Aggie Almanac; 127; Secret Game: Capoiera and Upping the Goal; The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (Promo)

... Coming up on Aggie Almanac, it's a 500 year old tradition that has inspired these performers. It was used to be a lot. And Enemies, you said it's most ambitious fundraising goal ever. When we look at the success of other schools, we know we

can do it. Hi, I'm Hilary Florin and thanks for watching Aggie Almanac. K-R-W-G-T-V's weekly window on New Mexico State University. Imagine an art form that involves dance, music, martial art, and is steeped in a carefully guarded tradition that's almost 500 years old. Well, a dedicated group of people at New Mexico State have embraced that tradition, and in the process they're changing themselves and those who enjoy this cultural phenomenon. One by one, they trickle in. Don colored belts that designate their skill level and get ready to take part in a 500 year old ritual. I had kind of heard about it in high school, but I still didn't really know what it was until I

actually went to the first practice. I had seen it previously and a movie called Only the Strong. I think everyone who does got way to seeing it. And then as soon as I found them, I just got the practice times and started coming up and doing it ever since. They range in age from 10 to over 30 boys and girls tied together by the love of a tradition. You come in with the willingness to learn that's all you need and work out. It starts out slowly with exercises that prepare the body, mind, and soul. Usually the basic you warm up, get everything nice and loosey goosey. Use your arms. You don't have to your whole body. Even the warm-ups are a sort of dance combined with acrobatics and martial arts. And gradually the warm-ups turn into paired exercises. The closer you can get, the faster the smoother the better, obviously.

So let's try to get changed to partners. I wasn't in good shape at all when I started. I probably was about 20 pounds heavier than I am now. And I lost it real fast. When I first started, I could barely do a push-up. When I first started, I didn't have upper body strength, but you just keep coming in and it develops as you practice. Ty. Eventually the group forms a circle called a Hoda. And to the beat of the music, they take turns sparring in the center. They call it a game. One that includes fluid acrobatic play, groundwork, sweeps, kicks, and fakes. A lot of people would call it sparring or maybe dancing, but we call it a game that you're playing with each other. Basically it's called the game where you kick on somebody, kick a trip, counter attack, attack, and stay out of the way.

Make sure you don't let on your butt. The whole rule behind it is if you get hit, it's your fault. If you hit someone, it's your fault. So you have to really be, you have to really evade and then watch what you're doing whenever you're kicking at someone. It's a dance that mimics martial art. It's called capoeira. And because its origins in Brazil were shrouded in secrecy, no one knows for sure how or why it developed. The origins start in Africa around Angola. It's a country north of South Africa. And when those slave trade was started with the Dutch and Portuguese, they brought over slaves to Brazil to the sugar plantations. And the slaves at the plantations just wanted to keep training for self-defense and stuff. So they started disguising it as a dance in a game. That way whenever their plantation owners would come by, they wouldn't know what they were doing. Some people theorized that it came out of a self-defense kind of thing to liberate

themselves from slavery and survive. Others don't accept that theory. They think it's a mixture of all the African cultures that somehow just form just right to form the beginnings of what we have today. After slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888, Capoeira became associated with criminal gangs and anti-government activities. And the police often showed little mercy in trying to stamp it out. It was used to be outlawed. And then the person that took over as a dictator of the country, he saw it as an opportunity to further his career. But in turn, he authorized the practice of it in close quarters and secluded. And that's how I started taking off. A few years after that, 10, 15 years after that, they started getting larger and larger. And then it was accepted as the National Sport in Brazil in the 40s and 50s. And since then, it's just been growing.

Through the years, the art form lost its association with the poor underclass of Brazil and became popular nationwide. In turn to the century, it was started to be more acceptable for women to do it from what I read. Before then, it was more of a only male thing. And not only that, it was more of a a bug kind of thing. More of the street-wise person would be knowing cupoeira versus a more affluent educated type of Brazilian or Portuguese person. Despite the refinements made to the art, Capoeira remains demanding, requiring skills not only in dance, acrobatics and martial arts, but also in playing the traditional instruments. They introduce you to each instrument as you keep practicing and they show you how to play in the songs and the lyrics. Basic, a play of beats is a one, two, one. To do a real basic one.

