Program & Schedule 

  9:00 - 10:45Welcome and Student Panel

10:45 - 11:05Break

11:05 - 12:20Breakout Session 1

12:30 - 1:20On the Menu: Lunch Discussions

  1:30 - 2:30Breakout Session 2

  2:30 - 3:00Sponsor Connection

 Wednesday, October 13, 2021 | Breakout Session 1 | 11:05 am - 12:20 pm

Transitions from Adult Education to Community College: A Collaborative Approach
Strand: Collaborating Across Sectors and Segments: Anti-Racist Partnerships and Networks Creating Equitable Outcomes

State Center Adult Education Consortium (SCAEC) provides leadership and guidance for 15 adult schools, four community colleges, a college center, a county jail program, a regional occupational program (ROP), and a county CalWorks program as well as several other community partners. A priority of SCAEC has been on creating smooth transitions from adult school to community college. This session will focus on a key challenge: how to identify, recruit, enroll, and provide comprehensive services to students who are dually enrolled in both adult school and community college. We will provide attendees with an understanding of SB 554 (dual enrollment for adult education students) and describe how our effort capitalizes on cross-sector and intersegmental partnerships between SCAEC, Fresno City College, and the Fresno K-16 Collaborative to leverage funding and support for adult education students’ transition to higher education.

Presenters: Donna Walters-Cooper and Tim Woods, Fresno City College; Karri Hammertrom, Fresno K-16 Collaborative; Pang Vangyi and Sherri Watkin, State Center Adult Education Consortium

Addressing Inequities Between Students in a Cohort Program and General Population Students: El Camino College’s Journey to Becoming a Guided Pathways College
Strand: Redressing Structural Inequities to Achieve More Equitable Institutions

In 2018, El Camino College began its guided pathways journey like many colleges: drafting program maps and determining meta-majors. To decide next steps, the college worked with the Career Ladders Project to hold a series of focus groups to compare the experiences of students in a cohort program (such as Puente, Extended Opportunities Programs and Services, and First Year Experience) versus those who were not in such a program. After recognizing disparities between the two groups, El Camino established success teams for each meta-major in 2019 designed to address inequities experienced by non-cohort students. Come hear the story of the student voices that exposed the problem, the organic way that success teams have developed, and the remaining inequities that still need to be addressed.

Presenters: Taryn Bailey, Giancarlo Fernandez, Janice Pon-Ishikawa, Joshua Rosales, and Jenny Simon, El Camino College

Solving for Equity: Implementing Math Pathways to Promote Racially Equitable Outcomes
Strand: Achieving Equity in the Classroom: Critical Changes to Address Inequities, Champion Anti-Racism, and Improve Learning

This session focuses on math success for Black, Latinx, and other historically underrepresented students. It is based on two studies, one analyzing the research literature and expert interviews, and the other based on interviews with practitioners as well as student focus groups across five California colleges. We combine lessons from these studies to draw insights on how to operationalize multiple math pathways to promote racially equitable outcomes. Our team of researchers and college practitioners will discuss findings with a focus on (1) designing rigorous and relevant pathways and content; (2) developing strategies for offering co-requisites and other types of embedded support; (3) institutionalizing equity-focused classroom practices and support mechanisms for racial equity in mathematics; and (4) actively recruiting and providing support for Black, Latinx, and other students traditionally underrepresented in STEM pathways.

Presenters: Tammi Marshall, Cuyamaca College; Mina Dadgar, Education Equity Solutions; and Rogéair Purnell, RDP Consulting

Working Together to Break Down District Barriers: Equity and Guided Pathways
Strand: Building Culturally Robust and Positive Practices that Increase Student Agency: Professional Learning and Leadership Development

State Center Community College District and its four institutions—Fresno City College, Clovis Community College, Reedley College, and Madera Community College—have banded together to work on guided pathways and equity in a districtwide collaboration, breaking down systemic barriers. After recognizing that 20% of students take classes at more than one college, faculty, staff, and administrators from each college and the district committed to working together under a shared goal of supporting student success across the district. The group identified four areas of collaboration, including technology, data, communication, and professional development. Team members from each college will discuss the benefits and challenges of district collaboration and provide attendees with specific examples of equity-focused collaboration.

