Austin Community College - Rio Grande Campus Age, Ethnic, Socioeconomic level DISCRIMINATION against Work-Study students, No Degree Austin Texas

If Austin Community College had not managed to admit all of the Work-Studies students, they would not have had their phenomenonal growth rate and been able to open a new Round Rock campus and expand their nursing program or "nurse factory" and allied health careers like they have.

If they treated their work-studies student anything like they treated me, something is going on there that isn't exactly above board.

I went to Austin Community College EVEN AFTER HAVING BEEN WARNED BY AFRICAN AMERICAN and WHITE friends that once they depleted their Work-Study grant for junior colleges, they would be dumped out without getting their degrees and there was a bias in favor of Hispanic and Muslim students.

Not my problem, I said. I was without a job for two years beacuse I had been hurt on the job which was not covered by worker's compensation and I had been nearly homeless and unable to do my former job again. It happens when your boss was too crooked to have worker's compensation in Texas WHICH IS OPTIONAL TO THEM!

I had to do something to try to get another job but I had NO job skills.

My first semester was spent at the Rio Grande campus which happens to be the former campus of Austin High School built in 1914 which was way before the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed. They have an annex building in which a lot of my classes were held and with my mobility-impairment, I was unable to get up and down the stairs without a great deal of PAIN! Too bad. I applied for a Work-Studies grant which means that you have a student job on campus. I was awarded the grant but I found out that I could not get a job on campus because they were ALL FULL. The guy behind the counter suggested that I go to the RIVERSIDE CAMPUS which is a predominantly Hispanic campus.

I got an announcement in the mail telling me that I had been awarded financial aid INCLUDING WORK-STUDY FUNDS!

WHERE DID THE FUNDS IN THE WORK-STUDY GRANT GO THAT WERE SUPPOSED TO GO TO ME, THAT I ALLEGEDLY QUALIFIED FOR SINCE I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE EARNING THEM IN A JOB. I QUALIFIED FOR MONEY THAT I DID NOT RECEIVE. WHO DID?

I went another semester, this time on the Riverside campus and changed my major to pre-LVN because I thought I will surely find a job here! Wrong again. I went into the Financial Aid office where some Hispanic people said I was not going to get my Work-Study program because I could not prove I was an American citizen. I HAVE A DRIVERS LICENSE,A VOTER REGISTRATION CARD, A STATE-ISSUED COPY OF MY BIRTH CERTIFICATE plus I have been born and raised in the USA ALL OF MY LIFE and I AM NOT A CITIZEN?????!!!!!! I even speak English!

Even though the federal goverment qualified me for the Work-Study program, I did NOT receive a dime of it. SOMEBODY DID. WHERE DID THE MONEY GO AND WHO GOT IT?

In addition to which, I encountered ferocious AGE DISCRIMINATION when one of the faculty members told me that people "your age" should not be at this school. He also made remarks about Hispanic and African American students which got him into a lot of trouble but since he has tenure ( without a PhD even) he was not disclipined.

For nearly two years I had NO work-study job but I was qualified to receive it. SOMEBODY OBVIOUSLY DID BUT IT WASN'T ME.

WHERE DID THE MONEY GO?

Also, I was having problems with courses I should have had in high school but didn't. My math skills, especially algebra were WAY BELOW AVERAGE! They have tutoring labs which,in MY case at least, just shoved a book at me with the answers in it and I was encouraged to look at the answers and back engineer the answers to the problems. Well, I can copy answers as good as anybody else but I didn't know how to get the damned answers. I can add, subtract, divide and multiply but could not understand the need for the algebra, geometry and all the rest of it that I was unable to do! The younger students got a much better explanation of the problems and I realised that there was some AGE DISCRIMINATION going on here, possibly GENDER DISCRIMINATION as well.

The thing is that there was a proposal to close the learning labs AND I had personally put my good name on the line by lobbying various elected officials and SUCCEEDED in KEEPING THE PLACES OPEN --there is one on each campus. And I WAS UNABLE TO BENEFIT AT ALL FROM THE EFFORTS I MADE.
The younger people are helped and I was not. And that is how it was.

Fortunately, in pursuit of this ever-evasive nursing degree, I went to a campus where nobody wanted to work and I WAS ABLE TO GET A WORK-STUDIES JOB THERE. The place was hell,. It was out of control COLD or HOT and no in between but I stayed there for two years and I loved it...To try and understand what was going on, I went to a faculty-staff party for which I bought a ticket to get in and had the "rubber chicken feast." I was unable to network my way into a permanent job there ir make any helpful connections and so I left somewhat early.

I wanted really bad to be a part of this place because I feel I was making a difference but people considered me to be TOO OLD, TOO WHITE ( even though my Spanish is fluent and I have Native American, Mexican ( Azteca) from Mexico City) in my family, I lack the prerequisite surname, and too POOR.

Somebody messed up on my financial aid applciation. Someone in the registrar's office put on the paper since I had reached a certain number of hours that I had graduated when I had not. I eventually managed to get my grant reinstated but was not able to keep my work-study job that semester. WHERE DID THE MONEY GO? I was elgible for it. SOMEBODY GOT IT. WHERE DID IT GO?

