Brian Burns: Good morning everyone. So we'll get started in a bit. We just wanted to give time for folks to just gather in,
get comfortable. I'd like you to imagine as we are, you know, all gathering in, that instead of sitting on our computers, we're showing up at our beautiful PAC,
we're having our lovely breakfast, we are reconnecting with our colleagues and our friends. So I'd like to, you know, give us a few moments. So just to let you know, everyone's camera is on by default, and you do have option to turn it on and off if you wish, and
everyone is muted. However, the chat for everyone is open, so we can certainly say hello to each other and look through that participant list and
welcome. So like I said, we'll officially started in a few minutes. I just wanted to give maybe 10 minutes or so, for us to just get, you know, just to say hi to everyone and sit down and get comfortable,
get your coffee, whatever breakfast items you might wish, and we'll get started in probably about 10 minutes or so.
Right, I noticed some, some folks noticing the the deafening silence here. So, yes, we are giving just a few more minutes for folks to sign in and making sure that that everyone is, is comfortable and we're going to, to get started very shortly.
And, you know what, yeah I think now's a good time, actually. So let me turn on my camera.
All right, good morning, everyone. So my name is Brian Burns I'm the Professional Development Coordinator here at Moorpark College and I teach English as well.
I really want to thank you for joining us this morning, and I really want to thank you for participating and
this, this whole week of professional development, and I really want to thank you for your contributions to the campus.
You know, Professional Development week as a tradition that's very important. It sets the stage of all this stuff coming up for the rest of the term.
And today the convocation is the is the culmination of all of that. So, thank you for coming. So there are, there's some information I'd like to go over before we get
officially started and then we'll jump right into our programming, without further ado, although I do have some I do right now, because I have some some notes to let you know. So
the session if anybody has been going to our campus updates, you might have heard some of this before, but just as a reminder, the session is closed captioned. So you should have that option down at the bottom of your screen to hit that closed caption button if you prefer, and
the session is recorded, you probably heard that, you probably heard that robotic voice reminding you that this session is being recorded and it will be posted later on.
Excuse me.
Everyone is muted. However, we do have the open chat, and I see a number of us taking advantage of that. Of course, we're going to ask you as as we're having that chat open,
unfortunately, unlike the, the more straightforward Q&A that we do during the
campus updates the open chat is, you know, we'll definitely keep an eye on it, but if you have specific questions and ideas that you wanted some input on, that's probably something to hang on to and
you know, contact whoever you think is probably the right person to contact. I don't know if we're going to have a lot of time for for actual Q&A for this particular session.
We'll be keeping a look at the chat and we're certainly welcoming and happy to have the opportunity to, to have some interaction, to see the audience getting involved, and all of that important work.
So...excuse me.
I do want to, and so in just a moment. I'm going to introduce the the first segment of our of our morning. I do want to
mention though, and to thank very much everyone involved in Professional Development week and Convocation day it is truly a collaborative effort,
you know, I have the privilege of being the coordinator of all these different things, but there's so many people involved,
and so I'd like to thank some people, but I know I'm not going to get everyone, so I really do apologize for not getting everyone,
but off the top of my head, I do want to thank President Sokenu and the rest of our exec team, I do want to thank our, our deans, especially Dean Howard Davis, who is the the PD Tri-Chair and Dean Matt Calfin,
who has been instrumental in putting all of this together.
The other Tri-Chairs of the PD Committee: Beth Gillis-Smith and Gabby Chacon.
And I would really like to thank all the facilitators who were running sessions and sometimes multiple sessions during the week. Thank you for all of the, all of your work as well.
I really want to thank Michael Ashton and John Loprieno, Dina, you know, I'm sorry if I get your name, your last name wrong, Dina Pielaet,
close enough? Okay, thank you.
And I also really want to thank the students, this is our first opportunity to have students involved directly for, for Convocation day I saw Kristen
giving a shout out to them in the chat, but I just wanted to mention that as well that we have some student representation as well, and we'll see what we'll hear from some students during the programming. So thank you everyone for being here.
Let's take a look at the agenda, real quickly. You have it on your screen, as I've been speaking, but we'll run through it.
So we're going to have our welcome from our president, we're going to have some remarks from our academic senate president, our classified senate president, and the ASMC president.
We'll introduce our new faculty, classified staff, and campus leadership, and then we'll have some remarks from some of our Board of Trustees and our chancellor.
Then a break. And during that break just, you know, the first part of the break, we'll just be time just to kind of stretch and move around and things like that, and then in the second half of that break, we'll have
an MC, a student success video that was produced by some of our students in our in some of the staff at our Teaching and Learning Center, and I think that's a really powerful and meaningful video. So I really hope that you can
find some time to watch that. And after that, we'll reconvene and we'll get into our first segment of our college service awards for the 5,10, and 15 years.
And then we'll start in with some discussion with our racial and social justice work groups. So we'll do the first two groups there.
Then we'll take another break and again the idea is to get up and move around, rest your eyes, that sort of thing,
for about five minutes, and then we'll reconvene and we'll do some exercise will do some dance work with our dance instructor, Beth, Beth Megill will help us out on that one.
Oh, and Michael is reminding me that Convocation is also up on YouTube and he's put in the chat here this YouTube link if for whatever reason you prefer to be on YouTube, but rather than
rather than in the Zoom call, or if anybody is on Zoom or sorry, if anybody is watching on YouTube right now, thank you also for for joining us.
Okay, and to finish off the agenda here after our, our dance break we're going to get back into our racial and social justice work group presentations with, with the second two themes, themes three and four.
And then we'll,
you know, really, culminate and on a high note by going over our awards for
For 20 plus years of service on the campus, And I think that's a really high note and something to look forward to.
And then, of course, you're certainly welcome to continue afterwards for Academic Sen- Academic Senate general meeting that everyone is welcome to. So thank you all for coming and
we'll move right into the next piece of our agenda and welcome to Convocation.
On screen text: "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."- Maya Angelou
[Julius Sokenu]: I sit here.
alone on campus.
I can't help but think about what Moorpark College means to me.
Smiling faces and welcome buttons.
Bunnies running in and out of a warren of bushes behind and around the Administration building.
Moorpark is clusters of students in the Campus Center dining room talking about politics or a new video game.
That line of students, staff and faculty snaking through raider walk waiting to order lunch from Peters truck.
Moorpark College is Blues Tuesday.
College is the siren song of music students rehearsing in that pocket of shade between the Music building and HSS.
It is the football team holding Monday afternoon rallies in the Academic Center.
It's department meetings, yard cones, In n Out trucks for new student welcome.
The upper campus is a stream of light grazing the evening before majestic presence.
Moorpark College is clever and irreverent.
Who else has a zoo named EATM, and a child development center called the CDC?
Excellence. Pride. Forensics. Women's basketball. Robotics team. The nursing pinning ceremony.
April brings our multicultural day with bagpipes and kids from Campus Canyon fresh with promise.
Food trucks promising us Thailand, Italy, China and good old American hotdogs.
I think of the collectible t-shirts and mugs as our community comes together to celebrate cultural differences.
Moorpark College is a state of mind.
The aspiration fueled by the opportunity to make life better.
Moorpark College is FM & O.
Moorpark College is Nursing students volunteering thousands of hours in the community to make a difference.
Moorpark College Review that stellar voice of young students as well as seasoned faculty and staff.
Each semester, we look forward to meeting up with friends, in the Learning Center.
We attend that interminable committee meeting favorite colleagues.
We look forward to our hugs and smiles, a hand on the shoulder as we speak to each other,
face to face.
Graduation, our ultimate celebration of students success.
Job well done.
Chairs and people filling the quad to catch a glimpse of their loved one receiving their diploma on stage.
The Moorpark College family works so hard...
and now even harder to keep our students thriving.
Bless their hearts.
Even though the reality of the moment keeps us apart. We're still all together.
We are Moorpark College.
My friends and colleagues, welcome home.
Julius: Hi everyone.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for joining us this morning.
Welcome to Moorpark College.
I want to welcome each and every one of you, the 100 plus students who are joining us on Zoom. I want to welcome our faculty, our classified professionals, our administrators, welcome.
Welcome to the Board of Trustees members who are joining us, welcome to our Moorpark College Foundation members, welcome to our partners in the community who are here with us today, our stakeholders. Moorpark College is your college. We are Moorpark College.
Thank you for joining us this morning, you and each one of us here have been through a lot this year.
Dancing in the storm, right? Great theme for a professional development week and great theme for a year.
Dancing in the storm, finding and developing innovative solutions in challenging times.
What do we need to dance in the storm? How do we find innovative solutions, while everything seems to be crashing around us: a pandemic, a global pandemic at that,
racial injustice and social unrest,
and economic uncertainty?
How do we continue to do the work of the Guided Pathways? How do we continue to do the work of promoting student success?
How do we do this in the face of the challenges we face as a society?
My friends, my colleagues, my community, my goal in the next 20 minutes or so, is to motivate you, it is to affirm you, it's to challenge you, and I think probably most importantly it is to empower you.
So, next slide please.
What do we need to dance in the storm?
I want to tell you and I pose it to you that we already have the bulk of what we need to survive this pandemic, to go beyond the limits and the differences that separate us, to overcome that hill of racial injustice, and certainly, certainly
to address the economic uncertainty that is happening right now and the economic cliff that is to come. My goal is not to bum you out, but my goal is to affirm you, as I said, but we will need resilience that ability to recover quickly from hardship. Next slide please.
We know that the spring was a challenging time and it's just come up to a range of challenges, the fires, the shootings, a lot of good has happened, but also a lot has challenged our spirit and we arise, we have been resilient.
Next slide please.
The California Community College in early in mid spring, when we're all grappling to transition our 1500 sections to online instruction, but we're all grappling to send our students to our online
A&R, to our online counseling sessions, to our online health center, the California Community College decided to conduct a survey across the system, of our students and our employees.
I'm going to share with you what our students said about the experience of this past spring and then I'm also going to share with you what our faculty said about this past spring.
900 and I'm going to specifically call out the data from Moorpark College. 937 of our students participated in this impacts study. This impact study to evaluate the impact of Covid 19 on our college community. 250 of us, faculty, staff and administrators participated in the survey.
About 50% of the sta- of the faculty participated, 40% of the classified professionals, about 4% of the, of the administrators, and about 1.6% of the respondents were student staff.
Next slide please.
So, our students are talking to us and they're telling us what they experienced during the first few months of the Covid 19 pandemic with us, when we transitioned online. 920 participants in the survey from Moorpark College responded to this particular question.
What is 6.3% of them told us that they could not concentrate on school.
31.7% of people told us that they have to take care of their family members, while going to school and balancing work in life and education.
8% of them tell us that they do not have internet, insufficient internet to do the work that we're asking of them, and 9.8% of them told us that they don't have time to school. Next slide please.
But they persisted, right? They were resilient.
They tell us that they had technological issues and technological challenges, and many of you know this. Those of you in the audience that are students, you know this, our faculty know this, our administration, we know this.
43, 49.3% of our students told us that really one of the challenges they had was us, was our instructors. The discomfort of their own unfamiliarity with the technology that was required, such as Canvas.
33.6% of them told us that there was inadequate digital alternatives of face-to-face instruction, the tools to be able to engage in the intimate way from which were known was not available during that initial transition to online instruction.
Their lack of specialized, of specialized software, the unclear use of technology, all of these things made learning difficult.
Next slide please.
So we asked the question, which one of these issues have been a challenge to making, to making the transition to online smooth?
57.3% of our students said the home environment, environment makes it hard to communicate.
56.5% said personal preference for face-to-face learning made it a challenge for them to concentrate and participate in that transition to online.
42.8% of them told us that course activities that have been transferred well online made it a challenge for them to participate in a robust way and learn.
Next slide please.
So our students are talking to us, they're telling us about their challenges, but they're also celebrating us.
They are telling us that we care. They're telling us that we show concern. They are telling us that in the way in which we transitioned them, 86.3% felt that the instructors not only showed care and concern, but then as we transitioned,
but another 81.9% will tell us that their instructors showed care in the way they make decisions and about implementing changes or this college did
and they will communicate it with them. What are we going to need to overcome this pandemic? What are we going to need to overcome the struggles of racial injustice? What are we going to need to overcome the economic cliff?
Care.
Concern.
Support, and, most importantly, talk to one another, communicate. Next slide please.
So our students, we asked them, what are they struggling with? What, what are they what what social services have they applied for during this time period?
You can see that 25% of our students went on unemployment, 5% went on food stamps, 10.1% of our students sought aid, emergency aid from the college.
We gave over $7,000 in the first few few weeks of the pandemic and that transition to students who lost jobs and whose lives were overturned by this,
and then government emergency aid from outside. What I want you to look at is the folks who did not know, how to, did not know about these resources or did not know how to apply.
This is important because the context in which we function, in which we serve our students, and in which our students live and in which we live,
is represented here. Next slide please.
We asked our students if they have received emergency aid from our college and 45.2% of them said no.
42.5% of them said yes. 42.5% of the 73 response responses to this question said yes, and 12.3% said I don't know yet, which to me suggests that they are probably considering it. Next slide please.
We asked questions about how their employment situation has changed, 738 people responded to that.
And they tell us they been laid off, they tell us that nothing has changed. They tell us that their hours have been reduced, some quit their jobs and then, some of them are not working because they weren't working prior to the pandemic. Next slide please.
