Mary Rees: Good afternoon and thank you for joining us. We're gonna wait just a couple of minutes while we have others join us here for this very important conversation
that we're having here at Moorpark college this afternoon. So just give us a couple minutes while we wait while the rest join the group here.
Good afternoon. We're gonna wait just another minute or two, while we wait for the rest of the group to come and join us here for this important conversation here this afternoon.
Good afternoon and thank you for joining us for our courageous conversation on racial and social injustice. This is a very important critical individual conversation for us here as well as for the institution.
The webinar is being recorded. The transcript will be posted at a later date. The transcript will be,
will be transcripted and it will be posted on the President's website. So that will be the...
conversation is being recorded. It is also closed captioned. If you go to the bottom of your screen and hit the CC, this webinar will be closed captioned.
To talk a little bit about what the,
what will be covered today. Our agenda will first include
Dr. Julius Sokenu, Interim President talking with an introduction to the campus, followed by a video, a YouTube video, I want to breathe.
We're going to have options for discussion on the video and then we're going to have some information about an important
racial and social injustice webinar we had last week, your student voice matters. And one of our English faculty professors,
Tamarra Coleman, is going to facilitate that particular conversation, providing us insight from the students as well as help leading us through this conversation.
We'll follow that with discussion of the different themes that were brought up at that webinar and then Julius will lead us to the next
step, which is really looking at next steps. In order to have
input here or to be part of the discussion we have two different ways for everyone to be part of this important conversation.
Your reaction to the videos and your reactions to the later themes. You can type in your reactions under Q&A.
Do remember that everything will be and we'll be able to have a really strong, powerful transcript of all the questions and answers that people have, so feel free to use the Q&A
to discuss your responses. Also, if you're interested in speaking at either after the video or on one of the themes that we're going to be discussing later,
please raise your hand and
if you go to the bottom of your screen,
you'll see under participants, if you click that. And then over on the right, you have the option of raising your hand, and you can raise your hand, and then
Either Amanuel or myself will call on you and make sure that your video and audio are on. And when you are called,
when we call on you, then the facilitator will change your setting so that you will then become one of the panelists and will be able to speak to, to the group so.
Right now, you're not going to be able to speak or be able to have your video seen until you're called upon and then they'll go ahead and
identify you in the group and open up your mics and that so that we can hear your comments and all that. So this will allow us to have
people have the opportunity to both type in their responses, as well as once people are called upon to be able to speak out on their responses. So we very much do want to hear from people and what their thoughts, concerns, and emotions are.
Thank you. At this time, then, we would like to thank President Sokenu for joining us. Thank you.
Julius Sokenu: Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for being a part of this conversation this afternoon. As one of the things we know about Moorpark college is that we are a community that
loves to engage in dialogue, you know, robust conversations are a hallmark of the Moorpark experience. So if we're talking about Moorpark in it, one of the things that we do well,
and sometimes, you know, for some of us it might get a little bit frustrating because you just like, let them make a decision and just be done with it.
But we talk and we talk some more. And we reflect some more. We bring more participants into the conversation. And never more than ever has this been as important.
And it's a value and virtue that we have as a college community. What we choose to talk about does matter and how we choose to engage that conversation also does matter.
Clearly, we are as a educational community, a learning community, a caring community,
we engage one another with respect. We engage one another with a place of evidence and support. But we also acknowledge
our differences and work from and through those differences as we explore phenomenon and we explore our ideas. Today we will be addressing a four letter word, race,
and we will be addressing that four letter word in the context of a national conversation, but also in the context of our college campus.
We do not exist in isolation. There is no bubble wrapped around us. We exist alongside the rest of the country and the rest of really of human civilization. And
as we all struggle through the images on television, or the images on our devices. As we all ask ourselves what's next, you know, how do we get beyond this moment? I think it is critical
that we take an inward look, we take a societal look and then we sort of align those two
perspectives, and align them to some kind of intention, to some kind of purpose. And I propose to us as a college community that part of that work is looking at how students experience our college.
Part of that work is looking at how we as faculty, staff, administrators, and some of us as student staff, experience the college,
and we experience the learning that happens, but we also express the operations of the college.
And that we come from that place of understanding that we each bring diverse experiences to understanding and experience in the college. So
my experience of the college as a dean, my experience of the college as vice president, and now my experience of the college as a president defines what that reality is for me.
We also would like to use this conversation as a place of looking for solutions. So it is not about finger pointing and it is not about
ignoring the truth. It is about, it is my hope is that it will be a cathartic experience. It's an opportunity for us to articulate our experience, articulate our concerns, look for solutions, problematize as theorists would say,
the experiences that we have at this college and in this particular community.
Our students have modeled some of that for us last week and you will hear the voices of our students throughout the conversation today.
Today is for faculty and staff. It is not for students per se, but the voices of students will inform what we do.
So I encourage us to speak with authenticity. I encourage us to speak with humility. I encourage us to listen with authenticity. I encourage us to listen with humility, and I encourage us to be vulnerable as well as purpose driven.
We have power. We are not
As disenfranchised as we think as Community College professionals and as Community College...
members of the community college experience. Community colleges train the bulk of our essential workers. They train our nurses, they train our doctors. We train, we support, we help learn
our police officers and our criminal law enforcement professionals. This solution requires our intervention.
It requires intervention, because we have to be, as Ghandi says, the world we want to see. The college we want to see. The environment we want to see.
So I asked that you participate in this conversation and that we're able to use this conversation to propel our college community further. The first thing that you will see is a video,
and the video is called I want to breath, and it presents a historical experience in historical context
for understanding the frustrations, for understanding the questioning, for understanding the protests that are happening across our nation and even in our own communities.
I also wanted to as we listen and watch this video, to please listen and watch it with an element of grace, an element of openness, and also as we listen and watch this, please listen and watch with the understanding that we will be discussing it.
Matt, would you please play the video.
Julius: Okay.
Next slide, Matt.
Okay, so, as Mary said you could participate in these discussions, either by typing in the Q&A,
or if you would like to speak, If you would please go to the participants, click on raise hand, and you raise your hand, and both Amanuel and Mary can acknowledge you and we can then go ahead and hear from you.
As you can see, this is a very powerful video. We would love to hear what your reactions to the video are as raw as they may be.