Keep that one right there. Don't change it. So now you're going to hold it. There's there's symbols all the way around, but here that there's nothing so you put your hand. And you're going to go with her. The middle one is kind of a, you kind of just put your fingers on it like so. See that? You want to get that sound right there. But you want to keep that beat all the time. Don't want to be on it. Don't want to see it going. Are you right hand or left hand? I'm right hand. Okay, so this one is here. What are you going to do with her now? That's a good start right there. That's a good start. Put that head and you're doing it over and over. There you go. You're just playing in no time. You have to learn it all.

All you guys need to pay attention what's going on in the holder. When there's masters up here running it, you got to need to pay attention what's going on. If they slow it down, they speed it up. If they want some people to play. If they play a certain tune, everybody needs to contribute, everybody needs to sing. And stay involved. Don't be just a bystander. Get involved in the holder. If you're not going to play inside the game, make sure you sing. Make sure you clap. Make sure you contribute to energy. If you can play an instrument, you got to need to be switching on instruments a lot. You should have gone back on that one or something. Because the dance is set to the music, it's really just really rhythmic. And the beating bow is the most important part of the music. The barren bow is this unusual looking instrument and is the heartbeat of the games. It's played by striking a steel string with a stick. The pitch is regulated by a stone.

Other instruments include tambourines and a conga-like drum. The lyrics are in Portuguese and focus on a variety of subjects, history, life, inspiration. The barren bow sets the pace and determines how the game inside the circle will be played. If it's slow music being played, you play a certain game called Angola, which is really close to the ground and close to each other. The music takes the rhythm. A slower Angola beat will dictate more of a close, cunning, cunning game. Nothing flashing, nothing extravagant. When the musical pace picks up, the performers react differently. But then obviously as a tempo picks up, you get more florels when we call it.

More of the higher kicks, the fancier moves, the back flips, the escapes, if you will. Trips, throws, punches, everything. And while the ideas to avoid actual physical contact, accidents can happen. It's a martial art. I mean, I can verify by the bumps and bruises and aches and pains that I've got, broken noses that I've seen, blood that I've seen spilled, slight concussions that I've had. But when done correctly, the violent movements are controlled with a kind of gracefulness. Come Rotary is a part of the art, but the sparring entered into with respect for the partner and the group. There's a certain way to come into the game and then you kind of ask permission to play. And when you're given permission by the lead percussion, the lead beating belt, then you go in, you play your game, counter attack attack, kind of like a dialogue with

another person, physical dialogue, back and forth, counter attack, attack, etc. And then you come out the same way, it's in ritual. You come out of the door if you will, of the Hoda, and back around to your spot, fill any voids. The Hoda or Circle becomes a living thing, fluid, with conflict and resolution, and always it seems, in harmony. Something about it just kept just kind of, you know, I like the movement, the music, the whole atmosphere. It's just really made me appreciate just the different cultures. It's so graceful and powerful at the same time. The Kapueda tradition at NMSU dates back 10 years. From time to time, the student group organizes shows to raise funds and also to share this special form of dance, music, and martial art with the public. We'll be right back. When we look at the success of other schools, we know we

can do it. And if we all pull together and say, this is a university we care about, this is a community we care about, it'll happen. Welcome back. NMSU is getting very, very good at raising money. So good, in fact, it set a new goal for itself, the most ambitious ever at a university in New Mexico. It all started with the launch of the universities doing what counts campaign less than two years ago. That effort achieved its financial objective years ahead of schedule thanks to the generosity, of course, of a lot of people. If you've ever been inside the Stan Fulton Center next to the Aggie Memorial Stadium, you know firsthand what a terrific asset it is. The center opened in July 2004. It's more than 33,000 square feet of classrooms, computer labs, and offices. It houses an academic support and sports medicine facility for student athletes. It's named for Stan Fulton, owner of the Sunland Park Race Track in Casino, who donated $3 million

for the project. He also made financial gifts for the establishment of chairs in the education, business, and health and social services colleges. Fulton is just one of the benefactors who helped NMSU reach and surpass the $150 million fundraising goal that it set during its doing what counts campaign. That ambitious project was kicked off in October 2005 with a Gala event. The comprehensive campaign was spearheaded with the help of NMSU alumnus Danny Villanueva, a former NFL football star, and Spanish language television pioneer. It was an idea embraced by the NMSU president. The overarching objective is to be able to enhance programs here at NMSU in such a way that we can really put ourselves on the national and international map, and that's what it's going to take. It's going to take private giving to complement what the state gives us if we really want to achieve the excellence we're committed to. Since then, the gifts have been pouring in. They include a $1.5 million donation by brothers Ed and Harold Chubb