Presenters: Elizabeth Romero, Clovis Community College; Kerry Ybarra, Fresno City College; Sergio Lemus, Madera Community College Center; and Stephanie Curry, Reedley College

Best Practices and Benefits of Utilizing Students in your Guided Pathways and Equity Efforts
Strand: Strategic and Integrated Planning to Create Caring, Equitable, and Anti-Racist Campus Communities

This session will highlight the Lassen Community College (LCC) cultural shift from presuming student perceptions of the college to valuing students' input as a vital ongoing contribution to its guided pathways reform. We will focus on the iterative process the guided pathways team went through in design, implementation, evaluation, and redesign of student engagement in our guided pathways work. Practical tips will also be shared regarding how LCC identified, recruited, and paid students, as well as increased student agency through these efforts. Furthermore, we will feature how this student equity engagement project is influencing other initiatives across the college.

Presenters: Tim Morehouse, Foundation for California Community Colleges; Tara Bias, Roger Ferreira, Brook Luna, Brady Reed, Kateryn Rodriguez Gonzalez, Adam Runyan, and Michell Williams, Lassen Community College

How Community College Tutors Are Transforming through Learning, Collaboration, and Leadership
Strand: Creating Equitable Support Systems for Students and Employees that Address Basic Needs and Physical and Mental Well-Being

When our tutoring center went online, it presented the greatest challenge of our careers. It also provided us a unique opportunity to create new avenues for professional learning, leadership, and connections. Building on the Appreciative Inquiry framework and the existing statewide 3CSN learning assistance network, we will explore how this online transition inspired us to re-examine how we provide services that are more flexible, responsive, and inclusive. We will also explore how peer educators have taken the lead in many of these conversations. In this interactive breakout session, participants will hear one college's successes and lessons learned in their journey creating professional learning to support students and peer educators during this transformation. Come ready to share your own successes and lessons learned along your journey.

Presenters: Valeria Carrillo, Crystal Kiekel, and Edouard Tchertchian, Los Angeles Pierce College

 Wednesday, October 13, 2021 | Breakout Session 2 | 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm

A Community Engagement Approach to Dual Enrollment for Equity
Strand: Collaborating Across Sectors and Segments: Anti-Racist Partnerships and Networks Creating Equitable Outcomes

Community engagement increases dual enrollment among minoritized and low-income students. Families have high aspirations for their children and bring an abundance of strengths, including cultural and linguistic assets. Yet they may not have the specific college knowledge to advocate for postsecondary access or know how to support students once in higher education. In this session, we will share a community engagement approach that empowers families to advocate for college access, leading to an increase in dual enrollment. This approach shifts the role of the college in the community from a "reward" or "prize" to a service for the community. Bring your spirit of inquiry as we explore the journey of two colleges as they have worked in partnership with their community, building college knowledge and more equitable access in dual enrollment.

Presenters: Naomi Castro, Career Ladders Project; Miguel Duenas, East Los Angeles College; and Laurencia Walker, Hartnell College

Be a Transfer Advocate: How Faculty Can Strengthen Students’ Transfer Success
Strand: Redressing Structural Inequities to Achieve More Equitable Institutions

Surveys and interviews with over 800 California community college students conducted by the RP Group’s Through the Gate transfer study revealed that helping students address university affordability, manage school-life balance, navigate their pathway, and find a support network can boost their transfer capacity. Students also emphasized the essential role their teachers and academic programs play in holistically addressing these factors as they work toward their bachelor’s degree. In this session, we will offer faculty strategies for increasing students’ transfer success. Drawing on students’ own ideas, we will share ways to help students experience these factors at the classroom and program levels and point to statewide action you can support to advance equitable transfer success.