And then we asked them, how has their income been impacted by the Covid 19 pandemic? 9.7% said it actually has increased in the face of a pandemic.
49.5% tell us that the income has decreased.
And 40.8% says it stayed the same. We're dealing with students who are struggling, struggling to make ends meet, and we already knew this, but this pandemic
highlights the gaps, highlights the challenging structures that are not supporting our students. We need to be aware of this and we are resilient and we can help address this issue. Next slide please.
Another, another set of information about our students, this is an important one in terms of food security and food insecurity.
Thank goodness for the Ruben Castro charities partnership and our pantry. Shout out to Ruth, shout out to Tim, shout out to all of you who work with that great resource to our students, to our community, and to our staff, and all of those folks utilize our pantry.
Look at this, data.
The our students are telling us, 26.3% of them that they had to either skip a meal or cut down the side of the size of their meals, more than five times during the course of the last 30 days. This study was conducted between May 27th and the end of June.
Next slide please.
So our students talk to us and we're listening, well you our faculty and staff also talk to us and we're listening. Next slide please.
We asked our faculty, how much experience they've had teaching online, and this is what they tell us. They frequenly taught online 20.9%, 23.9% have taught at least one course online, and 55.2% had no experience teaching online.
I want to say to those folks, you are our heroes, making that leap, making that jump to online instruction in a week
takes resilience, it takes innovation, and you're doing it. Next slide please.
We asked questions from our faculty member about the technology issues they're having, and 64.6% of our faculty said students discomfort or unfamiliarity with required technology or sor- or software.
Next slide please. You see the data. So I'm going to sort of skip, I'm going to skip through the next two so you could just see them quickly and then we'll go to the, to the next section,
next our faculty telling us how do you see our students experiencing this disruption and how they were directed. Next slide please.
And then the concerns that they have, about about about the transitions or distance education.
Next slide please.
We asked folks it were to teach a distance education course in the fall, what they would do, and as you can see 40.8% of them said combination of synchronous and asynchronous instruction.
We will start our fall semester with almost all of our classes online. We've scheduled 90% of our classes online. This is our new normal. This is our reality. We can do this. Next slide please.
The questions we ask all our faculty and staff, you know, what do you need from the, from the leadership of the college district and they told us,
regular updates and plans for for Covid 19 responses, remote work, changes to pay time sick, sick time off, they've told us. Next slide please.
Then we ask questions of our faculty about their own food insecurity, and yes 6.6% of our faculty and staff said they've skipped meals or had to reduce the portions of their meal.
Next slide please.
You see the same question asked again here.
Let's move on.
Let's go to the next slide. So, so then this is, this is fascinating because we know the students are struggling, but we also know that our faculty, and staff, and administrators under a lot of stress.
This is the context in which we start off our semester and I would bet, I bet you that this is the context in which we will continue a good chunk of this academic year. Folks are nervous, folks are worried, folks are restless and they are afraid.
Next slide please.
There's negative impacts.
Next slide please.
So how are we going to dance in the storm? What do we need to address the challenges that face us? We need innovation, and we've already been doing that, right? The important thing for us as a college to dance in the storm is to care for one another an ethos of care. Next slide please.
So what are we doing for our students? We've converted our campus to a virtual experience to us to keep us safe. We've provided laptops, we've distributed Cares Act funding.
We've established a safe campus reopening plan.
Implemented guide, Guided Pathways in the context of a Covid 19 environment.
We're measuring classroom correct climate and creating a plan to create inclusive classrooms and building an anti-racism core curriculum.
What are we doing? I'm going, I'm going to give a shout out to our Moorpark College Foundation, our Moorpark College Foundation and I see Tim Weaver on the screen. Tim is a member of our foundation
And I want to give a shout out to them because they invest in this year in making sure that they raise funds to support our students who are hungry, our students who need basic support that is what our foundation is taking on.
What are we doing for our faculty and staff? Next slide please.
Remote access, flexibility where possible, frequent updates, keeping our campus personnel at a minimum for safety, the EAP project
program that is available to faculty, we will be making that available to staff at Moorpark College
at the expense of the college this academic year, because we believe in you, and we want to make sure that everybody gets the mental health support and care they need. Thank you Sharon. Thank you Health Center folks.
Next slide.
Flexibility's the other piece we need to be able to meet the challenges of this pandemic and the challenges of racial inequity and the challenges of economic inequity.
I challenge you to realize that in this moment, we may be br- bent, but we are not broken, because we are adaptable, Moorpark College we are adaptable, students, staff, faculty, administrators, all of us we are adaptable.
We need to engage one another more because in helping one another feel like we belong, and helping one another feel connected, we as a college, we as a community can be more productive, we can be more engaging, and we can invest in one another's self worth.
I challenge you to be practitioners of radical inclusion.
Next slide please.
Empathy. Kindness.
Moorpark College puts students first. One of the ways in which we put students first is through empaty-empathy. We model behaviors of care, we model behaviors we want to see in our students and we want to see in ourselves.
We reject call our culture and we embrace calling culture. We acknowledge where people's behaviors are inappropriate, or insensitive, or racist, because they do happen,
but we do not call those people out to call out their behavior and we help them do better. That is our job. That is our responsibility to one another. Help one another do better. We're not going to shame you, but we are going to call you out and help you do better. Kindness. Kindness. Empathy.
Timing matters in online instruction or research shows us that folks who feel disconnected in any learning environment, any learning environment disengage, much more so that they do much more so that they do
in an online environment because, the the barriers that are already present in our culture are exacerbated in the online environment. That does not mean to say, we cannot rectify that, we have the power to rectify that. We are MC, we're Moorpark College we've done this, we can do this.
Placing oneself in another's position is the solution to racial inequity, placing oneself in in one another's
position is the solution to unrest in inequity.
No soft racisms. No, no, "wink wink nudge, nudge," and ignoring comments that are inappropriate or insensitive.
What we ask you to do what we know we all do, and all can do as colleagues, is to be allies. Let's enter into one another's protests, that is the way in which will make Moorpark College anti-racist and anti-hate that is my challenge to you today, friends. Next slide please.
Hope, we have to hope for better.
Optimism, optimism
and confidence in the future is all that we have in moments of distress, in the storm, in the eye of the storm, we have to move forward in the completion agenda, we have to move forward in the equity agenda, we have to move forward in the student success agenda.
Stay focused on students. We've stay focused on our colleagues and they've helped that they lead,
and as we're doing this work, hope is being able to envision the college we wish to have for the students who are yet to come, the ones who are not here.
That to me is the way in which we keep the spirit and that is the way in which we make Moorpark,
not only continue to be the most, the best college in California, the best college that we know in America, but that we also live up to the ideals of this college where we say students first.
Budget is also a statement of our values. Next slide please. So you I've been talking so far about, you know, the challenge that we will feel in terms of the budget crisis that is about to reveal itself. This is our budget. This is our tentative budget.
We know that because the state is in an economic dilemma, just like the rest of the country and the rest of the world that we have deferrals from, from the
from the, from the, from the governor, but those deferrals are dependent upon some federal legislation that will help the state meet its obligations. We also know that, that has not been resolved.
So, folks, we're giving you right now, information, if we needed to cut by 2% that would be $1.26 million from our $63 million budget. If we had to cut by 5%, that'd be $3.17 million. If we had to cut it by 10%, that would be $6.34 million.
Our goal is to keep any cuts out of the classroom, out of our services, and out of, out of our business operations.
That means that we need to be effective, that will, that will mean, that will probably have a hiring freeze, which means we're doing more with less, but we can do it. We know we can do it.
My friends, these are challenging times, but what we prioritize particularly in times of challenge, what we prioritize particularly when there is risk, tells us the kind of people we are.
Next slide please.
Tenacity.
Tenacity, staying in the moment, no matter how uncomfortable it is.
We ask that we seek assistance from one another.
Ask for help.
But I also ask, who will you take a risk on this semester? Who will you take a risk on in the spring? As a faculty member, as an administrator, as a student, who are you going to take a risk on? Who are you going to stay with, irrespective of what the winds of time and context bring?
Next slide please.
So,
we as a college, have great goals and ambitions. We have a we have a phenomenal education master plan, a strategic plan. We as a college know where we want to go.
We are purposeful, we focus on the on the student learning experience and Guided Pathways, and we're rolling that out this semester.
We're focused on the work that we're doing in terms of connecting, connecting students to the college environment on terms of our work with access in the institution,
and we are clearly focused on making sure as an, as a college that we address that structural racism that exists in our own campus.
So we will have four re-the-,social justice work groups, who are exploring and you'll be hearing from later on today.
We want to be the change, we'd like to see the world.
So how do we keep our eyes on the prize and avoid distraction? Well, we are intentional and purposeful. Next slide please.
How are we intentional in the classroom? How intentional on the field? How intentional in the hallways?
Campus climate mat- matters. Campus culture matters. How are we going to do that when we are offline and 90% of us will probably not get
to engage one another in person, this semester? That is a challenge to us.
Who are you going to risk for this semester? Who are you going to stand by this semester? How are we going to do it for our students so
that they maintain their success, maintain their track?
Next slide please.
I want to say thank you, and this is, this is what I call my list of champions.
And if you're not on the list, that does not mean you're not a champion, but these are folks that I want to acknowledge for the work that they've done so far this semester.
The last semester in our transition and so far in the summer, you will see the names of many people that you know on campus, and I want to thank you because you help us be the best community college in California, particularly in the eye of the storm of the Covid 19 pandemic.
Who will you stand by this semester? Look at these, folks, who are they standing by? What are they doing?
We acknowledge them. I want to thank, I want to thank my colleagues, my partners in crime in this work. The Academic Senate President, the Classified Senate President.
Thank you, Erik. Thank you, Linda. I want to thank and welcome our new Associated Students President David Katz. This is going to be a year where we need one another.
I need these people, we need these people to support to support us in our work. I want to thank the deans. I want to thank the directors. I want to thank our admins.
And I want to use this moment to really call out my executive team and thank them. The success of this college, our success, is because of these people.
Like all of you, I am indebted to Amanuel, I'm indebted to Mary, and I'm indebted to Jennifer.
They get up, they do their work, they don't complain, and more importantly, they start with a student first ethic, they start with a sense of compassion. Jennifer joined us February, middle of February, and within two weeks we we're online and transitioning.
I wanted to hear from Jennifer. Here's a few words from Jennifer.
Jennifer Clark: Hi everybody, I'm Jennifer Clark, I'm the VP of Business Services and I started at Moorpark College in February.
Three weeks later. Omg, the pandemic hit.
Th-this is not at all what I signed up for, this is not at all what any of us were expecting.
You know, I was expecting to be working on, you know, on ground at a college with students, with people. That's why I'm in education.
I love, I love what we do, and I love making those connections with people, and the pandemic hit in March, you know, we went so fast with students on campus every day, to
an entirely online operation in a matter of days, we made it happen. And now we're coming back. Everybody is in place and ready for the students to come back on Monday morning. It has truly taken a village to make it happen. So we're here, we're open and we are Moorpark College. [Moorpark College logo and onli
Julius: Thank you.
So I ask you, what are you doing, why are you doing this work? Knowing your why and matters in the face of a storm, and what do you hope for in this new academic year?
Next slide please.
This quote from President Barack Obama helps me through this challenging time.
On screen text: "But we always knew that hope is not blind optimism. It's not ignoring the enormity of the tasks ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. It's not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it and to work for it and to fight for it." - Barack Obama
What do we have the courage to reach for? What do we have the courage to work for? What do we have the courage to fight for?
The moments when we're trying when we need to be able to know what, we have the courage to reach for, to work for, and to fight for.
Next slide please.
So I'm going to leave you with a, with a little clip I saw this past week, it says the three most important school supplies for the school year, and this is from Teacher Humor.
Patience, flexibility, and grace.
Thank you so much for being my partner. Thank you so much for being our community. I am going to turn you over now to my partners in crime the Academic Senate President, the Classified Senate President and to the Associated Students President. So we start off with Erik.
Erik Reese: I assure you, there's no crime going on, first of all, but good morning to all the fellow floating heads out there.
Welcome students, community members, classified, professionals, administrators, Chancellor, trustees, and faculty. It is an honor and a privilege to address you, on behalf of the faculty of the Academic Senate as the Academic Senate President.
This is an exciting change to our usual format, embodying the spirit of inclusion at Moorpark College.
Moorpark has a long tradition of doing great work, winning many accolades and awards, and so much of that great work continues, but two events are dominating the current landscape.
And recent social injustices that have sparked national awareness and discussion.
Covid 19 has affected every aspect of our lives. Right now, we sit in our homes participating in a virtual convocation for the first time and more parts over 50 year history.
Last spring, the entire college, including classes, services, administrative offices, and more removed online virtually overnight through a Herculean effort of students,
classified professionals, administrators, and faculty yes, I include us students, we moved online, you showed up to class, so you could keep going on, you're aca-
making progress. Action was immediate, focused, and imperfect, but by working together, students continue to make progress in their academic and professional goals, despite the global pandemic.
The move online was certainly challenging and forced us to rethink and re envision the way we approach teaching, counseling, and all the other business of the college.
Many of the techniques and skills that we develop and continue to develop as we continue to learn, will help us better support students long after Covid is a distant memory.
On a personal note, being safer at home has given me an appreciation for neighborhood walks and plenty of time for self reflection, of which the summer had plenty of. One day, something was a little bit different at a house that I often pass. Slide please, and this is what I saw.