So I see comments. It's overwhelming grief in the midst of all of this. Heartbreaking. It leaves me in tears. It brought me to tears, so heartbreaking.
Very powerful and moving. Some of us are sobbing.
If you don't mind, what about this impacts you? What particularly about this video is causing these reactions?
I hear beyond comprehension.
Someone says the harsh truth. Thank you.
Laura says not one should have to fear sitting in their home and having a police officer into their homes.
Silva says that the fact that they were so young, living their lives and the crimes are so petty. No one deserves this.
Innocent lives taken just during everyday things that we all do.
For me, looking at the young people in this video reminds me of my son, and as the father of an 18 year old black male, the history
and the concerns that come with being a parent of a black male, that could be my son, and that is primal and visceral a reaction. Tamir Rice could have been my son, and that that is primal, visceral.
Amanuel Gebru: Julius we have one one person with their hands up. Maria Thayer.
Julius: Maria, please feel free to speak, Matt, would you please acknowledge Maria, so she could speak.
Maria Thayer: Hey guys, just wanted to say thank you for for doing this and for sharing this video. To be honest, it's difficult to even watch the video. I haven't even watched George Floyd's video
because it's just, it's been so emotional these last two, three weeks. It's been crazy. Um,
But I just wanted, you know, to take this time to say thank you for sharing this with the community. Being married to an African American man,
having two daughters that are biracial, these issues have been, you know, around for us forever. But now it's coming to light and it's time to discuss it.
And you know, it's just there's so much and it's overwhelming, and it's so emotional I think for the whole community and,
just thank you. I wish I could say more, but the video is emotional and there's just, you know, my husband and I have been going through a lot and
just trying to reach out to students to make sure they're okay. And I wish there was more we can do, but I guess we're just gonna have to take our time and do do it little by little, but thank you to the administration for making this a topic that we can discuss.
Julius: You're welcome. Thank you, Maria. And I think it's very important to realize that we do ask the question why is this happening.
Why is this happening, and not to ask the question so as to point fingers, but to deal with the facts, and the facts are that these are deaths that are in the hand
often, almost all of these were in the hands of law enforcement. And so we ask that question why.
And the goal is not to say police is at fault because we know that there are good police officers and bad police officers.
And we know because we're training police officers in our academies and our community colleges that our goal is to prepare people to serve and protect their communities.
And so this is not a question in terms of trying to point a finger at the police, this is asking the question, as the data suggests,
And emphatically suggest, that there's a disproportionate impact on black men and women, particularly young black men. So the question is, how do we stop it, how do we address this disproportionate impact and we are all responsible for that.
And we have to be able to have that conversation, and be able to look one another in the eye, and have that conversation.
Mary: Julius, there a comment about the changing from I to we and the very strength to that and that giving the community empowerment.
Julius: Yes, yes.
The whole notion that this is not just one person's experience, that this is the experience of a race of people, and that that experience matters.
So that when one says Black Lives Matter, that doesn't mean the white lives don't matter or that no lives don't matter. It means that black lives matter, just that.
And that that doesn't negate the other experience and that for us as a society, we need to consistently embrace all lives, all experiences.
And how do we get to that place where we can respect all experiences and all lives? That's the question. What systems do we put in place? And this video is showing us, very explicitly, that that is not the case.
Mary: If you are interested in speaking do be sure and turn on your video and your microphone and raise your hand and then
we'll be able to see that you're interested in speaking. Thank you.
Amanuel: Just raise your hand first. And then, Jenny, Julius.
Julius: Sona please
Join the conversation. Matt, would you please acknowledge Sona.
sdombourian: Hi guys I can't tell if you can see me.
Julius: We just see your name.
We can hear you, but we're not seeing your video.
sdombourian: Here, yeah.
Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm in the San Fernando Valley and the wind's really strong today. So you can both see me and hear me?
Mary: Yes, we can. You're good.
sdombourian: We talk about this issue all the time because I have an entire chapter on racial literacy. You have to teach it like a subject and you have to interweave it into your
your program or your curriculum, because this is life preparation. But the resistance I get very often,
and I will get it from students I've established a very good rapport with because they know they're not going to get the mood or attacked because I make sure we have open dialogue in the classroom, but they're initially very hesitant. But there is a lot of
pushback whenever this issue comes up and like just like that with the Black Lives Matter slogan it immediately turned into Blue Lives Matter.
Right? Or all lives matter. And as you just said Julius saying that black people count does not force a negative consequence where other people don't matter.
But those are the terms in which a lot of these students think. They have very little exposure to anyone outside their cultural group, right. The only exposure they have is through,
is through popular culture, right? And not always the best or most accurate portrayal of people.
And for as wonderful as social media has been in bringing light to what's really going on that the news does not highlight because
Oh, well, we don't want to look like we like black people too much. The problem with social media is everything is based on algorithms.
So these kids, admittedly, more of the all lives matter or Blue Lives Matter mantra will only get feedback on what their interests are.
We need to find a way of expanding those interests, so that we can break this really bad problem on having
people have access to just what they want to hear, just what they want to look at because that's what social media has become. You're either a fox supporter
or you're a CNN supporter. There's nothing the middle so that there's actual dialogue.
And again, I mean, kudos to the stuff my daughters have shown me on their on their Tik tok, which I made fun of on a daily basis, okay, prior to this movement. Put your effing phone down. Open a goddamn book, okay? Educate yourself. But the stuff they've shown me...
I mean, if kids are on the Blue Lives Matter or on the softer all lives matter bandwagon, they're not seeing the real stuff. They have no awareness. And if we ignore it in classroom that's unfortunately
how a lot of this gets addressed right now is, let's be politically correct. How? By avoiding certain issues,
right? So let's avoid racial inequality. Let's avoid sexism. Let's avoid transphobia because then everyone's going to be happy. Why? Because no one got angry. And it's this weird, it's this weird ethos that can get...
it can become, it can make students habituated to this weird ideology, like I'll avoid it. So if I avoid it, it's not a problem. So if I go into a classroom that's half full,
and there's an African American students sitting there, well, I'll sit several, you know, seats away from him or her, then I'm not racist, it just,
I'm more comfortable that way. So, and you can see it, you can see it on a daily basis as an instructor.
You want to call it micro aggressions, they're micro aggressions. You want to call them latent racism, it's latent racism. Whatever it is, it's bad. And we have to school them.
