Mary Rees: Good afternoon and welcome to the campus update. We'll wait a minute or two, while we're everyone come and join us.
While we're waiting, we'll listen to the music of Dan Damon and Alex Fortunato two Moorpark interns students who are interning at the district for developing music and they use it for their board meetings.
Well, just wait another minute while people are still coming in, before we go ahead and start for today.
Great, well, thank you very much and welcome to November 23 Moorpark Campus Update. This update is being recorded. If you would like to see it closed captioned, please click at the bottom of your screen under the "CC".
On the agenda today, we're going to have an update from President Julius Sokenu, some updates on Academic Affairs and Student Support,
and then for our campus highlights, we're going to be hearing from the Navy STEM grants and industry partnerships, as well as the results from our town hall, particularly dealing with our social justice work groups. Good afternoon Julius?
Julius Sokenu: Hi Mary, hi, everyone, thank you so much for joining us this noon, this afternoon. It's astounding that were a few days before Thanksgiving, and based on all that has transpired this year, the fact that, you know, we're here, we're healthy,
we are navigating the pandemic and everything else as best as we can, is really a cause for Thanksgiving. So, I'm hoping that you will all have a safe Thanksgiving, and one that really sort of abides with the
I guess the original intentions
of the holiday itself, which is really an opportunity to be grateful and to express gratitude. So I want to start, to use this as an opportunity to express gratitude to each one of you for the work that you do,
for us at the college, the way you support our students, the way you support one another, and most importantly, the way you help us move our agenda forward so that we remain a distinguished institution of higher learning.
Recently, last week the college was honored as a champion of higher education, by the Campaign for College Opportunity and
both Vice Presidents Gebry, and Rees, and I, as well as the co-chairs of our curriculum committee, Dr. Scarlet Relle and Letrisha Mai attended that event,
virtual event to accept honor of that Moorpark College has received as a as a champion of higher education.
And that is so important when you think about the fact that access to higher education and completion statistics suggest to us
that quite a lot of students in community colleges don't make it to completion, and the fact that we have for the past five years been on that list of colleges with distinction
says a whole lot about the work that you all do, and that we all do together to affect student success and completion.
So kudos to us all and kudos to the college for that. My goal now is that they have a subcategory and they have about five colleges
that they identified this year, who a champion of diversity in higher education, and my goal is that we get on that list next. So
I know that we will do it at Moorpark College, you know we're innovators and we'll make sure that we get on that list as well. I want to use this opportunity to just give you an update on our IEPI
partnership resource team visit. As you know I mentioned to you earlier in the semester that Moorpark College applied for
a partnership resource team visit at the college, we had one about three years ago, and during that visit we had they had reviewed our needs for planning that reviewed our needs for a robust institutional effectiveness office,
and they had reviewed our needs for
advancement, or for our fundraising, and our Foundation, and supporting those three efforts and I can, I have to say that this college has taken that feedback that they provided to us,
the $200,000 that came with that feedback, and we've created an institutional effectiveness office, staffed it with a dean, brought together
resources from Centers of Excellence, as well as from the institution to create a robust research team and they're doing phenomenal work. So thank you to them and to you
for those of you who participated in that first IEPI visit. That first IEPI visit also encouraged us to hire a director for our advancement purposes, and we did go ahead and hire a director, so
James was in that position, and now John Loprieno is in that position as a provisional for the rest of the academic year. So the IEPI visit does help us because it is peers supporting peers in doing their work successfully.
We are at the point where we've sent them possible dates for the visit. The visit will likely be the week of February, the 24th for the first visit, and then the second visit the week of April, the 6th.
You will get much more information about the IEPI PRT visit and your role in it,
connected with Academic Senate president and the Classified Senate president, and then we'll be doing the same with the student
ASMC president so that they're all part of this process. This is part of our planning effort. So EdCap will be part of this process and the focus here this time around
is on the work that we're doing with diversity, equity, and inclusion, so the work we're doing with our social justice work groups, to work that we're doing with our EEO plan for the district,
all of that, and the work that we're doing from transitioning from on ground to online instruction and how that work needs to include in it an awareness of how we are
meeting the needs of all our students. So again, the IEPI team will be here
for the first visit sometime in late February and the second visit in April. Once the dates are confirmed, you will get that information and we'll share it through multiple venues.
We will be talking to you later on today about the feedback from the poll, from our town hall visit so I'll sort of expand upon that later on.
As, as some of you who've been on campus know, who have been by campus, you will know that there's been high traffic
in the testing center that's sponsored by Ventura County Public Health. Just got a text message around
there's traffic backed up to the Collins off ramp. So there are people who had taken advantage of the free testing and and they are on our campus utilizing that resource.