Presenters: Dolores Davison and Virginia May, Academic Senate for California Community Colleges; Kelley Karandjeff and Alyssa Nguyen, The RP Group

Language So Rich, Why We Stiflin': Linguistic Justice in the Classroom
Strand: Achieving Equity in the Classroom: Critical Changes to Address Inequities, Champion Anti-Racism, and Improve Learning

In this session, we will share our Next Level English (NLE) teaching strategies designed to engage and center minoritized students and the cultural wealth they bring to academia. It is an approach that encourages students to write with style, and to bring that style to academic writing and/or to choose writing topics that engage their lived experiences. NLE strategies can be adapted to any classroom and (like universal design) can benefit all students who will learn to write with corazón, and consider their audience without rendering themselves invisible, thereby connecting more deeply with reading and writing.

Presenters: Michelle Gonzales and Kisha Quesada Turner, Las Positas College

Excavating White Supremacy Frameworks in Teaching and Learning
Strand: Building Culturally Robust and Positive Practices that Increase Student Agency: Professional Learning and Leadership Development

This session is designed to support educational leaders and practitioners with critically analyzing the historical trajectory and impact of Eurocentric ideology, values, and White Supremacy frameworks on the classroom experience and how White Supremacy continues to infiltrate classrooms and institutions. We will guide educators through a learning process that supports the understanding of illuminated and elevated classroom practices. We will also share how adopting a willingness to shift and grow by decentering the pedagogy of Whiteness and centering an authentic and inclusive framework can have a direct and positive response on student belongingness and engagement. Activities will guide participants in translating individual and communal experiences that identify and celebrate inclusive frameworks using African-centered thought in teaching and learning as one model.

Presenters: Nzingha Dugas and Phyllis Gulbransen, Umoja Community Education Foundation

Achieving Equitable Student Success by Focusing on the Vision Goals
Strand: Strategic and Integrated Planning to Create Caring, Equitable, and Anti-Racist Campus Communities

The California Community Colleges' Vision for Success set equitable student achievement as the measure of system success. Since then, the Chancellor's Office has taken steps to support colleges as they work to achieve the Vision goals; one of those steps is to help colleges focus on if and how specific investments and reforms impact equitable student outcomes. In this session, the Chancellor’s Office team will discuss the details of the recently concluded Report Streamlining pilot project and how it reinforces the connection between reform/funding and student outcomes. Participants will hear from a college about their experience piloting the new reporting and budgeting process, participate in a discussion about the approach the system office is taking, and provide feedback on the requirements and structure.

Presenters: Marty Alvarado, California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office; Bri Hays, Cuyamaca College; and Stacy Fisher, Foundation for California Community Colleges

Basic Needs: Serving the Whole Student
Strand: Creating Equitable Support Systems for Students and Employees that Address Basic Needs and Physical and Mental Well-Being

Gavilan opened our food pantry doors to serve students in 2016; it was our first effort in addressing student basic needs, and we have come a long way in the last five years as a small campus with limited resources. Today, we have a Basic Needs Director and offer a centralized and inclusive menu of services to equitably meet student needs, including assistance for those who are homeless and housing insecure, food assistance, legal immigration services, and emotional wellness supports. Join us to learn how we integrated and streamlined services to facilitate student access to basic needs resources. Learn about the strategic conversations, integrated planning, and campus engagement efforts that led to full institutional support for meeting student basic needs.

Presenters: Carina Cisneros and Annette Gutierrez, Gavilan College

  8:30 - 8:45Guided Mindfulness

  8:30 - 9:00Sponsor Connection

  9:00 - 10:45Opening Plenary and Keynote Address

10:45 - 11:05Break

11:05 - 12:20Breakout Session 3

12:30 - 1:20On the Menu: Lunch Discussions

  1:30 - 2:30Breakout Session 4

  2:30 - 3:00Sponsor Connection

 Thursday, October 14, 2021 | Breakout Session 3 | 11:05 am - 12:20 pm

Building Blocks for Institutionalizing Racial Equity: Insights from California Community College Equity Champions on How to Create Equity-Focused Transformation
Strand: Collaborating Across Sectors and Segments: Anti-Racist Partnerships and Networks Creating Equitable Outcomes

In this interactive session, we will feature findings from anonymized interviews with 28 California Community Colleges equity champions about their efforts to create equitable outcomes for Black, Latinx, and other minoritized student groups. Our panelists will offer specific examples of and insights on practically engaging long-standing structures, processes, and mindsets. Participants will reflect and share in small groups about their own experiences and ways to support one another. We will end by providing a series of tools and next steps for connecting equity champions across colleges and supporting their work.