And why it's bad. And we have to give students a voice who've been the victims of this platform in which they can be hurt.
And I love my students at Moorpark but I have many in a bubble who they almost don't want to talk about it.
And I tell them, avoiding it doesn't make it better, Or the response is I've never done this. I'm not racist. I don't need to hear about this.
Well, if I were to show this video, right? That was very thoughtfully and very artistically crafted in class. I mean, we would have such a discussion.
There's gotta be a way for faculty to make our racial inequity, or even racial literacy, thematically relevant to their subject matter and it's totally doable in the soft sciences.
Could they do it in in bio? I don't know. Tech? How would you make it available in bio? Racial inequity in medicine?
Look at what's going on with Covid. We have active, active class classism going on, right? People who had institutionalized lack of access to equal resources in a first world nation are dying at a crazy rate in comparison to others. Why is that? you know you,
I could use religion and...Julius: Thank you Sona.
I think lots of people wanted to participate, so I want to make sure I get more voices but you raised,
raised the right points in terms of how do we use our pedagogy to address this issue. How do we use a curriculum? Amanuel, who was the next person? Thank you, Sona.
Mary: I think it was Jenni, maybe.
Julius: Amanuel, you're muted.
Amanuel: Jenny was the next person, but I don't see her hand up anymore.
Mary: She's yeah, she's in the panel Amanuel
Julius: Jenni, please.
Mary: Jenni, if you can unmute yourself we would love to hear from you, and then we'll move on after that.
Amanuel: Can we go to Felix while Matt, while Jenni's getting set up maybe?
Julius: Felix, can you join us?
Felix: Can you hear me?
Mary: Yes Felix, we can.
Felix Masci: I don't want to give off the wrong impression. Watching the video, it didn't Jilt me that much. And maybe it's because
I've seen this way back since Rodney King, and I'm like, what's going on? It is a problem that I see very, very integrated into our culture, our thought processes, our institutions.
And I'm just hoping now we're looking at it again going, we've got to...
we've got to make a long term plan to make a big change in this. And listening the prior speaker, it's like okay I teach accounting. It's a little hard to fit it into there, but it can be done, and it does actually have relevance to what we're teaching. Business,
technology, you can still talk about how there's disproportionate things going on that are just, it's not overt, it's not intentional.
But that's also part of the problem is people just not being aware of the effects of how their, what they think is benign behavior, is really continuing to push this forward.
Julius: Thank you, Felix.
Again we are, you know, personal responsibility to moving this agenda forward so that we can address this social problem. And we're all working towards that.
Yes, we will get the link to the video and make it available for everyone.
Mary: Jenni is up now. Shall we listen to her comments and then move on, they're...Julius, It's lovely. We've got quite a few people that would like to speak, but maybe if we have time at the end, we could call on them.
Julius: And then we can go. We can go to Latanya's presentation. Yes.
Right, okay.
Mary: So let's hear from JennI.
Jenni: Hi, thank you so much.
Um,
I was just reading Emily Majors', How to Develop Culturally Responsible Teaching for Distance Learning. And if I could just share those pillars very quickly because they're quite specific.
Julius: Yes.
Jenni: So it is saying that the focus of culturally responsive education is to increase the learning capacity.
And it centers around the underlying feeling or mood plus. So, feelings, plus the cognitive aspects of the learning.
And concerns itself with building cognitive capacity, and that's very important. So when it comes to deepening the background knowledge, the key question that they're posing in this
article which we're going to be looking at at our FIG conversation, so this article was sent to me by Tracy, because of FIG, was "I used to think this, but now I think this". And that's a very concrete
sentence that can open conversation and answer to Julius's question of...
Could you phrase your question so I so I get it exactly correct, Julius? I don't want to misquote you.
Julius: You mean the initial question that we post?
Jenni: Yes. Mm hmm.
Julius: What is our, What is your reaction to this video?
Jenni: Okay, it was a different question that I was going to answer, um, you know, how did this inequality
kind of get to where it is. My brother in law died April 15 of last year. A law enforcement officer, a marine, and
from
what he shared, he died at 50 years old, so this was 30 years of experience, and what he shared which can help,
is that most of our police officers also have PTSD. I know he spent a lot of time risking his life to bring someone with a gun
down so that they could get that person and their gun off the street. Within an hour they had been re released, somebody put a new gun in their hand, and his life
was at risk again within an hour. And that over 30 years of that being his experience as a law enforcement officer, and he's not white, so please don't
assume that my brother in law was white, because that would not be correct. Um, but, but he was honest that over 20 or 30 years that did create a PTSD in him. A psychological when he would see certain....
certain things, it was triggering and his brain and over a response of adrenaline.
Julius: Right. And what you raise and what you speak to JennI, Thank you for it for you for sharing
your experience and your brother in law's experience. What you raise is the need for professional development, the need for mental health support. What you raises the understanding of policing as a profession.
And an understanding of the role of constant relevant professional development in the formation of our police officers,
and in their ongoing formation. Because for us to be, if someone is not culturally competent, even if they have the very best intentions, that there is this the potential for harm.
And even if they are culturally competent there is their own history that they bring to the experience. And again, this is why we as a community college that trains essential professionals need to make sure that our curriculum
is rich with this kind of context, realizing that provides cognitive context. Thank you, Mary.
Next.
Mary: Yes, should we go onto the next, please. Thank you.
Tammy, can you tell us about the
conversation that took place last week with our students?
Tamarra Coleman: Yes, I can. Hello, everybody. I hope you all are doing well.
One of the things we wanted to do, I think as Julia said, is look at a larger national context, but then also come back to our campus and think about what
this national context means in our own campus and ways that we can see how we can make things better for our students. And I think
in turn, making things better for our larger community. So our conversation was really asking students. We had five students on the panel. I believe it was five students on the panel.
Mostly African American students, but we also had our ASMC President student David Katz on the panel and a student Simon, who is a veteran,
on the panel to get their perspectives as well. And I just want to read really quickly some of the just like notes, a quick summary of the discussion that we had, and then we'll move through...
I was able to sort of capture themes in that discussion, and we'll move through the slides with four individual themes with questions that are there for us to discuss.
You'll also see quotations from the students. Things that they said in the discussion, and then you'll have a poll question to answer
after those discussions so that you can participate and we can think about how we feel about these issues, as faculty and staff, and what we think we need to be doing in relation to these issues.