I want to use this and I'm going to say this multiple times today that,
that we, please remain vigilant, that the state is back at purple level, we're no longer in the red. So it's clear that we all have to play a part in making sure we stem the tide of this pandemic and this virus.
Your behaviors and our behaviors, particularly those of us that are really you know out and about, our behaviors will impact whether or not the county remains at purple level or we go back to red or even better.
Our behavior will impact the ability of students, particularly, this is for students, your behavioral particularly impact the ability for us to continue to deliver instruction,
and make those progress the progressive moves towards bringing more instruction back on campus, we can't do that if we're at a purple level. So, I beg you, and I thank you for those of you who are
being safe, and who are following the distancing protocols, and who are following the masking protocols that you are in line with that. Our goal is to make sure you get as much information as possible around
COVID 19 work and our COVID 19 practices on this campus.
Thank you to the screeners and the folks who are working on the screening. Thank you to John Sinutko. Thank you to John Everlove, Mariel,
and to Cherisse as well as all the other individuals who are involved in that work.
We want to make sure that we're as transparent as possible, and so today Sharon is here to share with you a new resource that we have created
for the college community, and this is really for our staff and
the employees of the college to share with you where we stand in terms of our COVID infection rates, to share with you where we stand in terms of folks are in quarantine,
and to make sure that it's very transparent so that you get a better sense of what is going on and what the
tracking that's happening with the apps are generating for us so that we can make sure we ensure safety. So I'm going to turn it over to Sharon, Sharon Manakas, Coordinator of our Student Health Center and thank you Sharon for doing this work.
Sharon Manakas: Next slide. Thank you Julius and I just cannot reiterate the importance, each one of us has in doing our part to
prevent the spread of COVID. So we have started called the COVID Dashboard for fall 2020, and it reflects students and employees
that are coming to campus, whether for classes or work and who sign in using the My VCCCD app.
So currently, as of November 20, so this would be as a result of last week, we no longer had any active positive cases. Those who have tested positive for COVID on our campus, and as far as those currently known exposures, those who had been exposed to someone who had COVID 19,
test positive, we had six students and two employees and you know we have Nursing students are going to clinical rotations and
maybe being possibly exposed to patients with COVID or we have students who have been exposed to elsewhere outside of the campus. Currently those in quarantine, meaning that they are to
stay inside, not leave home, and usually quarantine last for 14 days, we have six students and two employees for a total of eight.
Since September we've had a total of eight positive cases of COVID and all have recovered.
So we will be doing an update of this each week. We're going to be posting it to the Student Health Center COVID Resource page,
and make it available for you. I would encourage you to also check out the other resources that we have on that page, if you're feeling stressed, and the anxieties kicking in, and what are some other resources and things that you could do that is there and available to you. Thank you.
Julius: Thanks, Sharon.
Again, we
provide you this information so that you are aware, and that we're all work into words stemming the tide of the COVID19
virus transmission. If you have any particular questions regarding this or any other aspects of our safety protocols, please feel free to pose the questions in the Q&A or in the chat and we'll go ahead and continue with the update at this point I'm passing it to Mary.
Mary: Thank you Julius and thank you Sharon for that information. Again, just a reminder for all of us about having social distancing, mask, and being very
thoughtful and focused. The main thing wanted to do as Julius said was the congratulations for the champion for higher education.
This is such a busy time, less than a month left of the semester, and it's a very stressful time for faculty, staff, and students.
You all have done an incredible job getting to this point and I know there's a lot of work still to be done with the finals and with all of the finishing projects and all that so,
a huge thank you from the whole college community for all that everyone is doing, and, you know, we'll just stay the course and keep focusing. Registration is ongoing for spring.
Do encourage your students to sign up. I think, are your students and people we interact with do need the encouragement that we're there for them,
they should sign up, they should keep going. Our spring semester is going to be like our fall, where we have our tier one and our most of our tier two courses have some kind of an on ground component.
The Chancellor made it clear in his presentation last week that early December, they'll make some additional decisions on what's going to happen in the fall,
but for spring, we're at the same as we are here for fall with the majority online, and our labs, our career education, our Allied Health having the on ground component.
For our students that have concerns about unstable internet going into finals, we're going to be able to open up a couple of computer labs and
Michael will put into the chat the link for if you want to encourage students that are concerned about the stability of their internet during final week they can sign up for
on the link and sign up for the computer lab and we'll be able to have them take the finals online there at those computer labs for them.
Also for our students, the state has allowed us to offer pass no pass beyond the 30 day or the 30% mark.
If your class is a class that is approved for pass no pass, and students would still like to convert from a grade to pass no pass, they can petition to do that.
