Tucker Paquette
@tpaquette17
Springfield College Professor of Social Work Miguel Arce has spent 40 years working in and around the Springfield community to make life better for populations with minimal economic resources. Now, he’s bringing his vast experience to a new role on Alden Street.
Arce has been selected as Springfield’s Distinguished Professor of Humanics for the 2023-24 academic year, and he has launched a campaign titled “Fostering Equity and Inclusion for Latinas/os in Child and Family Welfare.”
Arce’s mission is mainly focused on the issue of racial segregation, with an attempt to improve the lives of marginalized people – specifically Puerto Rican children and families.
Arce has ample experience helping members of disadvantaged communities, the same realm he’ll be focusing on with his work for Springfield College this year.
Dr. Anthony Hill, an Associate Professor at Springfield College, believes Arce’s significant experience assisting people and groups who need it will make the transition into his new role a smooth one.
“His work as a Humanics professor is a continuation of the work he’s done for decades,” Hill said.
As Arce tries to take aim at segregation through his campaign, he and others will have to contend with a variety of issues.
Poor housing, insufficient education, low-paying job opportunities and hard-to-reach health services are all problems that stem from segregation. Arce’s mission will attempt to fix these issues and others, as well.
Arce has an extensive background of working to help segregated populations.
“I’ve always, for some reason, ended up in communities that were segregated,” Arce said.
Having worked with numerous segregated groups, such as Native Americans and Mexican farm workers, Arce has gained a unique insight into the challenges people from marginalized communities face.
“They’ve always been set aside,” Arce said.
The flip side of Arce’s vast experience seeing the struggles of people and families in tough situations is the hope that creating change will improve their lives. This guiding light, so to speak, is clearly not lost on Arce.
“There’s large portions of our community [in Springfield and the surrounding towns and cities] that are segregated,” Arce said. “That has brought me to this desire to respond to [this issue] by creating awareness of the situation [concerning] low income people and people of color, especially in the Springfield area.”
Joining forces with those around him is another integral part of the work Arce has already done and will continue to do this semester. Combining with members of the communities he is serving and existing with allows Arce to attain an all-encompassing sense of what is going on and what can be done to make things better.
Along those lines, through his preparation and background research prior to the kickoff of his Humanics mission, Arce has interviewed a number of people with knowledge of these issues to better understand the depth of the problems Puerto Rican families deal with.
While doing these interviews, Arce came to the realization that there is a lot that needs to be done to help lessen the strain felt by far too many people.
The result of Arce’s research and longstanding interest in these matters is his three-pronged Humanics campaign. The first part of Arce’s mission is centered around the idea of raising awareness on the equity gap between the hispanic and white communities.
“It’s [important to] create awareness here on campus and to create awareness outside the campus,” Arce said.
The second key aspect of Arce’s campaign is organizing in an attempt to begin attacking the issue at hand. Arce is of the belief that this step will naturally follow suit as awareness of the problem heightens.
“As people understand the problem, they’ll want to come together to try to resolve [it],” Arce said.
Arce’s year-long campaign is building up towards the third pillar of his project, a conference that will take place in the Spring semester.
During this conference, a group of people with various experiences from occupying many different positions will collaborate to discuss possible solutions to the problems Arce’s campaign has highlighted.
While Arce has undoubtedly set out on a serious project with lofty objectives, his peers believe his character and approach to problem solving will serve him well.
“He’s humble, hard-working and generous in supporting a variety of causes,” Hill said.
For his part, Arce cited the words of Kathy Mangano, last year’s Distinguished Professor of Humanics, to describe his thoughts on this role and what could be ahead for him in the next eight months or so.
“I’m humbled, I’m excited and I’m nervous,” Arce said.
Each of these words capture a notable part of how Arce is feeling as he is in the beginning stages of this year-long endeavor. They all come together to paint the picture of a man who understands the importance of his job, and is eager to do whatever he can to effect change.
“I’m excited because there’s an opportunity to respond to a real social need, I’m nervous that I’m going to drop the ball, and I’m humbled with the ‘distinguished’ part of [the title],” Arce said. “There’s a lot of distinguished people, and I just happen to carry the title this year.”
In the end, Arce believes that the best way to achieve his goals for the project is not for him to headline the mission, but rather for a collective effort to lead the way.
“I’ll feel like we accomplished something at the end of the year if we say ‘we did it,’ not ‘Miguel Arce did it,’” Arce said. “[This would allow me] to look back and reflect [on the year] in a positive way.”
Photo courtesy of Springfield College