So one of the things that came up is that Moorpark college is not isolated from racial and social injustices right so
The video, obviously, and a lot of what you all have just talked about in the comments that are in the Q&A. Were responding to these social injustice justices and inequities and atrocities, quite frankly.
Many of the students stated that they experienced either overt or covert racism on campus.
From classmates and students but also from faculty and staff as well and and you can look at the quotations that we've included and think about what that might have looked like for students.
So when I say they've experienced racism. I think the quotations will give you a sense of what they're thinking about when they say what racism feels like.
Um, the other thing is that students want to see faculty, staff, administration, represent cultural and ethnic diversity of the student body.
I think what really came out of that that was interesting for me. It's not just about the numbers that we should have people of every ethnic group for our sake of just saying we have them.
There were very specific reasons as students were saying they would like to see, and in particular the black students, people who look like them and we'll go over that in the themes as well.
The other thing is that students even before and
I sort of pre thought about this question. But even before I got to this question in our conversation on Friday students already started talking about wanting to learn more about their history and wanting things to be in the curriculum.
So I think it's great that a couple of you. Sona started talking about curriculum and a couple of you
talked a bit. I think Felix talked about the ability to be able to incorporate
This into the curriculum of business. So it seems like all of us are thinking about that. But the students certainly brought that up.
Students also talked about wanting to space to allow them to gather with community and I think in terms of thinking about community. I think
The students acknowledge that there was a larger community at Moorpark that they want to be a part of.
But there's also a need for them to be a part of these smaller micro communities. Now, whether those things are long racial ethnic lines, religious lines.
One of the things that Kristen Robinson was able to add to that discussion was the idea that
Even you know what we're talking about black students because the national context is about black people. But as we start to look at our student body as a whole. There are other students even
students who are Muslim who may want to space to gather to have their prayers or to do whatever it is that they want to do as a community.
So I think we should start thinking about those things. This is what's coming out of the mouth of the students.
The last thing was, there is a strong interest in continuing these conversations. Students want to have these types of forums. Students want
not just on issues related to black students, but other issues, whether we're talking about, you know, LGBTQ issues or other ethnic groups on campus, thinking about, students within our Hispanic community and so forth. So
those are the types of things that came up in our conversation. I want to move on to the next slide, which starts as believe it says theme one
Mary: Yes, there's one good "opportunities to learn about black history and culture and the history and culture of others." That's the first of the four themes
Tamarra: Okay. So as I said in the summary. This is one of the big themes that came up for students. So I want to give you an opportunity to look at what students were saying about it first. So next slide.
I believe this is a slide from student David Katz our ASMC President. Is that correct?
Yes, it is. Thank you. Okay. Um, well, you could read that for yourself.
And by the way, I do think it's relevant, and we talked a little bit about this in the discussion on Friday that this is coming from a student who is not a black student or an African American Student Right?
I think it's important for us to see the value in the things that we do not just for a particular group, but for all of our students and David is commenting that
It would be beneficial to him as well. I guess I should read because I don't know if everybody is looking at the screen. He said "We should learn about other cultures, especially the black culture, just because of how much influence they have had on our current culture."
Next slide.
This is from our student Latanya Hulon. She is a part of the Black Student Union.
She said, I feel like the campus, the school needs to be more educated on the black community.
Next slide.
and Gerald Richardson III was also part of the Black Student Union and the A2MEND group on campus. He said, I think it should be one of the requirements that all students should have to do because it is extremely important. And I think that could serve to combat some racial issues.
I think this question is directly tied to the national context, in some ways, and he's making that clear connection.
Next slide.
So with that larger theme in mind
About
The theme was about learning about culture and history.
Are we on the slide that has the question.
Mary: Yes, we are. It talks about whether they can put a Q&A in or raise their hand if they wanted to comment about theme, one which is about more training and classes in black history and culture.
Tamarra: Okay, so in the same way that we had the discussion about the video, the question that we're posing is
I want you to think about what opportunities we currently have on campus to learn about the cultures and history of our community and and I generally framed it as our community because
You know, we're wondering, are we doing things on campus for, you know, for black students and black people to learn about their culture? Are we even doing anything on campus and providing opportunities for other
groups of students to learn about their history and their culture. What are your thoughts?
Amanuel: So he still has his hand up and then also Sona's hands up.
Julius: Joining us
Svetlana Kasalovic: Hello everyone.
So I'm going to. This is the moment when I will say something because I wanted to add this as my response to Tamara's question.
In 2017, I was at training at School of Visual Arts and Design thinking and I address this topic, how do we help students get out of there
bubble. My project was called "grey matters" and I worked with the team will come up with the activities that were supposed to help students get out of their
thought bubble. We all acknowledge that students can dismiss their opponents and we also notice that most students only are exposed to like minded people.
And they don't make them understand others and they're never trained how to connect to the opposing views. So I have that sabbatical reports in Moorpark college library where I wrote
Many activities, how to work with students to get out of their bubble and I also gave it as a workshop bonds during Multicultural Drary in 2018 and I really would be more interested to share this with
Whoever is interested to work on this because I feel that it would help us work on these as cross disciplinary projects together.
Tamarra: Thank you. One of the things that we'll talk about at the end are ways that we can kind of further these themes and further developing opportunities are developing curriculum on these issues. Thank you. Are there others?
Amanuel: The next person in the queue.
Sona we can't hear you, you're on mute.
sdombourian: How about now.
Yes. Okay. I'm sorry. It's so windy here the audio is
A common complaint I get from students when this issue comes up is that it's not everyone, it's, it's the crew. I really, really try to reach
Because thankfully they trust me enough to embark on this novel concept. The fact that it's even novel to them is beyond me. But they're my students, I can't judge ignorance. I have to work with it, but
They frequently feel that they're being forced
to engage in subjects that don't agree with them or don't relate to them to respond well accounting doesn't speak to me. Do I have to pay bills, you know, do I have to manage my finances.
Oh, they're making me take this African American Studies or this list, like you know history class. What do I need this for it's like the general education. So you're not
not that guy at work who ends up getting terminated because you couldn't keep your mouth shut, or you couldn't express your thoughts in a in a tactful way right that reduce toxicity in the workplace, but on like we can sequester
topics into classes but if students are register for them
We're back to the same level of ignorance, right, it has to be infused in subjects across the board.
