Hispanic -serving land -grant colleges: Analysis and plan for an educational policy initiative

Hispanics and other minority Americans are denied access to higher education by a system that needs structural reform. The purpose of the research was to determine whether creating Hispanic-serving land-grant colleges, similar to the Morrill land-grant colleges serving Black and Native Americans, might be an effective strategy to increase the access of Hispanic students to quality higher education. In addition to published materials, data was collected from a survey of Hispanic-serving institutions and extensive interviews with college presidents, government representatives, educational association leaders, and educational historians. ^ The research examined how existing land-grant college systems came into being and how they have evolved. A look at the functions of the land-grant systems serving Blacks and Native Americans revealed promising possibilities for a system that would include more Hispanics. Legal, fiscal, curricular, and organizational criteria were inferred from the existing systems. While none of the existing land-grant systems can be adapted to serve Hispanics or most other minorities outside their limited regions, each has elements that could be adapted by a new minority-serving system. A number of colleges already have features that could make them candidates for state designation as land-grant colleges. ^ The research suggests that a new federally funded system of Morrill land-grant colleges dedicated to serving all urban Americans, not just Hispanics, would do much to increase the numbers of Hispanic students and other racially and ethnically minority Americans in good quality higher educational institutions. An inclusive urban land-grant system would be politically feasible, whereas one meant to serve Hispanics alone would not. Because of their urban locations, these universities would serve large concentrations of minority citizens of all ethnic groups. ^ Finally, the basic elements of a strategic plan are presented for an educational organization to use for organizing leaders of minority educational associations, financing an initiative to lobby Congress, eliciting legislative and federal agency support, and securing the assistance of other educational, industrial, and special interest groups. The plan includes a suggested timetable for action. Recommendations are made for innovations that would make such a higher education system distinctive and would help meet important national needs. ^

Temporal analysis of land use and transportation investments with geographic information system

Land use and transportation interaction has been a research topic for several decades. There have been efforts to identify impacts of transportation on land use from several different perspectives. One focus has been the role of transportation improvements in encouraging new land developments or relocation of activities due to improved accessibility. The impacts studied have included property values and increased development. Another focus has been on the changes in travel behavior due to better mobility and accessibility. Most studies to date have been conducted in metropolitan level, thus unable to account for interactions spatially and temporally at smaller geographic scales. ^ In this study, a framework for studying the temporal interactions between transportation and land use was proposed and applied to three selected corridor areas in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The framework consists of two parts: one is developing of temporal data and the other is applying time series analysis to this temporal data to identify their dynamic interactions. Temporal GIS databases were constructed and used to compile building permit data and transportation improvement projects. Two types of time series analysis approaches were utilized: univariate models and multivariate models. Time series analysis is designed to describe the dynamic consequences of time series by developing models and forecasting the future of the system based on historical trends. Model estimation results from the selected corridors were then compared. ^ It was found that the time series models predicted residential development better than commercial development. It was also found that results from three study corridors varied in terms of the magnitude of impacts, length of lags, significance of the variables, and the model structure. Long-run effect or cumulated impact of transportation improvement on land developments was also measured with time series techniques. The study offered evidence that congestion negatively impacted development and transportation investments encouraged land development. ^