Volume 78, Issue 3 | www.elaccampusnews.com | Wednesday, September 30, 2020 | Single copy free - additional copies 50 cents
Cal community college courses online until 2024 BY SONNY TAPIA Staff Writer
California Community College Chancellor Oakley believes that online courses will be normal until 2024. Oakley discussed enrollment and efforts being made by the community college system during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health and safety of students and faculty remains the focus of Oakley and his office during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that the students and faculty will not return to campus until it is safe to do so and in accordance with the regulations set by each county. “Colleges and districts should be prepared for an extended period of time educating like this,” Oakley said. California community colleges experienced a 5% to 7% enrollment drop since the start of the fall semester. Although, during the summer, colleges experienced more enrollments due to shortened class periods according to Oakley. Oakley said that the enrollment gap is closing, even though the chancellor’s office will not know the exact percentage until 2021. “A lot of students picked up credits and courses that they could not in spring. The fall enrollment is much softer, but I am sure the gap will close with time,” Oakley said. The chancellor’s office said that
expects a rise in enrollment when depending on what country the adult courses, late-start courses students come from. and intertwined courses with high If students are from one of 43 schoolers transitioning to college countries, including Nigeria, Iraq, begin. Ethiopia and the Philippeans, they Oakley stressed the importance would be given only two years on of voting during the primary their visas. election to help the country and the Trump is also limiting students international students in need of to two years from nations deemed help from the government. by Trump to be terrorist supporters: The which are Iran, c h a n c e l l o r ’s North Korea, office created Syria and Sudan. “We continue to a partnership The chancellor’s with the office has initiated encourage our Student Senate a “Stay Enrolled” of California campaign that students to email Community helps students and and mail letters to Colleges faculty receive the t o c r e a t e a their local officials, in help that they need program to to continue to stay help students order to push for more enrolled in their register to vote. courses. funding.” The SSCCC Oakley has has sent out been able to keep emails and text colleges within ELOY OAKLEY messages to the California California Community College students that are community held Chancellor in need of help harmless. Oakley and to inform said that harmless them about the means that the importance of voting. colleges and districts will receive The SSCCC has created another the same amount of resources and program with Secretary of State funding that they had before the Alex Padilla in order to reach enrollment decline. students more directly to make sure Full-time instructors are also they are registered to vote by Nov. 3. protected under the held harmless Oakley considers this to be a initiative, but part-time instructors big deal because President Donald are not. “Part-time instructors may Trump has been talking about a new see a reduction in load, due to the plan for international students. move to online teaching,” Oakley Trump’s new plan would cut said. students’ travel visas off at four Extended Opportunity Programs years and would be cut to two years a n d S e r v i c e s s t u d e n t s a n d
Diversabilities Support Program and Services (DSP&S) students have been a key part to the “Stay Enrolled” campaign according to Oakley. Through this campaign each district throughout California has received information, directly from students who use these services, for their districts to properly assess their needs through this pandemic and shift. The Los Angeles Community College District has made several opportunities available to students in EOPS and DSP&S. The staff involved with the two programs reaches out to students that are in the programs directly through email to find out what the specific needs of the students are. The emails contain surveys and questionnaires for the students to discuss any issues the students are having in classes or at home. “Our staff reaches out to our DSP&S and EOPS students by making phone calls to students and sending announcements via email. We also send out surveys to find out their needs and to find out if they are having any struggles.” “They receive emails from both programs on a regular basis,” Associate Dean of DSP&S and EOPS Graciela Hernandez said. The programs have made adjustments to the qualifications for acceptance by lowering the numbers of credits required. Before the number of units required were 12. However, students may now be accepted if they are enrolled in nine units.