So that they recognize this as part of their personal development. This is part of their professional development.
And we also have to have them work in groups, right, so where we have, like, if I have a class that is female dominant or male dominant
There's going to be a certain energy that I'm going to have to defute. If I have classes that are white majority, which was the case 10 years ago, not so anymore.
I'm gonna have to redouble my efforts to make sure that my my other voices are fully heard. We have to continually mix and match.
The our human resources so that they they gain exposure. It just, it's amazing to me how little the students know
And they're not just because they're ignorant doesn't mean they're bad people. They don't know we have to teach them if we don't make an effort to teach them.
on a routine basis, it just becomes a class that they were forced to take or it just becomes something that they were they, they had to go through like this part of your professional development.
Mary: Thank you. Sona.
I think Nathan and Cindy want to speak as well. Julius
Tamarra: Julius you're muted.
Julius: Okay.
I was saying, I'm Nathan. Please join us. I know. Matt will
Align you with the conversation in some way, connect you to the conversation somewhere.
Amanuel: Nathan go ahead.
We can't hear you.
Nathan Bowen: How about now?
Yes, yes. Okay.
First of all I have to say that the related to the question, how can we, what are the steps to help the question that's on the on the slide there.
help students learn their history and learn histories of various communities. I have to just hand it to all of those who have worked with multicultural day
I think that it is our most powerful and most enduring format for us to explore these topics in ways that not only get people the culture of our
College campus is one that you get out of your bubble during the classroom.
And and go into other classrooms, you are, you know, there's a there's a healthy culture of like you're assigned to go and check in with these different things and I personally feel
That it has been an excuse for me to delve into cultural topics that I usually know not a lot about when I choose to present. So I just really, I found that to be useful for myself.
Useful for me to be able to expand my horizons and one of the things that I've struggled with is that
my training has been predominantly at least in music it's predominant predominantly Eurocentric
There is a lot of theory in history that is about European musical culture and the norms that surround that so to branch out into other things.
I'm usually flying blind, a little bit because I am just doing my own research based off of what I can find. But I don't have any lasting cultural impression
On these are the normative things that we can talk about. And, you know, I'm just getting on the internet to learn everything I can. And usually don't have a lot of dialogue about it. So anyway, and these are speaking to
Topics, for instance, one that was useful to me that I felt really I
was just waiting for someone to just call me out and say you don't know what you're talking about. I want to talk about Syrian refugees and the impact of what's going on there in terms of displacement and and what what people do musically with that.
It was a valuable place for me to get out of my bubble as well. So I just wanted to amplify that I think that the impact of our multicultural day and the way that we expand that out through not just one single day but various topics and forums that happen.
You know, the, the year of these are things that I think are really valuable culturally embedded tools that we have at our disposal to address these issues of teaching history to our communities.
Mary: And I said, Cindy. But clearly, I meant Cynthia I'm sorry.
Cynthia: I actually I'm sharing the screen with Cynthia. This is Ren fair
And I couldn't concur more than what Matt and Sonia has said.
But not to go over ground. They've already covered, but
If one of the goals is to make sure that people understand and have a respect
for African American, culture African American history or any communities culture in history and more Park. Obviously, we do have some avenues for that we, of course, teach courses in African American history, both from
leaving Africa up to the end of the Civil War to the Civil War to the present, we have similar classes in Jewish American history, Jewish American Studies, or at least we used to in Mexican American history.
And so all of those are there. So we do have those classes. We also have black history month which we've had at the campus for a number of years is probably never done better than sense, it's been under
Tammy Coleman and others who've helped with her.
So we have classes. We also have the Black History Month and of course we have multicultural day and the purpose of multicultural day was to help people gain an appreciation for other cultures through experiential means
But I think underlining all of those is the problem of commitment those students who already have an interest or concern.
In multiculturalism in multicultural in various ethnic groups. They take the courses, they attend Black History Month ceremonies. They come to multicultural day
But it's those who are not committed those who do not feel is necessary. It used to be for a number of years in the curriculum that is required that you took an ethnic studies class.
Of late because of the pressure for students to take his few classes as possible and make sure they matriculate through the system.
We find that four years schools often those take African American history. Some students. Some universities will not accept black history from Moorpark college
Or any Community College in the first two years. They want to wait until the students get to their particular institutions before they can take those classes.
Some will allow but then we have the problem of those students who as Sonja said they think that this is just something that they have to do, they're being forced to do. It's like those
Aspiring police officers who take criminal justice courses, those that help those officers coming officers to be sensitive
Their approach. Why do we have to do this? They practically sleep in those glasses because they don't want to hear that.
So we have to find a way to make it important right now in light of what has happened to Floyd and Taylor and others that's caused a heightened interest. And so I expect that there will be far more students
Who are not of color who will be interested in taking those courses in participating in Black History Month and participating in multicultural day than we've had in a long time. So,
I guess my point here is we have to find a way to get people interested. And one way to get them interested is that it is a part of the curriculum that is required. You must be culturally sensitive
And then of course as Sonja said we have to teach across the curriculum. It's not just up to the history classes because history. We usually cover social, political,
and cultural but we need specific courses in cultural awareness and music and dance in in science in all of those areas so
That's just a comment I wanted to make along those lines.
Tamarra: Thank you Ranford for that. I think one of the students also express that sentiment about HBO requirement.
For folks to learn and that could combat the idea from that student girl he said that could could maybe could
Help to combat some of the racial issues right some understanding and I think I also saw on the chat.
That somebody said that learning about other cultures can help you under more understanding about other cultures which I actually think it's the same about religion as well. Right. The more we
Learn about other religions, the more we understand that.
We need to move on to the next thing. But there'll be opportunities in the near future for folks who are particularly interested in curriculum or, you know, programming on campus.
To get together. Think about what that might look like, and to build that out before that there's a poll on the screen.
And if you can respond to that poll. Does the college need to develop opportunities to learn about like history and culture and the history and culture of other groups, yes, no, or no opinion.
Mary: Thanks. Thank you. Tammy, we'll go ahead to theme two while people are voting.
Tamarra: Alright, so the next theme that students that came up with students was the issue of faculty and staff on campus that represent racial and ethnic diversity. So I'm going to go through some of the comments that the students made.
The next slide. The first quote is from Tim Whitehead, he's also part of our A2MEND and Black Student Union.
