 So, we're here in the NowCastSA studios today with Dean Rogelio Sainz from the UTSA College of Public Policy and with Roger Enriquez, who is the Director of the Policy Center for Policy Studies Center, I'm sorry, the fairly new Policy Studies Center, right? So, I'm going to start from the top. There is a Latino Policy Symposium coming up at your center, but we're going to back up for a little bit and go to the Center for Policy Studies Center, I'm sorry, at UTSA. And, Dean, tell me what's different about your Policy Studies Center. Okay, one of the things that we have in terms of planning this symposium is we have the College of Public Policy and Roger Runsey Policy Studies Center. And one of the absences that you see around the country is that we have a lot of public policy schools and colleges of public policy, as well as centers and institutes that do policy research, but there is very little that focuses on the Latino population. And here at UTSA, we're one of the major Hispanic-serving institutions in the country, so this is an area that we really want to engage with the community. And another of the absences that you see is around the country, where you have some centers that look at policy research, there is little that looks at the intersection and the interaction between researchers and community activists, for example, people that are working in nonprofit organizations. So this is a way to try to engage both of these to get a fuller picture of the problems as well as solutions that face the Latino population. Well, let's talk a little bit about who's been invited. Yeah. Okay, so what we wanted to do is to have folks from across the state of Texas participate in. So there is a lot of geographical mix, so we have individuals that are involved with nonprofits in the Rio Grande Valley, in Dallas, in Austin, El Paso, so we really tried very hard not to make this sort of a San Antonio-focused policy symposium. These folks are typically what we would say grassroots folks that are involved, let's say, in issues like housing or education or health and human services, workforce development, things of that nature, because this is one of those, I think, rare opportunities to have folks that work in the trenches on a daily basis and understand the issues that confront Latino families, and really the purpose of the symposium is to better strengthen the Latino family in Texas. So the folks that we've invited, I think, will be able to help inform the conversation. It is not an academic conference, but there is definitely presentations from academics, but that's not its sole purpose. The purpose is to create these community-based participatory research-type relationships where we actually have this opportunity to learn from one another and sort of close the loop and bridge theory with practice. You do have some heavy hitters coming academically as well. We have folks from UT Austin, UT El Paso, UTRGV, Texas A&M University, and all these folks are experts in the field. Ilena Escierto, who's from the University of Texas El Paso, is one of the most prolific scholars in the area of education. We also have some participants as well who are also scholars, but that would be, she's from UT El Paso. We have Yolanda Padilla, who's from the University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work. Again, a major figure in the area of health and human services. Salvador Contreras from UT RGV, University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley, who will be speaking on what we're sort of referring to as plenary sessions or setting the table for us in the area of workforce development, employment, those issues. These folks are going to help us to contextualize the issues in Texas and help move along the discussion as we move from, again, once again, from sort of theory into practice and really come up with a platform to help strengthen Latino families here in Texas. And this is a different thing, because you're talking about some academics and you're talking about a whole bunch of people, Maldef, tell me some of the other groups. Idra, Intercultural Development Research Associates, IDRA. We're talking about Southwest Voter Registration, LULAC, Southwest Voter. There's a number of, you know, also La Fe Policy Institute out in El Paso, and we also, I mean, there's some other folks, for example, like Rob Santos, who's from the Urban Institute, who's going to also help us to, you know, again, I'm big on contextualizing the issue so that whatever we do move forward, that what we're getting is the best information, the most recent information that we're not operating, you know, from old data or, and of course, Dean Sainz will be presenting as well and providing a very thorough demographic picture of Texas and the changing demographics here as well. And what are you hoping that the magic that's going to come out of this? I mean, you know, okay, a bunch of people get together and they talk about stuff, right? And it's a bunch of people who are really passionate about Latino policy. What are you hoping is different that comes out of this? Yeah, one of the major outcomes that we would like to see is that the College of Public Policy and the Policy Study Center play that stimulus role in terms of stimulating the ongoing discussion because the last thing we want is for people to come together for these day and a half and then take off and then they forget about everything and, or have it in the back of their mind, but we want to have that ongoing discussion and collaboration because this is where we're trying to bring in this larger community. And if we look at the kinds of challenges that we have in Texas, we know that the Texas legislature is a big obstacle in terms of some of the policies that have been proposed, so we need to look at that reality and how it is that people that are advocating for the Latino population and increasing their economic power and so forth and sustaining families, how we're going to come up with strategies, for example, economic strategies, political strategies that are going to serve the betterment of the Latino families. And again, having that broad participation of people from a variety of academicians, the non-profit people who are on the ground, non-profits and activists, and I think that that agenda is one that will be much fuller and will get us further along. But again, the emphasis is trying to make that