Also, students can petition to get an EW for this semester, if they're having issues related to COVID, it's an option for them to take an EW,
but I would also encourage you that to let your students know about all the resources we have for them. Tutoring, I know you're doing all the extra work as well to help support the students to help get them through this last push here in the course.
So I think that's where we are on that. Amanuel?
Amanuel Gebru: Thank you Mary.
Just a few updates,
from the Student Support side. So I just wanted to let you know that the Raider Central will be handing out
Thanksgiving dinners to students and families in need and that date is Wednesday, November 25 from 9 am to 1 pm behind the Bookstore,
but they're also requesting volunteers, if you're available to help and we'll put the information on the chat box and a few minutes.
Tim Lumas and also Brittany Sweet are the two individuals that you can email if you're able to help out and volunteer to hand out food for Thanksgiving.
Also want to just think Johnny Conley and Tim Lumas and all the incredible staff that have been helping out and really supporting our students in need, with our Raider Central.
They have given up 200 they've served 269 students have been served, 273 bags of food have been distributed, 310 boxes of food have also been distributed.
We've helped 925 family members who have been coming to the raider central so they continue to, you know, make sure we support our students in our community that are in need of food. So thank you to the staff for the incredible work in that regard.
Some additional work with our Dual Enrollment, has secured two Philosophy courses for the CYA which is the Correctional Youth Authority program facilities.
They continue to support those student populations through the CYA, and in addition to that, we're offering 32 sections of dual enrollment classes which is 14% more than we offered last semester,
so we're excited to offer support and access to our high schools, and then also our California Youth Authority in terms of dual enrollment courses. So thank you to Sergio and your team for the phenomenal work in that regard.
And then the last thing is the Employee Assistance Program and Empathia we will be providing to employees support groups,
compassion fatigue and work life balance beginning today. If you have not yet signed up, but we'd like to please use the link on the support group email
that was resent by the Student Health Center this morning, so please utilize all the resources that are available to us that have been emailed to you.
And then last but not least, just want to thank everyone faculty, staff, administrators, for all that you do to support our students and want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving and also safe Thanksgiving.
So I want to pass it back to you Mary for the next campus highlight.
Mary: Thank you... Thank you, a manual. Yes. So for we're continuing our campus spotlights and today we have the pleasure of talking about the Navy STEM Grant and industry partnership with Mike Hoffman the Career Education Grant Director and Celine Park our Career Transfer
Project Specialist, our job placer. Michael?
Mike Hoffman: Thank you Mary.
What we're doing is the college wants to
enhance, and build, and extend its bridge between the campus, between our students and the Navy, a major employer in Ventura County and one that we've went to develop and continue to expand our relationship with.
We're doing it in two ways. One is, I'll talk about it are the ways in which we have
a grant application pending with the Navy, and then Celine will talk about the specific very specific, concrete, the steps that she's taken through the Creer Transfer Center to help build those bridges. Next slide please, Matt?
Last month the campus applied for a major grant from the Office of Naval Research with the Department of the Navy. This would be a three year grant for a total of 100,
excuse me, $750,000 total, 250 a year, and what we're doing is we're building on a model Dr. Scarlet Relle should be here talking to you about this, but she had another obligation today,
and we're building on a model that Scarlet has been working with in the Engineering Department for the last five years, this is the model called, were associated with Cal State Northridge on this, and it's the Attract Inspire Mentor and
Support students Grant is the aims known as the AIMS Grant.
And what it does is it creates a cohort for our students that enables them to that supports them not only through their programs, but also provides additional support in the classroom for them,
and then also extends out, tries to extend out into
the workplace for them. So this grant that we've applied for is a three year grant, and to create engineering technician jobs at Naval Base Ventura County and civilian businesses.
We're hoping that we will develop the students through Career Education to get them into those specific specific positions.
It builds on the model, the AIMS Model that we have through with Northridge, as I mentioned,
and we're working with two specific certificates that Scarlet has put together in her program the Electronics Engineering Technician,
and the Mechatronics Engineering Technician certificates. So we're going to create within,if we get this grant, we applied for the grant I should say in
we applied for it last month, we will hear in February, but in my mind I've already started ways in which we can spend the money and how we're going to do it.
Here's what we'll do if we hear in February that we've got a thumbs up, we're going to create a two year cohort for the students in Engineering, we have outreach that goes to
the high schools for work based learning, we create a cohort to have a summer bridge program for these students, use course embedded tutors, and then very importantly, we have a great deal of funds for
specific for specifically for internships, so we will build the bridges with the Navy, as well as with some of the contractors who would help support the Navy out there
for these two positions.
And at this point, I'm going to turn it over to Celine and let her tell you about the bridges that she's building with the businesses we have out there.