And his comment was that it'd be easier to talk. It's like inside people
I thought that was an interesting comment.
Madison hunter, one of our black female students. And she said, there's a difference in the way that you teach based on your life experiences.
And then our the last quote that we have from our from students Gerald Richardson III again he said in regards to black faculty and staff that you would have people, the people that I can go to and people that can identify with my blackness was his comment.
So for our discussion a question that's here on the screen. If we can move to that slide.
For the second theme is what do we gain as faculty and staff and you can think about this.
From your own personal experience, or what you think you can gain as a faculty and staff member from racial and ethnic diversity on campus and, in particular, racial and ethnic diversity amongst your, your colleagues on campus.
Again, use the Q&A or raise your hand if you'd like to speak.
Amanuel: Christina Garcia.
Mary: Well, Christina is unmuted herself. There was a comment that says we gain realism and authenticity like that was well said. Christina. If you wanted to unmute yourself so we could hear you.
Cristina Garcia: Sure. Can you hear me now. Yes.
Mary: Yes, yes.
Cristina: Um, well, I think as a counselor in the opportunities and creating a difference in our students lives. It's absolutely imperative to be
Knowledgeable, and also sensitive to all of the needs of the students just because to be able to provide them with the best service possible it's definitely important to build that connection.
With them and for them to be able to feel comfortable in sharing their challenges are their goals as counselors. I just think it's important for us to be knowledgeable in all areas of diversity.
Mary: Thank you.
Tamarra: Others have a response to that?
Was a comment that we would gain stability as well.
Tamarra: Whoever responded stability. Can you expound a little bit on that what that means.
Mary: That was Nathan man if you wanted to bring Nathan again.
Nathan: Hi. So yeah, I mentioned stability. I was actually reminded something that stuck with me from my freshman year biology class was a
Teacher who said that diversity creates stability and that has resonated with me throughout my schooling and allowed me to want to be able to have a diverse
range of opinions that I'm surrounded by so yeah i think that that's what we have to gain and I since I've got the mic for a second. I think that, you know, I, my lens has changed as I've realized when we've done
Hiring trainings, about the way that
Having someone who looks like someone can be powerful and I have not thought about that. Myself from my own education that had a lot of professors who looked like me. So to think about people who don't look like me.
Both the duty that I have to reach them and and to find commonality and also to celebrate differences. It has been important, but I think that the more that we have diverse faculty a range of opinions.
A range of representation, the more stable, we are because we can rise the challenges with a variety of skill sets and ranges of experiences.
Tamarra: Thank you.
Amanuel: Nathan for that.
Tamarra: Are there any other comments on that one.
Nathan. I just want to quickly add when you say stability and you started talking about it from biology and it made me think about balance.
Right, so we don't just have one perspective or one way of thinking about the world, but we kind of like a table, it falls over. If you just have too much on one side.
Absolutely. Thank you for that.
Amanuel: We go to Beth next.
Beth Gillis-Smith: Hello.
In response to this question. What we gain as faculty
I just wanted to share my own experience of teaching and learning community with some of our historians, particularly
Susan Kinkella and looking at some of the issues of Native Americans.
In the US, teaching with Branford for several semesters.
linking up with the African American history course.
Becoming a student
And understanding the history of
Race in the US from different perspectives, changed my understanding of the country of where I was born in and the myths that sometimes we are raised with
It allowed me to better integrate different voices in my composition and literature class. So in terms of
Specifically choosing different authors from different experiences and being able to use that then as a way to begin conversations
about race and prejudice and different experiences and how even if it has not been your experience in your country in your community does not mean that it's not happening somewhere.
So I would recommend that everyone take if you have never taken
Particularly African American history. Take Randford's class. Take one of the classes that that's offered here on campus.
Get the reading list. I mean it.
It just changes your perspective and allows you to
expand.
The materials that I use them in my class and
As a white woman.
To take the risk to have conversations with students and ask questions of students about their experiences as we read other experiences
opened my eyes to to experience is different from my own and made all the difference. So that's all I wanted to share was that it's just so important we gain a better perspective.
And we're able to invite our students then to consider new perspectives and understand better how how we relate to one another.
Tamarra: Thank you Beth for that we're going to move on to the poll, but there will be more opportunities in the near future to talk more about that, especially for those of you who are interested in looking at ways
That we can bring on more faculty and staff
on our campus a quick poll would college community benefit from a racial and ethnically diverse faculty and staff yes no and no opinion.
Mary: Thank you. Tammy, do you want to go into the third third
Tamarra: Our third theme, and we have one more thing after this one our third team is leadership on
racial justice issues.
And. Here's a comment from one of the students, we only have one quote here Gerald Richardson III, he said, "I think we should have a Black lead committee or commission of the call it a commission on Racial Equity or Racial Relations."
So the question that I have for you all is
what work and I asked this question because we don't always know what's happened on campus. I feel like there's a lot of stuff happening on our campus, but we all don't know about it and sometimes there are things happening in pockets.
What work is currently happening on campus to address racial justice issues?
Again, raise your hand or respond in the Q&A.
Mary: In the Q&A, there have been comments called out about CHESS, to TMOCA, and A2MEND, I don't know if anyone wants to speak up on any of those three activities.
Tamarra: While you're looking through the chat, I just want to say all of those issues. I've been thinking about this a lot of the last few weeks.
There is work right happening on campus. I don't know that I think we think about those things to some degree in isolation. Right. We think about CHESS work as CHESS work, for Hispanic students HSI issues, we think about TMOCA as Black males.
I wonder if at some point in the near future we can have a lot larger conversation about these just being racial justice issues, right, or about this being anti-racism work.
And looking at it through that lens and does that change the way that work actually looks maybe the urgency of that work if we're thinking about it from that land as opposed to these pockets of projects that are happening on campus.
Julius: And I think it's important for us to realize what outcomes, we've identified or stipulated for each of those projects.
And then integrate those outcomes because what that does, then, as you say, is give us a comprehensive view of the work that we haven't been able to accomplish or not.
And so doing these work in silos allows us to sort of limit the impact. But if we want to scale the impact is looking at how all of them working together allows us to reach the issue of racial justice and social justice and equity.
Mary: We have one speaker that wants to talk on that and then we could move to our last theme, if that would be okay. Tamarra: Yeah.