Presenters: Nicole Bryant Lescher, College of the Redwoods; Mina Dadgar, Education Equity Solutions; Cynthia Olivo, Pasadena City College; and Mustafa Popal, Skyline College

Creativity, Collaboration, Commitment, Caring, and COVID = Recipe for Equity Success
Strand: Redressing Structural Inequities to Achieve More Equitable Institutions

We are all challenged with "moving the needle" to improve our equity success rates. How to achieve this improvement takes creativity and cross-campus collaboration to find workable solutions and commitment and caring to address institutional inequities. Mt. San Antonio College will present our successful efforts to increase degree attainment through auto-awarding, a completion intervention for students who are "closer than you think" to finishing; caseload management and critical interventions for special student populations; and early alert and nudge messaging. The "We've Got Your Back" initiative to bring back students who dropped during COVID-19 will also be presented. All these efforts enabled the college to improve success rates for underserved Latinx, African American, Native American and Asian Pacific Islander, foster youth, disabled, and Dream students.

Presenters: Antonio Bangloy, George Bradshaw, Francisco Dorame, Thomas Mauch, Chuong Tran, and Audrey Yamagata-Noji, Mt. San Antonio College

Leveraging Campus Resources to Institutionalize Community-Based Learning
Strand: Achieving Equity in the Classroom: Critical Changes to Address Inequities, Champion Anti-Racism, and Improve Learning

Community-based learning (CBL) is a pedagogical strategy that integrates meaningful community engagement into courses through reciprocal partnerships with community organizations. As a high-impact practice, CBL increases student retention and engagement for historically underserved students. We will discuss how existing resources and programs can be leveraged to institutionalize CBL through a faculty-driven approach. We will describe our current efforts to develop a campus-wide CBL initiative at Pasadena City College through a faculty collaboration with the Office of Work-Based Learning. Participants will identify campus and community resources and strategize actionable ways to support CBL on their own campus.

Presenters: Jessica Blickley, Suzanne Iwanicki, Jacqueline Javier, and Richard Lie, Pasadena City College

Utilizing the Power of Faculty Community of Practice (COP) to Create a Successful and Equitable Classroom Learning Environment
Strand: Building Culturally Robust and Positive Practices that Increase Student Agency: Professional Learning and Leadership Development

Since fall 2018, Citrus College has utilized communities of practice (COP) to support the AB 705 faculty who are teaching transfer-level math classes with corequisite support. COP leads will share student-centered, pedagogical, and affective domain classroom activities, many of which were developed in the COP. We will discuss our emphasis on equity-minded teaching practices in this interactive session, along with ways the math faculty have adjusted to our remote learning environment due to the pandemic. We will share course success and throughput rate data, at the course level and disaggregated by various disproportionately impacted student groups.

Presenters: Toros Berberyan, Victoria Dominguez, Sophia Lee, and Frida Valderrama Perez, Citrus College

Creating Spaces to Dismantle White Supremacy and Systemic Bias
Strand: Strategic and Integrated Planning to Create Caring, Equitable, and Anti-Racist Campus Communities

How can college communities dismantle White supremacy and systemic bias? First, do no more harm to racially minoritized students, faculty, and staff. Second, move from theory to praxis with practices, processes, and andragogy! We are excited to elevate student, faculty, and staff voices, specifically those defining anti-racism in their communities and engaging in truth-telling dialogue honoring racially minoritized community college members. We look forward to sharing both practical models that colleges are using to start their transformation and mindset-shifting professional development which led multiple disciplines to apply an anti-racist lens to curriculum and services. We will offer multiple methods of disseminating equity and anti-racist work in spaces that meet the needs of college practitioners—especially in the shift to online learning and working.

