CCIE Update to #EndtheSilence: September 2016

The College Committee on Inclusive Excellence (CCIE) met on September 16, 2016 to review institutional responses to date to each of the demands made by #EndTheSilence students last spring. Many of the actions presented at that time were consistent with recommendations made by participants in a campus-wide Community Conversation on May 4. The CCIE review included information about ongoing campus initiatives as well as recommendations for ensuring progress toward shared goals.

We demand an entire reworking of the First Year Advisory Cohort (FYAC) program, for more inclusion on subjects of race, gender, class, oppression and privilege. This includes a restructuring of syllabi in the FYAC program with a focus on inclusion of race, gender, power, oppression and class.

The Student Engagement and Academic Success (SEAS) Office offers Capitalizing on Diversity through Education (CODE) modules to instructors which are designed to introduce and familiarize students with aspects of culture, diversity and inclusion that shape who we are as a community and allows for open, respectful peer-to-peer dialogue. Some CODE modules focus on identity, conscious and unconscious bias, power, privilege, difference, cultural humility, and more.

Additionally, the Intercultural Center offers modules on microaggressions, designed to give a brief introduction to microaggressions and provide some skills to recognize, interrupt, and respond to everyday microaggressions, and assumptions. A Workshop on Identity and Conflict encourages participants to work out the way that assumptions about the "other" are related to the formation of our identity, and helps participants to critically explore our assumptions in relation to the SMC community and how to recognize our blind spots to improve crosscultural communication.

The most extensive reworking of the First Year Advising Cohort (FYAC) curriculum has taken place in the High Potential FYACs, in which all four sections address subjects on race, gender, power, oppression, and class. The CCIE recognizes that the College currently lacks the capacity to offer these modules to every FYAC, and that a complete reworking of FYAC to achieve the objectives of the students would require substantial and extensive training for a large number of faculty (a minimum of 50). The CCIE, fully aware that curriculum revision requires the concurrence of faculty through shared governance, recommends faculty investment in and prioritizing of FYAC curriculum to ensure that inclusion of race, gender, power, oppression and class are part of every FYAC.

We demand a re-organization of the Seminar 104 Capstone project to include a focus on the Social Justice aspects of our Lasallian Core Principles, with an emphasis on leaving the Saint Mary’s Community with a clear understanding of the Social Justice aspects of the Lasallian Core Principles.

Last year, two new senior capstone projects were piloted for SEM 104. The Capstone Part II assignment was revised based on student and faculty surveys, and consistent with a suggestion that the #EndtheSilence students made regarding a focus on the Lasallian Core Principles. Students will now be required to write an essay that “combines reflection with advanced textual analysis in order to examine the relationship between Seminar 104 readings and the five Lasallian Core Principles” (Collegiate Seminar Overview of the Capstone Project). Additionally, an anonymous mid-term evaluation for all Seminar classes, specifically focused on issues of classroom climate and inclusion, and a new Seminar Senior Survey assessing similar issues, will be administered beginning this year.

The Collegiate Seminar Program is also continuing its training programs on facilitating difficult dialogues and understanding institutional racism. The October Faculty Retreat will present "Cracking the Codes: Deepening our Dialogues about Race," facilitated by Linda Handy of the World Trust. The retreat will explore diversity and racial equity, meaningful dialogue, and how the “larger systems of racial inequity undermine our educational enterprise.” The Collegiate Seminar Program will also be offering the module, Move Beyond Civility: How To Facilitate Difficult Dialogues in the Classroom” in the fall.

The CCIE recognizes that understanding of “the social justice aspects of the Lasallian Core Principles” is a learning outcome for all students and extends beyond a project in Collegiate Seminar. Therefore, the CCIE recommends that assessment of student learning be conducted during the 2016-17 academic year, particularly regarding the American Diversity outcomes in the Core Curriculum (1. Analyze aspects of social diversity (e.g., ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, ability, and political identity) and how they affect society in the United States; and 2. Explain how social categories and structures of power may affect the human person).

We demand that there be a consistent, frozen financial aid offer for all four years of a college student’s career, with an increase in scholarship that correlates with rising tuition costs, and a transparency on the financial aid policy for and status of undocumented students.

The CCIE understands that when tuition increases over the years a student is enrolled, the gap between financial aid packages and the cost of attendance widens, because financial aid is not automatically increased proportionally with tuition, food and housing.

Tuition, fees and financial aid allocations are approved annually by the Board of Trustees. Several Board Committees (Finance, Academic Affairs & Enrollment, Student Life) are often involved in reviewing financial aid packaging and policies to try and address affordability and student debt. In the past few years, emphasis has been placed on trying to give larger aid awards to the students with the greatest financial need. This year, the Board of Trustees will approve tuition rates and financial aid budgets at its October meeting, with approval of the complete 2018 fiscal year budget in January 2017.