Claudia Sitlington: All right. Can everybody hear me okay?
Mary: Yes, we can.
Claudia: Okay, perfect. Sorry, I got kicked out and then it just let me back in. I apologize.
So for me, when you had mentioned so
My role, I guess we could say, kind of a new role in taking on overseeing
the CHESS work and really being able to bridge right what we're doing in the first year experience bridging that to a second year experience
and then having that focus on the male initiative. And so one thing that we're going to actually be doing for the fall
is that we are building a learning community for men of color
and being able to really extract data from all of our fall applicants and then we're doing a very large outreach project that started about six weeks ago. So in a nutshell,
we sent correspondence out to our men of color who are our fall applicants and inviting them to take place in a learning community where they're going to be
cared by taking English M01A and a counseling M05 College strategies course. And so, I think to really piggyback off of what Tammy was saying is, absolutely, there's no reason why we should not
be doing some of this work together and making any more of that impact, and I know that a group of us a group of us started some of this work last
fall, I believe it was until really being able to, I think, continue that making
individuals more aware of a lot of this work that we're really trying to do.
So I've been doing a lot of this work with really all the success coaches, so not just the CHESS coaches, but also even with coaches in FYE based. We've all been working together and to make this work happen right so not siloed but to grow the programs and to grow the programs together.
Tamarra: Thank you for that. Claudia really quickly. I want to respond to Loay's question, which is, what's the term racial justice mean
Racial Justice is often a term used within the Social Justice Movement among activists.
I included that word because what I realized over the last few weeks, is that a lot of the language that's used activist circles
has been elevated into the media and I think also, in some ways, elevated into the academic world and I think that if we are going to do the work
we might want to consider adopting some of the language as well so that it's a bit more unified but racial justice is a really big area in the Social Justice Movement that's dealing with anything
that is about injustices that are based around race.
And mostly we think about it within the Black community because that's the larger national issue,
but I think that same work and that term can be used to think about other racial groups and other racialized issues. So I hope that helps Loay and I'm happy to talk more about it at some other time.
We'll move on to the poll question.
So we're talking about this work, who should be leading this work? You have three options or you can choose all of them. If you like or what one or two or whatever.
Who should be leading this work faculty and staff of color? And at some point, we can also talk about what that means person of color to because I think that needs to be clarified.
White faculty and staff or students?
Mary: On the fourth theme? Tamarra: Yes,
onto the fourth thing. Thank you, Mary.
So,
The fourth thing that came up and the final one for discussion today is
related to culturally responsive support services and I didn't put all support service down there, but things like outside of the classroom tutoring, counseling, etc. And here are some of the things that students said I was actually sort of shocked by some of it. Madison hunter, she said,
"I was looking to transfer to HBC you that's a Historically Black College or university. And they were like, We don't have any information on that. And basically the counselor sat there and tried to talk me out of applying."
Latanya Hulon, from the Black Student Union, she said she said this, and this actually shouldn't be in quotations, but she was talking about when she was trying to start the BSU some years back
She was told that it will be impossible. "There will be no one that will want to help you reestablish this organization."
We just have two quotes there, I miss one?
Mary: No, we just have the two. Tamarra: We just have the two.
Okay, so this is what we're hearing from our students. The question that I have for us is what does it even mean to provide culturally culturally responsive support services?
And again, you see a Q&A or raise your hand.
I don't know if the last poll is still there, but someone was wondering if we could add an option, all of the above. You did have the option to just select them all.
Mary: A couple of the hands that are up or people that have spoken already so I was looking just to see if there were any additional people
Jenny did respond about wanting to offer study skills and study style programs.
In keeping with the pillar of culturally responsive education helps increase the learning capacity of students.
Tamarra: In the, in the question was framed really as a broad question, not necessarily looking for a specific definition, but in your mind when you think about culturally responsive, what does that look like
i terms of services that we provide?
And maybe this means that that's an area of Professional Development for us.
Mary: We have Loay and Sona but wanted to speak on that.
Tamarra: Can they unmute themselves or does Matt need to? I think they're both here we are.
Loay Alnaji: Hello? Tamarra: Hello sir. Loay: Yes, hi sorry, kicked me out then brought me back in. That's good. So
I just wanted to know. That's actually a great ideas. So, but for like I've never heard of
The HB something. C U or something. I can't remember the terms. So this is, can we make like a survey and look at each culture and what's important to it.
Like which colleges, which universities and then train our people on our end like by people I mean like faculty or counselors especially, so is that possible?
Tamarra: I'm sure it is.
Loay: Yeah, I mean, that's awesome. But I mean it's, yeah. I never heard of it before. But again, I only know
Northridge because that's where my son is going. So other than that, I don't know, but I'm just going to say I think culturally responsive, meaning
we should be able to look at other cultures and what their interest is not everybody wants to go to CSUN or UCLA or whatever, even though, there's very few
the majority do want that but for the few that don't want that, we should be actually knowledgeable of what they want to do and we can do that by surveys and greeting students and...
Tamarra: Loay, you raise a really good point and the rest of that conversation from the student who commented on about wanting to go to a Historically Black College or institution and we couldn't capture all that in just a quote, but she also said that she was
advised to go to other institutions in California, because they were better
and I think that's
is, well, lack of understanding of what is happening at HBCU's right? And even if they are better to tell us I don't know. I think there's lots of problems with that but I thought that particular comment from a student was really eye opening
Loay: Also we should have faculty communicate with these colleges and try to establish channels
even exchange students work on projects together it's doable, I know in Computer Science, we can do something with anybody on Earth. So if that helps you do the project we'll follow it. So by we, I mean Computer Science, I don't know about anybody else.
Mary: Right.
We'll hear from.
Sona and then move on to Julius for next steps.
Tamarra: Sona unmute yourself.
Sona Dombourian: Sorry, Tammy. I forgot I got a knock on the door and I gotta be let in. Um, can you hear me now?