I pass this mailbox, many times Snoopy, cute little Snoopy on a on his dog house sleeping away. But one day, there was a mask and then they added a sign later which pretty much sums up our current experience.
At first I laughed,
but as I pass, day after day, my mind wander to the many meanings and symbolism of masks.
But that would be a whole three hour presentation in and of itself.
The sign, though "We wear because we care," is very consistent with Moorpark's mandatory mask policy on campus.
But in order for mass to be effective, everybody must participate. We, the community and society, had to rethink and re envision the way we operate in almost every aspect of our lives.
Slide please.
The continued, senseless murder of black bodies has drawn national attention and sparked discussions around race and social justice.
This is not the first time, but somehow this time feels different. We're now talking about race and racism.
Racism as a system, a collection of policies and practices that disadvantages specific groups of people while providing advantages to others.
I know I've never had such in depth and detailed uncomfortable conversations with my own family, with my close friends, with my colleagues, and other community members. It just feels different.
We have systems, including schools and colleges that produce results for which they were designed. It is time to rethink and re envision in action and in silence are not options. Silence simply preserves the status quo.
Martin Luther King Jr. had a lot to say on silence, but one of one thing was, "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
We must collaborate and be intentional in this work. At Moorpark, as you know, and you'll have from later motivated students, classified professionals, administrators, and faculty
have had a number of town halls, formed work groups, and decided on initial action steps to start the rethinking and re envisioning process. The work is just beginning and I invite you, all of you into this effort do not remain silent.
With our students first philosophy, we often talk about helping students in need, providing a safety net, if you will.
It can only catch all the students if the net is intact. Namely, everybody has to be involved in this endeavor.
If there are holes, then some students will slip through those holes and in the process is they slip through, they increase the size of the whole. So then, eventually, there's no safety net at all and the entire system has failed.
Again to form a more perfect net, we must all work together and intentionally.
"What can I do?" you ask, well, they'll be different of plenty of opportunity through the social justice groups on campus for all sorts of people.
For faculty, I challenge all of us, including myself, to become teaching women and men of color advocates.
Let us empower women and men of color using effective techniques with proven results based on data and research. Rethink and re envision how we teach women and men of color. As with masks and the safety net in order to be effective, we must all participate.
I have one more item to touch on before I conclude.
Many of you will surely have noticed the lack of a distinguished faculty chair award presentation.
It was incredibly chaotic at the end of last semester and the beginning of summer the distinguished faculty chair committee,
consisting largely of previous recipients, reconvened I think for the first time in its history in the early summer, and considered a very wide array of possibilities and options.
In the end, because of all the uncertainty no one knew what this semester was going to look like, or if there was going to be a semester that a senior faculty chair committee recommended a postponement of the award for a year.
We are in a new era, now, a different time from when the award was initially conceived. This tradition will most certainly continue. Perhaps it is time to rethink and re envision how we celebrate, and recognize, and honor those doing great work on our campus.
The new academic year is upon us one unlike any other, we have encountered, but still full of opportunity, I hope. That's what I certainly believe, at least.
It's time to tap into our values of creativity and innovation to rethink and re envision so many things. It's time to work together to repair a safety net,
or perhaps in our own Moorpark way, construct su-some net-like structure not yet conceived, and bring us one step closer to everybody having a fantastic experience at Moorpark.
Our goal is not equity, helping those in need in an unjust system, that is one step on the way to liberation were all the barriers have finally been removed.
Thank you to all the classified staff, administrators, and faculty that work so hard on behalf of our students. I wish everyone a very safe, productive, and liberating
academic year. I look forward to collaborating with all of you as we make a difference in the lives of our students as they made progress towards their big dreams. Thank you.
[child talking in background] Linda Resendiz: Good morning, Moorpark College. It is
wonderful to see so many of you today, even though it is through this platform. I want to welcome you to a new academic year
and hoping for a better, a great one. These last five months have brought so much change to all of us,
professionally and in our lives. Who would have thought that we would have finished our year, working from home, faculty teaching online, students having to learn online, but you know what we did it, you all did it, and the year ended up ending successful.
I want to congratulate all of my fellow classified professionals, whether you were an essential worker on campus, keeping our, continuing to keep our campus beautiful,
keeping our buildings clean and safe, having our technology running in order for us to do our job.
For all of our of our my colleagues and faculty working remotely from home to continue the job that we do on a daily basis, thank you, thank you so much for all your hard work.
We've had to make so many readjustments, and have to now consider this a new norm, but you know through all these challenges and changes, this pandemic has brought us, we've all managed to pull it through and we did it.
As we embark in a new year,
I want to,
I want my message to, to you, especially my fellow classified professionals that our new Classified Senate board and myself are very excited to provide
a venue for all of us to come together,
to promote campus involvement, personal development, and collegiality, all amongst ourselves with one objective in mind, our students, because that is what we are here for and that is
the main idea of our campus.
As we look,
as we look forward to the future, I would like to share a few goals that we have in order to accomplish what we have set to do.
As classified professionals, we will continue...
to advocate...
on behalf of all of you in our district and across the state. We recognize that our work is very important and it is the backbone of our institution.
I invite you to become involved in committees to voice, voice your opinions and be part of the decision making process of our campus.
It is so important for us to be involved and voice the needs...
of all of our co workers and students. We will continue to find ways to fundraise in order to provide...
and assist in any way we can to the needs of the students as well as moving forward with the efforts in social justice and racial equity.
All this for our students and for ourselves. It is an honor to be the new Classified Senate President and together with our new board, we will work hard to advocate on behalf of all of our classified professionals in order to make this a very successful year,
and I wish everybody...
good Health, and please, please... please, be safe. Thank you.
And I now introduce to you, David Katz our academic, student associate president.
David Katz: Hello everyone. My name is David Katz, and I'm proud to be here through a web, a webcam and in front of you today. I'm honored to have been voted to represent our student body as the Associated Students President for this academic here. Next slide.
So what is the ASMC's roll on campus, and what even is ASMC? For those of you who are new to the campus, or unfamiliar with it, or have been around for a while,
the Associated Students at Moorpark College board of directors is the elected student government for the campus, and seen by our administration
as the official representative, representative body of over 13,000 MC students. I serve alongside 10 other excellent student leaders to advocate for student issues. Those of you who serve on the campus' shared governance committees
might get to know some of the ASMC board members who will be attending alongside you. And with this being an election year, ASMC is driven to make sure our students get registered to vote to make their voices heard. Next slide.
To core of ASMC's roll on campus is to foster student life.
Planning is already underway for virtual and possibly socially distanced activities to get our students connecting in the time where it is difficult to due to the isolation taking place.
In terms of student engagement, we are also overseeing the facilitation of student clubs. Last year we had over 50 unique organizations.
Faculty and staff advisors for clubs, serve a very important role in making the time student leaders spend with organizations meaningful.
So thank you to those who already serve in this capacity, and I encourage those who wish to get involved to contact ASMC Advisor Kristen Robinson for more information. Next slide.
ASMC is also responsible for providing significant financial support to not only clubs, also academic and student service departments that develop extra curricular development opportunities for students.
Faculty and staff will receive an email in the coming weeks with information about how to apply for funds. Next slide.
There will be many, many times throughout the year that we may turn to you, our faculty and staff for help.
We may turn to you to service keynote speakers during workshops. We might ask your clubs to partner with us on virtual events.
And we will, we will certainly seek to promote student government elections in your classrooms, this spring.
Thank you in advance, for helping us succeed in our leadership roles, these, are definitely uncertain and taxing times for students, but this year's ASMC board is definitely up for the challenge.
We look forward to working alongside you, all of you, to make this year a meaningful and memorable one for our students. Thank you.
Mary Rees: Good morning. Moorpark College is the people. Our strength is the incredible people who work and attend Moorpark College.
As we celebrate today, one of the highlights is getting to see all of you, it's absolutely wonderful, and getting to acknowledge some from our group or maybe we should say pods these days.
I want to start by introducing four faculty who started with us in the spring. What a ride they've had, they aren't new they're veterans of Covid spring.
They jumped in and are helping, help move online and support our students. John Everlove, Allied Health Coordinator EMT program and instructor,
Rebecca Gresh, Sociology, Jackie Kinsey, in the Library, Katina Walia in Nursing. We're going to have the ability to bring them to you in one of the Moorpark College updates.
In addition, I would like to present to you today, are another fabulous video. And this one is going to be starring the new additions for fall 2020 to our Moorpark campus. Our new faculty, staff, and administrators.
Priscilla Mora: Hi everyone, my name is Priscilla Mora, and I'm the Dean with the Arts Communication Studies and Media and I'm also the Title IX Coordinator.
I started on July 1st, which makes this my 6th week with the college, and the things I've noticed most so far are the dedication, professionalism, and kindness of everyone that I've met, and I look forward to meeting more of you soon.
Robert Cabral: Hi, my name is Robert Cabral. So happy to be part of Moorpark College. I'm the Interim Dean of Student learning for Physical Sciences and Career Education.
Milagros Tabije-Ebuen: Hello everyone, my name is Dr. Milagros Ebuen, but you can call me Mila for short. I'm a new full time faculty for Nursing
and I can relate to most of our students because I'm I am a first generation college graduate, and I came from picking up vegetables and fruits on the farm.
This is why I value education so much and my philosophy, teaching philosophy is no one is left behind. Thank you, and I can't wait to work with you all, and stay safe.
Karen Lovati: Hello, my name is Karen Lovati. I'm a new full time faculty for the Nursing department, and I like to mountain bike and do yoga.
Jamie Whittington-Studer: Hello everyone, my name is Jamie Whittington-Studer and I'm a new full time faculty member of the Communication Studies department. I was previously part time for about a year, and a fun fact about me is that I'm actually an alum of Moorpark College. I look forward to meeting everybody.
Esmeralda Camarena: Hi everybody, my name is Esmeralda Camarena, and I'm the new full time EOPS and Cal Works Counselor. I started at Moorpark as a part timer in 2016,
and as a full timer, I'm really looking forward to continuing doing the work that I love, and I look forward to meeting all of you at some point, and collaborating with the larger Moorpark College campus community.
Kellie Porto-Garcia: Hi everyone, my name is Dr. Kelly Porto Garcia and I am a now full time counselor at Moorpark College.
I have been able to serve all of the amazing students at Moorpark the last three years as an adjunct counselor, and I am so excited to be able to get a chance to do this full time.
I look forward to seeing what all of our graduating students are up to next, as well as serving our new and continuing students in the coming years. Congratulations, class of 2020.
Hovik Gasparyan: Hi everybody, my name is Hovik Gasparyan and new faculty member here at Moorpark College in the Biology department.
I used to work at Loyola Marymount University prior to starting here, so I was a visiting assistant professor there for about three years. And prior to that I worked as a postdoctoral researcher at USC.
So my areas of expertise are molecular biology, cell biology, genetics and so forth. And I'll be teaching a couple different classes in the fall. So I'll be doing some general
intro biology lab and lectures, as well as a biotechnology lab that's a joint taught by myself and Subhash.
And I'm really excited to get started and meet everybody in the department and throughout the college.
Roza Gabrielyan: Hello, my name is Roza Gabrielyan, it's nice to meet you all. I'll be joining the English department, this fall, at Moorpark College, and I look forward to teaching our Moorpark students.
Tammy Terzian: Hi, my name is Tammy Terzian, and I am the new Math professor. I've been working for Moorpark for four and a half years now and I'm really looking forward to what this year has in store.
Kenny Plummer: Hi, my name is Kenny Plummer. I'm the new full time faculty member for the Kinesiology and health department here at Moorpark College.
I'm also the head women's basketball coach have been so for the last five seasons.
Something you should know, is that me being here, hired here at Moorpark College has come full circle, as I was also a student athlete an alum back in the early 2000s,
and being part of one of the most successful men's basketball team. We are MC!
Hugo Galvez: Hi, my name is Hugo Galvez, I'm 26, and I am a groundsman, and I'm looking forward to making the campus look better.
Mara Rodriguez: Happy new school year. I'm Mara Rodriguez, the new Zoo Development Coordinator, although I'm not new to Moorpark College, I am thrilled to serve in this new role.
I look forward to big things here at the zoo and for the college. Cheers to this year. [a bird makes noise in the background] It's going to be innovative, creative, and full of good times.
Osbaldo Barajas Galindo: My name's Osbaldo Barajas. I'm
working in Grounds, and hired full time on August...9...
2019.
And
I play soccer. [laughs] That's it.
Rosleen Aurora: My name is Rosleen Aurora, I recently joined Financial Aid office team at Moorpark College as a financial aid specialist.
I have a little over 20 years experience working in the financial aid field and I'm so excited to be part of Moorpark College team and I look forward to assisting students through the education journey. Thank you.
Andrew LaFave: Hey there everybody, my name is Drew LaFave. I'm a new research analyst, working with labor market statistics, and I'm super excited to be working at Moorpark.
I guess something that might be interesting about me, maybe some trivia, I guess, is that I was born in Japan. So there you go. Super excited to be here. Thanks.
Anne Wheatley: Hey everybody, my name is Anne Wheatley and I am a student success coach with the Second Year Experience program and Project CHESS and I'm really looking forward to collaborating with all of you, throughout the coming school year.