GREETINGS-- California Community College Chancellor, Eloy Oakley welcomes participants to the online conference. Another adjustment to EOPS and DSP&S is that the appointments with workers and students are longer, to provide more service to the students with technology difficulties. Hernandez said that students in these programs had to work harder to keep their grades up because of the shift and online content. She said that the students will be receiving calls and help from hired interns to keep them engaged in the learning process. “They are resilient and I couldn’t be more proud of them for staying strong and continuing their education. “They struggle, but with the help from these programs, they have managed to adapt and they have persevered,” Hernandez said. EOPS students are given book vouchers as a part of the program, along with information and help to
sign them up with resources like the CARES Act. The funding that was provided and distributed to colleges and universities, through the CARES Act was based on how many students were enrolled full-time. Oakley said that we were short changed as a college system compared to other private universities, so the chancellor’s office created a presence in Washington D.C. It is pushing for the next government payment to be distributed accurately based on head count and not full-time enrollment. “We continue to encourage our students to email and mail letters to their local officials in order to push for more funding,” Oakley said. Along with funding, the system is also pushing the state government for more flexibility with grading and getting into courses students need.
Huskies promote anti-rascism Guided pathways Left to right: 1.Yuxuan Bai 2.Leticia Barajas 3.Eileen Ie 4.LaQuita Jones 5. Raeanna Gleason
From ELAC’s Equity Audit Dialogues on Zoom:
BY MELVIN BUI Staff Writer
News Briefs
CN/ STEVEN ADAMO
East Los Angeles College is a minority majority community college, but that doesn’t mean that it is free of racism. In efforts for equity ELAC hosted an equity audit dialogue to highlight what was learned from an anti-racism presentation last Friday. The anti-racism presentation, Fostering and Sustaining Inclusive Classrooms for People of Color was held on Sept. 10. The dialogue was led by the e-convening team and critical topics were explained by the equity ambassadors. E-convening is a term for people coming together for a meeting or assembling online. However, the e-covening team are the people in charge of hosting the meeting. ELAC’s e-convening team is made up of three professors: English Professor Raenna Glaeson and Sociology Professors LaQuinta Jones and Eileen Le. ELAC’s equity ambassadors are the group of individuals who attend the e-covenings hosted by the University of California. ELAC has four equity ambassadors that represent the college during e-convenings: The Associated Student Union President and three faculty members. So far, they have participated in one of 12 e-convenings, as a part of the Community College Equity Leadership Alliance with the USC Race and Equity Center. The CCELA is an invitation to an alliance, which aims to address and improve marginalized classroom environments so that it’s more inclusive for students of color. The dialogue aimed to highlight the actions students and faculty can do to help foster an environment of integrity and growth. The first call of action was to acknowledge racism and other forms of discrimination like colorism and classism. “People are conflating diverse
“People are conflating diverse student body with lack of racism.” APRI FESTEKJIAN
Psychology Professor
student body with lack of racism,” said Psychology Professor Apri Festekjian. She said because of that faulty assumption, there are major blind spots. Curricular erasure and the refusal to learn students’ names can signify potential racism in classroom settings. Many faculty members nodded in agreement that it was basic respect or common courtesy to learn a student’s name. “What does equity and inclusion mean in a minority-based institution,” said non-credit faculty member Leticia Barajas. She said that there needs to be a change in the way the word equity and inclusion is being used when dealing with students of color, because the meaning is too broad. The second call of action was for participants to talk about
Gender oppression dialogue
what steps can be taken to abolish racism on campus and their definition of anti-racism. The first step was to acknowledge the problem and then look for solutions. It is important to know what is being fixed before blindly fixing it. “My tenure should not obviate me of my accountability to students nor should my academic freedom excuse me from my responsibility and commitment to anti-racism,” Festekjian said. She said that it is proven in sociology that changing behavior can change attitude. “Instructors must take the time to address racism,” said English professor Nancy Ramirez. Political Science professor Kenneth Chaiprasert said that people can’t be forced to change. However, it can be recommended and shown the benefits. He said that racism is everyone’s problem and that it is important to take conscious action to stop racism. However, people must be willing to change in order for it to work. “As students, we go to school to learn and become a better version of ourselves. But if our reality up until this point has included our idea of racism to be ‘normal’ and