Tamarra: Yes. Sona: Yeah, when I heard that counselor's response,
whenever I hear something like that, I think, okay, what did they mean, they must admit something else and it's coming through poorly, it still
is not what you tell a student, but the counselor. I was probably thinking, okay, a potential employability, academic rigor,
things that to a counselor would be important, but the counselor is not hearing what the student wants the student wants to go
to the campus that has a demographic majority, demographic that represents her. Why does she want that? Right? Is that any less important than
academic rigor and not just presuming it lacks academic rigor. So there we have another example of institutionalized, dare I call it racism, right. "Oh, don't do that. Don't hang out with a bunch of Black kids come to our
whatever appropriate campuses here in California," and it's that is not the message we want to be sending students
and students will stay after class and they will tell me experience after experience where I'm thinking
it's a miracle, you still want to come to school, you still want to learn. Right? And if I might get on my soapbox for just 20 seconds.
I'm concerned with how we cannot hear students if we can't hear students face to face,
How are we going to hear them through Zoom, how are we going to pick up on that the body language, the body English, the cultural keys, right, if you're training that if you have that sensitivity face to face, wonderful.
If, you have that training you can do it on Zoom, fantastic, but it's like we have this, we have this wall that's being pulled over years and
I don't know how we're going to be able to hear them out to the extent that we need to, and I'm very thankful we can still do our job. I'm very thankful we have Zoom,
but there's a filter here. And how are we going to hear the student on the other side of the screen, who might not even want to show their face. What does that tell us guys? So, I'm off my soapbox I'm done.
Mary: Move on to the next-- go ahead.
Tamarra: I'm sorry, just really quickly. I just want to say and I wasn't picking on Counseling, and I think that the point is that that's a reflection of how this work needs to be done across the campus in every area, not just in the classroom or not just
in programming, you know, in the quad, but in every area. If we can go to the last poll and then we'll move on to the next steps.
Poll question.
Should the college require training or Professional Development to ensure we are meeting the needs of our students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds, yes, no, or no opinion?
Julius: So thank you everyone for staying with this conversation. I know it is a challenge and it's a difficult conversation to have.
But we need to have this conversation and your, your comments, your questions, your observations,
your experiences, tell us that. So here's someone's innovations that I'm taking from this as we're speaking
yhat we have the skills and the tools to do this work. It's how we applying utilize those skills and those tools that matters.
And that is part of the work that we as a community need to then do and call it out what we need and how we then put that into the processes and the systems that we have
and if the processes and systems that we have don't support that work, how can we use the tools to build the capacity to do that work.
The other point is what I'm hearing folks say across the conversations is cultural literacy matters and that it's a lifelong skill.
And that if we provide our students that capacity for that insight and that way of being in the world,
that we will not only enrich their career opportunities, but will enrich their lives for generations. And if education is to have any meaning
it is how it adds to our human capacity for change, right? That education is about how we become more human together, and so that is incredibly important that that that I hear you say.
We also talk about integrating diverse voices into the classroom into the learning experience.
And you're all able to give us some remarkable examples of what is happening on campus currently.
We are also as I'm looking through the Q&A commentary and what you're saying, you're also look articulating very clearly what you could see happen, you envision it
alongside this conversation. And that is where change begins, to see that it is possible, right? And we talked about reform. We can talk about about social justice, being the immediate short term action
or the long term action is to confront society and make change and confront our community and make change.
We hear that our faculty and staff need Professional Development and support in helping them integrate these diverse versus into the curriculum and that we are ready to do that work.
We are also
often, as you've been talking about students in this conversation, I'm also hearing what we as faculty, staff and managers, administrators. whomever, need to do our work in such a way that we meet the social
demands of the moment, the cultural demands of the moment, the intellectual demands of the moment.
And I think that is a very important piece as we begin to talk about the professional development work that we do in our department in a departmental context.
To bring the issue of race and social justice into that conversation. How do we integrate that so that the curriculum reflects all our students, that the curriculum reflects all experiences and it is clear that there are areas in which these might be difficult to do.
But the one thing about the human civilization is that we have not
always seen the barriers and we have risen beyond the barriers to innovate right and to create meaning beyond what we currently have.
So part of the challenge to us as a college community is to see where we need to grow and then invest in that so we can move forward.
And that includes looking at disciplines that we may not consider to be the soft disciplines, or the
interactive disciplines to bring back that context to back the point that
Nathan made about the Biology instructor and how that point then transfers to his ability to be receptive to diverse viewpoints in other disciplines and in other contexts,
really does underscore for us the value that we as faculty and staff have on our students, and their own learning potential capacity.
So the real question is, we have had some heavy conversation over the past hour and a half, people have been authentic, we have been vulnerable.
We are trying our very best to live up to the moment, but this is one moment, and this is one conversation. And as you can see from our national context and as well from this particular context that it's a series of ongoing conversations that need to happen.
What do we do to then generate and foster that ongoing conversation?
We are students tell us, and you're telling us that we need to look at issues of diversity hiring.
You're telling us that we need to look at how we provide support to our students. We need to talk while we do leadership in this work of social justice.
One resource that we have and then we can work from is the fact that we have
at the beginning of each fall semester Professional Development week we have Flex activities, but we also have it in the spring semester.
And for many of us within our departments, there's opportunities for professional development is opportunities for cultural and social engagement.
So that is where we, the next frontier for this conversation. That's what part of the next step. So as we look at building the program for fall Flex
Will be engaging a Professional Development Committee so that we create an opportunity, a time for us to continue this conversation,
and to continue looking at the various strands of the conversation so that folks can vote with their feet,
and go where their interest, where their passion, where their desires to do work on themselves lies.
So if your commitment is to look at how we hire more diverse faculty. If your commitment is to look at how we support students in means in our services, you go to those particular groups and invest yourself in being part of the change that we would like to see.
Also, I think it's very important to say that we have the tool to do this work and it is creating the venues for doing this work that matters.
I do appreciate you spending the time with us, please, as you look through the look at through the program for Flex week
and we will be coming back to the Professional Development Committee asking that they be specific time set aside for this conversation to continue but also
the moment that we're living in, it calls upon us because upon us as a as educators to transcend the land to transcend the traditional status quo,
how are we going to do that as individuals, as members of this learning community that is innovative, that comes from a place of integrity, that is collegial, that is created and that we say we put students first?
Thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. I appreciate the ongoing work that we're doing around this topic and more so now than ever,
voice matters.
Articulating your voice matters, seeing our students in the entirety of their experience matters.
Thank you.
Mary...
Mary: Thank you all.
See you next week. We'll continue our conversations and you all have a really good week and we'll talk to you all.
Around. Thank you.
Julius: Thank you. Thank you, everyone.