Shandor Batoczki: Hello everybody, my name is Shandor Batockzi, I'm a new library assistant for Moorpark College,
I have been working for the campus as a student specialist during my undergraduate years, I had worked in the library for two years, and then went over and worked as the Online Student Support for two years, before becoming a classified employee as a library assistant.
Some of my favorite things to do, or one of my favorite things to do, is really talk, read, and watch a favorite show of mine, called Jojo's Bizarre Adventure,
if anyone has free time during quarantine it, I highly recommend to check out the show because it's exactly what the title says, and if you're interested in just very weird
things and shows, it will definitely catch your interest. I'm looking forward to working everybody on campus and hope to talk to you all soon.
Philip Koscak: Hi, everyone. My name is Philip Koscak, I'm a new admin assistant for First Year Experience and the Project Trust Grant.
but also, I'm a Moorpark alum and an artist. Hope to meet most of you soon.
On screen text: Lisette Alivandivafa. Working at Moorpark College since August 2019. Has worked at VCCCD since January 20, 2017. Administrative Assistant- Student Services- HSS 217. I work to learn- Learning is the most important driver for me. Social/Political Activist for 50 years.
On screen text: Also welcoming. Adriana Gonzalez Support Specialist 2. Rebecca Hernandez Office Assistant 1. Cynthia Cuevas Assistant Disabled Students. Maria Thayer Specialist International Students. Vanessa Roberts Financial Aid Specialist. Robert Mascarenas Physical Education Athletic Equipment. Emmanuel Guerrero Tutorial Specialist 2. Dean Tran Academic Data Specialist. Oscar Zamora Custodian. Stephanie Caranica Support Specialist 2.
On screen text: And also... Rebecca Henriquez ILT 2-Nursing. Rebecca Hernandez Office Assistant 1. Ian Reves Carpenter. Erin Dilley Library Assistant. Michael Ashton Instructional Tech/Designer. AnnMarie McCarthy Senior Administrative Assistant. Gary Mui Instructional Tech 1-EATM.
On screen text: "That's all folks!" Dina Pielaet Marketing Communications & Web Coordinator.
Julius: We have wonderful people joining us... wonderful people joining us. Thank you to our excellent new faculty, our staff, and administrators we have presently, going to switch the agenda around a little bit.
We have Dr. Gillespie and VCCCD Board Chair
Bernardo Perez here to welcome you. We are lucky to have support from our district in the, in the vision, in the integrity, and in the commitment to students, that is present in our chancellor and in our board Chair. Please welcome Chair Perez and Dr. Greg Gillespie.
Chancellor Greg Gillespie: Thank you, President Sokenu. It's a pleasure to be here with all of you today, and before I get into welcoming comments, I would like to turn it over to Chair Perez for any comments he'd like to share...
Okay, well, I'll go ahead and continue, and it was really great to get a chance to see all of the new employees at Moorpark College this year. I know you're going to love working there, being there, and supporting the great students at Moorpark College. If I can go ahead and get the presentation
slide. Slides please.
Yes, if we could go to the next slide please.
There we go. Thank you.
The last several years have been quite a time, lots of ups and a number of downs, and through it all our college communities have persevered.
This past year started out, like most. In some ways, better than most full classes, new programs, outreach to students across the county,
collaboration with employers and community representatives, and what appeared to be a stable budget with hopes of more resources at the State of California budget revenues increased,
but as with many years in the past, we as a community have faced unexpected challenges that have made lasting impressions on us. Next, please.
There have been fires that close down schools and college campuses, destroyed homes and cost lives and livelihoods. Next, please.
The pandemic did that too, and added a level of isolation and confusion never experienced by us before. We are proud of the efforts taken by the colleges to service Covid
19 testing locations, this year, and for the many other ways we have supported our communities, currently, and over the years. Next, please.
Violence in our communities and around the country, shocks and saddens us but we persevere, we cannot ignore the events in our communities, country, and world.
But as we respond to them, we keep our focus on what we can do to help our students as a beacon of learning for our communities.
It's important to recognize the role that education has to encourage the difficult conversations that need to occur.
We must take concerted actions and develop plans to address social injustice, racism, and institutional barriers to student success and equity. This is not just a VCCCD priority, but a national imperative, as well.
Next, please. We face a recession that can lead to a depression. An economic recovery will take time.
Our national economic and personal financial landscapes are different now than they were even just four months ago, we have to adapt to these realities and make sure our mission continues, we must persevere and creatively support our students and community during these hardships.
The challenges faced by our students this fall, have never been greater. We will be here for them, providing needed financial, academic, health, counseling, and food assistance, along with referrals to housing and other social services support.
How we teach and how students learn changed dramatically in the course of one month, last March. Remote and online education will likely continue for many months. How we support students and guide them requires new efforts and new processes and we will continue to do so.
Because we persevered, we did amazingly well at this sudden change. While there are still challenges we have shown ingenuity and will continuously improve our efforts going forward.
Thanks to all the classified professionals, faculty, and administrators for adapting to new ways to engage and do our jobs.
Next slide please.
We are in a confusing environment as a great volumes of information flow at us without pause and is ever evolving. Information and misinformation abound. Decisions must be made and votes cast when the answers are not often completely clear.
We as educators are called upon to assess and process more information than ever before. To think more critically than we have ever needed to in the past, and most importantly, to help our students to do so.
Our society is at a historical crossroads. It is increasingly urgent that we, we reassess what we say and what we do,
and ensure that either we align with the values we hold dear, or we commit to change that we will make it so. We need to step up,
to integrate culturally relevant curriculum across disciplines in a way that actively addresses the social justice and economic imperatives of our time, and develop our college system so that it reflects the diversity of the students and communities we serve.
We are called upon to re envision what our future could and should look like in this ever changing landscape and work tirelessly to make it a reality.
An increase an online instruction will likely persist and other developments may emerge that we will discover as we go forward on this journey. New baselines are being set we are engaged in lifelong learning, along with our students, and that is a good thing.
Next. To our credit, we work with each other, other even through some very hard discussions and painful adaptations to continue to serve our students.
To our students credit, despite so many challenges financial, logistical,
and with the emotional toll of isolation and uncertainty, the vast majority did not give up on education, their dreams or our colleges.
We could not be prouder of the accomplishes, accomplishments made during this very peculiar year. Please give yourselves and our students a virtual hand for these accomplishments.
Next, please. Oh, here. Yep, good. Our programs, provided the county with students who developed skills in a wide range of disciplines.
Just a few examples are Technology and Manufacturing, Nursing, EMT Dental Hygiene, and other healthcare areas, Art, Sciences, Engineering,
EATM, Agriculture, Business, firefighting, public safety, and on and on. You should really all be proud of the broad, diverse range of skills and programs. We provide our students as they progress towards transferring and moving to careers.
Next, please. Because we all persevered, we served over 30,000 students during this last school year. Of those, just over 4,000 earned certificates,
7,000 degrees, and these are both higher values in certificates and degrees then were earned the previous year. That's quite an accomplishment, given the pandemic.
At the same time, we had nearly 7500 spring enrollments that ended as early withdrawals, much of this was a result of the pandemic's impact
on health and finances for students in their families as well as challenges some students faced with having to rapidly change to remote learning platforms.
It will be our ongoing challenge as we begin this year to take steps to mitigate attrition in an environment that is pretty precarious and uncertain for many of our students.
Now we must look forward,
and I think sunflowers represent looking forward well, because they'll turn to look at the sun until they become too heavy to turn anymore. So even though we don't have a lot of sunflowers in California,
I think it's a good analogy to looking forward. Whatever happens, education and training are key to a better future.
It is our duty and our honor to be part of this new area, era and these new efforts. Everyone in the VCCCD system contributes to carrying out this fast responsibility
and we do best as we persevere together. There's still a lot of uncertainty and everyone is trying their best to have contingency plans in place.
We have to ride light in the saddle, as the saying goes, but we have to ride with determination, creativity, flexibility, and commitment.
In working with the State of California Public Health directives and the Ventura County Public Health Department,
we know that most instruction and student services will have to be offered remotely this fall.
Well, we would like to all get back to normal, bring students back to campus, work in our classrooms and offices, and see our colleagues face-to-face,
we realized that the health and safety of students, staff, and faculty is a paramount importance. There are a few classes that have been approved for limited on site instruction, because there is no other way to provide the hands on experience needed to attain skills,
learning outcomes, and specialized accreditation requirements.
There will come a time probably when a vaccine is widely available or when low community infection rates can be verified, that things will change.
We have plans for that transition and we will eventually get there. Classes begin on Monday, I am in all of the commitment and creativity. You have all shown in these trying times.
The VCCCD Board of Trustees and I look forward to working with you this year, making strides to address challenges and celebrate successes that improve the vitality of our community
and the lives of our students. As we enter yet another period of virtual communication, I wish to relaunch my past invitations for conversation with staff and faculty that I used to do through campus visits.
I greatly miss those conversations. Please look for updates about virtual coffee breaks in the coming weeks.
Here's to an innovative year a safe, healthy, and productive year. Welcome to fall semester 2020. So thanks everyone. Enjoy the rest of the day and have a great start to the semester next week.
Julius: Thank you so much Dr. Gillespie for your inspiring words and motivating and empowering us to do the work. We know we've got to do ahead.
Board Chair Bernardo Perez is next. Board Chair Perez has committed and invested in the success of our community. He's done that, through his own
investment in our students and in our social justice efforts at the district. He is here today to welcome you and provide you a view from board chair's perspective. Chair Perez.
Chair Bernardo Perez: Thank you, Dr. Sokenu and let me begin by complementing Dina Pielaet on those fantastic videos and any others that will follow.
Great work Dina.
I, any prepared remarks I had I tore up after hearing Dr. Sokenu's welcoming remarks. Fantastic messaging Dr. Sokenu, makes me especially proud as a Moorpark resident, but certainly as the trustee from this area to be so closely associated with Moorpark College.
One message I want to impart on behalf of the Board and again from myself personally is
our commitment to doing anything and everything that we can to help Moorpark College continue to be resilient, resourceful, adaptable, and ultimately successful on behalf of our number one mission and that is our students and,
you know, I was unable to unmute myself after being invited to speak and I thought that was kind of symbolic, because one thing, one way that we as the Board can often be of help is to get out of the way. And so I thought there was a subliminal message there Julius, but
just know that the Board continues to advocate
through the league, through our area legislators, state and federal, to do what we can to impress upon them to mitigate the any budgetary impacts
on the community college system and therefore our three colleges
in Ventura County.
The other message I'd like to impart is I have always believed that those in the educational arena at whatever level, have answered a special calling, because we are people oriented
endeavor, and because we are people oriented, I am very pleased to see some of the results of the student and faculty survey, number one, beginning about how people care for each other, because I think if you care for each other, then you can go a long way to achieving
successful support for each other and
I thank you for the invitation again to participate today because though I am not
in the education instruction field, I, one of the principles I have that has long guided me is that
those with the greatest deed deserve the greatest response, and so I'm pleased to see the activities that Moorpark College has taken to help fill the educational inequity gap for our students, and also this
Convocation is important because even though, as Dr. Gillespie mentioned, we, I, we can't visit on campus, or any visits, not a lot of people are there anymore but
one phrase that I've heard before, and I appreciate as "I hear, and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." And so this convocation is just going to further help me, I believe, and I hope to do the best job that I can in my role as
Trustee and currently as Board Chair in supporting Moorpark College and the other colleges in our system. Continue to do the great work that you do and thank you, and enjoy the rest of your Convocation Day.
Amanuel Gebru: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for the warm welcome from our
chancellor, Dr. Gillespie, and also Chair Perez and we are excited to see many of you on can- see many of you on on Zoom and engage in the conversation during Convocation.
My job is to tell you that we have a 15 minute break, and I'm running a few minutes behind schedule. So we will probably start about 10:23,
after your break, but seven minutes before you come back as you transition from your break we'll be playing a short video.
The video was created by our student staff from our teaching and learning center and it's an opportunity for you to see the great work our students have done and our staff in the library so
we will be back at about 10:23 and seven minutes before that, the video will play in regards in to our students center. So, good to see many of you and enjoy your 15 minute break.
[soft piano music] On screen text: "So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide." -John Lewis
Jennifer: So good morning, everybody. I'm Dr. Jennifer Clark and I just want to let you all know that we are back from break, so...
turn on your or turn up your volume and get grab that cup of coffee or whatever it is and sit back down for the next part.
So I have the privilege, the honor and privilege of introducing the next video, [background noise], which is
honoring our folks that have been with us for it's our, it's our 5,10, and 15 year service awards. So, and the the time and energy and commitment
that all of that time represents. Thank you for all of that commitment to our students, our staff, our faculty, our, our, our community. It's wonderful. Thank you. And please enjoy.
On screen text: Moorpark College Service Awards. 5-10-15 years.
On screen text: Classified Staff 5 years
Deborah Brackley Teaching & Learning... Tracie Bosket Distance Education...Brian Derderian Information Technology...
Lynda Dobson Business Services...Policarpio Flores M&O...Geoffrey Freedman M&O...Alberto Galvez M&O...
DeAnna Grove Counseling...Ramona Luna FA...Everett Lee FM&O...Tori Hancock CDC...Kimberly Ciuffardi CDC
Faculty 5 years
Jolie E. Herzig DSPS (EAC)... Jeny Joy Nursing... Kyle Loughman English... Brian Swartz Environmental Studies...