Celine Park: Thank you Mike.
Next slide.
Next slide please?
So over the course of summer and fall, we've been participating in a number of field trips and facility tours
with the Navy. They built this enormous, giant, maker space slab called Fathomwerx and we got a tour about it. We were the first group to get a tour,
and they showed faculty and staff new and emerging technologies, and this is just another step of how Moorpark College and the Navy
have been working together to innovate and collaborate with our three naval warfare centers in Ventura County. So we have now been given access to state of the art multi-million dollar Department of Defense technology and facilities. This includes a 60,000 square foot multi-million dollar
facility and indoor UAV cage to test drones indoor, 79,000 gallon water tank to test underwater drones, and corrosion testing. So our
Ventura County Chancellor's Office recently signed an EPA an Educational Partnership Agreement with the three naval warfare centers, Nav Fac,
Nav Air, and Nav Sea to foster collaboration with the Navy and to encourage some discipline, and the purpose of this EPA is designed on, a few key pillars to ensure students have access to connecting with a naval base, and to provide internships and scholarships for students.
Next slide please?
So as Michael mentioned earlier, the Navy provides a number of internship opportunities.
The STEM virtual internship is a 10 week paid internship and they will pay every student $7,000 for a 10 week internship no strings attached.
If you and these are for students who are working on their associate's degrees. If they haven't,
if they are still working on their associates degree, and they are applying for a second time, they will receive at 8500 dollars. For students with a bachelor's degree, they're going to get $8,000,
a master's degree $9,000, and if you have a doctorate degree you get $11,000 again, no strings attached, you're not enlisting in the Navy,
it's just a way to get our students exposed to career STEM fields. So this last year we had 30 students who applied,
and the students, the Navy invested $106,000 to pay our students a stipend to participating in those in the Navy internship.
This year we have 40 students who applied and it's still not too late to apply, as you can see the deadline is November 30. Once you're your student gets selected and vetted internally by the HR Department, they will
facilitate a virtual internship and then guess what upon completion of their internship, many of these students will be offered a full time job, upon completion of their degree pathway or program.
They also provide a SMART scholarship and this scholarship is sort of, I consider it very similar to an apprenticeship type model,
the Navy will cover your tuition and living expenses, and give you a full time job offer upon completion of your degree pathway. The purpose of both of these internships and SMART scholarships is to provide students with career exploration in STEM careers. Next slide please?
So our media partnership consists of those three warfare centers and the purpose
for Mike Hoffman and I to speak to you about our partnership, is that with this EPA agreement, it's really going to open up a lot of doors for our students and reduce those barriers,
and provide equitable access for all of our students to participate in these internship opportunities. The Navy will also
offer us mock interviews, job shadowing, they'll facilitate industry tours for your classroom, and provide faculty externships so that faculty can learn new and emerging technologies
in this era. So the collaboration between Moorpark College and the Navy center drives our relationship with both the Navy and private civilian contractors in Ventura County. Thank you.
And that's my contact information.
Mary: Thank you Celine and Matt and for speaking for Scarlet, this is really a fantastic program, thank you so much. Julius, we were then, talk about our
town hall results.
Julius: Yes. So thank you again Celine and Mike for sharing with us, the impact that such our internship opportunities can have on
students and their lives. $11,000 wow, that to go to school that's wonderful support as folks go through the experience. So today we're, we're here
to share with you the feedback from the town hall results. If you remember, we held a town hall meeting a few weeks back, and during that meeting, we went ahead and
provided you information of our budget, but each of this social justice work work groups also got a chance to give you an update on on their work, their accomplishments, their
expectations or they are they are planning for the rest of the academic year, and then we asked you as our college community to provide us some feedback. We asked you through a poll to
identify what you see as priorities. So we asked, do you think that this is a priority for the college, yes or no, and then we asked you to identify the time frame for which this
activity or this action could be accomplished, if it was in a first in the next six months or six months to a year. And 96 participants
of the town hall provided us feedback right there and then, another eight did it subsequently when we forwarded the link to the poll to the college community. Thank you so much for those of you who responded and provided us with your honest feedback.
There were 161 people participating in that town hall meeting, so to get 96 who actually did do their the work right there and then it is, it really is a an affirmation of the value of this work that we're doing.
So we'll, we'll go ahead and have Mary walk you through the results of the survey poll and then we can talk about next steps from there.
Mary: Thank you Julius. It was some wonderful day really some solid conversation on that and we'll just slowly walk through each of the different outcomes that the four workgroups did bring up and what the results were for that. On the next slide...
theme one diversifying the curriculum to include the history and culture of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and other people of color.