Presenters: Katherine Bergman, Sunny Greene, Amal Amanda Issa, Laura Lara-Brady, and Natalie Nagthall, Foundation for California Community Colleges

“It’s a Long Story. Yea? I’m Listening.”: The Spectrum of Mental Health Interventions across California Community Colleges
Strand: Creating Equitable Support Systems for Students and Employees that Address Basic Needs and Physical and Mental Well-Being

Research has demonstrated that student well-being is foundational to academic success. A recent Healthy Minds Study survey from more than 300 colleges and universities reports increasing rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Of the 116 California Community Colleges campuses, 92 have student health services programs, with all providing mental health services. In this workshop, we will describe what the landscape looks like in the provision of services, screening efforts, and health education and promotion activities. We will share findings from pooled data from the last two years of the Health Services Association of California Community Colleges annual benchmark survey of student health center directors. We will highlight a student wellness ambassadors program through co-presentation by students, featuring platforms to promote social connectedness and reduce stigma around mental health.

Presenters: Becky Perelli, Health Services Association of California Community Colleges; Yuan-Yuan Lo, Setareh Tehrani, and Sang Leng Trieu, Ohlone College; and Camillia Lui, Public Health Institute

 Thursday, October 14, 2021 | Breakout Session 4 | 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm

Silo Busting: Collaborative Leadership and Planning for 21st Century Students
Strand: Collaborating Across Sectors and Segments: Anti-Racist Partnerships and Networks Creating Equitable Outcomes

To lead with clarity, determination, and purpose, community college administrators must retrain themselves to blur lines between departments and leverage the allowable provisions of divisions like Workforce Development and Contract Education to onramp students who tend to be overlooked in our traditional processes. Rather than seeing discrete courses and Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs), we can refer to traditional offerings as a menu of options that can be packaged as Not-for-Credit trainings in Workforce Development and Contract Education. Through this approach, students can be onboarded having already earned credit upon completion of these offerings through Credit for Prior Learning (CPL). Creative construction of courses opens doors for nontraditional and underserved students and allows more equitable access to degrees and certificates.

Presenters: Pedro Mendez, Vickie Mulvaney-Trask, Nancy Sill, and Jennifer Zellet, Modesto Junior College

Insights Gained Post-AB 705: Helping Colleges Successfully Implement Promising Practices from Statewide Research
Strand: Redressing Structural Inequities to Achieve More Equitable Institutions

Two years after formal implementation of AB 705, colleges have made substantial gains in transforming their placement policies and student supports to maximize throughput in transfer-level math and English. In partnership with the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office, the RP Group interviewed colleges throughout the state to better understand the factors that influenced varying levels and approaches to implementation of AB 705. This session will include an overview of the key findings and recommendations from the statewide interviews, focusing on how colleges can overcome common barriers and institutional roadblocks to successfully implement practices leading to improved student outcomes and reduced equity gaps.

Presenters: Terra Morris and Michelle White, The RP Group

Faculty Collaboration: A Data Inquiry and Action Team's Journey towards Addressing Inequity in the Classroom
Strand: Achieving Equity in the Classroom: Critical Changes to Address Inequities, Champion Anti-Racism, and Improve Learning

Our team's work intersects data analysis with pedagogy and curriculum to address equity and anti-racism within the college classroom. In this session, we will detail the step-by-step process and prompts our data inquiry and action team used to develop and teach a collaboratively written instructional plan based on the "5 Es" (engage, explore, explain, elaborate, evaluate). Additionally, our team will share the instructional plan that we created and some student examples that resulted from the lesson. The process enabled our team members to make visible the racist structures inherent within our discipline, our pedagogy, our assessments, and our classrooms. In turn, our presentation will highlight the need to question those structures to make room for new mindsets and provide ways they can manifest.

