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NEW YORK TIMES: Pilar Mendoza

New York Times
2-9-13
Pilar Mendoza

Pilar Mendoza, an assistant professor in higher education administration, was quoted in a New York Times article about college costs and student debt. The article cited her research findings, published last year in The Journal of Student Financial Aid, showing that students pursuing degrees who work fewer than 30 hours a week in a job were 1.4 times more likely to graduate within six years than students who spent more than 30 hours a week working.

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New York Times cites Higher Ed professor’s research on college student debt

Mendoza

Pilar Mendoza, a University of Florida assistant professor in higher education administration, was quoted in a New York Times article Feb. 9 about college costs and student debt.

The Times article cited Mendoza’s research findings, published last year in The Journal of Student Financial Aid, showing that students pursuing degrees who work fewer than 30 hours a week in a job were 1.4 times more likely to graduate within six years than students who spent more than 30 hours a week working.
Mendoza pointed out, though, that working less comes with financial consequences.
“You have two choices,” Mendoza was quoted saying of students whose families could not or would not contribute to their college costs. “You either work or you acquire debt.”
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INDEPENDENT FLORIDA ALLIGATOR: Colombia law school human rights center

Independent Florida Alligator
1-18-13
Colombia law school human rights center

The Independent Florida Alligator reported that the University of Florida’s College of Education has partnered with the Levin College of Law and the Center for Latin American Studies to create a human rights center at two law schools in Colombia with a $757,200 grant from the U.S. government. Pilar Mendoza, an assistant professor in higher education administration at the COE, was quoted in the article about her involvement in the project.

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COE, UF partner with Colombian schools to improve human rights law

For more than 45 years, Colombia has been barraged by a civil war that has resulted in significant violations of human rights.

Now, amid the recent decline of overt war in the South American country, the University of Florida’s College of Education, Levin College of Law and the Center for Latin American Studies have partnered to establish a human rights center at two Colombian law schools closest to the center of conflict.

Mendoza

“Things have settled down compared to the 1990s, but there’s still things going on,” said Pilar Mendoza, a College of Education assistant professor in higher education administration who was born in Colombia. Mendoza is the co-partnership director and co-principal investigator for the project grant.

The three-year effort will be partially funded by the national Higher Education for Development (HED) office with a grant of more than $757,000. The national office works closely with the United States Agency for International Development to mobilize the expertise and resources of the American higher education community to address global development challenges. The participating institutions also provide financial support for the effort.

The human rights center will have an office at the Colombian law schools of the Universidad del Magdalena in Santa Marta and the Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla. The center will offer professional training for law professors, research opportunities, human rights clinics and outreach programs including one in which law students will teach the local Colombian community about human rights.

“The University of Florida faculty at the colleges of Law and Education, and at the Center for Latin American Studies, possess great depth in international law, human rights and experiential learning, and are well suited to achieve the goals of this ambitious program,” said College of Law Dean Robert Jerry.

Although the project has just begun, Mendoza said some important infrastructure is already in place. For example, Mendoza and faculty from the College of Education’s Collaborative Assessment and Program Evaluation Services (CAPES) unit will lead the assessment and monitoring of the new center’s effects.

“The U.S. government is really interested in ensuring what they’re devoting resources to is actually accomplishing the end goals that it sets out to achieve,” said Pedro Villarreal, a CAPES consultant and clinical assistant professor of higher education administration.

The collaboration with Colombian partners began last summer when Mendoza taught a seminar in educational leadership at la Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, her alma mater, opening the doors to other projects related to the development of higher education in the region.

Then, last May, HED announced a grant opportunity for three U.S. law schools that would partner with Colombian law schools to enhance their programs related to human rights in the Colombian Caribbean.

“I had been involved with Colombia in other projects, and this partnership came at the right time,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza said the partnership is particularly important because it serves as a learning opportunity for the Colombian community, as well as for the United States.

“There are a lot things we can learn from other nations about the way we do things here,” Mendoza said. “We have enough domestic problems here, and I do think it’s beneficial to have an open mind to learn from other models and other systems. Maybe there are better ways to do things.”

SOURCE: Pilar Mendoza, assistant professor in higher education administration, pilar.mendoza@ufl.edu; 352-273-4309
WRITER: Alexa Lopez, new media coordinator, news and communications, UF College of Education; aklopez@coe.ufl.edu; 352-273-4449
MEDIA LIAISON: Larry Lansford, director, news and communications, UF College of Education; llansford@coe.ufl.edu; 352-273-4137

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THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL: Pilar Mendoza

The National Law Journal
11-28-12
Pilar Mendoza, Colombia law school human rights center

The National Law Journal mentioned the University of Florida’s College of Education and Pilar Mendoza in an article that announced the college’s partnership with the Levin College of Law and the Center for Latin American Studies. With a $757,200 grant from the U.S. government, the three institutions will collaborate to create a human rights center at two law schools in Colombia.

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Higher Ed professor in partnering talks with Colombian university

When Pilar Mendoza, UF assistant professor in higher education administration, arrived in Bogota, Colombia in May to speak at the Strategies for Improving the Quality of Higher Education forum at the Universidad de los Andes (UA), her presentation wasn’t the only item on her agenda.

Mendoza and three co-researchers, two from the U.S. and one from another Colombian university, held talks with their University of the Andes counterparts during the forum that could lead to a five-university international partnership–including UF’s College of Education and the UA’s Center for Research and Professional Development in Education (or CIFE).

According to Mendoza, who presented in Bogota with University of Alabama colleague Aaron Kuntz on the topic of student retention, the four visiting co-researchers have pending projects with UA’s interdisciplinary CIFE, which develops programs, training and research on educational topics at the university and throughout Latin America.

The other two members of the visiting U.S.-Colombia foursome were University of Massachusetts-Amherst professor Joseph Berger and Universidad del Atlantico doctoral student Jairo Quintero. The provost of the host University of the Andes and an official with Colombia’s Ministry of Education also participated in the talks.

Mendoza and her three co-researchers have collaborated before. Later this summer, The Journal of Higher Education will publish their co-authored research article detailing the differences between top-tier and lower-ranked programs in materials science in terms of their abilities to partner with other industries without compromising their core values. Berger was also the dissertation adviser of both Kuntz and Mendoza during their doctoral studies, and Mendoza is the international dissertation chair for Quintero, who spent a month last fall at UF working with Mendoza.

Mendoza is a member of the International Advisory Board at UA’s CIFE and a faculty affiliate of UF’s Center for Latin American Studies.

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