Without a dramatic increase in philanthropy and other sources of nontuition revenue, the College cannot meet annual cost increases (e.g., health care, maintenance, cost of living) without sharing that responsibility with students and their families. Endowed scholarships are a significant part of the College’s fundraising efforts, and the College does provide increased aid to students who have significantly reduced family income, who qualify for retention scholarships through the HPSS program, and in the form of emergency scholarships for which students can apply in the Office of Financial Aid. A detailed explanation of financial aid questions can be found here; policies regarding undocumented student can be found here.

The CCIE recommends greater transparency regarding the way that tuition and financial aid packages are determined. As one step toward that end, the CCIE will hold an institutional budget and financial aid workshop later this semester.

We demand that workshops regarding financial aid, along with lists of scholarships, internships and fellowships be provided in a way that will help give low-income students, especially undocumented and first-generation students, the opportunities to get jobs on campus.

This summer the SEAS office launched a new coaching model for incoming students that will help students find access to the resources provided by the Financial Aid Office and the Professional Development and Career Services Office. The High Potential Program also provides specialized support to first-generation and low-income students; this program has also been expanded in the last six months. Last year’s adoption of the free, online SALT Financial Literacy Program has been included in the HP curriculum and is available to all students, undergraduate and graduate, and SMC Alumni to help support students and alumni as they finance higher education and manage their student loans. 

The CCIE recommends consideration of whether the SALT program should also be made available to admitted students, so that they have greater opportunities to understand the implications of their financial aid packages before they enroll at SMC.

We demand required, mandated workshops on diversity and economic realities, and how to navigate those realities for financial aid counselors and staff.

The Associate Vice President for Human Resources, Eduardo Salaz, and Chief Diversity Officer, Tomas Arias Gomez, have developed a three-hour workshop addressing diversity and economic realities to be taken by the Financial Aid Office and Business Office staff in October.

We demand that administration actively begin to hire more traditionally underrepresented faculty of color, with a 10%–15% increase of faculty of color by the beginning of Fall 2017. We also demand transparency and accountability for retention of faculty of color within the institution. This can begin with the hiring of two (2) more Ethnic Studies professors, focused specifically on the Major.

The College’s Strategic Plan goals include both an increase in the delivery of courses from tenured and tenure-track faculty and recruitment of faculty who more closely resemble the diversity of our students. Renewed efforts to recruit and hire more traditionally underrepresented faculty of color began a year ago, with a workshop provided by the Provost and changes to the hiring process instituted by her office. Changes included the requirement of a diversity hiring plan with every request for a new tenure-track position, search committee chair participation in Campus of Difference, and inclusive recruiting training with the Chief Diversity Officer.

The new cohort of tenure-track faculty is among our most diverse, with 60% reporting to be faculty of color. The percentage of Black and African American tenured and tenure-track faculty has grown from 2.8% of total tenured/tenure track faculty in the spring to 4.5% in the fall semester. The percentage of Hispanic/Latino tenured and tenure-track faculty has grown from 6.6% to 8.6%.

Hiring faculty for a tenure-track position takes about 18 months from the time a position is approved until the new faculty member in the classroom. A new faculty line in Ethnic Studies was approved last year and is currently underway. A second position is contingent on sufficient student enrollment in Ethnic Studies courses.

Although current faculty are largely in charge of interview processes, the CCIE recommends that student participation in faculty interviews is included. The CCIE also notes that considerable work remains in understanding and supporting retention for both faculty and staff from traditionally underrepresented groups, including data collection and compiling best practices.

We demand the inclusion of mandated annual diversity workshop training and safe zone training for all faculty and staff. This will be evaluated in a section on semester course evaluations focusing on the teacher’s ability to handle issues of race, gender, class, oppression and privilege. Failure to comply with these trainings should affect the Professor’s ability to attain tenure-track status.

Sexual harassment training and Campus of Difference workshops have been required for faculty and staff for many years. However, the CCIE recognizes that not all faculty and staff participate, and that the prior workshops may not be sufficiently adapted to the needs of the Saint Mary’s community. Toward that end, a CCIE subgroup led by Sunny Bradford has developed a new workshop for all faculty and staff, called GUIDE (Gaels Uniting for Inclusion and Diversity through Education), which will be launched October 21. Although Safe Zone training is not specifically required, groundwork toward that end is established during the required sessions, and it will continue to be offered as a follow-up to GUIDE.