For culturally responsive education, 90% of the people voted felt that this was a priority for Moorpark College and the majority felt that this was an action that was going to need to take place in the next 1 to 3 years.
The next outcome.
So on the next slide.
Can we move to the next slide?
For theme...
so that was our workgroup one, with Ethnic Studies an Ethnic Studies program, is this a high priority for Moorpark College.
About 82% of the people felt that this was a high priority for Moorpark College to have an Ethnic Studies program and it looks like about 46%, something like that,
believed that this should happen within the next 6 to 12 months.
For theme workgroup two, theme two hiring of staff, faculty and managers that represent the racial and ethnic diversity of our student population.
The first outcome was conduct a thorough P3 plan, policy procedures and practices do an analysis of that.
And the question was whether this is a high priority for the campus. 60 slightly over 60% of the campus of those that responded felt that this was a high priority for Moorpark College,
and slightly over half believe that this was a task that needed to happen within tier one within the next 6 to 12 months.
The other outcome for group two make immediate recommendations at all level of leadership to remove identifiable discriminatory P3's,
basically establishing best practices. We asked whether this was a high priority for Moorpark College and almost 80% believe that this was a high priority, and that this would be a tier two project, something that would take us one to three years to accomplish.
Outcome three, invite all interested classified staff, faculty, and administrators to join in the sub work group. 70% believe that this was a high priority for Moorpark College,
excuse me, and about 70% believe that this was something that would have to happen in tier two in the next 1 to 3 years.
Leverage the efforts from key stakeholders, the Board of Trustees, Chancellor Chancellor as legal advisor, the district HR team, USC Center for Race and Equity, VCCARA, which is a regional group,
N double A C P [NAACP] and the institutional research here at the district and the campus. 60% believe that we needed to leverage the efforts of all of these key stakeholders, and about 60 some percent believe that this was a tier two activity, something that would take us one to three years.
For work group three theme three, leadership on racial issues and facilitating social justice through civic engagement.
One of the outcomes was hold a legislative talk. About 40% felt that this, strongly agreed.
28% somewhat agreed, so that would be 40 let's see, so 68% had some level of agree that we should hold these legislative talks. As far as how what tier or order would we rank these,
about 65% believed that it would be a tier one, something to be accomplished within the first 6 to 12 months.
The outcome of offer a community organizing training, again, 50% strongly agreed that this was a focus for Moorpark campus. 30% somewhat agreed.
And we have a little over 50% believe that this was something that was in tier two, to occur between one to three years.
Propose a racial and social justice internship program.
Almost 60% believe that this was a high priority, 22% somewhat agreed.
And then what tier or order would you rank this item in?
about 60 some percent believe that this was a tier one something to occur in the 6 to 12 month.
For theme four, provide culturally responsive student services such as counseling, tutoring, and mental health.
The outcome of post a statement on the Moorpark College website in support of Black lives,
50 over 50% about 54% strongly agreed, and 10% somewhat agreed. This was an activity that was defined in the one to three year time frame.
Develop resources to support culturally responsive student s,ervices 75% believe that this was a high priority for Moorpark College,
and that this was also a tier two in the one to three year range, about 70% of the people that took the survey believed that.
Enhance student feedback channels to hear student voices, about 75% believe that this was a high priority Moorpark College, and more than 75% believe that this was a tier two, should occur in the one...
in the one to three year time period.
Julius, do you want to take the data and give us a overall summary?
Julius: Yes, thank you, Mary. So what you see from the data. There's a whole lot to be accomplished to be read into the data, but what you see from the data is that the campus community wants us to move forward with the social justice work as they're defined by these forward groups,
and that is so evident in the number of high priorities and high priorities in the next six months.
Then the need for immediacy and the work again, you know, this whole notion that we just don't wait that we get it done, and it's fantastic to see that there is that commitment or there's
that awareness that there's a need for immediacy in the work. The reality of it is that we can't do everything in the next six months, but clearly, there is a marching orders have been presented to us as a college community.
It is very, it's clear that
we want to focus on supporting students, you know that the college mission starts with, you know, students first philosophy,
so we know that whatever we do it's really about supporting students and making sure that all our students, but particularly our students from, you know, diverse communities and underrepresented groups
that they have an opportunity to feel included in the work we're doing on this campus, that they see this is...that there's equity and that their success
is informing the work that we do. So as we do this work, I want to make sure we focus on supporting students.
And then the ultimate is that we know we proceed with the goal of transformation. If you put all of this together, those are those that's what's coming out of this data that that we see. Next slide please?
So we talk about, okay, how are we doing, how do we do the work of equity on this campus? And so we talked about how do we do find the equity lens?
And how do we do work that's anti racist? How do we do work that's anti misogynist?