Presenters: Joshua Escobar, Melissa Menendez, Margaret Prothero, and Eileen Vlcek-Scamahorn, Santa Barbara City College

Counseling and Guided Pathways: Remembering that Guided Pathways is about Guiding Students
Strand: Building Culturally Robust and Positive Practices that Increase Student Agency: Professional Learning and Leadership Development

Counselors affirm that the core mandate of their work is helping students choose, enter, and stay on their educational path and ensure their learning aligns with guided pathways principles. Counseling with a student-centered focus aims to create a unique, personalized, proactive, and equitable approach. Yet, making systemic improvements to ensure equitable access to services has been challenging. In this session, participants will learn about current research from community college counselors and others implementing innovative counseling practices within a guided pathways framework. This interactive session will allow time for participant engagement and sharing promising practices in making systemic changes to achieve equitable service delivery.

Presenters: Luis Chavez, Career Ladders Project; and Tiffany Welter, Los Medanos College

Decolonization and Equity in Remote Learning and Distance Education
Strand: Strategic and Integrated Planning to Create Caring, Equitable, and Anti-Racist Campus Communities

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed digital inequities for our students and faculty. Join us for an interactive session on lessons learned, including promising innovations we should keep along with other practices that may not be effective as we decolonize classroom curriculum. Participants can share ways to decolonize online classes in both content and processes while examining what types of student support are needed to improve student success and close equity gaps. Together we will discuss how to review our remote and distance education opportunities through an equity-minded lens.

Presenters: Karla Kirk (Fresno City College), Robert L. Stewart Jr. (Los Angeles Southwest College), LaTonya Parker (Moreno Valley College), Michelle Bean (Rio Hondo College), and Virginia May (Sacramento City College), Academic Senate for California Community Colleges

Building Student Community with Success Squads: Fostering Student Well-Being and Support for Online Students
Strand: Creating Equitable Support Systems for Students and Employees that Address Basic Needs and Physical and Mental Well-Being

This session will explore a pilot program at Cerritos College that built online communities based on common backgrounds and fields of study for Distance Education students to connect them with each other and college support services. Since online students often feel disconnected from the college and many times lack a network of mentors and cheerleaders to bolster their confidence as they move through their programs, the Success Squads approach aims to bring the college to them in an learning management system (LMS) portal where students earn badges for participating in team and skills building. We will show how reimagining the way students develop relationships with an institution can make a huge difference in their success.

Presenter: Lynn Serwin, Cerritos College

  8:30 - 8:45Guided Mindfulness

  8:30 - 9:00Sponsor Connection

  9:00 - 10:00Breakout Session 5

10:00 - 10:20Break

10:20 - 11:20Breakout Session 6

11:30 - 1:00Closing Plenary and Keynote Address

 Friday, October 15, 2021 | Breakout Session 5 | 9:00 am - 10:00 am

Leveraging Resources, Partnerships, and Technology to Improve Student Outcomes: A Regional Guided Pathways Story
Strand: Collaborating Across Sectors and Segments: Anti-Racist Partnerships and Networks Creating Equitable Outcomes

Guided pathways is the framework that colleges are using to understand, organize, and implement wholesale change to improve students' experiences and outcomes. Often the changes necessary are bigger than any one institution. This session will look at a North/Far North Regional approach that spanned across colleges, the Chancellor's Office, the Foundation for California Community Colleges, and the RP Group to provide professional development in a new and innovative way: the Far North Leading from the Middle Academy.

Presenters: Sunny Greene, Tim Morehouse, and Cindy Sanchez, Foundation for California Community Colleges

Dismantling Math as a Form of Oppression
Strand: Redressing Structural Inequities to Achieve More Equitable Institutions

To address the disparities of underrepresented minorities and women in STEM education and the workforce, we introduced a "STEM Core" cohort-based learning community in 2012. The STEM Core shows promise in dismantling structural barriers for historically underrepresented students through a foundational learning community model incorporating math acceleration, contextualization, intensive support, and internships. This learning session led by faculty and students from Ohlone and Saddleback Colleges is focused on 2 of 13 California community colleges where initial results from students in the course sequence show significant positive outcomes: 65% of STEM Core students reaching Calculus I in one year and participants emerging 5.03 times more likely to become Calculus-ready than non-cohort participants. Collaborators will share how we kindle growth mindsets.

