Equity Leadership Alliance
San Diego Mesa College has joined with 60+ institutions to participate in the California Community College Equity Leadership Alliance hosted by the University of Southern California Race & Equity Center.
Starting June 2020, the Center will host a dozen eConvenings, each on a particular
aspect of racial equity. These high-quality professional learning experiences will
be held virtually throughout the year, one per month. Four-hour learning modules will
be delivered by the 62 experts who teach in USC Equity Institutes. These instructors
are well respected leaders of national higher education associations, highly-cited
professors who study race relations and people of color, chief diversity officers
and other experienced administrators, and specialists from the USC Race and Equity
Center.
eConvening modules will focus mostly on strategies and practical approaches. While
credible research will undergird them, modules will not be theoretical, abstract,
or inaccessibly academic. These four-hour professional learning experiences will be
highly engaging. Instructors will use contemporary cases of equity dilemmas and racial
crises on community college campuses. Emphasis will be placed on learning from sagas
that have recently occurred elsewhere; learning how to get ahead of situations and
reducing risk of crisis; and learning actionable equity leadership strategies. Participants
will also learn about evolving trends pertaining to diverse community college students
and employees.
The first three hours of each eConvening will be devoted to content delivery. In the
final hour, representatives from each institution will be taught how to teach what
they have learned to other colleagues on their campuses. They will return to work
that same day with shareable tools and resources. This will reduce the necessity for
and cost of bringing in outside consultants to deliver one-time, disjointed equity-related
workshops. There is no registration cost for up to five representatives (faculty and/or
staff) per college per eConvening. A college can send the same five employees to all
12 eConvenings, or a total of 60 different representatives across the dozen eConvenings
offered annually.
Virtual Equity Resource Portal
The Center is developing an online repository of resources and tools for Alliance
member colleges. Downloadable equity-related rubrics, readings, case studies, videos,
slide decks, and conversation scripts will be included in the portal and accessible
to allemployees at member colleges. Additionally, experts from the Center will occasionally
write and upload two-page briefs in response to equity-related questions that employees
from member colleges post to the platform. In two pages, we will answer the question,
succinctly summarize what research says about the topic, highlight evidence-based
best practices, and conclude with a clear recommendation for action. Every employee
across all levels at each Alliance member college will have 24/7 full access to the
virtual resource portal.
While the portal is being established – visit the following links to access downloadable
materials from recent sessions.
Engaging in Productive Conversations About Race
Presenter: Shaun R. Harper, Ph.D.
Kickoff Session – Summer 2020
http://uscrec.info/cccalliancesummer2020session
Fostering and Sustaining Inclusive Classrooms for Students of Color
Presenter: Shaun R. Harper, Ph.D.
Thursday, September 10, 2020
http://uscrec.info/cccallianceseptember2020session
Understanding and Addressing Implicit Bias
Presenter: Julie R. Posselt, Ph.D.
Monday, October 12, 2020
http://uscrec.info/cccallianceoctober2020session
Understanding and Confronting Anti-Black Racism
Presenter: Frank Harris III, Ed.D.
Thursday, November 12, 2020
http://uscrec.info/cccalliancenovember2020session
Meaningfully Integrating Race Across the Curriculum
Presenter: Shaun R. Harper, Ph.D.
Thursday, December 10, 2020
http://uscrec.info/cccalliancedecember2020session
Recruiting and Hiring Faculty of Color
Presenter: Shaun R. Harper, Ph.D.
Monday, January 25, 2021
https://uscrec.info/cccalliancejanuary2021session
Confronting Explicit Acts of Racism and Racial Violence on Campus
Presenter: Shaun R. Harper, Ph.D.
Thursday, February 18, 2021
https://uscrec.info/cccalliancefebruary2021session
Equity-Minded Student Support Services
Presenter: Frank Harris III, Ed.D.
Friday, March 19, 2021
https://uscrec.info/cccalliancemarch2021session
Implementing AB 705 and Other Legislation in Equitable Ways
Presenter: Shaun R. Harper, Ph.D.
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
https://uscrec.info/cccallianceapril2021session
Recruiting and Strategically Diversifying Staff at All Levels
Presenter: Wilmon A. Christian III, Ed.D. and Brandi Janious
Tuesday, May 4, 2021
https://uscrec.info/cccalliancemay2021session
Accountability and Incentives for Advancing Racial Equity
Presenter: Estela Mara Bensimon, Ed.D.
June 2, 2021
https://uscrec.info/cccalliancejune2021session
Creating Equitable Pathways to Leadership Roles for Employees of Color
Presenter: Shaun Harper, Ph.D.
Friday, July 16, 2021
https://uscrec.info/cccalliancejuly2021session
Opposing the Erasure of Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans
Presenter: Daniel Soodjinda, Ed.D.
Monday, August 2, 2021
https://uscrec.info/cccallianceaugust2021session
Campus Climate Surveys
The Center’s National Assessment of Collegiate Campus Climates (NACCC) has been administered
to more than 500,000 students at colleges and universities in every geographic region
of the United States, including 11 California community colleges. The NACCC is a rigorous,
expert-validated quantitative survey that measures belonging and inclusion, the frequency
and depth of cross-cultural interactions, students’ appraisals of institutional commitment
to diversity and inclusion, and other related topics.Using the NACCC as our guide,
the Center is developing a pair of workplace climate surveys for Alliance member colleges:
one for staff at all levels, and another for faculty (including full-time, adjunct,
and part-time instructors). These two surveys will focus on topics like employees’
perceptions of equitable opportunities for promotion and advancement; sense of belonging;
how different groups of employees differently experience the workplace environment;
employees’ encounters with racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and other –isms
at work; employee satisfaction with the College’s responses to reports of abuse, unfair
treatment, and climate problems; and appraisals of the College’s commitment to equity.Alliance
member colleges will benefit from this trio of campus climate surveys on a three-year
rotational basis –the student survey in year one, the faculty survey in year two,
and the staff survey in the third year of membership. The Center will manage data
collection and analysis.
Each Alliance member college will receive written reports with its results and practical
recommendations, as well as data files with de-identified responses. Colleges will
be able to disaggregate survey data by race, gender, sexual orientation, (dis)ability,
and other demographic variables. Also, colleges will be able to disaggregate data
from the two employee surveys by role type and level. Additionally, for each survey
we will be able to tell colleges how they compare to others in the Alliance.