You know, there's a whole range of ways in which we can take the equity lens and how what actions can we put into place so that it is meaningful, so that it's authentic, and that it aligns with the call
to action from the State Chancellor's office, but it also aligns with the resolutions from our Academic Senate, the resolutions from our Board of Trustees,
as well as the work that's been done by groups like the VCCARA and our EEO committee at the college district so,
you know, if we talk about the equity lens, you know, the campus community is asking us to embrace the call to action and the call to action in this case is
make sure that we're focusing on making, making the campus climate more conducive and supportive of all our students, but particularly of our students of color.
The work that we're being charged here is to make sure that we're hiring faculty, and staff, and administrators
who are bringing cultural competence period, whatever their racial identity is but that they're bringing cultural competence to the work, but equally important is that we're diversifying our faculty, staff, and administrator
pools and particularly our hires. This work is suggesting that and it's encouraging us to conduct audits of our policies, our practices,
and making sure that we foster diversity, equity, and inclusion, so not just doing business as usual, that we move beyond business as usual and that we invest in making sure that we identify where we could do better, we look for resources that are that
are examples of high impact practices, and that we then integrate them into our procedures. into our practices, and into our policies.
We know that we can't do this alone. We know that we need to do it in partnership, so that this work is work that we're doing in terms of connection to regional alliances,
our connections to our sister colleges, and the connection to universities and and institutions in our service area, and Ventura County has the benefit of an anti racist group
that is actually came out of conversations at our campus and then extended to other campuses and Professor Tammy Coleman
as well as a whole range of other faculty and staff at the college are part of that work and that work is happening to shift and
define the agenda for equity, inclusion, diversity, and particularly anti racist work in our, in our region and in our county. I don't know if some of you are following this but as of last week, Ventura County
identified racism as a health crisis in this county. So the work that we're doing on our campus is in alignment with what our county's saying
that we need to be more inclusive, that we need to be more open to difference and that we need to do it in a way that we honor people's identities and we honor people's experiences.
Students, staff, and faculty, and administrators are leading this work. So it's not just coming from administrators, not just coming from faculty, it's coming from students who are actively engaged in our,
social justice work groups, it's coming from my classified professionals who are leading this work, who are engaged in this work,
and who are, making sure that it is appropriate to the work that they do so that they, as well as the rest of us can have a work environment that is supportive and is
culturally
supportive of each one of us. We know that we need to invest in professional development for all our stakeholders,
and so part of the work that we're doing here is identify what that might look like and how we can then find those resources so that we can support each one of us.
Not everyone has experience based in doing this and not everyone who is of color should be expected to, you know, facilitate these conversations, it should be a shared activity and part of our work is to make sure that everybody
is an ally, that everybody has the resources to be one, and that we know we're able to deploy these resources in effective ways that make and lead to transformational change. Again transformational changes is the goal.
Someone said to me, you know, you can't have 400 years of history all be addressed in, you know, six month period or in a year period, and that's the truth it's,
it's sequential. Sometimes it's been a slow
travel towards what we would ideally love to see so that the dreams of this republic and it's values, at least explicitly stated values that they become real.
And then we talk about, you know, building on the on the culture students first and robust dialogues. We certainly
center students in this work, but equally important is that we talk. We talk to our similarites, we talk to our differences, and we plan on moving forward together.
We cannot do this if there is no, if the opportunities to engage in dialogue do not exist or they are not as integrated into the work. Next slide please?
So what are we going to do? What our next steps? We're developing resources to support culturally responsive student services.
We're enhancing student feedback channels to hear student voices. We're developing culturally responsive curriculum that is inclusive and anti racist,
and we continue to review current practices, policies, and procedures related to hiring.
We identify best practices, we conduct a gap analysis, and then make recommendations related to hiring diversity. So those four work groups are still much needed, they're still here,
and they will be charged to now doing this work moving forward, and focusing on the plans that they presented to you,
and focusing on making sure that the items that can be accomplished in the next six months, well, between now and June that those items are front and center, and that then we can resource doing that work so that we can support it and lead to meaningful outcomes. Next slide please?
And I think it's important to know that quite a lot of what was on this list has already been done, it's been done and it's in process, so we're not starting from scratch. For example, we have an Ethnic Studies program,
that's important place and courses that are already available to us, you know, we've, we're doing work
on a book clubs were doing work and resources for faculty. I was just telling a colleague that, you know, go look up Moorpak College's library
page, we've got some dynamic resources you can use in teaching in a non racist, in an equitable manner. So we already are doing this work, and I think it's important for us.
Again, we want to focus on what we can do during the spring semester. We want to make sure that we're integrating this work into our district's work EEO plan.
