A&M-Commerce Professors Present Study at First Pan-American Interdisciplinary Conference

Dr. Grady Price Blount of the Department of Physics and Astronomy and Assistant Professor of Political Science Dr. Robert Rodriguez recently presented their study entitled “Hispanics in Texas Higher Education: An Assessment of the State ‘Closing the Gaps' Initiative” at the First Pan-American Interdisciplinary Conference in Buenos Aires.

“Representing A&M-Commerce at a prestigious international conference is an honor,” Dr. Rodriguez said. “Not only did we have the opportunity to share our findings about the Texas system of higher education with international scholars, we were also able to publish our research in the European Studies Journal as a result.”

The study examined the success of Texas's “Closing the Gap” initiative in addressing inequalities in higher education, which resulted from demographic changes associated with the growth of the Hispanic and African-American populations in Texas.

The conference included scholars from India, Holland, Argentina and Saudi Arabia. The location of the conference allowed Dr. Rodriguez to visit his country of heritage, Argentina, and Dr. Blount to visit the A&M-Commerce robotic telescope located at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.

“By representing A&M-Commerce in venue such as this, we are enhancing our university’s international reputation and bringing awareness to some of the research activities conducted by our faculty to a global audience,” said Dr. Rodriguez. “This in turn contributes to the globalization quality enhancement plan adopted by our university.”

To view all research presented at the First Pan-American Interdisciplinary Conference, visit: http://eujournal.org/files/journals/1/books/PIC.2015.Vol.1.pdf.