It is stated in much of the literature that leaders are harder and harder to come by. The pipeline is drying up, and there is a crisis ahead. I don’t know if we have a leadership crisis in number, I argue that we have a crisis in terms of capable leaders, particularly those who are culturally competent. Student Services professionals have the unique opportunity to work with students from beginning to end, and as such we have an obligation to understand our student body. In my experience it is the student services professionals that embrace social justice; with their focus on access, success, equity and inclusion. However, are we as community college student services professionals engaged in our own learning? Are we ready to lead our institutions in becoming culturally competent? This article outlines ways that colleges can embrace access, diversity and equity, and further identifies student services professionals as leaders in the effort.
Student Equity Planning as the Impetus for Action
In 2004, most community colleges submitted their student equity plans to the System Office. For some colleges, the work continues, with the plans used as benchmarks for already existing equity programs; and for others, the plan will sit until the next time someone asks for it again. Many colleges are somewhere in between. The story for Las Positas College could have been the in between version, had we not taken the opportunity to participate in the first Campus Change Network (CCN) group. California Tomorrow, a social justice non-profit, elicited interest from California Community Colleges to participate in a 15 month project, to join other colleges in order to enact their student equity goals. LPC was accepted as 1 of 7 community colleges.
The Campus Change Network Experience
Through CCN the college participated in three, 2 ½ day retreats. At the first retreat in April 2005, we looked at our college’s history, profiled our students, and assessed where the equity work was already happening on our campuses. Additionally, we looked at the goals from our student equity plan and established some initial objectives. We worked with the California Tomorrow facilitators utilizing their tools, designed to yield long-term systemic results, yet carefully crafted to avoid a cookie-cutter approach. The process honored the culture and context of individual campuses, but learning took place across and within the cohort of colleges in our group.
The LPC CCN group began meeting regularly to discuss how to enact our goals. We stumbled a bit, realizing the enormity of the work, and overwhelmed by the thought of trying to do everything. The next retreat was held in late September 05; at the retreat we began to understand that the work needed to be institutionalized, but we were wary of our goals becoming the responsibility of another college committee. We feared the loss of the dynamic tension of activism and passion. The group worked hard at establishing bridges to existing committees where the work made sense, and established task force initiatives for review of systems in other areas.
Seeking Answers
From the leadership perspective, it was becoming apparent to the other student services administrators, including this writer, that we needed to engage in our own learning. We used the literature provided by California Tomorrow, and attended as many professional development opportunities as possible. We engaged in tough dialog, asking: what is diversity, how do we who are white privileged individuals carry this message and involve others, how do we define equity, is there racism on our campus, who needs to be involved here, who is missing? We sought ways to reveal the answers, and we continue to do so. We used data and the results of our campus dialog sessions to create new avenues for progress. We helped to create a safe place among the team members to share their own experiences, setting ground rules of respect and confidentiality. Simply, everything we do has the lens of equity over it.
In the Spring 2006, our team was energized by new members joining and by our final CCN retreat with the other colleges. The team learned skills to enhance the institutionalization of the work. Going beyond the choir, was an exercise especially important to us as we built our team. We implemented activities that were part of our plan; a Town Meeting update, Faculty and Classified flex activities, a Board of Trustees presentation, and a Student Panel on Equity. Additionally, through work with the faith community we held “Aprendiendo a Triunfar” -Learning to Triumph, a day about college presented in Spanish. The event drew over 300 people, and would have been difficult to do had we not had the momentum of our CCN work and our focus on student access, equity and diversity.
The year ended with two people on our team co-presenting our CCN work, with California Tomorrow partner, Ireri Valenzuela-Vergara at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education (NCORE) in Chicago in June 2006. Additionally, we were asked to prepare an update for the Educational Master Plan of the college, creating the level of institutionalization we had hoped for when our work began. We were able to apply for some one time college funds to enact many of our goals, and recently used our plans to garner Basic skills and Immigrant education funding for new efforts.
Transforming our Campus 2006 and Beyond
Each of our LPC CCN goals is broad and comprehensive, we realize that these efforts will be ongoing, and should be seen as a major function of the college community over its lifetime. The goals go beyond the confines of the student equity plan and encompass an expanded definition of equity in order to build a more inclusive institution. The plan encourages us to become learners, to understand our own biases and to create a welcoming environment that exists to support building the capacity of all of its members. You may be asking, what are their goals? I will tell you that it doesn’t matter to you what our goals are, context is everything in this work. Eventually best practices will emerge in basic skills, outreach, assessment and orientation, human resources, campus climate, leadership, curriculum and much more from all of the colleges involved in this statewide project. The question really is, what you need to do on your campuses and what are you doing now to address equity.
Leadership is key, and has been developed among all of us as team members. However, from an administrative perspective, we have all committed to continuing our learning about issues of access, diversity and equity. We provide the behind the scenes support for the efforts, agendas and minutes for meetings, making arrangements for conferences, securing funds, helping to rent busses for events, and much more. We agreed that the answer cannot and will not be an automatic “no” just because we haven’t done it before. We act as facilitators, not stage stealers, so that all voices can be heard and the dialog can take us to the next level of understanding and relationship building.
Conclusion
The work that we do to support access, equity and diversity is critical to the success of our students, our colleges and the state. It takes leaders who understand that the lens of equity and access must be held over everything we do, the personal commitment of leaders to empower others on campus to be leaders, and support them with resources. As student services leaders we must continue to raise the questions about how well our students are doing.
- Are services and programs accessible and equitable?
- What are the speed bumps or detours that inhibit student success?
- How and where do we discuss and take action on these issues?
- Have we used our resources well?
Many of the answers about your successes or gaps are in your student equity plans.
The time is now, our society is diversifying, and we have a stake in how it develops. Will we create institutions that increase inclusion and equity? The answer is important, because if we do not meet the needs of our students with their complex identities, our colleges will mirror a society characterized by increased separation and inequity. This is not what California Community Colleges are about, but it will take the personal commitment and involvement of all to sustain the level of effort it takes to bring about transformative change. Student Services professionals in community colleges are and will be the kind of leaders needed on our campuses, commit to your own learning, and lead on.
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