Melia Tabbakhian Biology
Classified Staff 10 years
Francisco Figueroa M&O... Armando Magallanes FM&O... Valerie Nicoll Counseling... Dina Pielaet MarCom/ Web
Faculty 10 years
Lydia Etman Art History... Hugo P. Hernandez History
Classifed Staff 15 years
Mary Swenson Biology
Faculty 15 years
Julie E. Campbell Psychology... Patricia Colman History... Kara Lybarger-Monson English... Norman W. Marten Biology...
Cynthia K. Reed Mathematics... Rui R. Zhang Economics
Thank You...
For Your Service!
You Are Awesome!
Julius: Congratulations to all 5,10, and 15 years Service Award recipients.
It is fantastic to see that Moorpark College has benefited and has cherished the values and the energy of those individuals whose names come across the screen.
Thank you so much to Dina for this phenomenal videos, you know, we want to capture who we really are and these videos do a remarkable job of of that. We are Moorpark College and these videos tell that story well.
Congratulations again to our 5,10, and 15 year
colleagues. So listen to me,
black lives matter.
Listen to me, black lives matter.
I am not saying that blue lives don't matter. I'm not saying that Latinx lives don't matter. I'm not saying that gay lives don't matter. All I'm saying is black lives matter. If you can't say that, I'm sorry, that's a problem. That's a problem for me as a black man.
That is a problem for me as the college president.
Black lives matter.
Okay, so why does black lives matter?
If we have to ask that question, there's a problem. There's a centuries old problem,
that we have not addressed.
Thank you Erik for speaking truth to power. Thank you, Erik, for calling us out, calling us in, asking us to join in this work.
This is not the work of the black faculty. This is another work of the black administrators. This is another work of the latinas of the Latinx folks, this is not the work of the asians. This is everybody's work.
This is white faculty work. This is white administrative work. This is white folks work as well.
It is incumbent upon us how we invite people into this work.
When I said earlier that we have to enter into one another's protests, that's what I meant.
How do we get into one another's protest, so that we can help celebrate one another's humanity?
This summer, we held a couple of town halls, and one of the first ones had to do with having our black students speak to us about their experience at Moorpark College.
If you were a part of that experience, you know that some of that was not pleasant.
If you're a part of that experience, you also know that our black students are thriving, Moorpark College or they are challenged at Moorpark College.
Black lives matter.
This moment is about social justice.
Not just supporting it, but being actively engaged in it.
Someone said a couple of days ago that we are all activists for one another's humanity.
I ask you, I call upon you,
to prioritize being activists for one another's humanity.
This is not a one and done thing, this is not a one moment thing.
This is continuous work.
To create institutional change, to address structural racism, this is continuous work.
Earlier this summer as I was drafting one of my essays, and one of my, and drafting one of my emails to the campus,
I stopped myself in saying something,
because I was concerned that I might sound too aggressive.
I might sound too militant.
I stopped myself.
We have to be the change you want to see in the world.
We know how to do this work, and if we don't, we have experts amongst us.
And our experts come in variety of experiences, they come with a variety of cultural
capital and wealth.
How do we go beyond the statements?
How do we go beyond the good intentions? How do we go beyond that and get to action? Moorpark College,
how do you learn to put students first, if you can't say the lives of your students with disabilities matter?
How do we learn to put our students first, if you can't see the lives of your trans students matter?
How do you learn to put the students first, if you cannot say wholeheartedly black lives matter?
My friends, my colleagues, I challenge you respected of what your political opinions are,
you need to enter, we need to enter into one another's protests.
We need to be on the good side of history.
Let's not be distracted by our differences, but also, let's not pretend to be kind and let's not pretend,
let's not pretend.
We are doing this work and I ask those of you who have not been here at the summer to join this work, to join this movement.
Moorpark College will be and is better for it.
We need to do this work, you will be hearing from our colleagues who have responded to participate in this work.
One of the greatest moments of my life at Moorpark College is earlier, this summer when I sat in on a work group meeting and there were 35 people in that work group who wanted to address the issue of diversifying the curriculum.
35 people.
That says to us, that we can enter into one another's protests, but it also says to us that there may be folks who are tepid, who are concerned about our lifes because they don't necessarily know what to do.
We need to embrace them and bring them in.
But it is not the work of our black faculty, or black administrators, or latinas, or Asian faculty and staff to educate everyone else that is not their job.
That is not our job.
Our role in this institution is to invest in the human development of all our students. And some of our students are experiencing this institution differently than others.
Some of our students experiencing this community different than others.
The work that we do in the classroom is activist work.
Education is political folks, you choose a side.
I ask of you as you listen to this presentations to know that this is our commitment this entire year to begin to do this work.
To begin to do this work together. I ask that you please prioritize it.
I ask that if you cannot prioritize it, get out of the way of the folks who want to prioritize it and do it. As a supervisor, as a manager, as a faculty member, help support folks who wants to do this work.
We are investing in the future of Moorpark College. I do not want to hear 15 years from now, one of our students, saying that they felt less than in our community because of the color of his skin.
Folks, you'll be hearing from four groups. The first two will start off
with you sharing with you the work that they've done, their hopes and expectations and the goals for this semester, this year, and they will be inviting you to join them in the research, but be inviting you to join them in the investigation and exploration of our own humanities together.
They will also be asking you to challenge yourself and question yourself when you serve on the hiring committee. They will also be asking you to challenge yourself and question yourself and set yourself right when you're interacting with your colleagues.
Because folks,
we are the change we want to see in the world. It is uncomfortable, it is challenging, and we have to lean into the discomfort.
The first group diversifying curriculum.
Please join our speaker from that group, I believe, is Nathan. Professor Nathan Bowen. Thank you.
Nathan Bowen: Thank you, President,
I'm humbled to be representing
a vast group that has identified themselves and wanting to participate in this work.
And I also want to say that this invitation is open to all wanting to be part of this, regardless of whether you are a professor, administrator, staff, or student,
we welcome you as as we work on this to try to help make our campus and college, one that is truly inclusive and
and representative of various mindsets, opinions, values, and walks of life. So this slide presentation is really
just very surface for the work that has been done so far, and we know that this is not walk in the park and can be done in five minutes. This is a change of mindset and also a labor. So let's go ahead and go to the next slide please.
So as we've met as a work group, and we're looking to diversify the curriculum that is our main theme, for this particular
work group that we've met together, we have seen that the students have asked for, and we've also seen that the Community
the CCC Chancellor has demanded that we create inclusive classrooms and anti-racist curriculum. So with that, we've said about thinking about how we might realize the that that charge. Next slide please.
So the first thing that we are looking to do to advance the theme, is to create tools for staff and faculty
to identify confront and dismantle racism and to create a truly supportive learning environment. So one of our work groups is actually we've divided into subgroups, and one is working on creating a resource
that may live inside Canvas, may be something that will still taking shape it may actually take many forms to create tools that will help us toward this work.
So, our aim is to create an inclusive and supporting learning environment, as I said, that may take a variety of forms, we may have panel series, it may work its way into
Year Of, could be that we have a really strong multicultural day group that is just getting larger and larger, we'll see how this this pans out. So I want to
continually say that this is work is something that you can join in on at any time and we'd love to have you, and we'd love to coordinate.
We also want to culture, continue, excuse me, to continue to foster cultural awareness in all aspects of our college. So even though we have a very specific aim,
we have found, as we've met as that group of 35 plus that we have a lot of different ideas on how we can weave this into our campus culture. Next slide please.
So the four specific action steps that we have right here actually reflected in subgroups that we created.
We did a survey after our first meeting trying to take the ideas that we saw and see if they sort of naturally call rest coalesce around specific areas and this is where we're at.
This may change in the future, but this is where we are right now. First of all, and the upper left, we have a desire to create an ethnic studies requirement for all students in some form.
We are also working on a Social Justice ADT. Currently the faculty who are going to be spearheading that are Roland Petrello and Patty Colman, but you can join in with that, if you want to. So just let us know.
The idea of the ethnic studies requirement, we recognize that we're going to have to be working with the CSUs and transfer institutions and that the timeline for this may be, you know, two years or more.
We are not the only ones having this conversation. This is truly something going on at many different levels within our state and obviously our nation and in the world.
So we, in terms of the timeline for that we're going to be trying to make sure that we can work with CSUs and to figure out
if we do have ethnic studies requirements inside of our degrees, that they are also part of what they want, as you know, ADT degrees are
sort of the lion's share of the way students get degrees here at the college. Over to the right, we have a subgroup that is doing social justice learning outcomes,
for every course on campus. This is also a discussion, how we might realize this situation, but the idea here is to create a mechanism that reflects our desire to have accountability to be in the call and culture that both Julius and Erik were talking about earlier. So this one is being
something that if you have any interest in it, as a discussion of the way that we might implement that, whether it's institutional level outcomes, looking at the college mission,
but the idea here is to create a way that all of us have known accountability to engage with social, social justice.
Next on the bottom left, we have culturally responsive pedagogy and an alliance resource center. We have had some fantastic ideas going on and this has had a lot of
a lot of energy. And the idea here is to address all kinds of situations in which we might be able to help students feel welcome and to be anti-racist and to address this inside the classroom,
to also create resources that reflect our culture in a way that allows students to have a voice. So we're talking about galleries, exchanges of
different opinions in like town halls, student panels, all kinds of things are baking inside of here. So if you find yourself hearing any of this that sounds good,
please let us know and join in the cause. On the lower right, we have campus activities that encourage, oh I look like I'm being redundant, campus activities that encourage student dialogue, exploration, and expression.
So we have
this one we have a very active subgroup, that is interested in social justice in particular. I feel like I should call out that there is a concern about incarceration
and the way that this is impacted our, our culture nationally and addressing the injustices going with this. So we're looking to create, essentially, as many different venues and avenues in which we can be addressing these things. So let's go to the next slide please.
So in terms of our timeline, in July, the theme one work group divided into these four subgroups and they're listed here culturally responsive pedagogy, the ethnic studies requirement, a social justice institutional level or
program level or course level outcome subgroup. And then also social justice education for 1.4.
In terms of what we see going on this fall and spring, it kind of depends on the little or the large different things that we're doing, or what the timeline is, so I'm deliberately being vague right here, but we plan, whatever we do to start coordinating and working with the great different
campus committees that we already have and to be coordinated. So
we expect that Academic Senate will be involved, Curriculum is definitely going to be involved, has been very involved. We want to give a shout out to Scarlet and Letrisha for the great work on this so far.
EdCAP, the Library, FIG, Professional Development, all of these areas. We hope to coordinate with you as we further this these particular
these particular sub group themes. We recognize that when we partner with the UCs and the CSUs. It's going to be a lot of conversations that we have with
these institutions and watching closely what kinds of requirements develop on that end, because we know that our college is part of a larger network in helping students
to move along, but we have strongly felt that we want to make sure that there is something going on here on campus that no student can leave here without knowing that black lives matter, and that we are engaged in creating a safe inclusive environment for all walks of life. Thank you.
Perry Martin Jr.: Next slide.
Julius: Who's speaking for group two?
Gerald Richardson: Hi there. It's two slides back...or three slides back.
Okay I can't see.
But I'll be begin. [Nenagh Brown]: If we could, could we go back two slides to the beginning of the group two slide presentation.
Nenagh: It. I think it was called diversifying and hir- thank you. Excellent. Gerald.
Gerald: Hi everyone, so Moorpark College has a students first philosophy, and as a student, for me, that means that this institution puts my well being first, and that Moorpark is dedicated to
amelioration and the closing of the opportunity retention and achievement gaps, and I speak unequivocally when I say that these efforts, cannot be done without the
hiring, the retention, and the
and the recruitment of diverse faculty and staff that represent the multicultural world that we live in.
To this day, I'm grateful to Dr. Jeremy Kaye for connecting me with Tamarra Coleman Professor Tamarra Coleman, and because that's the first time I truly felt heard on campus.
She when others tried to disabuse me of my racial experiences she validated them and she made me feel heard, she comforted me and she consoled me,
and its unparalleled to any other interaction I've had with a teacher ever in education. It definitely reflected in my academic performance as well.
Even diverse classified hiring is the utmost importance to me because I can categorically say working with Karla Montenegro learning about AB 540 and DACA students and just her experiences
it's truly made me grow as a person and I believe that
being exposed to different viewpoints, perspectives, ethnicities, cultures, intersectional identities, helps students like me grow, we learn, and we become compassionate contributing members to the larger society.
So on that note, I'll pass it to a powerhouse, for this work Professor Perry Martin. Thank you.
Perry: Thank you Gerald.
Next slide, please.
Next slide.
The District Equal Employment Opportunity Advisory Committee
access and advisory body to the Equal Employment Opportunity Officer and the district as a whole to promote understanding and support of Equal Employment Opportunity policies and procedures.
Equal Employment Opportunity Advisory Committee shall assistant and review update and implementation of the EEO plan.
The work of the EEO committee predates the recent phenomenon of work done all across the country as a result of social justice movement, following the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Stephon Marbury. The work done at the district level will stifle about turn over
from administrators, from the HR Director, from the Vice Chancellor of HR, and committee composition changes as well as difficult contract negotiations.