Vorman to the Civil Engineering Department to fund a chair and two professorships. Alumnus Michael Johnson also stepped up to the plate with a $1 million gift to the college of Arts and Sciences to establish the first chair for the college in the geology department. One of the largest gifts to the university came in March with an in-kind donation of computer software systems, equipment, and training for the College of Engineering to help prepare students for careers in vehicle design, engineering, and manufacturing. The gift was from an organization called PACE, partners for the advancement of collaborative engineering education. It was valued at $88 million dollars. The drive has been so successful and its goals reach so quickly and MSU increased the goal to $225 million dollars to be reached by the year 2010. It's the most ambitious comprehensive campaign goal ever undertaken by a new Mexico university. NMSU already has big ideas for reaching its new ambitious fundraising goal. Here to talk more

about it is Rebecca Duke's Vice President for University Advancement and Executive Director of the University Foundation. Thanks for joining us today. Thank you for having me, Hillary. I know you've been a busy lady the last five years doing this. Tell us a little bit just about the NMSU Foundation, what it's all about. Well gosh, you know, it's got a long history. It started out in somewhere around 1970, time period, really under Dr. Gerald Thomas. He was the one who really pushed the whole idea of having a foundation. And his concept was, as we needed to start thinking about private support. And that was pretty unheard of in those days because people back then still relied on the state to fund universities and foundations that were attached to universities. So he said, well gosh, we've got to look at something different. There were a couple of professors who came forward with the idea and said, I want to help in this area. And so some fundraising got started. But there was a time period, even as recently, and this is relative, of course, as the 80s, when we just had $20 million in certificates of deposit. So the foundation has grown from somewhere around $22 million to $40 million when I first came five years ago to now over 150

million in assets. So it's tremendous growth in a short period of time. Yes, job security for you. Well, let's talk about that. That was forward thinking back then. Now private funding is becoming more and more important. And why is that? Well, the state funding is really decreasing, not just in New Mexico, but all over the country. Even in places, oh California in particular, you've seen that happen a lot. Arizona is down to something like, I want to say 19 cents or less, 15 cents on the dollar that they get from their state government. So because that's receding, because of the budget problems that all states face, New Mexico is not quite there yet. We've get about 29 to 36 cents on the dollar from the state, but we're getting closer and closer to that point where we can't get everything we need from the state of New Mexico. And I know a lot of people labor on the assumptions that tuition covers everything. It just doesn't. It doesn't cover it all. And so the things that really make an institution excellent, things like endowed shares

and professorships and faculty funds and scholarships that are so important, do not happen unless private dollars support that. So if we want to compete with what we like to call the big dog schools, like Stanford and Columbia and so on, then we have to have those private dollars to give us those margins of excellence that makes such a difference. All right. Well, what percentage of the university funds is coming from the private donors? Well, it would be roughly, I would say somewhere in the 20% range right now, we would like to see that grow. And that's not anywhere near where we would like it to be. We hope that'll come up, but it takes everybody. It's sort of like the Hillary Clinton's phrase, not you with the other Hillary, where she says it takes a village to raise a child. It takes a village and a community to really raise funds for a university. And that includes everyone, whether it's students or faculty or professors or community people, alumni. It's very important that alumni get involved with campaigns like we're doing. Those are the folks

