By Stephanie Sical
Ethnic studies as a degree requirement effective for all students fall 2021 was one of the topics discussed at an Academic Senate meeting on Nov. 10. Other announcements were made such as the Health and wellness seminar on Nov. 20 from noon to 3 p.m. for all East Los Angeles College communities focusing on recognizing depression and anxiety and how to manage stress, relaxation techniques. It will discuss good study habits to help students as they move into finals week.
Equity dialogue will be held on Nov. 20 from 10 a.m. until noon. The purpose of this is understanding and confronting anti-black racism.
The Chicana/o Studies Department launched the 17th annual day of the dead altars and “ofrendas.” Students can now visit the site Vincent Prive Art Museum to visit the virtual “ofrendas” and altars.
The Global Education and Engagement Committee meets on Thursday at noon. It is having the elections for its chair or potentially co-chair.
Curriculum committee report was also a topic of discussion in which it was asked to vote on whether or not it would pass and there were no objections towards it by the committee.
The Academic Senate for California Community College (ASCCC) fall takeaways was also mentioned by the senate in which it was discussed how extra funding from the District Academic Senate (DAS) was provided and usually DAS only pays for the president of local colleges to attend, but this time they were able to send more. Several members from the senate went and shared their experiences.
Sherrie Davey Chair council expressed that “The workshops that I attended were very informative and a lot of it was inspirational for me.” Davey said it gave her an insight on how to improve on syllabus and how to make it easier and practical to understand.
Addressing anti-blackness ideas as an inclusion diversity equity and anti-racism that was the theme and a past event on the ASCCC website.
One of the resolutions had some type of discussion in the senate which talked about making ethic studies requirements. Recommending to update the graduation requirement and have it effective for all students fall 2021 and discussed the practicality on how it will be implemented later because of the technicality to go through.
The other resolution was also about ethnic studies and in this case it’s a degree requirement. They will be working on removing the current language related to ethnic studies and instead a new general education requirement of ethnic studies and the details will be worked out in the process.
Academic senate support for o-mousha was presented by Professor Lupita Jones, a faculty member in the Social Science Department. Jones gave a brief definition and purpose statement of what omosha means. Omosha means unity and it’s a community of critical resources dedicated to enhancing the cultural and educational experience for African American and other students. Their mission with the ELAC omosha program is to promote student success and improved lifetime outcomes for all students through a curriculum that is responsive to the legacy of the African American culture.
It is also worth mentioning that the motion to approve the recommended guided pathway syllabus statement and classroom strategies was approved unanimously by the Academic senate which ultimately will help students navigate their online classes.