Presenters: Gabe Hanzel-Sello, Growth Sector; Jeff O'Connell, Ohlone College; Frank Gonzalez, Saddleback College; and Anne Palmer, Stanford Graduate School of Education

Dismantling Structural Racism through Strong AB 705 Implementation
Strand: Achieving Equity in the Classroom: Critical Changes to Address Inequities, Champion Anti-Racism, and Improve Learning

Completion of transfer-level English and math varies wildly across the California Community Colleges. The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) found that in the first semester of AB 705 implementation, one-term completion rates ranged from 34% to 81% in English and from 17% to 63% in math. This interactive session will examine what is happening at colleges that have both high—and racially equitable—completion, with an emphasis on concrete practices that can be replicated by other colleges. Participants will also discuss how to address barriers to change at the local level.

Presenter: Katie Hern, California Acceleration Project

Students AT the Table not ON the Table: How Mission College is Partnering with Students in the Classroom and in Equity-Based Transformation Work
Strand: Building Culturally Robust and Positive Practices that Increase Student Agency: Professional Learning and Leadership Development

Mission College is committed to actively working for equity and social justice through partnering with students to build a just, responsive, and compassionate learning community. We believe that by partnering with students in classroom learning communities and listening to our students as we engage in critical conversations about our institution, we can collaboratively improve Mission and grow our capacity to serve our diverse and amazing student body. In this interactive session, we will share practical and adaptable examples of how we are partnering with our students in the classroom and in our equity-focused institutional transformation work.

Presenters: Ken Songco and Sarah Sullivan, Mission College

The Power of the Student Voice: Transforming Data into Action
Strand: Strategic and Integrated Planning to Create Caring, Equitable, and Anti-Racist Campus Communities

There are multiple ways to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, beginning with telling our stories in ways which connect communities that have been divided by unjust power differentials in our policies and institutions. In this session, we will feature a project designed for Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) students to explore what it means for our college to become a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), guided by the question: In what ways do students construct and enact an HSI organizational identity? As part of the data collection process, Mt. SAC students engaged in participatory action research (PAR), a method used in educational research to help increase students' knowledge of social injustices while allowing them to collect data and propose solutions grounded in their own liberation (Cammarota & Fine, 2008). Mt. SAC students will share activities to educate diverse students, leading to the transformation of campus culture and practices.

Presenters: Diana Felix and Joe Louis Hernandez, Mt. San Antonio College

Using Data to Drive Change: Lessons from Statewide Research on Student Veterans and the Systems Designed to Support Them
Strand: Creating Equitable Support Systems for Students and Employees that Address Basic Needs and Physical and Mental Well-Being

The 2017-2018 State Budget Act allocated $5M to the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges to support a Veterans Resource Center (VRC) grant program designed to help establish/enhance on-campus VRC. Over the past three years, the RP Group has worked closely with Irvine Valley College to explore the impact of such funding on improving VRC supports and outcomes for student veterans. We will present results from statewide surveys examining the unique experiences of veterans and how their needs align with VRC supports and resources. Stakeholders from Irvine Valley College will share how they leveraged this research to advocate for continued assistance for this vulnerable student group, with a focus on the benefits of having data on the alignment of student needs with institutional offerings.

Presenters: Nancy Montgomery, Irvine Valley College; Katie Brohawn and Michelle White, The RP Group; and Miatta Snetter, US Veterans and Orange County Community Colleges

 Friday, October 15, 2021 | Breakout Session 6 | 10:20 am - 11:20 am

OER and Equity: The ASCCC Open Education Resources Initiative
Strand: Collaborating Across Sectors and Segments: Anti-Racist Partnerships and Networks Creating Equitable Outcomes

Open Educational Resources (OER) are openly licensed and modifiable resources for teaching and learning. While awareness and use of OER has increased over time, few appreciate the full range of benefits OER provide. OER are not merely the answer to the ever-increasing costs of commercial texts. They are also tools for decolonizing curriculum, fostering social justice, addressing inequities, promoting diversity and inclusion, increasing student success, engaging students in novel ways, and providing faculty with the ultimate in academic freedom. Join us to explore the power of OER to change the world.