Want to make sure that we are building a way in which this can be sustainable. I don't expect that the social justice work groups will continue forever,
we want to make sure we can integrate them into the governance work of the college and then integrate into senate work, classified and academic, that our ASMC sees this as part of their work when they take on portions of this,
that our committees and task force are owning portions of this work so that it is appropriately located, it doesn't create
excessive additional work for folks, and that's integrated into the way in which we think.
Now when we talk Moorpark College, we talk students first. My hope and the hope of all of you that are doing this work is that when we talk Moorpark College, we're going to be talking
diversity, equity, and inclusion, we're going to be talking anti-racist curriculum and practices, and we're going to be talking about supporting students
irrespective of what they look like, what they bring to the learning experience, and who they love and who, where they come from.
So it is important for us to make sure that we integrating all of this work into our infrastructure. It's not its own thing, it should be part of the work of the college that allows us to effectively make transformational change.
Part of what we integrate this work into is the strategic plan and our planning process. So again, the work that we're doing in the spring is helping to sort of establish an infrastructure that will support in a more meaningful way the work that we do moving forward. Next slide please?
Okay, so we're talking about, you know, aligning with the work of the system, and so the next slide shows with you the call to action from Chancellor Oakley and then its maps it to
what we're doing here at the college and plan to do here at the college,
and that allows us to do that integration that I mentioned in the previous slide, but it also allows us to be able to measure our work
in the context using the metrics that the State Chancellor's Office will be using to assess our ability to meet that Call for Action. Next slide please?
So, you will see that this the call to action, there's six of them. The first one is a system wide review of law enforcement officers
and first responder training and curriculum. We know the community colleges train about 80% of all our law enforcement officers in the country. We know that, and we know that, that number is similarly,
similar for Ventura County. So if you're going through, if your intention is to become a law enforcement officer a peace officer,
you will most likely gone through a California Community College. If that's the case, where we can do the work of making sure that we have police officers, and we have peace officers, and we have
law enforcement officials who are respective, respecting of our cultural identities and who have the cultural competence to do the work, that responsibility's on California Community Colleges,
more so than anybody else. And at our institution, this aligns with our call for culturally responsive action,
and this is evident in the work that's been done by our CJ program our Criminal Justice program. Thank you Chad and thank you to the
faculty in that program and hopefully at some point we'll get a feedback from them and so they can share the remarkable work that they're doing.
We also have the equity work that's been.... EMT program. These programs are helping to train our first responders, as well as our culturally, our law enforcement
folks. Again, we need to identify now, who is responsible for that action and a time frame. So, you will see that we have, you know, two who are already doing this work. So now the question is how can other folks who might be aligned, who might be in discipline, aligned to
letting law enforcement officers take on this work and how do we build that into our curriculum, and ow do we build that into
our students experiencing at Moorpark College, and who's responsible for that, and who will be held accountable for that, as we do this work and coordinating all of that work so that the meaningful work that's been done is not
lost. Second, campus leaders must host open dialogue and address campus climate. Well, we've had at least two or three
town hall meetings for the entire campus that we've done through this venue. Athletics has had town hall meetings.
I know that there's other programs across campus that have had
town hall meetings, our student government is planning one. So I know that there is interest, and there's investment, and there's energy being put towards this,
and I'm very, we're very thankful to all of you who are doing this work, making sure that we look at the campus climate, it is not perfect, we have work to do
but we have to do the work together. So, you will see that the actions that we listed in from the theme groups that those actions are
on here as a way of connecting call to action from the system to our work that we're doing on campus. Enhancing student
feedback channels so that we hear from students, and we know from students what we're doing well and what we need to improve upon.
We hear from students about their experiences so that we can figure out ways in which we build a system that's supportive of all students.
That this is not just about students, that campus climate is about how faculty, and staff, and administrators all feel about being in this environment and how they are
valued, and how they're supported, and integrated, so that is important that we get folks to go from those groups to join this work,
and join in, in such a way that we're all able to help define what is needed and how to go about deploying that. You see all the other elements that are in that
attempt to create open dialogue, you know, bring in legislators on campus and so that they can they can be part of this work that we do so we can inform,
you know, statewide policy and system wide policy, and then making sure that we post statements that are in support of our communities of color, particularly in this case our Academic Senate has sort of, you know, has led us in that work by
identifying and supporting a resolution in support of Black lives, and I think we, I know that the more we can do more things like this,
and calling out what we want to be who we are and who we would like to be as we continue to work towards, that the more effective it is for us as an institution. Next slide please?
