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D8 Herald-Banner Saturday, MarcH 31, 2012

THE FUTUREH e r a l D i n g

c o M M u n i t y & e d u c a t i o n

By Caleb SlinkardHerald-Banner Staff

As an associate professor of political science at Texas A&M University-Commerce, Robert Rodriguez teaches a variety of courses from freshman to the graduate level in Latin American, United States and Texas politics.

One look into his office, how-ever, and it's clear that his interests extend beyond politi-cal science. Posters and framed pictures of Rodriguez interact-ing with famous boxers adorn the walls, along with a poster of all-time great Argentinean soc-cer player, Diego Maradona. The son of Argentinean parents who was born in Brooklyn, Rodriguez grew up in Orange County close to one of the major boxing locations, the Great Western Forum.

“One of the things I've been able to do is merge my academ-ic and personal interests in sports, specifically boxing,” Rodriguez said. “This goes back to when I was a teenager, and I became interested in the sport and, while in college, began cov-ering boxing and soccer for a Spanish-language newspaper based in Santa Anna.”

By the time he was ready to graduate, Rodriguez was writ-ing for numerous English publi-cations as well, including the industry-standard, The Ring Magazine.

“I loved it, and when I gradu-ated from college, I had a choice,” he said. “Go on to grad-

uate school or continue writing, and ultimately I decided on graduate school, knowing full-well that there was almost no boxing in Kansas.”

After earning his master's degree, Rodriguez began work-ing on his doctorate.

“I began working as an administrator running the McNair Scholars Program, which is a federally-funded U.S. Department of Education TRIO program that helps low income first generation students and underrepresented minorities not only graduate college, but pursue graduate degrees,” he said. “I did that for about 10

years while I worked part-time to earn my Ph.D.”

While working at Kansas, Rodriguez attended a fight in Kansas City as the state began to try and revitalize the sport in the state. The fight featured up-and-coming contender Randie Carver.

“Carver ended up not only losing the fight, but dying after the match, which is something I had never seen before and thankfully haven't since,” Rodriguez said. “At that point, I came to examine the regulatory side of the sport in regards to its health and safety aspects.”

He decided to pursue the

topic as part of his doctoral dis-sertation, performing the first national study on boxing regu-lations as a public policy issue, which was eventually pub-lished. “Then I accepted a ten-ure-track faculty position in political science at A&M-Commerce.”

Rodriguez has enjoyed his two years at the university, and the university community has responded in-kind.

“The students have respond-ed very well,” he said. “I am completely honored and hum-bled by having received the A&M System student award for teaching excellence. I was hon-

ored with a faculty and staff award for globalization, and the Office of Hispanic Outreach and Student Success named me their professor of the year in my first year.”

The topics that Rodriguez focuses on are ones that are not only new to A&M-Commerce, but ones that are quickly becoming important topics in the United States as a whole.

“It's simple demographics,” he said. “If you look at any pop-ulation study in the U.S. today, you will find that not only are Latinos the largest minority group, but by the year 2050 they will make up at least a quarter of the population, and probably more. In the very near future in Texas, Latinos will be the majority group. All of these sta-tistics have tremendous politi-cal and social implications.”

Educating individuals on Latino politics in the United States, as well as Latino-American culture, is therefore a key part of the future of educa-tion. As the first professor teaching classes on Latino poli-tics at A&M-Commerce, Rodriguez is part of an extreme minority of educators in higher education.

“Only 3 percent of all faculty members- full-time, part-time and adjunct, are Latino,” he said. “It's extremely important for people of all racial and eth-nic backgrounds to have an understanding of Latinos in the United States. Everyone, includ-ing Latinos, needs to learn more about this.”

PrOFile On

RobeRt RodRiguez

University professor informing the future

caleB Slinkard / Herald-Banner

dr. rodriguez stands in front of some of his boxing memorabilia, including framed photos of him interacting with boxing greats.

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