juliet wants students who do as she commands....not students who think for themselves. Because of her power mongering and autocratic management, students prefered not to do anything....they were neutered philosophically by the very person who should have encouraged them to fly. Juliet is a self-serving bitch. Now she has lost it all.
ReplyDeletethese kids are smarter than I thought. statism is dying and the market for statist rituals like voting is crashing
ReplyDeleteJuliet Garcia and the UTB administration (really only Juliet has a voice) has used the electoral process when it benefitted Juliet's agenda, and have not pressed for student voting when it looked badly for Juliet. The UTB voting process is hypocritical and self serving. When Juliet can herd the ignorant to the polls...she does, if it benefits her. Otherwise, she knows most won't particiapate, because they don't care.
ReplyDeleteJim, I think you're hating on the Center a little too much (regarding Project 100%). It would be as if I went to ask any Brownsville native on Facebook if they had heard about Armando Villalobos through your blog and they replied by no. That wouldn't mean that your blog sucks at informing people, does it?
ReplyDeleteIf an organization's mission is to get students involved in government, yet almost no student's vote or even attend their forums, it is a failure by any measurement.
DeleteAlbert Einstein once defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
Jim