Diversity workshops are also being conducted across all areas of campus. The CCIE, President’s Cabinet, and Provost’s Council of Deans dedicated August 16 to a joint retreat with external facilitators. The Office of Advancement held a retreat focused on diversity and inclusion for the Board of Regents. Both the Offices of Academic Affairs and Student Success Office have scheduled additional staff workshops throughout the year. The School of Liberal Arts is launching a series of initiatives emanating from their Planning for Inclusive Excellence (PIE) group.

Faculty evaluation procedures and the conditions for tenure and promotion are dictated by the Faculty Handbook for tenured and tenure-track faculty, and by the Collective Bargaining Agreement for adjunct faculty. The Academic Senate convened a course evaluation task force last year that was considering changes to the forms that could be consistent with the student demands. Current forms assess openness to “diverse points of view” and allow students to provide written feedback. However, adoption of the new forms and enforcement mechanisms for participation in GUIDE must occur in consultation with the Academic Senate. The CCIE recommends that the Academic Senate solicit student participation in and support for mandatory training and the adoption of evaluation forms that assess the teacher’s ability to facilitate constructive dialogue across difference.

We demand an established requirement of community service within marginalized communities in the Bay Area, with the option of doing community service on campus in designated departments and spaces on campus, including the Women’s Resource Center (WRC), the Intercultural Center (IC), the High Potential Program (HP) as well as the developing on-campus Food Pantry.

The Core Curriculum community engagement (CE) requirement goes beyond participating in service to promote “collaboration and mutual benefit in a community setting.” Since the inception of the community engagement requirement in 2013, CILSA has increased the number of formalized off-campus partnerships from 46 to 102. The vast majority of these community partners serve marginalized communities. Faculty members have agency in choosing their community partners based on their curricular objectives. Faculty often choose on-campus projects, many of which do not involve service with or for marginalized communities. The CCIE recognizes that although not all students fulfilling their community engagement requirement will do so in collaboration with marginalized communities, the expansion of partnerships will increase that likelihood.

On-campus community service opportunities (some of which are CE-qualified and some of which are not) currently exist in the Women’s Resource Center, Intercultural Center, High Potential Program, CILSA, and newly established food pantry (GaelPantry). Starting in October, students will have service opportunities at GaelPantry.

In October, the College is sending a team that include the Provost, Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Studies, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Academics, and the Director of CILSA to a Campus Compact Civic Action Planning Institute to determine the next stage of expanding and deepening our community partnerships.

We demand that Student Involvement and Leadership (SIL) develop a better avenue of communication with Diversity Organization Council (DOC) clubs, and that Associated Students (AS) send one (1) representative to each Diversity organization, in an effort to bridge the gap between students in diversity clubs and the general student government. Their presence will be evaluated during semi-annual and annual reviews involving the DOC clubs.

The Student Involvement and Leadership Office and Associated Students initiated a search for a full-time administrative assistant to support Associated Students and student organizations. This administrative assistant will be available to support any student organization on completing paperwork for planning events, managing budgets or reimbursing for expenses for a student organization activity or event. They will be available specifically for the purpose of responding to student leaders needs on processes that students don't typically do (e.g. writing a contract for a DJ, catering order or service). Student organizations will have more access to this support because of one dedicated person and the administrative assistant will regularly advise students on upcoming deadlines and ways to anticipate tasks needed to support an event that a student organization is planning.

The SIL staff will have more time to spend with diversity organizations in planning or problem-solving as well as more time just to support DOC in the priorities they have set for the year. SIL would also have more opportunity to promote diversity organizations by engaging in a discussion with their leadership with the director of the Intercultural Center on how they are currently structured and if that provides the best support for diversity organizations as well as their sustainability. That discussion should begin after the September retreat of the Associated Students and DOC.

The Associated Students Executive Council is currently discussing with DOC leadership the best way to establish representatives to DOC organizations that will enhance the support and understanding of diversity organizations as well as to better inform Associated Students of the priorities and activities of DOC organizations. The goal is to have true representatives as well as allies for the organization

We demand that the Admissions Department place an emphasis on recruiting students from marginalized communities. This includes hiring additional admissions staff who are bilingual.

The College has a diverse admission staff, two of whom speak Spanish. The admissions staff continues to conduct extensive outreach to inner-city schools ranging from Oakland, Richmond and Antioch to Pinole, Hercules and East Palo Alto in our local market. In all areas we employ geodemographic tools to assure that we include in our focus schools that include economically disadvantaged students as well as students from traditionally underrepresented groups. Additionally, the admissions office is proactive with the recruitment of diverse student populations within our secondary markets in California and out of state. Consequently, for the fall 2016 incoming freshmen class, over 50% of students who enrolled were students of color.