Planning Committee and Collaboration

El Camino Community College developed a Student Equity Plan Advisory Committee (SEPAC) during the 2014-15 planning process that consisted of instructional and student support representatives, including Vice Presidents, Basic Skills Initiative (BSI) Coordinators, faculty, and other representatives from categorical programs. This committee was formed to act as an advisory body to plan and oversee the implementation of the Student Equity Plan.

During the planning of the 2015-16 Student Equity Plan we reached out more broadly to involve individuals serving on the Student Success and Support Program (SSSP) committee, deans and faculty from academic division across the institution, and the manager of Professional Development and Learning. We also incorporated classified staff and students and collaborated with categorical programs leads from Foster & Kinship Education Program, Veteran Services Program, Special Resource Center, Puente Program, Project Success, FYE, EOPS/Care, and others.

The Student Equity Program (SEP) Director, SSSP Co-Chairs, and Basic Skills Initiative (BSI) Co-Coordinators hosted a planning retreat as a platform for the 2015-16 academic year. This joint effort served to ignite collaboration among the various college programs to promote and share innovative ideas related to SEP, SSSP and BSI Initiatives and to better understand the new requirements for the SEP planning and budget templates and targeted groups. Participants reviewed the 2014-15 SEP and SSSP plans and generated many new ideas. The revised plan reflects a distillation of these ideas and a more specific analysis and application of these ideas to the College’s equity data.

We began by reviewing the 2014-15 plan to identify gaps in services and resources that address our targeted student needs. We also considered activities and programs that other initiatives were working on to avoid duplication of services and capitalize on resources.

The SEP Director, the BSI Co-Coordinators and the Co-Chairs of SSSP also formed a coordinating committee to align our planned goals, share resources, identify data collection needs, and budget activities to maximize funding assets. We teamed up to identify the numerous professional development opportunities and assessed who would attend those conferences we deemed to offer the greatest return on our investment of time and fiscal resources. Our combined effort and collaboration with SSSP and BSI is strategic in the use of resources and focuses on increasing student success.

 

 

The SEP Director and ten selected faculty, staff, and administrators, including the SSSP coordinators, attended the USC Center for Urban Education’s Equity Institute in October 2015 to train on how to better collect data, analyze equity gaps, review activity plans, and ask “inquiry questions” related to student equity. The ECC Equity Team deemed the training an excellent use of funds because it enabled participants to take practical tools and exercises back to campus to incorporate in the 2015-2016 Student Equity Plan. Subsequently, a similar training session was held with a campus group including SSSP & BSI co-chairs, categorical program representatives, academic deans, faculty, staff, and students to share the major lessons learned at the Equity Institute. This subsequent meeting represents one of the ways in which the College is moving toward an institutionalization of equity values and practices.

The Student Equity Plan will work with the necessary administrators, faculty and staff to begin the dialogue of how to incorporate an equity-lens when developing the annual plan and strategic initiatives for institutional effectiveness. The El Camino Community College planning process integrates assessment, evaluation, and planning to promote effectiveness and student success. The mission underlies all that we do, with Strategic Initiatives providing direction for achieving the mission. The master plan is based on the mission and strategic initiative and is guided by the planning components. These components consist of curriculum review, program review, outcomes assessment, and annual planning, all of which drive and are responsive to each other. The master plan integrates with other College-wide plans focused on student success including the Basic Skills Initiative, Student Equity, Adult Education (Assembly Bill 86) and Student Success & Support Program Plans. These components join to guide resources allocation and produce the ultimate outcome of institutional effectiveness and greater student success.

The College's efforts to coordinate with other district's plans and programs are demonstrated in the new RISE retention center. The concept of this center was developed in the Student Success Advisory Committee which includes the SEP Director and Basic Skills Coordinators. In this new retention center, SSSP will provide Counseling and educational planning services for at risk student to include basic skills and students on probation.

Student Equity will co-support the Early Alert system and its services, which will also be housed in this center. The services for foster youth, also supported through Student Equity, will be offered in the center and will share counselors to support the advising, educational planning and other counseling services. These collaborative efforts will ensure a true integration of SSSP, Student Equity Program and Basic Skills Initiative.

The College will continue these collaborative efforts through the Student Success Advisory Committee. Comprised of faculty, staff, students and administrators, the committee meets bimonthly to review, plan and discuss all aspects of student success. The committee is chaired by the Associate Dean of Student Success, a position supported the SSSP funds. The SEP Director is a regular member of the committee, as are the Basic Skills faculty coordinators and research analysts. This data collected for the SSSP, Basic Skills, Student Equity plans will be brought to this committee for review and analysis. Future plans will be reviewed to ensure collaboration and the most effective use of resources to ensure El Camino College student success.

It should be noted that during the planning process, we evaluated over 55 requests for funding from across the institution utilizing the SEP Evaluation Rubric and chose the activities described in the plan.

 

Student Equity Plan Membership List

Name	Title	Organization, Program or Role Represented
Jean Shankweiler	Vice President	Academic Affairs
Jeanie Nishime	Vice President	Student Community Advancement
Constance Fitzsimons	Dean	Fine Arts
Dipte Patel	Dean	Counseling and Student Success
Gloria Miranda	Dean	Behavioral & Social Sciences/Human Development Curriculum
Jacquelyn Sims	Dean	Mathematical Sciences
Stephanie Rodriguez	Dean	Industry & Technology
Tom Lew	Dean	Humanities
Virginia Rapp	Dean	Business
William Garcia	Dean	Student Support Services
Elise Geraghty	Associate Dean	Humanities
Mary Beth Barrios	Associate Dean	Counseling and Student Success
Arturo Hernandez	Director	MESA/ASEM Program
Idania Reyes	Director	Student Equity Program
Irene Graff	Director	Research and Planning
Lisa Mednick - Takami	Director	Professional Development Coordinator
Sheryl Kunisaki	Assistant Director	Learning Resource Center, Library
Chris Jeffries	Co-President Academic Senate	Counselor
Claudia Striepe	Co-President Academic Senate	Bibliographic Instruction Librarian
Arturo Martinez	Basic Skills Coordinator	Mathematical Sciences
Scott Kushigemachi	Basic Skills Coordinator	Humanities
Brian Mims	Faculty Coordinator / Counselor	Project Success
Cynthia Mosqueda	Faculty Coordinator / Counselor	First Year Experience
Griselda Castro	Faculty Coordinator / Counselor	Puente Program
Nikki Barber	Faculty Coordinator / Counselor	KEAS Program
Maribel Hernandez	Counselor	Puente Program
Rachel Ketai	Faculty	Puente Co-Coordinator/Humanities
Jason Suarez	Faculty	Professor Behavior Social Sciences
Nicole Mardesich	Student	Associated Student Organization
Arianna Villasor	Student	Associated Student Organization
Nicholas Castro	Student	Associated Student Organization
Jener Carbonell	Student	Associated Student Organization
Luis Carrueta	SI Coordinator	Supplemental Instruction
Marci Myers	Research Analyst	Institutional Research
Alexis Estwick	Program Director	Foster & Kinship Care
Ann Libadisos	Administrative Assistant	Student Equity Program
Connie Zendate	CTE Coordinator	Industry & Technology
Barbara Budovich	Writing Center Coordinator	Humanities