UNCA hosts third annual Math Literacy Summit

Saturday, UNC Asheville hosted its third annual Math Literacy Summit, inviting professor William Vélez of the University of Arizona to give the keynote speech.

“We don’t just study it because it’s useful, we study it because it’s fascinating,” Vélez said. “It is just so damn interesting.”

Vélez is the co-founder of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.

“The reason we were formed is that we were almost invisible in the community,” he said. “SACNAS was created to help academia diversify.”

Samuel Kaplan, a professor in UNCA’s math department, co-founded the Math Literacy Summit. He said the focus of this year’s summit, teaching math skills to area Spanish-speaking residents, wasn’t quite his idea.

“Since all of this was born out of talking to people locally, they felt the conversations needed to be enlarged,” Kaplan said.

Kaplan, who invited Vélez to give the keynote speech for this year’s conference, said the focus on teaching math to teachers and parents was the original plan three years ago, but the scope of the conference has changed.

“Math is an equity issue. It’s a social justice issue,” Kaplan said. “We did not know this three years ago. We spoke to the community (and asked) what would people be most interested in.”

Kaplan said the community was interested in bilingual workshops and credit issues, so the conference is supplying translation devices to attendees at two of the workshops.

“It’s a trial, but I’m not aware of other community events like this in the country,” he said.

Vélez said, while he usually works with undergraduates, the conference’s focus on K-12 students and their parents is something that is needed.

“The work that I do deals with access,” he said. “I’m allowing students to make choices about where their careers are going.”

Deborah Miles, the executive director of the Center for Diversity Education at UNCA, said math education is a big component of recent changes in the workplace nationally.

“Students have to prepare very differently to get a job,” she said. “Wherever there’s a challenge, there’s an opportunity.”

Miles also said traditional gender and economic roles are changing in the workplace.

“If you look at medical schools, particular specialties are more geared toward genders, but that is changing,” she said.

Vélez said he used his personal experiences, and geared his speech toward finding opportunities outside of those society normally selects.

“I grew up very poor, but I had the good sense to study mathematics in my life,” he said.

Vélez said the bilingual component might upset some members of the community who advocate learning in English.

“We study rate of change. I’m sorry, but things are changing,” he said. “We’ve been working on this for 39 years. I think that we are enriching the cultural life in the United States.”

During his speech, Vélez talked about the differences between his time as a student and student life now. One of the biggest points he touched on was a shift away from institutional racism.

“As an undergraduate, the only advice I got was bad advice,” he said.

Professors ignored him, he said, and advisers suggested that he major in Spanish because it would be easier for him. The overall message of the day, he said, called him “disadvantaged.”

“How can a culture that produces the music that we have, the food that we have, the love that we have for one another, be disadvantaged?” Vélez said.

Even in high school, the trends were the same, Vélez said.

“The kids who were minority or poor were treated like they didn’t need mathematics,” he said.

Kaplan said the primary predictor for end-of-grade testing results is free lunch. He said students who recieve free lunches pass end- of-grade tests nearly 70 percent of the time, while students who pay for lunch pass more than 95 percent of the time.

“I think we need to make the public aware of how important mathematics is,” Kaplan said.

Other campus members should follow Kaplan’s example of community outreach, especially since UNCA isn’t a very diverse school, Vélez said.

“You don’t need minorities to promote diversity; you need concerned individuals to promote diversity,” Vélez said. “I think your city is blessed to have him (Kaplan) here.” 

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