that'll make the critical difference. Nationwide, roughly a 90 cents of every charitable dollar comes from individuals like you and me. Not everyone thinks it comes from the Ted Turner's and those those very wealthy individuals, but really it's the rank and file Americans that have made the difference in charitable gifts throughout history of our country. And certainly that's still true today. Well, we just came out of this piece right before our interview talking about the big donations that have made a huge difference in this aggressive campaign. But how much are you looking for from individual alums who are just out in the workforce and want to make a difference, but can't necessarily give that much? Well, I think it's not so much a factor of dollars as it is just participation. Will you participate in this campaign and have your voice be heard? Because I think it's important for people to say, gosh, if I give just a little, if I do something, I'm involved with the campaign and I'm participating. So right now, our alumni giving across the country, wherever our alumni live, is roughly about 6%, which is pretty pathetic. That sounds pretty

pathetic. I know what you think about that. Yeah, it's awful. It's not good. Our peer institutions or our aspirin institutions like Clemson and so on, Clemson, for example, their funding is around 16% from their alumni. It still seems pretty low though. Yeah, you would think it would be higher, wouldn't you? I don't know what the thinking is there. I know I talked to an alum yesterday when I was in Chicago on business and he's a graduate of another school. He says, I already gave a lot of money when I went to school there. I said, yes, people said. Yeah, and he assumed that what you paid for in tuition and fees and books, because they are expensive, no question, that that covers it doesn't. It just doesn't. It takes care of those basic, minimal needs, but what we really need to do is involve people in understanding that the private dollars give discretionary monies to their faculty, to the deans, and the chair holders, to the president so that they can go in and say, gosh, we need to do something here. This is important. This is critical to the mission of the university, whereas if we just rely on

institutions coming in solely for other areas, those things won't happen. For example, scholarships, we love them. They're beautiful. They're probably the most emotional gift you can make. You know, the ability to help another student who came behind you come along and do as well as you've done. But there are other needs on campus that are not as glamorous, perhaps. We have a Native American Center that we need to fund. We have athletics that always needs some kind of support. We have programs like Hotel Restaurant and Tourism. The English Department, one of the largest classes on campus probably has the least amount of funding and that's criminal justice. That's our third largest graduating class and we have one of the least forms of support to the criminal justice area. So those are areas that we could, the private donors could step in and make a huge difference. You saw the film on Stan Fulton. He's given over now over seven million dollars to the Mexican. Oh, it's phenomenal. What a beautiful man to do that. A true philanthropy, true philanthropy in his case. And Michael Johnson with a million dollars. I mean, those are gifts that just don't come

from just the pocketbook but from come from the heart as well. And they have huge impact. I guess that's the beauty about giving to New Mexico State. It doesn't matter how you give where you give or how much. But at New Mexico State, because of our size, your giving has the effect of throwing a big boulder into a pond. Whereas in other schools, it's more like throwing a little pebble. When you're Harvard or Yale and you have those big endowments, gifts that you and I could make would just be like, oh, thanks. You know, when people give to New Mexico State, we're like, thank you. Thank you. It's huge. It means so much to us. And people do want to see a return on their investment. So talk about what's different about this 2005 campaign that others in the past. Well, the other campaigns were just wonderful. And Dr., we still again really attribute this to Dr. Thomas and leading one of the last campaigns, which was the 1988 and it was the century campaign of the university. And that campaign in particular was something we call capital. And when you do a capital campaign, that's when you're saying to people, we want bricks and

mortar. We need to build a building. We need something substantial, tangible to be done. A comprehensive campaign kind of covers the entire waterfront where you're supporting endowed shares, endowed professorships, faculty assistantships, those kinds of things as well as the scholarship monies and so on that they're so critical. There's softer kinds of support, ones that help students and people individually and not just build edifices. So there are monies that really help individuals. Endowed shares, if I could talk about that for a minute and tell you how important they are. A lot of people don't understand what an endowed chair does. It really what it does is it adds funds to an existing salary of a faculty member so that they can concentrate in a particular area. And we bring experts in. For example, we have a person who is a chair holder in the College of Agriculture for water. And in a state like ours and in the Southwest water issues are huge, really important. So those issues are ones that we want to address in a very specific way. And so we bring these experts in. Then if you're a student and you want to come study