By now, it is becoming increasingly clear to me that I am NOT wanted at that school because of my AGE ( primary reason), SOCIOECONOMIC class, RACE ( because I looked WHITE, I am considered a UNDERPRIVILEGED PERSON NOT ENTITLED TO AN EDUCATION BECAUSE AT MY AGE, I SHOULD HAVE HAD MY CHANCE AND I DO NOT NEED TO BE THERE TO DISPUTE THE OFFICIAL POLITICALLY CORRECT VERSION OF THINGS. I was there to LEARN. I was NOT A TEACHER, I DID NOT EVEN HAVE A MASTER'S DEGREE ( and no money to get one either!) MUCH LESS A PhD and if I had challenged anything they said, I would have been the loser. Besides, I WAS THERE TO LEARN AND LISTEN AND THAT IS WHAT I DID!

Now, I am back at the Rio Grande campus again and it is teeming with RICH, AFFLUENT WHITE KIDS and I do mean KIDS. Most of these guys looked like they should STILL be in HIGH SCHOOL. I did not do well socially or economically in high school because I felt intimidated by the OCEAN of RICH,SPOILED, INFLUENTIAL BRATS and the immaturity level here is OVERWHELMING! I felt way OUT OF PLACE here. WHAT ABOUT THIS MUCH- PUBLICIZED LOVE OF DIVERSITY, NON-DISCRIMINATION, ACCEPTANCE and TOLERANCE the liberals preach here.

I HAVE FOUND THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE IN WHAT THESE PEOPLE SAY AND WHAT THEY ACTUALLY DO.

For one thing, the Work-Study program is such that IF YOUR SUPERVISOR MISSES WORK, THE WORK-STUDIES STUDENTS ARE NOT TO BE TRUSTED AND HAVE TO BE WITH THE SUPERVISOR AT ALL TIMES, OTHERWISE THEY DO NOT GET PAID. Excuse me? I am going to STEAL?

WHY ARE YOU PAYING ME IF I AM GOING TO STEAL SOMETHING?

By this time, the economy is really BAD and I am trying to get an hourly job with the school and I have two years of solid experience but the people who have the hourly jobs barely know what they are doing! I am NOT told where to apply for these jobs and then I realized that PEOPLE OF A CERTAIN AGE ARE NOT WANTED THERE.

I noticed that the guy who was supposed to be my supervisor made constant trips to the Financial Aid office and saying who knows what.

When somebody is constantly watching you in the hopes that you will make a mistake that is fireable, you begin to get suspicious and you start looking around AND asking questions.

Plus, the guy here who is supposed to be my supervisor is watching me constantly AND jumping on me every time he thought I did REGARDLESS OF WHO WAS WATCHING OR LISTENING. Dude, I had two years of experience and I know what I am doing and then it occurs to me -- I AM MUCH OLDER THAN ANYBODY THERE AND then I KNEW that this guy is not only going to cost me my job, he is going to try to get my financial aid cut off.

When I went to the Financial Aid center at Rio Grande campus, I was deliberatly sent to jobs where I was unable to contact the decision maker who make the hiring decision and after a semester of NO WORK, I didn't have the time to waste. I HAD TO HAVE A JOB!

Before I knew what happened, the decision to deny me financial aid was up and I appealed. Somehow this supervisor knew my appeal was going to be denied well before I did and told me I was off the schedule for summer semester. Weeks before I knew it would be denied, in fact.

So I felt like I went through a tornado -- I KEPT CHANGING MAJORS TO TRY TO FIND A MAJOR WHERE I WOULD NOT FEEL DISCRIMINATED AGAINST and THAT I WAS ACADEMICALLY CAPABLE OF DOING AND EARNING A LIVING AT- and somebody got my WORK-STUDY money... and then I was kicked to the curb with NO degree...

I am going to try to go on to a four year school but my feeling about Austin Community College is THIS.

DO NOT GO TO THE RIO GRANDE CAMPUS IF YOU ARE A WORK-STUDY STUDENT OR an OLDER STUDENT OR THE SAME THING WILL HAPPEN TO YOU!

AND THE SAME IS TRUE FOR NORTHRIDGE, CYPRESS CREEK CAMPUSES!

There is desired demographic for every campus! The Hispanic campus is Riverside and the YOUNG AND WHITE CAMPUSES are everywhere else except for Eastview which is the African American campus.

And people in the Austin Community College District of ALL AGES , ETHNIC GROUPS and RELIGIONS and COLORS PAY TAXES TO SUPPORT THIS SCHOOL in addition to all of the FEDERAL FUNDING they are getting.

THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A PUBLIC INSTITUTION AS IT IS SUPPORTED WITH PUBLIC FUNDS.

With all of the money I SHOULD have received from the work studies grants I qualified for, I feel like they should at least have a scholarship in my name.



ANGRY,CONCERNED CITIZEN
Austin, Texas
U.S.A.