December 6, 2011, 7:35 pm

UTEP Celebrates Graduation…

by Regional Identity Staff

It is that time again when the music plays and their are smiles from ear to ear. That time of year is graduation!!!! A great time to celebrate the hard work the graduates have done and the obstacles they have overcome. Along with this time of celebration many questions arise for these graduates. What will you do next? Where are you going to be working? Are you going to Graduate School? Where will you live? Aaaaahhhh so many questions for these graduates but some have answers so please feel free to share stories or comments or well wishes to the graduates of December 2011!!!!

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December 3, 2011, 11:23 pm

What is this Occupy El Paso Movement all about?

by Regional Identity Staff

All videos are via youtube our organization takes no credit or profit from them.

Please write comments about How would you change America?

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After much anticipation the Regional Economic Development Association has revived Regional Identity!!  Many people complain about this region but few choose to do something about it. We are here to make a difference and improve economic development in our region.

The Regional Identity (Ri) is a biweekly online magazine published by the Regional Economic Development Association. The magazine explores academic, business, and government issues in the Paso del Norte region.

The Regional Identity’s goal is to create a more active student body that engages in the issues that affect the Paso del Norte region. The magazine provides an outlet for students to voice their opinions and enables students to apply the knowledge and skills that they acquire in the classroom to the real world.

We are the voice for students in our region we are REDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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November 13, 2011, 10:10 pm

Meet the REDA Team

by Regional Identity Staff

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August 16, 2011, 12:29 pm

REDA votes for new President

by Richard Sapien

This is the article.

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October 28, 2010, 2:35 pm

2010 TDA El Paso Conference

by German Sanchez

Over the summer, REDA has been working with El Paso’s Economic Development Department in the preparation for the 2010 Downtown Development and Revitalization Conference. The event is offered jointly by the Texas Downtown Association (TDA) and The Texas Main Street division of the Texas Historic Commission, and is hosted by the City of El Paso. We invite anyone and everyone who would like to help represent El Paso in all its splendor to volunteer for the conference.

Being a volunteer will provide for networking opportunities as well as allow everyone to join in making El Paso’s image shine in a new light. El Paso has many lucrative and exciting prospects for the upcoming years. Even now things have begun to change towards redevelopment and urbanization. Down Town El Paso has new luxury living areas, and prime potential to remake itself as the entertainment and shopping Mecca it once was.

This year, the TDA is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the organization, officially formed in 1985 to connect communities committed to downtown revitalization. They are an association of more than 400 organizations and individuals across Texas working toward the revitalization of their downtown or commercial districts.

The conference schedule features educational sessions, round tables, tours and other events. There are many events that you can volunteer for ranging from a Sunrise Hiking Tour, or a Night in Old Mesilla.

The 2010 Texas Downtown Development and Revitalization Conference will be held from November 9th through the 12th.

On behalf of the Regional Economic Development Association I extend an invitation to anyone interested in volunteering. If you are interested please email me at gasanchez7@miners.utep.edu or at richardsapien@gmail.com and provide your name and preferred contact method (email, phone number, etc.).

For more information please visit http://www.texasdowntown.org/events/conferences.html.

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October 19, 2010, 11:27 pm

Regional Identity Article Competition

by Regional Identity Staff

The Regional Identity (Ri), first published in 2005, is a student magazine that promotes regional academic, business and government issues. The magazine has been read by hundreds and showcases the work of the UTEP student body. This December, the magazine is publishing its third physical copy and wants to feature the best student research and editorials.

UTEP students, if you have an article (essay, editorial, interview, research paper, etc.) about academic, business, or government issues in the Paso del Norte (El Paso, Juárez, Las Cruces) region, submit it to submissions@regionalidentity.com or in-person to:

Professional Development Center
College of Business Administration
500 W. University Ave.
Business Administration Building
Room 104
El Paso, TX 79968

The best article and the two runner-ups will receive a scholarship from the Regional Economic Development Association and will be published in the Regional Identity. The first place winner will receive a $100 scholarship. The two runner-ups will receive $50 each.

Multiple submissions are allowed. UTEP students only. All majors and classifications allowed. Note: Regional Identity staff may not participate in contest.

Guidelines

All submissions must be:

• Between 500-1,000 words
• APA format (please cite all sources)
• .doc or .docx format
• Submitted by November 23, 2010 at 5pm

Please attach your full name, phone number, classification, major, and email address. Include total word count after your contact information. Submissions that do not adhere to these guidelines will be disqualified.

Judging and Terms

Each entry will be read and graded by a panel of judges from the Regional Economic Development Association. Judges will consider article creativity, originality, writing quality, and effort as measured by research, topic difficulty and relevance, and use of primary and secondary sources. Original photographs and/or visual aids are allowed. All decisions are final. Award winners will be notified via email by November 12, 2010.

All submissions must be the original work of the submitter. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Any evidence of forgery, plagiarism, or copyright infringement will disqualify contestant and may be reported according to UTEP Catalog Policy.

All submissions may be classified as Academics, Business, or Government, according to Regional Identity staff and edited for style, spelling, technical, or grammatical errors. All submissions, even those not selected as winners, may be printed or published online. Authors, by submitting their article, relinquish all rights to their submitted work.

Q&A

Q: What are some examples of acceptable article topics?