We hope that the bureaucracy is no longer an issue and we can give to the work at hand. Now with the desire for so many individuals to dive
off
of anti-racist dialogue, the apparent need for more culturally competent leadership and training,
the benefit of having a former director taking the reins as the Vice Chancellor of HR, and the Board of Trustees holding meetings in order to gain more clarity surrounding effective hiring practices and a college is working independently
as well as interdependently and addressing this critical theme, the EEO committee is poised to be much more effective. Transformational leadership is what's necessary to ensure you develop effective practices
Design, to recruit, and to retain fully qualified faculty to help about a rich and more diverse staff,
faculty, and managerial
presence on our campus. I believe one of the most important privileges we possess is ability to serve on hiring committees.
That said, it is critical that we get it right at every step of the process. If you agree, join us in the work that we started, share your experience, research and passion and your expertise.
The success of implementing the goals of this theme will have a long lasting impact, a long lasting positive impact on our campus community in life and learning experience of our students. This is one way to truly embody the students first philosophy.
I'll be followed by Nenagh.
Nenagh: Good morning and apologies that our slides are not coordinating with us and we'll get that right, when we send this out.
But this work group again subdivided into different subgroups and Perry is inviting anyone who is interested to please join us in our EEO Committee work group,
and the work we want to do with that, and this slide here is encouraging you to join the faculty hiring work group,
and it's focus is to increase diversity amongst both full time and part time faculty as well.
We have long emphasized this, the state has long emphasized it. Last year, we had a presentation specifically on this topic by Dr. Sean Harper and many of us were actually present at that presentation.
When I was reading through the reviews of those people that filled in the eval, at the end of the presentation. There was one that really caught my eye.
It just said, "Now we need to follow up," and I think what we're hearing is this is the time to follow up so
the first focus is going to be on our hiring process. How do we recruit people? How do we screen people? How do we interview people all through
an equity and diversity lens? I'm sure other topics will be brought to this work group.
But what is most important is that we do have every voice and every perspective on this work group. So we encourage you to consider joining this work group,
and then as new ideas come through as Nathan was suggesting, this, this is at the stage for people to make a difference and to come and join the conversation.
And our goal is, of course, to work on that excellence in teaching that mor- Moorpark is renowned for and to go back to Gerald's point that we're doing this on behalf of our students. So thank you. And we have a third subgroup and Linda would like to introduce that one.
Linda: Nenagh had mentioned we subdivided our sub group into three sections.
Perry already just mentioned the EEO Committee work. Nenagh, the faculty, and I will be leading the classified hiring, Diversity and Classified Hiring.
I encourage, participation in this movement. We want to examine current process, processes set by the district and union in comparison with actual processes that's carried out at the college. What through this, can we
change as far or diversify, as well as implementing a tracking system for recruitments?
And strengthening our communication between colleges and district HR.
It's so important that we participate and provide our input when it comes to classified hiring, because at the end it is for the benefit of who we serve, the students. If we have a well diversified
group of fact, classify professionals, we can better serve our population on campus and do
a better job as well. So I welcome you and encourage you to participate. We are in the beginning stages of this. So the more people we have working towards this movement, this change, the better outcome we will have and with this I pass it on to Jennifer Clark. Thank you.
Jennifer: Thank you, Gerald. Thank you, Perry. Thank you, Nenagh. Thank you, Linda.
Y'all want to join this group. We've got some great folks, we're going to be doing some great work. I have the privilege of closing a very trying to do this briefly for our group.
Campus commitment. When we're looking at hiring new employees, particularly faculty, because obviously faculty have the most contact with students,
we need to ask ourselves three questions. The first question is, what kind of community do we want to create here at Moorpark College? Our number one priority, of course, are our students and meeting their needs, all of their needs, their disparate needs.
So, who are those students that are in our classrooms? They're not all college ready A students. We know this, we saw data that President Sokenu shared with us at the beginning of today's,
beginning of today's convocation session. We have students that are struggling, with all kinds of different issues.
Those students also may have learning disabilities and learning challenges, they may be from abusive homes, in addition to the food insecurities or job loss or what whatever the
multitude of things that issues that they may be dealing with. We need to be prepared to deal with all of that baggage that comes with each and every student who comes to us.
So we need to be able to support their development, their professionalism, professional expectations of all of those students. So we need to ask ourselves, will this candidate, be able to do that?
So the second question is, we have to look and ask ourselves, you know this is hard, but what's missing,
what are the gaps in our department, you know what, what pieces are we missing? So we ought we can look at our departments, of course, in the traditional way race, ethnicity, gender, religion, gender orientation are lots of ways, you know, we are accustomed to looking at
ourselves, but we also need to consider the experiences that we've all had the collective experiences, our viewpoints, and perspectives,
and how well and how that shapes who we are and others that we relate to, and how well students can relate to us. If they've had vastly different experiences,
you know, I may not be able to relate to a student that has a vastly different experience than the one that I have, versus someone who has shared some of those experiences. That's really important, we heard from Gerald, first thing, we heard from a student how that connection matters.
So what are we, what are we missing? What are we missing in our departments, in our areas to be able to effective really relate to all of those students?
And how is our department and our areas, how are we going about addressing that, and those deficiencies? So the third question is, is our college as student ready as it possibly can be?
So, after thinking about questions one, and two, we need to incorporate those answers to those hard questions into our recruitment strategies,
before hand, right, before we even get to the table to hire, we need to know what those what that looks like and what those things are, what those issues are.
So it's not all about content expertise and rigor, those are, of course, extremely important and we're not, we don't want any of, any of those things to be compromised,
but, you know, we, we want also equally, equally is important is the person's ability to support the student fully, so along social lines, emotional lines, all again, and all of those other ways.
So when I talked to Julius about this, you know, he, he coined this very well, he, he says, "You know, we look at it. So, you know, are we expecting students to be ready for us,
or are we looking at ourselves as a department as an institution and how ready, we are for our students?" So that's, that's a really important, you know,
distinction and perspective. So we all have to be fully committed to hiring people
who will best service in this endeavor. So not just people who are nice and compliant, and will go along with the program, and will do what they're told, and follow, you know, toe the line,
but people who are going to help us serve the students better than we do now, by helping us to ask those really difficult questions and challenge us to do so.
So, real quickly, the last couple items I will just say leadership presence. When you're hiring someone when you're on a faculty hiring committee, staff hiring committee,
administrator hiring committee, you know, we have to also really consider the person's potential.
You know, what is their potential to motivate others, to inspire students, to mentor and counsel them?
To be a faculty Chair, or or a different kind of a, we have all kinds of ways you can be a leader on campus,
what kind of potential is that person in the potential leadership role that they could have on our campus, do they, you know, do they have the potential to inspire students and engage them and to
encourage our students to be involved? Remember, you know, this is a this is a very, very
long term commitment when we hire people we hire them as we saw on the service awards, you know, people are here for a lot of years. That's wonderful. We have people here more than 30 years. So this is an investment
a long term investment in our institution future. So in terms of timetable, we talked about in our group,
crawl, run, walk, or sorry, crawl, sorry, crawl, walk, run, that came from Perry and that really, that really stuck with me because, you know, we've been here for 50 years right? Moorpark has been here for more than 50 years,
and, you know, we're still struggling with this issue. It's this is a very, very long term commitment and we want to get the message out that, you know,
it is certainly not too late to join us. We've only just begun, we are just touching the tip of the iceberg here. So please join us. Do not be put off by "Oh we've had a few meetings." Please join us.
And we certainly don't want to run or even walk before we can crawl. So there's some very, very important groundwork that we need to do. So this fall, we're going to be crawling, you know, we're going to be doing
the work that Nenagh suggested, and basically looking at our policies and look and then comparing them looking at what actually happens, the actions, and doing a bit of a gap analysis, oh actually not a bit, a lot of a gap analysis. What, you know,
what does that look like? In the spring, maybe we'll be up to a slow jog, maybe,
but basically will be putting together, best practices, when we identify what our gaps are, the spring will be about
looking at our short, medium, long term commitments also to professional development and, you know, again what best practices look like, and then going from there. So with that, I turn the mic back over to Linda. Thank you all very much.
Linda: Okay, that was our presentation. I now we'll now be going into a break.
And
the first half will be a break for you to go and do whatever you need to do, and then after that, about seven minutes into the break, there will be a video starting. So we welcome you to come back and watch our next video.
Thank you.
Brian: Hi folks, so hopefully some of you can hear me, as you're still gonna take care of your break. So as a reminder, we're actually not doing a video, we're going to do a short break here, maybe as we're saying five or six minutes to get what you need, and then at about
11:10 or so, we'll start a presentation from, from our dance faculty member Beth Megill who will lead us through a stretching and dance exercise and then we'll reconvene at the end of that to begin the next segment of our of our convocation day.
Beth Megill: Want to do a quick sound check before we get started. So if anybody's there and can let me know that they hear me, I'm unmuted now.
We'll take another moment. [Nathan]: Hear you, I hear you Beth, it's Nathan. [Beth]: Great.
So some of you are thinking, "Oh my gosh, dance, no way!"
you know, and then some of you are like, "Hey, but they can't see me, why not?" So, I'm just going to do a quick sound check and if I can encourage you to move even a little bit. I will have succeeded, and you can hear this music? [music playing]
Okay, alright. I miss you John! Whoo! Hey Mary! Hi everybody!
And kudos to everybody who has the, you know, the brave, the brave ability to be on video, because we know how hard it is to look at a bunch of black, you know, black screen squares and just the names, so it does make a difference
on the presenter end, you know this, and and it's something that I think we can remind ourselves as
as on the receiving end of some of this information through the screen, so, so yes I hope you'll enjoy me, enjoy dancing with me. It's just going to be an easy stretch movement session.
Something I've started studying this summer is, it's called cultural somatics. So, somatics is the study of
the body and the senses of the body as perceived from inside, and cultural somatics as far as I understand it so far, is the idea that we have cultural bodies
and that culture lives in our bodies, and collectively we form a cultural soma. So as we are thinking about change, and as we're thinking about ways to, to reinvest in our, our
online Learning, and in our online communities, and Moorpark College, you know, as the fall is beginning consider how your body is actually holding on to
to identity, holding on to fears, and if we can open up an exercise and put the culture of hope, and change, and
and power, and honesty, and integrity in our body and in ourselves, then we might, might feel a change that happens really spontaneously, even without a cognitive decision. So that's what I'm going to propose and let's get started. So stand up, find a little bit of space.
Begin by just shaking out.
I don't know if we have a gallery view option or if you want to pin me as the speaker, but it's nice to relay for giving a little bit of tactile stimulation
this helps us remember that we are concrete beings, we are fluid and flexible beings, but we are physical beings. We are humans in a body with a story.
So let's give ourselves a big hug and breathe into your backspace.
And then open up and just lift the heart just stretching your arms wide lifting the heart, looking up gently.
And one more time because opposite arm on top.
And feel what that's like you can just create yourself a little bit like, "Oh my gosh, it's gonna be okay."
And then a big inhale, open the heart lifting.
Good. And then we're going to shift our weight, so any form of side to side shifting of our legs.
The value of empowering our lower body, our lower body is our stability, our lower body's our grounding, it is our foundation to then mobilize and reach out in the world, but if we don't have a firm foundation,
how are we going to reach out
to others? So just pressing firmly.
Good. And then stretch out, big breath in
then get really small, and exhale, again, again, big breath
and exhale.
Mobilizing the shoulders, I'm going to get a little more volume, mobilizing the shoulders, these get really stuck when we're sitting,
when we're looking at a computer.
Beautiful, maybe one at a time, I
like to have one hand on the opposite shoulder, that just reminds me what's going on in there.
This is very much about our ability to reach out to others
and then switching.
So how do we reach out? How can we pierce the stace, traverse through the screen. Beautiful. Two more big breaths. Inhale,
exhale, and fold in.
One more time, just nice, big inhale, move the breath.
Very nice and exhale.
Good, now stand and balance on one leg. You don't have to hold up your like high but I just want to show you that I'm actually on one leg right? So you're standing, and balancing, and breathing.
Just breath.
And switching sides, take another Little balance. You don't have to look at the screen, you can look up and out. Do you have a window in your room? Look outside, can you see a tree, or plant, or your lawn?
Something green.
Beautiful. Now we're going to draw big circles with one arm draw big circles through the space, looking at your thumb.
Look at your thumb.
You notice...
you're looking around the space. Switching sides.
See, side to side.
All the way up. Beautiful. Good.
And now just little marches in place and breathe.
Feel your feet on the floor.
You might even have enough of a, of a bounce. If you feel comfortable and you want to jog in place just to get, get the legs to receive the energy of the Earth.
This is my, my new favorite summer jam. It's called Mali Mali and it's just so good.
So just kind of jump around and dance around.
You can do jumping jacks.
Doesn't have to be special. You can jump rope.
Just any form of jumping. One more eight.
Getting the energy up.
Then we're going to ground and bend the legs. I like to reach out, as I bend my legs.
So I'm really feeling that my legs are strong.
They're gonna hold me up.
They're gonna support me. Good.
I like also to draw energy up from the earth. Feel it into the
spirit. Whoo.
Good job. Now we're actually going to circle the hips, watch out. Circle the hips.
It's so important when you're sitting all the time, oh my gosh, somebody is breaking a sweat, that's how I do it, Suzanne. [Beth snaps] Let your spine move, it moves it has different vertebra. A few more jumps.
"Oh my gosh, what is she doing to us?"
Good work. Big breath, spread out, reach to the edges of your screen. Can you reach to the edges of the screen, if you can see yourself? Whoo! Whoo!
Now, big side bend. Whoa...Coming up,
opening the side long, side waist.