You will see again that the actions that are missing here and the responsibilities that are missing, so part of the work is to fill out this table, this template so that we can fully
capture all the work that's been done. So you'll see again that audit of campus classroom climate and create an action plan to create inclusive classrooms and anti-racism curriculum
is one of the charge, one of the calls to action from the State Chancellor and you see how Moorpark College is doing that work
and again, I am very proud of the fact that our faculty, and our staff, and our students are in the forefront of this work in Ventura County.
That acknowledgement is very important to us because, as many of you know we are not often perceived as a campus that would embrace diversity in the very traditional sense, and we often are we're often associated as a campus that is homogeneous in in our
profile, and if there's anything we know, it is we're not homogeneous in our profile, you know, we've gone from about 7 to 15 to 17% HSI to 36% HSI.
We're doing a lot of work in making sure that
we bring as many people have diverse backgrounds to our campus and that they see us as their community college, and so as we do that work it is incumbent upon us as a college to make sure
that we create a classroom climate, a campus climate that supports that.
And then district board review, you know, our board has, as we've said has identified their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion,
and the board members are now working with the EEO Committee as well as without council, with the district's council Laura Schulken in identifying how we can address issues of hiring
and recruitment, how we can address practices in that process in itself, so that it's more equitable and more supportive of our DE goals.
We're also reaching out beyond the institution and making sure that we're we're partnering with community agencies to do that. So our district is involved in that invested in that. Next slide please?
So, you will see that again, part of this work is we want to make sure that we shorten the time frame for full implementation of DE our inclusion plans. So you see what Moorpark College is doing towards accomplishing that goal.
And you will also see that we still have actions that we can identify. So again, this is where the work of the
social justice work groups over the next six months will come to bear. They are the ones as well as the rest of us that will help populate the spreadsheet,
and then the Vision Resource Center, we are part of the Vision Resource Center we're utilizing the resources from there and we continue to do that, and I can see that as we do this work, we might even be able to inform the vision
of what we're doing. What is really key here is the Moorpark College, we strive to be on the
front line of this work, in the vanguard of institutions are doing this work and who are doing it well, and for that to happen we need each one of you to be continued invested in this work.
So if there are any questions, you know, I'll take those questions. Otherwise, we will continue working with the social justice work groups, so as to
accomplish what you have charged us to,
to deliver in terms of social justice and equity.
Mary: There were a couple questions, Julius. The first one was whether the data would be able to be posted on the President's website, like the updates always are?
Julius: Yes and we'll be posting it and we can also send it to the campus, so that folks can have it at their disposal and again look at it more closely.
Mary: Great, thank you. Also, I know that you were kind of hoping that there would be a couple of key three or four main outcomes that would drive what the college was going to be doing for the year, and since almost everything came up a high priority and that's your, your thoughts on that?
Julius: So as the data suggests, the curriculum piece, the, you know, the cultural responsive education, which includes curriculum, which requires classroom environment,
which includes programs such as the Ethnic Studies program, that is a priority for us. We want to make sure that we're continuing to do and invest in
working in the curriculum and program development piece. Making sure that we're providing students with call to the responsive
student services and we're enforcing it and reinforcing the good work that's been done by our Counseling folks, and that's been done
by A&R folks, that's been done by our health center, Financial Aid, you know, everybody in the list,
and that we're providing resources to support that work. So that's second, and very important is the fact that we focus on our hiring policies and practices and making sure that we conduct an audit of those so as to
ensure that we course correct if we need to, and we know we've heard that we need to on some things.
So those are our priorities. Those are the things that we want to make sure that between now and May and really when faculty leave, but really
to now in June, that we have some very solid plan on how we're doing that will be going to do that work, and then we can show the outcomes are for this first year of work.
Mary: Thank you Julius. There's also one other question that's I think will be a harder one answer is there a way we can provide people with a wait time list for the COVID shots or COVID
testing? [Julius]: Oh yeah, this is that would be a question for Ventura County Public Health. I understand that 1700 people
were tested on Friday and they expect about 2000 plus today and the rest of the week is going to be the same way.
And so we will be working with Ventura County Public Health so they can give us some sense of what that timeframe is.
A couple of weeks ago was one to two hours. I'm guessing it's much more than that now, and also finding out from them what their processes are, so that communicating to the public as to,
you know, the timeframes, communicating to the public in terms of their office hours, their
hours of operation so that we can mitigate the traffic, but from what I'm seeing there will be more and more demand and they'll be more and more
individuals on campus. We'll get some answers for you from Ventura County Public Health, but right now, I would say it's about three hours waitlist, wait time at the very best.
Mary: Thank you, Julius last note to everyone, wishing them, Happy Thanksgiving?
Julius: Yes, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and please make sure you're safe.
Please, please, please
wear your mask, wash your hands, practice social distancing and have a happy inspired, blessed, and productive Thanksgiving. Take care.