Presenters: Michelle Pilati (Rio Hondo College), Academic Senate for California Community Colleges; and Suzanne Wakim, Butte Glenn Community College

Decolonizing Data: Let Me Tell You Something
Strand: Redressing Structural Inequities to Achieve More Equitable Institutions

In this session, we will share how Umoja uses data to measure student success that satisfies the college and Chancellor's Office expectations, as well as fully captures our students' experiences in ways that affirm Black students' humanity as subjects and agents of their own educational success. Participants will gain knowledge on data language and data engagement approaches, as well as learn about effective practices for asking the right questions and collecting, critically analyzing, and reporting on data.

Presenters: Antonio Banks and Trelisa Glazatov, Umoja Community Education Foundation

Race and Reconciliation: Necessary Discourse to Fulfill the Promise of Reforms
Strand: Achieving Equity in the Classroom: Critical Changes to Address Inequities, Champion Anti-Racism, and Improve Learning

Two years after AB 705 implementation, we stand amid the tension between continuing equity reform work and the pull of past systems and practice. This presentation will ask participants to reflect on the racial gaps and trauma perpetuated by developmental education structures and to acknowledge racial reconciliation as central to making good on the promise of AB 705 reforms. Using local college data as an example and situating it within the larger reform conversation, we will provide a framework for understanding and reconciling with racial equity gaps—both the gaps in success and in our preparedness to teach a diverse student body—in order to build intentional and sustainable improvement for all students.

Presenters: Erik Armstrong and Jamie Moore, College of the Sequoias

The Role of Offices of Institutional Research (OIR) in Improving Equity
Strand: Building Culturally Robust and Positive Practices that Increase Student Agency: Professional Learning and Leadership Development

As equity efforts become prioritized in higher education, OIR are equipped to serve as critical units to identify and address educational inequities faced by racially minoritized students. However, their potential has yet to be fulfilled. This session will feature findings from a discourse analysis of OIR mission statements to examine how they describe their function and purpose in the California Community Colleges. Our work prompts the IR field to reimagine their position within the community college they serve by becoming race-conscious and equity-minded in the ways that articulate their role and function as major hubs of institutional data.

Presenters: Diego Ceballos, Eric Felix, and Rogelio Salazar, San Diego State University; and Hannah Lawler, Santa Monica College

Innovative Tools for Engaging Contemporary Challenges in Collaborative Governance
Strand: Strategic and Integrated Planning to Create Caring, Equitable, and Anti-Racist Campus Communities

Through a master plan case study at North Orange County Community College District (NOCCCD), the vice chancellor, faculty, students, and planners illustrate how the voice of traditionally underserved students is reshaping higher education. The session will feature unique ways of conducting campus assessments and facilitating an inclusive design process that prioritizes student engagement and directly impacts master plan development.

Presenters: Ester Plavdjian, Cypress College; Miguel Powers, Fullerton College; Carissa Oyedele and Mario Violich, Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners; and Cherry Li-Bugg, North Orange County Community College District

College Promise: How the Cerritos Complete Promise Program is Creating Equitable Outcomes
Strand: Creating Equitable Support Systems for Students and Employees that Address Basic Needs and Physical and Mental Well-Being

The foundation of the Cerritos Complete Promise Program (CCPP) is collaborative partnerships, high-touch services, and financial support for students. Disproportionately impacted students who have not met traditional measures of college readiness face myriad barriers in the transition from high school to college. This session will demonstrate that the CCPP helps to minimize barriers through strong collaboration across the institution and with K-12 partners, and guaranteed financial support coupled with intrusive student support. In this interactive session, presenters will outline the high-impact program practices that contribute to equitable success, present research findings that show the impact of the program on student outcomes and in helping the institution reach its equity goals as well as facilitate discussions about the ways in which program components can be applied at other campuses.

Presenters: Amber Hroch, Destiney Islas (former student), and Colleen McKinley, Cerritos College; Sonia Perez, Norwalk High School; and Mary Rauner, WestEd