Now we twist.
Twisting our body, and other side.
Twist... And twist... And twist.
Dance party it out. [music gets louder] [Beth snaps again]
Nice job.
Shake it out and in the chat. I want you to share, what you're noticing in your body, an observation about what you're sensing. So from the inside, what are you sensing from inside?
"Sweating." "Oh my god, I needed that." "Clearer mind." "Energy." "I feel great." "I need more air!" "Energy." "Magical." "Yes." "Beautiful." You're very welcome. "Relief." Yeah, if we hold this stuff inside you guys, it's only going to become more toxic.
So whatever we're working through, we need to have moments of letting it out. So I did make a little video, I'm putting the link in the chat. It's a 12 minute video movement video, sort of along the same lines. Oh, good, Cindy's giving us her heart rate. Yes, yes. [Beth laughs]
Being silly is excellent. It is excellent for everything. It helps you engage, to see things differently, to play, to forgive,
to feel optimistic. So thank you so much Brian for inviting me to do this.
Thank you to everyone who participated, and even those who maybe thought they were going to participate, but, you know, you can still watch the video in the privacy of your own home, maybe get your whole family to do it,
or your roommate, or whomever, because at this point we all need to move. So take care you guys.
Monica Garcia: So that was invigorating.
Welcome back everyone. I hope that you all participated. Thank you so much, Beth.
I really needed that I was having a lot of issues. I'm having a lot of issues right now with my lower back. So, that really helped a lot and I can feel it already. I can feel the benefits already. So thank you so much.
Well, for those of you who have not met me, I am Dean Garcia, and I am my division is Humanities, ESL, English, of course, Student Life,
and I'm also the Dean of Student Conduct as well as the I lead the Behavioral Intervention Team, our wonderful BIT team. But as the administrator for theme three, I get the privilege of introducing our theme.
The theme three Leadership and Racial Issues Civic Engagement is very fortunate to have 25 participants and, of course we have room for many, many more. We have a lot of work to do, and we need a lot of individuals to do it.
I'm sorry, did I? Okay, so it was very surprising to have so many initial participants, since many of us had no idea what the theme was about.
Most expressed that was the reason why they joined this particular theme.
This is not a problem, and, and it really allowed us to dream. It allowed us to be creative, and like with any dream, you must have a plan in order to make it a reality. Tamarra Coleman, Cherisse Meichtry, and Junior Nali will present to you our plan. Okay, Junior take it away.
Junior Nali: So when, when we're talking
about leadership and
racial issues, and civic engagement, we're talking about students finding their voice. So
when we're talking about students find their voice, we talked about how can we, the college, equip the students with the tools needed
so they can find their voice? How can a college help the students to feel like their voices are heard? How do we help them advocate? How do we make sure that the students are able to voice what they want to the community in an efficient way, not just like
say it for in not efficient way? So the way we're doing this, and that we plan to do, is we're planning to do workshops which I already participated in the MC L.E.A.D.S., which is a leadership program, which helped me a lot.
and it's all about helping students advocates and making sure they have the right tools, just like we can see in the picture, in the picture here we have the Moorpark College students in 2019
they had a peaceful rally against assaults rifles and assaults and against Islamophobia as a response to New Zealand mass shooting and next slide please.
Yeah and we recognize that change is not gonna come out of nowhere. So change is going to be gradual and being ready for this. We have small, medium, and long term goals.
So to get things ready, we have a semester long goal, which is going to be having leadership and advocacy workshops, which are going to start it going
and it is is more for a small group of people, for the moment, and it's achievable in a semester.
The biggest the bigger part of the medium term goal, is after we have the students knowing how to advocate, and after we have a base for identifying in
going against racial issues we're going to create opportunities for story sharing. So we're going to have opportunities for students to voice their opinions and voice their stories to the community.
And after that, our long term and what we want to achieve is to update the missions, visions, and values of the community.
And that's going to change the whole way the college system, is going to work. So we're going to have a gradual transition to them.
And while all that is happening, we're going to make sure that students have their voices heard through voting.
We see that a lot of young people, they're not going to having their voices heard through voting, because they don't believe this is a thing,
so we're going to keep working on the power of vote, while all of that happens. So to explain a little bit more about our goals and how they're going to be achieved, we have Professor Coleman,
who was the professor who made an appearance on the MC Leads program, which I was happy to be in that class, and she's gonna take over from here.
Tamarra Coleman: Thank you. Am I audible?
Yes.
Junior: Yes, yes.
Tamarra: I love Junior that you're so ambitious and you said the whole system is going to change. I love that. [Tamarra and Junior laugh] [Junior]: Thank you. [Tamarra]: I'm not preppin'
for that, but I love that.
I just want to talk about the first arrow here to leadership and advocacy
workshops. I feel like I'm coming full circle here, remembering in 2018 at the Strategic Planning Retreat. I was standing in front of a lot of you advocating for civic engagement
in the curriculum and thinking about the role of higher ed and civic engagement. And of course, we were in a moment that was much more, I'll use the word benign, in terms of the political climate,
and folks are just sort of thinking about it as "Okay this is interesting, this is, you know, could be useful stuff," but I feel like now in this
very political, racialized moment, all of a sudden civic engagement as a top priority for everyone, but I want to be clear, as I'm talking about this and I put two links in the chat. One is to an article by the
college's Association of Colleges and universities where they talk about higher education on the role of higher education in
civic education, right? Why it should be a part of the institution in and of itself and all aspects of the institution. There's another link that I put in the chat that talks that gives you the profile, the job profile of a community
organizer. We often think about the Community Organizer as as an activist and those particular skills to make change, but we don't think about the transferable skills that are a part of community organizing that can also transfer to
private sector jobs and other jobs beyond just community organizing, so those are links that you can look at. But the workshops that we're thinking about, it's a series of three workshops that
sort of work on top of each other in some ways. The first one is a advocacy workshop which would be suitable for any person just wanting to use their voice, right, they want to make change on a small issue.
So it's really about what are the steps that are needed in advocating.
Learning how to figure out what your objectives and your goal is. Learning how to figure out who the decision maker is and targeting that decision maker so that you're actually getting the change that you want.
Learning how to navigate the legislative process because that is a process and also thinking about other processes as well. But that part of the, the role of a advocate, if you're going to be effective, is understanding
each of those steps. The second one in the series would be an actual community organizing training, which is much more in depth,
and and that is really for the person who wants to move beyond what they're doing as an individual and sees that the change they want
will involve a larger community. So how do you get the community and the people and the stakeholders involved? The third workshop is for for one of those folks who feels like "I did all of this other stuff, but I really want to
build my ability as an individual to connect to people," and it's the the public narrative. How do I frame my story and connect my story to a larger audience in an effort to make change? And this is the one of the things that
former President Barack Obama was so good at, is framing his story as our story. Right? And what does that look like, and how does that actually affect change, and get people engaged in the work? So
again, the series is, yes in this moment about racial justice, but I don't want to lose sight of
of how civic engagement is something that is useful beyond a single issue or a single area and that this is something that shouldn't just be something we're thinking about right now
due to what's happening on the national stage, but this is something that needs to be a part of our institution.
I think next up we have Cherisse Meichtry.
Cherisse Meichtry: Thank you, Tammy. So one of the many ways we can make our voices heard is through voting. Sometimes it may not seem like your vote matters
but it does
Your vote is powerful
and has the potential to influence and decide the future. As you saw our action priorities slide, the power of the vote ran alongside all of our goals as something we see as an ongoing effort, promoting civic engagement simultaneously with our workshops, events, and other activities.
Many people are preparing for the upcoming presidential election in November. However, in addition to emphasizing the importance of voting in general,
we need to stress that voting should be consistent, and it doesn't only happen every four years, it starts here on our campus with student government, the voice of our students.
The senate's, the voice of our classified employees and faculty, voting within our unions to represent our voices as a whole, and lastly, local, state, and congressional elections that directly impact each one of us.
Student turnout has continued to increase in the last several years. This year millennials and Gen Z will be the largest share of eligible voters, but due to their lower voting rates,
have not been the largest share and previous elections. Majority of our students fit into this age range. As a college, we should continue to encourage conversations, getting involved, and educate on the power of the vote to make sure that all of our voices are heard. Next slide please.
Mission, vision and values. Who are we as Moorpark College? What is our purpose and where are we going? The mission, vision and value statements help provide a framework for strategy and decision making and helps us accomplish what we've set out to do.
President Sokenu asked all of us to get involved, but not just to talk, to create action items for change.
Our larger long term goal is to update our mission, vision and values statements to reflect the work that we are doing as a whole
and our institutional growth and commitment to anti-racism and social justice.
We currently have four groups working together to help create that change, and within those groups, we're working on individual endeavors, but we need you.
All of you. We need your buy in, your commitment, your ability to adapt and grow, and ideological shift, your team effort to work together and continue the culture that Moorpark College is known for. So please join us, so we can be the change. Thank you.
Johnny Conley: I think Luke and I are supposed to be doing theme four, I don't know if...
Okay, here we go.
We're all set,
Luke, you on?
Luke Barrella: Yeah, all good.
Johnny: Great. Lookin' good. Lookin' good over there.
Luke: Thank you.
Johnny: Good afternoon, or good eve- good morning. Wait, what time is it...yeah.
Good morning, my name is Johnny Conley I serve as the Equity Director. Luke do you want to introduce yourself?
Do you want to introduce yourself, Luke?
Luke: Sorry, sorry about that. Okay. Hi, everyone. My name is Luke Barrella, and I am the current president of the RSI Society of persons with disabilities, and in addition to that, I currently serve as a secretary for engineering club.
Johnny: Great. Thank you. Before we get started with our presentation. I'd like to do a couple of shout outs and thank us to our fellow co-leaders, Khushnur, as well as Jodi, and over 30 plus of our team members that met over the summer, the last week. Next slide.
So as we're looking at student services, a whole and a lot of it is connected with the last three presentations, looking at what
Julius has had stated in regards to his charge for the campus, is looking at our purpose. So here you'll see that we have three, four areas that we're going to talk about for our agenda is our purpose, commitment, cultural competence, and community. Next slide.
So as we look at our purpose and student services as a whole, we're looking to really look at a cultural competent and inclusive
students services for all of our students, especially our DI groups and making sure that we have a wraparound services that are that are actually identifying some of the needs
that we want. A lot of the data that we've had and more in particular, or more recently, was the student panels that we had this summer,
talking about sense of belonging. Being a co-advisor for the BSU,
the veterans, as well as our men charter, a lot of our students are voicing about not having a sense of belonging, as they are in the classroom, or walking around campus, or even been in some of our service areas.
So that is really the backbone of our presentation, and what the work that we want to do as a whole
for student services. And a lot of this is going to be connected to our C Equity Plan that we are on record for three years, as well as our ED Master Plan when we'll be looking at the equity gaps. Next slide.
So our commitment, so the 30 plus folks that met you know the last couple of
times this summer, we're really looking at a mission, a vision, and a pledge, as grounded in social justice and keeping us accountable in that we're advocating for all of our students,
especially our DI groups and looking to where we can have a program plan in every student services area where it's grounded in social justice.
We also are looking at assessing our student services practices and identifying a model by working with Oleg and his team on creating a pre and post evaluation and creating three subcommittees in some of these areas that will talk about today. Next slide.
So, here with our cultural competency, we're really looking at where we are today, you know, and going back 5,10, years from now, on what are our services. And DI group, thank you Julius is just the personally impacted group. Sorry for the...
for some clarity. So we're looking at a commitment for all of our students services coming down in Counseling, FYE, EOP and S, ACCESS, Veterans, Foster Youth,
every single student services department and area and looking at how we are working with our DI groups in particular,
and seeing how they feel when they come into our services. Do we have any biases, potentially, as we're looking at course overload units?
The way they're being served through Financial Aid and looking at the petition SAP appeals and learning more about how our students are
pretty much feeling in our, in our areas. Our self evaluation or self reflection, we've had a lot of talks over the summer,
as well as another local group that met over the summer in regards to looking at articles, and really looking at ourselves in the mirror, and being truly honest
about ourselves, and taking an inventory of our biases we all have them, and looking at scholarly articles and books, and having a real dialogue throughout the course of this next year that we are approaching on next week.
And then lastly is, you know, we've had Frank Harris on our campus a couple of times, and he's had landed his services to come onto campus and
to help our institution potentially implement a student services action toolkit. What that looks like? We don't know yet. We're definitely in the beginning stages of that.
But we are partnering with him to come on for the fall semester to start putting some things in place that we can implement in student services, as well as looking at the other areas and the other three groups and see how Frank can actually help all of us. Next slide. Luke?
Luke: Okay. So, hello everyone, again, my name is Luke Barrella. First, I definitely want to say I'm actually honored to be here today. And now, before I talk about community and our ideas that we want to implement in the next year, I want to give a little bit of background about
who I am as a student and why I work so hard.
So first I'm half Japanese and half Italian, and second, I've been disabled. I have been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, since the age of three years old, and in addition to that, I also identify as bisexual.
And for me to kind of touch on like my experiences as a student, I kind of want to talk and bring to the table
my experiences of disabled student, and this is for me, it's just like growing up and not necessarily just on Moorpark College's campus but,
you know, I've always had, like felt this stigmatism as a student with a disability, and for me, you know, the reason why this is important to me is because, you know,
I've always felt the need to like work harder and prove myself just because of my disability, and over the past few days, I've
watched different videos, I watched the Black Student Panel and hearing their stories, hearing how their stories identify with mine and
being able to be here is truly an honor, and why it's really extremely important to me that I'd be here to talk about this today.
