The Board of Trustees held its scheduled meeting on Nov. 4 to discuss changes regarding racial equity among students and staff.
President Andra Hoffman and trustees met to discuss any changes and news impacting our nine college campuses. Trustees were joined by three veteran students: Kirby Burke, Genevieve Cruz and Reuben Roque, in order to help lead the flag salute in honor of Veterans Day.
The Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on LGBTQIA+ Affairs were recognized by all nine campuses for its hard work and dedication to the LGBTQIA+ community.
Also recognized were the members of Los Angeles Community College District’s Emergency Operations Center Team and the Incident Command Centers.
Each member will receive a certificate in recognition of their hard work during a time when LA County has over 7,000 deaths related to COVID-19, as well as 310,000 cases of the virus.
In regards to diversity, currently, the Los Angeles Community College District Academic Senate is working on a number of initiatives, including having a task force examine the feasibility of requiring a general education course in Ethnic Studies.
In addition, the LACCD EOC will be working with Human Resources in order to hire more African American staff and maintain a diverse work environment by working with the office of diversity and equity inclusion.
Chancellor Francisco Rodriguez said a meeting will take place on Nov. 30 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. that will focus on Los Angeles Harbor and Los Angeles Pierce college campuses, which will be open to the public online.
The purpose of this meeting is to discuss important issues affecting African American and staff at LACCD.
The LACCD and the Los Angeles College Faculty Guild of the social justice committee will also be sponsoring a forum on pursuing racial equity and police reform on Nov. 12 from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The forum is free to the public and will feature Sociology Professor Rashawn Ray of the University of Maryland.
In regards to student housing and aid, a meeting that took place on Oct. 21 with the Legislative Public Affairs Committee said that they are working with the county to improve peer navigation systems.
The goal is to decrease student homelessness as well as working with Metro to help provide students with free transportation via a pilot program.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals progress or issues will depend on whoever occupies the White House in 2021 per trustees, such as any changes to the rules and guidelines for undocumented students to access higher education.
However, a fundraiser held at Los Angeles Valley College was able to raise $14,000 for the Dream Resource Center.
Congresswoman Jackie Speier’s introduction of House Resolution 1165, which condemns Azerbaijan’s coordinated offensive in Nagomo-Karabakh and denounces Turkish interference in the conflict, was discussed in regards to how LACCD’s students and staff are being affected by this war.
President Hoffman said that LACCD terminated an unnamed contract connected to all nine campuses after learning they were connected to Turkish funds.
A status update regarding the implementation of LACCD’s energy and sustainability goal announced a suggestion to partner up with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Green Access program to install charging stations at each of the LACCD campuses.
The Board of Registered Nursing’s completion of a visit at the Harbor College Campus where the college was found to be exceeding compliance standards and therefore approved for another five years.
An anonymous contribution of $100,000 was made to support emergency grants for district nursing students in seven of our nursing programs.
A $10,000 check was given to LACCD from City National Bank, and $35,500 was given by the State Foundation.
The contributions go towards COVID-19 nursing grants to support essential workers on the front lines during this global pandemic.
LACCD members helped raise $20,000 during the Week of Action fundraiser campaign.
As the district has moved to a remote delivery of instruction through the spring semester, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and $1.8 million was requested from the contingency reserve to support faculty requests for academic software in order to assist with student learning.
LACCD will request reimbursements for these funds from FEMA. Although $40 million was received from the CARES Act for COVID-19 Aid, 75% was put aside for students and the remaining 25% was set aside for other expenses.
The request needed at least five votes to be accepted and successfully passed through the trustees.
The director of the office of diversity, equity and inclusion, Brittany Grice, was also awarded theAdministrator of the Year award, an annual award given by the California Association for Post Secondary Education and Disability.