happen and continue that collaboration because we look at this as the first annual. We want to have a second annual and third annual and on down the road to keep that conversation going because these are not changes given the political reality. These are not changes that can be made in six months or a year. This is a long process that involves this collaborative work. Everybody who's coming to the table on this has one part or one slice or, you know, one perspective on something, I mean, there's a shared vision by folks, but they are coming at it with one way of looking at things. And you talked to me earlier about saying we need to start reframing the conversation. I think this author here, George Lakoff, is talking about how conversations need to be reframed as opposed to being defensive against policy initiatives that are coming down. Tell me a little bit about where the reframing, where you see that coming in. Well, there's a number of different areas where, and this is an important aspect of the symposium as well, is so for the, in order to sort of begin the whole process of how we frame issues, we first have to sort of get together across these different themes, you know, it's possible that this is maybe one of the first times that someone, let's say, who's quite involved in housing, for example, to actually interact with someone who their primary focus is education. So there's probably some very common things that we don't really even think about very much about how we message things. You know, a sort of a recurring theme, you see this in education, you see this in a number of different workforce development with respect to Latinos is, okay, is you hear folks that say, well, you know, this workforce maybe doesn't possess the skills or, you know, there's a deficit of skills in order to get high paying jobs. So it seems to be like a recurring theme that sort of when you discuss Latinos, that there's always, we're focused in on the deficits, right, the deficits that are involved. What we're trying to say is, look, you know, let's not look at this in, you know, who is framing that debate, you know what I'm saying? And for example, something I'm very familiar with, which is higher education, you know, there's a lot of focus or a lot of attention paid to four-year graduation rates. And they, there's often said, well, Latinos, four-year graduation rates are lower compared to, and so there's this discussion that somehow this is a big liability for the institution. But you know, we should look at this as a framing opportunity and say, well, no, actually, this is where the biggest opportunities are for us to move the needle, right? If we were talking about a corporation that perhaps was underperforming, people would flock to that and see that as a good investment to go in and make an investment in that underperforming asset in order to get the biggest return on investment. So some of what we will discuss, especially in the second day in the afternoon, is this whole idea of are we framing the discussion or are we making efforts to frame the discussion or are we or someone else dictating how the discussion is being framed? And I think that that's something the lack of does very, you know, obviously touches on is that in many instances it's really a question of who is, you know, framing the issue. And that's certainly a part of all this as well, is that how, you know, for example, the demographics are clear that Latino families are growing, you know, across Texas, you know, this is an important opportunity for the entire state to really focus and try to make an inroad to the well-being of the entire state, right? I mean, if obviously if they represent a large proportion of the population, if you were able to improve their financial stability, their health, their educational attainment, and all that, well, that would just be good for the entire state. No one can possibly argue with that. And that's something that we don't really hear very much of, right? Most of the time when it's discussed, it's discussed from sort of a position of weakness. And we want to change that. We want to begin to explore the possibility of framing the issues in another, in a, you know, and what I think is the right way. I mean, I don't want to make it sound as if, you know, this is, you know, just, you know, it's superficial. It's just that the, we think people are asking the wrong questions is essentially what we're saying, and they're not focusing in on the positives. As the demographer in the group, right? When you're framing your conversation that morning, when you're opening the conversation, I mean, what are you, how are you looking at trying to change your approach to that from perhaps previous presentations on the demographics and why all of this matters? I think in terms of the future of Texas is very much tied to the fortunes of the Latino population. And we've seen, as Roger pointed out, some of the, those patterns that suggest, for example, the lower four year graduation rates and so forth. But we also see a lot of the positives that are taking place. So just a few years ago, Latinos became the largest minority groups in higher education. Something that is, that we wouldn't have figured that that would happen in about 10, 15 years ago. They continue to be primarily concentrated in the community colleges. So we need to also look at how it is that we can make the connection where students can make the transition from community colleges to four year universities and so forth. So in terms of those demographic shifts, I think that the importance of the Latino population and as Roger pointed out, creating these new paths that are often overlooked as we try to pigeonhole Latinos in terms of, to the kinds of realities that we see in the general population and things that are very positive, things that are going on in the community. That sounds really exciting. The date for this is May 4th and 5th, right? And people are still registering for this at this point? We've pretty much finished up with the registration. We have probably over 90 right now from across the state. Again, you know, since we're breaking up into four, there are plenary sessions, but then there'll be these four panels that will actually drill down. And yeah, so these are folks that are working in a particular area, right? So if you're, if what you do is you, for example, work in Idra, right, Idra, or