A: All topics must have a regional perspective and must discuss a topic about academics, business, or government. Some acceptable topics are regional entrepreneurship, interviews of prominent UTEP faculty, El Paso business people, or politicians, features of local establishments, UTEP and Tier1 status, downtown revitalization, the future of the ASARCO site, the local entertainment industry, arts and culture, local philanthropic organizations and not-for-profits, UTEP student features, city projects, community initiatives, NAFTA, and the Mexican drug trade.

For examples of published Ri work, visit www.regionalidentity.com.

Q: Can I contact the Ri regarding article topics and research?

A: Yes! Although we will not help write or research for your article, we will gladly help guide you in the right direction.

Please send competition questions or comments to submissions@regionalidentity.com. Good luck and get writing!

» Download this post in .PDF form here. Please share this link with your friends and colleagues.

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May 3, 2010, 8:07 pm

No Inflationary Pressure on the Dollar

by Freddy Espinoza

The yield curve is steep enough to signal that investors think higher interest rates will appear in the future, but how high? 10-year treasuries (^TNX) are currently yielding 3.68 and the historical rate for these securities is 4.31%. Not so high, the steepness is caused by last year’s low rates. According to the Fed “inflation is subdued,” which makes sense since the unemployment rate has provided enough fear to discourage American consumption, therefore not pushing prices upward. Inflationary pressure has not yet appeared. This will calm inflation in the short term.

As for the long term, many people fear the huge national debt will bring down the dollar creating massive inflation. Fortunately we are not alone! Europe’s countries have also debt problems. Greece has an 115% debt/GDP, Italy has a 117% Debt/GDP, and Italy has a 117% Debt/GDP. According to Bloomberg Japan has a 190% GDP/Ratio. The US dollar Index (^DXY) measures the dollar against a basket of currencies,; according to the index, the euro and the yen are the ones that affect the dollar the most; this index has actually risen over the recession. Continuing a decline in the index from 2005-2007 the dollar rallied in mid-2008 to 2005 highs. Our dollar currently stands at an 81 level compared to the 75 level in 2006; our dollar is stronger than 4 years ago. So where is all the deficit reflecting? Its not since other currencies have debt problems too!

Unemployment rates are also high in other countries with Europe’s unemployment at 10%, Japan at historical highs and U.S. at 9.7% everything seems to move in synchrony, which cancels out the downward dollar pressure, so the dollar should not be affected as much as we think so.

Does than mean China will take over? Emerging economies will continue to develop, but for them to catch up to their GDP growth rate will have to be excessively higher than their population growth rate. They depend on the U.S. economy for many reasons besides national trade (such as trade and financial regulation.)

Unless the most currencies collapse and we return to a gold standard monetary system (extremely unlikely), in the medium term, which is in 1-4 years, the forex movement should move along rising individual currency interest rates. In the long term, that is later than 4 years, we should not notice a big effect on the dollar.

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April 15, 2010, 7:51 pm

Site Loading Time

by Richard Sapien

I was talking to Freddy Espinoza, Finance and Accounting major and Ri blogger, yesterday about the Ri website design and Content Management System (WordPress). After sharing how impressed he was with the website, I told him about my frustration with the site’s slow loading times. After all, the perfect way to deter site traffic is to make visitors wait for pages and posts to load.

Freddy said he hadn’t noticed the slow loading times, but he told me he would “check it out.” I thanked him and we went our separate ways. A few hours later I learned a lesson: Never give a financial analyst a task without expecting the cold hard truth and a corresponding graph.

Freddy, by way of comparative analysis and volatility radars, confirmed my fear: the site was slow. It became clear to me that if somebody was willing to put this much effort to show me that our website was slow, I should put equal effort into speeding the site up. After a long day of trial and error (site caching, image optimization, database optimization and repairing, plug-in testing, etc.), the site should be much running much snappier. Please leave a comment in this post to give the site loading time a thumbs up or down.

To me, this story exemplifies what I love about the magazine. The magazine requires collaboration and hard work, but at the end of the day, all parties involved can feel proud that they helped create something impressive. As my staff and I have learned, it is not easy to run a publication. A lot of work goes into brainstorming, research, writing, editing, photographing, recording, marketing, and managing schedules. Having said that, the mag has been a great experience thus far and I encourage anybody interested in participating to step on up. We have big plans.

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April 11, 2010, 9:07 pm

National Center for Border Security and Immigration Opportunity

by Regional Identity Staff

I’m posting a great opportunity on behalf of Dr. Cristina Ramirez:

Homeland Security Scholars Academy Undergraduate Research Program (Pilot)

The University of Texas at El Paso

Summer 2010 June 1 – August 6

The National Center for Border Security and Immigration is offering a 10-week summer research program for undergraduates contemplating a career in homeland security.  Students will work on relevant research projects with professors from the Departments of Business Administration, Engineering, Computer Science, Criminal Justice, Psychology and Political Science.

Undergraduates will receive a stipend of $4,000.  Students who do not live within commuting distance (approximately 100 miles) will be offered on-campus housing and a meal allowance.  Students will be expected to work 40 hours a week.  In addition to working on research, students will be exposed to DHS agencies through field trips and speakers.  This program is designed to introduce students to the many  possiblities of careers in the homeland security field. 

If you are interested, please complete the application and submit it by May 7.  The review process is currently on-going.

If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Cristina D. Ramirez at 915-747-6406 or email at cdramirez@utep.edu or also Dr. Gail Rioux at 915-747-7422 or email at garioux@utep.edu.

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