The Student Health Center is discussing the global impact of gender-based violence and its effects men and women on Oct. 12 at 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Register at https://www.elawc.org/dvam20
‘not wrong,’ anti-racism is necessary to help create a healthier and better reality,” said ELAC student, Geovanny Martinez. The overall goal of the dialogue was to create and foster an environment to continuously discuss critical topics. The dialogue was held because faculty members and staff felt that there was a need to discuss racism during these trying times. “We really need to ensure our teaching and service practices are grounded and relevant to the lived experiences of the students. Cultural responsiveness is crucial to that enterprise,” said Academic Senate President Jeffrey Hernandez. The dialogue was hosted on Zoom with 35 participants, made up of faculty members and students. The interactive presentation software Mentimeter was used throughout the dialogue for participants to answer questions anonymously. Students must register in order to participate in these dialogues. The link to register is https:// laccd.zoom.us/meeting/register/ tJlvdemvpzwtHddsBjResLNbOznAn9_eoxln
Mamba Mentality Workshop
directs students BY DANIELLA MOLINA Staff Writer
Guided Pathways helps East Los Angeles College students map out an educational path, specifically tailored to a student, based on interests and skills. The California Guided Pathways Project teamed up with the Community College Research Center for eight years of research, on American community college students. Its findings revealed a significant number of students not earning degrees, certificates or graduating on time in some cases, not graduating at all. East Los Angeles College professor and faculty facilitator for ELAC Guided Pathways Frank Aguirre said, “They showed up to campus, as if it was high school. They just showed up to the office, and be like, ‘Where do I report to?’ No, you have to do all these others things. They just don’t know.” The Community College Research Center published an article on their website in 2015 which exposed the deterioration in the foundation of student support and success. Some students were completely lost in the web of classes to pick and choose from. They signed up for community college without even having a major in mind. CGPP debuted in southern California by reaching out to community colleges and presented the ideas of an entire researched approach, to set students on a streamline journey toward their educational and personal life goals. Most importantly, exposing early in the game, all of the possible career choices of that path as well as presenting detailed
This tribute workshop aims to teach participants about Kobe Bryant’s work ethic and how they could apply it to math. Upcoming workshop dates are Oct. 13 at 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. and Oct. 28 at noon to 1 p.m. Zoom link: https://laccd.zoom.us/j/4908477741
course suggestions to take, by semester. “When students know exactly what they are supposed to take and how it leads to careers, their likelihood of success is statically a little higher,” he said. Laying out all courses to take in their first, second and third semester, highlighting the most important courses for the students overall goals and major choice. By clearing out any unnecessary units, which saves, not only the student’s time and money, but also colleges and taxpayers’ money. It is too soon to know if this is the new golden standard that helps the students who don’t have any clue what they want to do in college. And if it will make academic choices easier to understand, as well as understanding the reasoning behind the courses they are taking. By linking up courses and career opportunities in the beginning framework, students can get clarification of the requirements of their goals. Think of guided pathways as a “Process of clarification,” said Aguirre. The underlying goals are to prevent students from taking incorrect courses, or spending any unnecessary time on units not related to their educational choices. The Guided Pathways Project is being implemented in hundreds of Community Colleges across the United States including ELAC. Community colleges have been overlooked, by mostly being thought of as a stepping stone to somewhere else. But there is so much more a student can accomplish during their time at a community college. SEE MORE AT WWW.ELACCAMPUSNEWS.COM
Spoon River Anthology ELAC’s Theater Art Department presents their first virtual experience, “Spoon River Anthology” by Edgar Lee Masters on Oct. 23 at 8 p.m., Oct 24 at 2 p.m. or 9 p.m. and Oct. 25 at 2 p.m. For more information go to www.elactheater.org or call (323)-415-5333.