if you work with a community-based educational agency, right, primarily helping students to, you know, get into college or helping families that are in, you know, in schools and whatnot. So you would probably be in the education work group. And those folks have a facilitator and a scribe. And, you know, we've structured in such a way to be able to drill down to the issues and find some sort of some commonality that, you know, how could we, what are some of the policies to identify that we could make gains to strengthen Latino families in the area of education? So as each of these groups comes together, then we'll have an opportunity to present essentially what we came up with. And then that'll be a larger discussion on the second day to be able to sort of lay out or create a platform for strengthening the Latino family in Texas. So education, health and human services, housing, and workforce development. Yeah, those are the ones that we were working in. And I understand that folks are listening and probably think this is quite ambitious. But as the dean pointed out, we as an Hispanic-serving institution at UTSA feel very strongly that if, you know, we don't do it, who will do it, you know? I mean, there is probably not an institution in the country, better positioned, better poised to be able to do it. And we see it as really an obligation to put this together and to put some resources behind it in order to make this come to fruition. And we know that it'll be a benefit not just to the people of San Antonio but really the entire state and the nation as well. Because as the dean also pointed out, I mean, as the Latino community goes, so does the state of Texas. And of course, Texas is one of the most important states in the union. So we feel that this is sort of an opening shot at really having a big impact here in Texas and in the United States. One of the things that I think I see going on in Austin right now that I think you're perhaps trying to address is that we see a policy come across. We want to do this, whether it's the bathroom bill or something, that there's this initiative to push for this, which puts many organizations in the state on a defense basis. But what you're hoping is going to come out of this is that you will have policies, right? You will have policies on this that you're saying, okay, instead of saying we have to figure out how to deal with these cuts in funding for education, we want to come forward and say we have a policy that says we need to figure out how to pay for this education as opposed to how to adapt to cuts, right? Exactly. So we're looking at major policies having to do with the future of Texas, not bathroom bills, for example, and things like that. But what we're doing is looking at education, for example, workforce, housing, areas that we really, these are very important critical issues for the well-being of not only Latinos, but the state as a whole and trying to get that kind of conversation going and a plan of how we move from A where we are right now to place B, to place C, and making advancements in terms of bettering the social economic conditions of Latino families. Okay. As opposed to just responding, right? As opposed to responding, it would be saying we have some positive ideas to put forward and how are we going to get there? But that doesn't happen quickly. Right. I mean, the policy think tanks that have been proposing conservative policies started 20 years ago, right? No, we're longer, actually. I mean, though, you know, this is something that's also important, is that, you know, we tend to think that these, you know, the current situation that we find ourselves in just sort of happened or we stumbled into. The reality is that many folks have been working on having precisely these types of policies in place for probably the better part of 40 or 50 years. Many of these things began in the 1970s with the creation of certain think tanks and position papers and folks making major investments and finding top talent to be able to begin to frame the issue and really change the nature of the debate. And so we understand that this is not something that it's going to, you know, change in a year or two. I mean, this is a process that is just that, a process of beginning the dialogue, creating those relationships across the state, and then, you know, experimenting with different strategies, tactics, and ultimately also, you know, measuring as well. I mean, one of the things that is important is that it's going to come out of this and it's already really begun in other things as we sometimes refer to as the Bienestar Index, which is just the Latino family well-being here in Texas and how we measure that and, you know, to see how we're doing with educational attainment, how we're doing with employment, how are we doing with housing, you know, are Latinos purchasing homes, owning homes and are they getting those homes at competitive rates? You know, are Latinos graduating from high school or graduating from college in a timely way? Are they able to find jobs that, you know, that match up with what they went to school for? All these sorts of things. We need to begin the process of also systematically measuring those and seeing how we're doing so that we can then tweak policies and maybe experiment with different policies in order to improve those outcomes. And that's part of what the Urban Institute is going to be helping a bit with and you, right? I mean, it's data. Right, because the Urban Institute, if we look nationally, it's one of the prominent centers that deals with these kinds of policy issues and we're very fortunate that Rob Santos has connections also to San Antonio. Yes, he has that famous brother. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the cousin, yeah. And so he's going to play a prominent role in giving us ideas on how it is that the Urban Institute started, the work that they're doing with the hopes of providing that spark, for example, that ignites thinking on a big scale in terms of what it is that we could do on a similar basis here in the state of Texas. That's some lofty goals. Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you both so very much for spending some time talking about this and I'm looking forward to this. Nowcast is going to have its cameras on at least part of this. We will be there and as the conversation develops beyond this. Anyway, thank you.