Campus Reform: Texas A&M University

Editors note: This article was written by a current student, Justin Pulliam, who is a senior at Texas A&M University. He can be reached at justinpulliam@gmail.com" Update: Maria Cabello, the illegal alien who received the Hispanic Heritage Month Undergraduate Award, was quoted in a Huffington Post article on October 3, 2011.

The “Hispanic Heritage Month Community Awards” have been widely publicized at Texas A&M, including on the front page of the Texas A&M website in August and currently as the 1st banner image on the Texas A&M Calendar website.  This program is disguised to be a “feel good” program to honor various aspects of our culture, but as soon as one scratches the surface, it apparent that this is nothing more than liberal activism promoted and funded by the university.

At the beginning of August, I found a page on the Department of Multicultural Services website with details about the awards.  After learning that one of the awards to be given was called “The DREAMERs Undergraduate Student Award,” I posted a link to the website on Facebook.  The next day, the university had revised the website and changed the name of the award to simply the “Undergraduate Student Award.”  Fortunately, since I guessed the outrageous award title might be changed, I took screenshots of the original website.

Don’t be fooled, though, as this award is still just as radical as before the name change.  Through a Freedom of Information Act request, I obtained the original description of the award, which praised and promoted DREAM Act activists:

“This is an award to recognize the efforts that a Latin@ undergraduate student has made during their tenure at Texas A&M University. This student demonstrates a strong commitment to education, leadership, has promoted their cultural heritage, and demonstrated advocacy regarding the general Latin@ community or particular groups within.

The DREAMers Undergraduate Student Award is named in honor of students who tirelessly advocate for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act). At Texas A&M, DREAMers and D-DREAMers have worked particularly hard by organizing rallies, maintaining active relationships with other advocacy groups, meeting with administrators and student leaders to gain support for their efforts, and facilitating educational dialogue for people to be more aware of the DREAM Act. DREAMers have created a multicultural-grassroots movement to pass the DREAM Act and continually promote equal access to higher education for all people, regardless of immigration status, and address the inequities and obstacles faced by immigrant youth. The title of this award is in recognition and honor of the passion and strong will these students have shown.”

One of the groups “sponsoring” the awards, the Hispanic President’s Council (HPC), is led by Executive Director Selene Gomez, who is also a Steering Committee Representative for the Texas Dream Alliance.  However, email records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show the majority of the work for these awards being completed by Ms. Sarah Childs, who is an employee in the Department of Multicultural Services (and also the advisor of the Council for Minority Student Affairs - formerly the DREAM Act Group at Texas A&M).  Many conservative students at Texas A&M find this morally objectionable since each year over $920,000 of their mandatory Student Service Fees go to fund the Department of Multicultural Services.  It is not right that conservative students are forced to pay for liberal activism, liberal indoctrination, and the funding of liberal student organizations – especially since no equivalent conservative organizations or causes are funded by the university.

On September 12, 2011, the winners of the Hispanic Heritage Month Community Awards were announced.  The awards ceremony was led by Selene Gomez and Jose Luis Zelaya (an illegal immigrant who is the president of the Council for Minority Student Affairs).  And the winner was:

•  Self-described “activist” and illegal alien of 8 years: Maria Fernanda Cabello

Cabello is the Secretary of the Council for Minority Student Affairs and is a Texas Dream Alliance advisory council representative.  Last Spring, Maria Cabello was elected to the Texas A&M Student Senate; however, she has since been removed due to ineligibility to hold her elected position. 

Due to the Texas DREAM Act signed into law by Texas Governor Rick Perry in 2001, Cabello receives in-state tuition at Texas A&M.  Last year, I authored a Texas A&M Student Senate Bill (SB63-11) opposing Texas’s policy of giving in-state tuition to illegal aliens.  Cabello has been an outspoken activist against the Aggie Conservatives and my Student Senate legislation.

On April 15, 2011, Cabello publically came out as an illegal alien at the Texas Dream Alliance’s event “Coming out of the Shadows: Undocumented, Unafraid, Unapologetic, and Unashamed.”  The coming out rally was held in Academic Plaza on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.  In her speech, Cabello told the crowd about how she is not able to see her family in Mexico and how she can’t return to Mexico.  (See video below)

“And it made me realize how long I had been away from Mexico; how long I had been in the United States.  And the fear got to me that I still didn’t know when I would be able to go back.  And I still do not know when that will happen.”

The irony: Cabello can return to Mexico anytime she wants, and upon doing so, she will no longer be breaking U.S. law.  Cabello first came to the United States when she was 12 “in a car full of hopes and dreams,” and at the time, she fully realized what was happening (perhaps she was even old enough to live with family members in Mexico instead of following her mom to America).  Cabello, now 20 years old, is an adult and has family in Mexico.  She is making the decision to stay in the United States on her own will.

Instead, she says “I’m undocumented.  I’m unafraid.  And I’m unashamed.”

In a recent Huffington Post article about Rick Perry, Cabello said that she is “very thankful that he signed the in-state tuition into law.”  The Huffington Post described Cabello’s academic credentials:

“Cabello graduated fifth in her class in high school and is now studying political science, with plans to go to law school when she graduates in 2013.” 

However, just last spring Cabello was studying aerospace engineering – not political science.  It is very common at Texas A&M for students to drop out of the engineering college when they no longer meet the GPA requirement for their major. 

Should tax payers be subsidizing the education of undocumented students who are more focused on DREAM Act activism than their engineering courses?  Should conservative politicians support policies that cultivate the next generation of liberal activists? Is training another activist to erode U.S. immigration policy really the best use of state resources?

 That’s what Texas Governor Rick Perry and Texas A&M University think your tax dollars are for.

Texas A&M funds, supports, and promotes DREAM Act activism at the university; however, no conservative causes receive such treatment by the university.  Nor are conservative students honored with special award ceremonies.  While conservative student organizations are struggling to fund limited programming (often paid for out of the pockets of the officers of the organization), Texas A&M funnels thousands of dollars to liberal student groups.  Additionally, the university frequently hosts liberal speakers, such as Michael Olivas, who received over $5,000 to promote the DREAM Act at a recent campus lecture (and with less than 40 people in attendance, that’s a price tag of over $100 per attendee).  With the left so entrenched in higher education, it will be almost impossible for conservatives to survive unless we restore fairness and balance.

Where do we start?  Students, parents, and taxpayers should demand the University and state lawmakers to end the funding bias and thought reform at Texas A&M University.  Donors should withhold all contributions to Texas A&M until the university begins to fund and promote an equal number of truly conservative speakers, programs, and student groups.