water issues or you want to study biology or nanotechnology or things that are of interest to you, you're going to look down a list and say, what kind of professors do they have? Oh, so and so. I want to come to that school because they have that professor. So bringing funds in for that really are important. Draw people to the university. And real quickly, we only have a few minutes left. So I wanted to ask you, this isn't just focusing on the alumni, right? You're reaching a little further than that. We are. Way out. Our alumni, of course, are all over the country and the world. But we're asking the community. I think people move to Las Cruces, particular people who are relocating, are moving to Las Cruces because they want to be in a community that's vibrant. And the university is what makes it vibrant. And so having the university here enriches their lives as well. So we want to involve those retirees and others that are moving here, come and play with us at the university, get involved and show us your involvement by making a gift in some fashion. And you think we'll beat this goal for 2010? We've set our new goal. We reached our

goal of 150 million in December. Yes. Isn't that wonderful? It's just terrific that that's happened. And we owe it to so many people that that's come about. Our new goal is 225 million by the year 2010. It's big goal. It's big. It's ambitious. But when we look at the success of other schools, we know we can do it. And if we all pull together and say, this is a university we care about, this is a community we care about, it'll happen. And this is a call to action right here, right now. And real quickly, before you go in the panorama, this issue that just arrived on my doorstep this week, you have a annual report for the foundation. Talk real quickly about that. Well, this is our first time to put the annual report in the panorama and we wanted to share the good news with everybody. And a lot of people are numbers people and they want to see those numbers. And you'll see an upward bar chart going on. I have to say kudos to our investment committee because those volunteers are the ones that have really helped our investments earn as well as they have done over the past few years. And additionally, we want to thank everyone who's contributed because those by those bar charts are going up. And our understanding that the

philanthropic climate at New Mexico State University was a little bit more abundant. And now people understand that the philanthropy that happens here makes a difference not only for the students that are here now, but those coming in the future. So it in an honors everybody who came before us. And so that's why we're doing it. That's why we're passionate and we care about what we're up to. And we have to add a thank you to you. Rebecca Dukes. Because I see you at a lot of events around town and you are drumming up a lot of support. So we appreciate what you do. I love what I do and I hope that shows in the results and we think it does. Well, thank you so much for coming in today. And time now for our amazing Aggie of the Week. When we honor someone here on campus involved in something we think is well amazing. Skills learned while studying to become a chemical engineer are something Arly Torres can take back home and share with their community in Paloma, Mexico. Torres is working alongside two other junior chemical engineering students at Enemysheu to find a cost-efficient method of reducing the

high levels of arsenic and fluoride in the drinking water in Palomas and neighboring Columbus, New Mexico. The Enemysheu team is one of 42 funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency to participate in a student design competition in April. If you'd like to nominate an amazing Aggie or have any comment about the show, call us at 646-2818 or send an email to Aggie Almanac at Yahoo.com. And that is our show for this week. Thanks for watching. I'm Hillary Floren. Have a great weekend. I'm Jim Lara. Today's news, the Roberts hearings, with analysis, Katrina's health and new life

challenges. Tonight, on the news hour. Good evening. I'm Jim Lara. On the news hour tonight, the news of this Monday,

then extended excerpts from today's opening session of the John Roberts Supreme Court confirmation hearings with analysis from legal scholars Kathleen Sullivan and Doug Kamek. Plus looks at two of the Hurricane Katrina recovery's most serious ongoing challenges, restoring adequate health care to survivors and helping evacuees find new and worthwhile lives. Major funding for the news hour with Jim Lara has been provided by The Golden Years When Life Was Years. It wasn't always like this, believe me. I almost lost my shirt when my business hit the wall in 1984.

We didn't take a vacation for years. Our financial guy helped us find the way back, but it's been a long road here, and we're not taking anything for granted. Smith Barney, this is who we are. This is how we earn it. Somewhere in the hard land, a child is sitting down to breakfast, which is why a farmer is rising for a 15-hour day, and a trucker is beginning a five-day journey. An ADM is turning corn and wheat, soy and cocoa beans into your favorite foods. Somewhere in the hard land, a child is sitting down to breakfast, which is why so many work so long and take their job to hard. ADM, resourceful by nature, and by Pacific Life and CIT. This program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you. Thank you.

. Confirmation hearings began today on John Roberts to be Chief Justice of the United States. Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee urged Roberts to avoid pointed questions on major issues. John Kornin of Texas said, decline to answer any question you feel would compromise your ability to do your