Abstract: Borders are ubiquitous in cultures. We build fences around our properties and the country has spent billions of dollars on the border wall between Mexico and the US. Given any physical structure, determined people will find a way through it, around it, over it or under it. One needs more than a physical structure. One needs guards. (On March 22, 2018, the following appeared on the front page of the Arizona Daily Star: ``Agent in border killing acted as `executioner,' US argues.'').

What are the border walls that education and academia have constructed, and who guards them? These border walls proved effective in the twentieth century in keeping minorities out of scientific careers, yet some managed to surmount these barriers. In 1975 I was the first Chicano to earn a Ph.D. from the mathematics department at The University of Arizona (UA). In 1977 I was the first Chicano hired in a tenure-track position in mathematics at the UA. The UA is now a Hispanic Serving Institution and when I retired in 2018, I was also the last Chicano hired in a tenure-track position in the mathematics department. I would say that those were effective border walls.

Though the percentage of minorities who managed to earn doctoral degrees in the sciences was very low in the last century, many of these scientists had a social conscience and wanted to address these inequities. Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) was created in the early 1970s to address this underrepresentation and continues its work to this day. It is a sad fact that minorities and women have to expend great energies in constructing welcoming organizations for themselves.

Societal border walls continue to keep minority populations out of scientific careers. Mathematics has played a large role in this. It is time for all of academia to begin breaking down these walls so that all of our children are equipped with the tools to be able to address the serious problems that confront society.

About the speaker: William Yslas Vélez was born in Tucson, Arizona, to parents from the Sonora region of Mexico. He earned a BS in 1968 from the University of Arizona with a math major and physics minor.  Vélez was then sent to active duty in the US Navy.  In 1970 he returned to graduate school, earning an MS in 1972 and a Ph.D. in 1975 both in mathematics from UA.   After finishing his Ph.D., Vélez worked on the command and control of atomic weapons systems at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque.   In 1977 he returned to the University of Arizona for a tenure-track faculty position.  From 1998 until his retirement in 2018, Vélez was a University of Arizona Distinguished Professor.   Vélez has served as a program director at the National Science Foundation and worked as a consultant to the Naval Ocean Systems Center.  Vélez has held numerous grants from the NSF and other national organizations for his mathematical research and work on broadening participation in STEM fields; he also holds several patents on communications systems for submarines.

From 1994 to 1996 Vélez was President of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/ Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS).  From 1994 to 1999 he was   Director of the Southwest Regional Institute in the Mathematical Sciences. Vélez was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2009; he became Fellow of the American Mathematical Society in January 2013.  Vélez was awarded the Association for Women in Mathematics Gweneth Humphreys Award for Mentorship of Undergraduate Women in Mathematics in January 2014. In 2017, he was selected as a Fellow of the Association for Women in Mathematics, in the inaugural class.  

Since 2018 Vélez has served as Associate Director of the Math Alliance, an organization dedicated to supporting students from underrepresented groups who pursue a doctoral degree in mathematics.