More than 200 people attended the second Barbara Jordan Memorial Forum on Diversity in Public Policy, held this year on February 21. The event was organized by the LBJ School Public Affairs Alliance for Communities of Color (PAACC) as a salute to Barbara Jordan and to provide a platform where practitioners and students could discuss current policy issues.
"Given the recent discussions about the possible lack of student diversity at UT, we felt a need to really put the LBJ
School at the forefront, as a leader in addressing issues that affect persons from diverse backgrounds," said David Marshall, one of the forum's organizers. "Our goal is to promote the value of diversity, not only on this campus, but in the larger community as well."
This year's event--held on what would have been Jordan's 62nd birthday--focused on the question Jordan posed to the Democratic National Convention in 1976: who will speak for the common good?
The main session began with a tribute to Jordan by former LBJ School Visiting Professor Mary Beth Rogers, who is now President and Chief Executive officer of KLRU-TV and who is writing a biography on Jordan that will be published by Doubleday/Bantam this fall. According to Rogers, it was only after Jordan left Congress in 1979 that she began to see "her true symbolism as a spokeswoman for the idealism of the common good."
In her keynote address, Texas State Representative Dawnna Dukes continued developing the forum's theme by stating that affirmative action promotes the common good.
"Well-meaning citizens may have come to the conclusion that affirmative action advances less qualified minorities at the expense of more qualified whites," she said. "This is not the case." Instead, Dukes said, affirmative action guarantees that people are judged on all the qualities they bring to the job or the classroom.
Following the keynote address, a panel composed of national and state administrators discussed the role of standardized testing in public education and whether such tests penalize minority students. Moderated by Alicia Hernández Sánchez (LBJ Class of '97), a community worker and researcher, the panel included Melissa A. Chabrán (LBJ Class of '97), Program Analyst, Planning and Evaluation Service, U.S. Department of Education; Jack Christie, Chairman, Texas State Board of Education; Albert H. Kauffman, Regional Counsel, San Antonio Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund; Sharon Fontenot O'Neal, Director of Programs for English Language Arts and Reading, Texas Education Agency; and Susan K. Sclafani, Chief of Staff for Educational Services, Houston Independent School District.
Funding for the event was provided by the Motorola Small Grants Program, the LBJ School of Public Affairs, the UT Austin School of Law, PAACC, the UT Austin Graduate Outreach Program, and the LBJ School Graduate Public Affairs Council.