Big News! Federal race & ethnicity collection standards have CHANGED

Federal Race and Ethnicity Collection Standards Have Changed

Check it out!

There are a lot to read about in the newly revised OMB Statistical Policy Directive No. 15: Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethinicity, published 3-29-2024. 

Federal Register citation is 89 FR 22182. There are several key revisions but one of the most important is the inclusion of Middle Eastern or North African (MENA) as a race.

How do you think about this change?

This revision has received over 1800 public comments. If you are interested in reading those comments and need assistance with finding and accessing the information, email govhelp@rice.edu or visit Kelley Center informaiton desk for help.

National Parks Week

 

Grand Tetons National Park/Photo by Nate Foong on Unsplash

429

That’s number of National Parks in the United States.  These include national seashores, historical sites, and recreation areas.  To celebrate them, the National Parks Service, part of the Department of the Interior, is devoting April 20^th through April 28^th as National Park Week.

To kick off the week of celebration, and to showcase the variety and grandeur of our National Park system, April 20^th is a day of no entrance fee into any of the parks.  (The NPS offers six days in the year with no entrance fees.)

Each day of National Parks Week has a different theme:

Saturday, April 20: Discovery. What will you discover? A new place, a new interesting fact, a new activity... To kick off National Park Week and encourage you make that new discovery, entrance fees are waived on April 20!

Sunday, April 21: Volunteers. Use your time and talents as a volunteer in your national parks. Find opportunities to volunteer for a single event or long term position.

Monday, April 22: Earth Day. Join the global celebration encouraging education and stewardship of the planet's natural resources. Many parks are hosting volunteer events. You can also find ways to practice conservation at home.

Tuesday, April 23: Innovation. History of our nation's innovation is preserved in national parks. Also learn about the innovative projects happening in parks or through our programs today.

Wednesday, April 24: Workforce Wednesday. Meet our incredible workforce of employees, interns, fellows, volunteers, contractors, partners, and more. Consider joining our team!

Thursday, April 25: Youth Engagement. Calling the rising generation of stewards! Learn about the opportunities for youth and young adults to get involved and see what your peers are up to.

Friday, April 26: Community Connections. Learn about the important work our programs and partners are doing in communities across the country both within and outside of our park boundaries.

Saturday, April 27: Junior Ranger Day. For kids (and kids at heart), become a Junior Ranger through in-person or online activities to learn about special places or topics. You may even earn a Junior Ranger badge!

Sunday, April 28: Arts in Parks. Home of many arts past and present, find your muse creating arts within parks. Also learn about preserving and practicing arts in your communities through the work of our programs and partners.

13 of these National Parks are in Texas.  They are Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument in Fritch, Amistad National Recreation Area in Del Rio, Big Bend National Park in the big bend of the Rio Grande near Alpine, Big Thicket National Preserve in Beaumont, Blackwell School National Historic Site at Fort Davis, Butterfield Overland Historic Trail that covers Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, Chamizal National Memorial in El Paso, El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail in Texas and Louisiana, El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail in Texas and New Mexico, Fort Davis National Historic Site in Fort Davis, Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Salt Flat, Lake Meredith National Recreation Area in Fritch, Lyndon B Johnson National Historical Park in Johnson City, Padre Island National Seashore in Corpus Christi, Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park in Brownsville, Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River in Southwest Texas, San Antonio Missions National Historical Park in San Antonio, and Waco Mammoth National Monument in Waco. 

 

 

Big Bend National Park/Photo by Caleb Fisher on Unsplash

Do You Have the Time?

Time stands still for no one.  Nor is it ever the same.  Because time varies so much on Earth, UTC, or Coordinated Universal Time, was defined as time at mean sea level.  UTC is only a theoretical ideal.  To realize it, International Atomic Time (TAI) weighs the average of hundreds of atomic clocks around the world.  UTC must periodically insert “leap seconds” to keep it aligned with Earth solar days since the rate of the Earth’s rotation changes, and solar days are not always the same. 

As if that isn’t complicated enough, measurement of Time in space differs depending on where you are.  The experience of time is slower where there is more gravity, so a second is longer on Earth than it is on the Moon.  It also is different from both these places if someone is moving through space at a high rate of speed. 

Since many governments, including the United States, and commercial entities are interested in returning to the Moon and establishing a presence there, as well as using it as a stopping point for going to Mars, there needs to be a standard measurement of time in space, specifically in cislunar space (i.e. the space lying between and the Earth and the Moon including the Moon’s orbit).  The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has released a directive for NASA and the Departments of Commerce, Defense, State, and Transportation to establish and be ready to implement a unified time standard -- Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC) – by December 31, 2026.  NASA will also coordinate with the countries who have signed the ArtemisAccords. Time standardization is necessary for safety purposes, as well as economic development and international collaboration.  According to the OSTP policy memorandum:

“The approach to establish time standards consists of the definition, development, and implementation of a distinct reference time at each celestial body and its surrounding space environment. Each new time standard developed will include the following features:

1. Traceability to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC);

2. Accuracy sufficient to support precision navigation and science;

3. Resilience to loss of contact with Earth; and

4. Scalability to space environments beyond the Earth-Moon system

Federal agencies will develop celestial time standardization with an initial focus on the lunar surface and missions operating in Cislunar space, with sufficient traceability to support missions to other celestial bodies.”

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy was created by the National Science and Technology Policy, Organization, andPriorities Act of 1976.  The OSTP heads the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) and its Subcommittee on Cislunar Science & Technology.  The Subcommittee developed the National Cislunar Science and Technology Strategy on which the new policy memorandum builds. 

White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Releases Celestial Time Standardization Policy