You know, I mean, I think that the need for cultural competence as well as a self reflection for all for student services
really atones to what we are doing as a campus, and for me, it really, I want to thank Director Conley and director and Director Dic-Dickens, as well as Dr. Khushnur about giving me an opportunity to use my voice and to talk with all 300 of you today.
So now moving on to community.
Over the past few weeks, we have been discussing a lot about what we can do to help amplify the student voice, and the biggest thing
that we have really discussed and have wanted to implement into our, into our academic calendar this upcoming year, is uh, student town halls.
And for me this is very important because, for me, I am one students out of 15,000.
And what we need to do is we need to hear the perspectives of not only the four of us, the four of us student leads here today, but, as well as the perspective of other students, you know, this, the perspective of other students who may have had different experiences that I don't know about.
In addition to that, it can also serve as a feedback service for us,
to help us know if we're going in the right direction. Now the second bullet point is students basis, and for me, students basis, I can identify with personally because...
Oh, okay. Sorry, I thought, I lost my connection for a second, but students or students basis identifies with me personally, excuse me.
Because over the past year, when I was serving as a treasurer for a Circle K International we would oftentimes have to book classrooms in advance,
and sometimes, you know, I know clubs sometimes they can't have their meetings because they can't book classrooms, and so the idea of a student space
where students can actively meet students, you know, different clubs like Black Student Union, Muslim Student Union, Spectrum Club,
Latinx, and other every other club on campus can like meet up and have like a safe space, to like meet with other people outside of like club time.
And, in addition to that, it allows students to, [clears throat], sorry my voice a little bit today, but it allows students to feel more of a part of a campus, to feel more
at home, and in addition to that, being able to utilize that space and decorate a space will allow students to really have more of a presence on campus and feel more welcome.
And finally, the student services box is something that I kind of came up with, because I recognize that oftentimes students may not be able to attend the town halls,
and so the idea of the students are responses to provide an outlet for students to write letters, and to use their voice throughout the entire year instead of having to attend one student town hall.
And so in that sense, you know, I really hope that these ideas are pushed forward and I overall thank you guys too for allowing me to speak today. And so with that, I'd like to hand it back to Director Conley.
Johnny: Thank you Luke, thank you for sharing
your story and being vulnerable for all of us to hear your story,
and thank you so much. Very much appreciated and definitely has shed a lot of light, you know, obviously, with 300 plus folks that are on this, this webinar right now. Great job. Thank you so much, Luke and we're definitely happy for you to be part of the work group.
Next slide.
So as we wrap up with the timeline. We have a timeline to keep our group accountable.
So what we are looking at for this coming fall is to host two student town hall meetings that are really focused on some of the needs that our students are
talking about, you know, we're going to go back and refer to the summer webinars from our student athletes, as well as the other student from the BSU and the men.
In our discussions we learned a lot about our undocumented students that kind of experience a lot of racism and discrimination when they had Undocumented
Week in October. So we want to definitely you know address those as well. Begin the collaboration with Dr. Frank Harris to develop our student services tool kit.
And then as a student services division, looking at a article, articles as well as books, for us to begin reading and begin to have that dialogue and having those real
real uncomfortable and I say uncomfortable, which is a good thing, I think we all need to be uncomfortable at times, I think we've been too comfortable,
and this is the time to be uncomfortable and look at calling each other out in a respectful, professional way, but also, in a sense, it's a teachable moment, just like we teach our students.
And then launching like Luke had mentioned, our student services suggestion box as well as learn working with the IR team to develop our assessment tools for bias practices.
And in spring, we will continue to host two additional town halls. Look at continuing reading,
look at a mid-year progress report, you know, I'm huge on progress reports, I think the group is, just kind of look at where we are at and assessing
the work that we did for the last four months, and seeing where we are, where we need to go, and what adjustments we may need to take place.
In addition to continue to assess our student services suggestion box, so we can enhance that for our students input.
And for summer, continue with the, the town hall meetings, and evaluate, and submit an annual report to our executive team as well as our deans
as a work group. And then looking at a summer student services retreat. I think that gives us an opportunity to have two semesters underneath their belt,
and the coordination of our Vice President of Students Support to kind of look at how we can prepare for fall 21 depending on for remote or not by then,
but be able to kind of go back and do an evaluation on how we did some successes some opportunities and like a swat report, essentially, and be able to implement that for fall 21.
And then moving into fall 21 hosting two another additional town halls.
Creating a student services ally training, based on what we learned from the last year, so we can kind of duplicate our services to other folks.
And reevaluate our assessment tools and continue our reading and discussion. I want to close, and Luke, if you have anything else to share. Go ahead. But as I close
we're requesting more people. I mean, we don't need the choir. Julius and other folks had mentioned it's always a choir, you know, being black
and always have to kind of, you know, also have to kind of educate a lot of folks on these matters, being part of the tMOCAs group, we need everybody to join in outside of just a choir,
and really, truly look in the mirror and be honest with ourselves, and look how our students are in pain, how they are in the classroom, some of the discrimination and biases, as they are trying to get on the campus and they're getting off the 118,
and getting off on Collins after going to the grocery store in the community. This is what our students are dealing with, in addition to food insecurities.
And really doing a self reflection on our biases, and having a year commitment, you know, we, we are looking to partner with the other three groups. So we're aligned with all of our plans that we have our campus and master plan in particular,
and able to have, call our colleagues out when we see something not right,
and be okay with that and not get ridiculed or looked at a different way. And I think if we do it in a professional teachable moment I think that will speak volumes, where we can start changing the culture at Moorpark, knowing that we've been open for business for over 50 years.
Outside of that, we look forward to you all joining our group. We will be looking at of selecting folks to participate in our subcommittees in those three areas that we just reached to and talked about,
and being change agents, like Marra just had mentioned, yeah we're looking to be change agents on having things that we're doing in social, students services that are grounded in social justice.
Luke, did you have any last few words or anything you want to close as a student?
Luke: Yeah.
I mean, I just want to say
again, thank you for letting me speak today, and in addition to that, I just want to point out that, after hearing like all the different voices on the student body, I hope you guys realize that,
you know when you make a wish on star, you guys are, sorry my voice is so weird today.
You guys are our star, and I hope that you guys know that we I at least, appreciate everything that you guys are doing as a student, and I hope that in the future that everyone else will also appreciate our efforts as well. Thank you.
Johnny: Thank you all.
Julius: Thank you everyone. You can see that we have phenomenal energy
in our students, in our classified professionals, in our faculty, and in our managers, there is commitment to doing this work, and that commitment also has behind it a focused organized attempt in making sure that we live up the dream of this college.
We are looking to engage, and inform, and to bring about transformational change and that needs transformational leadership. Leadership is all of us.
What you can see, and what you can hear, and what's been presented to you by these four groups, is that each one of you, each one of us has the key to addressing hate and racism.
Each one of us has the key to helping the experience of our DACA students, of our trans students, of our black students, of our athletes, of our female students.
Each one of you, and especially each one of you has the responsibility to affirm the experience of every single student who comes across your desk, comes into your classroom
and the way in which we do that work is by joining a group, joining a group and attempting to address the issues addressed.
Transformational leadership, transformational change, and action.
We need to get beyond the hierarchies, faculty, staff, administrators, students and work together, these groups testify to that.
Thank you to the work group members, we will continue to engage in these work groups over the course of the fall semester,
and our and our charge is that towards the end of the fall semester we'll present to you, what we found. The groups will continue to meet and our next update group for the for the four themes is August 31,
and at that point in time, we will continue to share the information with the campus community so you can follow our progress.
It is important that we be the change you would like to see in the world and that means, we start and ourselves and we start at Moorpark College.
We are a place of kindness. We are a place of motivation. We're a place where dreams come true. And we are a place, we are a place where some folks feel left out. Some folks feel marginalized. Some folks are yearning to articulate and speak, are yearning and articulating to participate.
I ask of you, because I know your hearts that you'll participate whichever way you can, or you'll mentor and support somebody who's participating in this work.
Change cannot happen without you.
We come close to the end of our time together in this convocation, and we want to celebrate those individuals who have been with the college 20 plus years.
Think of the number of convocations those folks have been to, think of the numbers of committee meetings those folks have participated in, letters of reference they've written. Think of the numbers of students who they have comforted, they have challenged.
Think of the number of administrators that they have groomed. Think of the number of students who have not, who could have not become 20 year veterans and 20 plus year veterans of our institution.
That is Moorpark College. We are Moorpark College.
I want to thank each one of you before the video for the 20 plus years folks comes on. I want to particularly thank those folks who've worked here for 20 plus years. We stand on your shoulders.
Those of us who are here now, either in leadership positions or who are beginning our first semester at Moorpark College, we stand on your shoulders.
We are ready to take on the legacy that you leave us and we are ready to take that legacy and make the very best of it so that we can serve our students and our community better.
I thank you so much for joining this morning. We are Moorpark College. We will look at the la- the folks who are
we're celebrating 20 plus years, and from there we will transition into the Academic Senate meeting and just for Academic Senate members. So please run the video, in celebration of our 20 plus years colleagues and friends.
On screen text: Moorpark College 20 Years & Over Services Awards 20 plus years
20 Years Classified
Maria Urenda Financial Aid
“It has been a pleasure working for this District and Moorpark College for the past 20 years as a Financial Aid Specialist and recently in the capacity of Chief Steward for SEIU 99 representing the wonderful Classified Professionals of VCCCD. I have been blessed to have made close friendships and to have developed great working relationships throughout this time. I am grateful and look forward to continued years of service.”
Kim Watters Institutional Effectiveness
“When I was hired 20 + years ago and introduced by Dr. Eva Conrad at Convocation, she comically noted that the Righetti Dynasty was in full force as both of my parents, Steve & LaDonna also worked at Moorpark College. Moorpark College isn’t just a place to go to for work, it’s a home away from home, a second family. I miss you all and look forward to visiting with my family again! As always, be good humans. From the Broadway musical Hamilton, ‘Talk less. Smile more.’”
Allam Elhussini Fiscal
“As the saying goes ‘Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life’. It has been a pleasure working with everyone here for the past 20 years. I am looking forward to more.”
Bonnie Lara Access
“A gentle word, a smile, and patience work miracles for those we assist. Doing something you truly believe in makes all the difference in the world. Loving what you do makes the passing of time seem like the blink of one’s eye. Working with good people, and community in the work environment are also key. Remember you must work hard for what you want. It won’t come to you without patience and a willingness to accept that change happens slowly. Stay the course and fight for what you believe will make you and others love working for VCCCD and Moorpark College.”
Rocio Avina Cervantes Institutional Effectiveness... Mary Anne Beck Physical Sciences & CTE... Scott Colvin M&O...
Ivan Small Information Technology... Obalid Younan Access
20 Years Faculty
Katherine J. Courtney Biology
“I’ve been lucky to share beautiful and important things that I love with my students.”
Phillip D. Abramoff Mathematics
“Believe not so much in positive thinking. Believe more in positive doing.”
Pamela Kennedy-Luna Mathematics
“Thank you for 20 remarkable years at Moorpark College. Time flies when you’re doing something you truly love.”
Jeffrey S. Baker English
“I’m so grateful for the past 20 years at Moorpark College. Thank you all so much for your support over the last two decades!”
Giselle Ramirez Counseling
“Seems like just yesterday I stepped foot on the Moorpark College campus….here we are 20 years later! I have had the privilege to work with some amazing people. I have found a career I am so passionate about. Many have seen me grow from a teenager who knew nothing about college to a student assistant, financial aid tech, EOPS counselor, and facilitator. This is my home, my second family…there’s nowhere else I’d rather be. Here’s to (at least) 20 more!"
Jill A. McCall Communication Studies
“Do what you love. Be who you really are. Have honest, hilarious, powerful friendships. Live with purpose. Check, check, check, and check. Thank you Moorpark!"
25 Years Faculty
Letrisha Mai Counseling
Letrisha Mai: Hello everyone. Well, I can't believe it's been 25 years since I first started at the college. First I want to acknowledge and
thank Dr. Darlene Pacheco for having hiring me back in 1995 when I was a recent graduate from Cal State Northridge.
To the Counseling Department and entire Moorpark College community, it has been a wonderful experience and a great honor to be
working alongside with you for the past 25 and I hope to have many more years working closely with you.
You are part of my ever growing extended family. I thank you for always being kind and patient with me. Congratulations to our new
employees,
faculty, classified, and management. I hope Moorpark College will become your second family and home as it has been of mine.
Stay well, and best of luck for the fall semester. Take care everyone.
30 years!!!
John Baker Biology
“30 years?” un-%#@*&*^=$- real!
What was it like again?
Oh yeah. The Dude recalls…
…our staff was less diverse, but our zoo was amazing! And our anthropology classes were always packed.
…you were automatically granted tenure in your third year
Our union was strong.” [On screen text]: Larry Miller, Moorpark College Biology Professor. Larry Miller, 2000-2001 Distinguished Faculty Chair. Larry Miller, AFT President.
“…faculty were looked up to
We encouraged…
We encouraged our students to vote.
We must continue to encourage our students to vote.
To vote as if their lives depended on it. Because they do!
Thanks!”
We thank you all
For your service
You ROCK!