A Community of KINSHIP “LEONARDO DORANTES LECTURE” WITH DR. MARC LAMONT HILL In November, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill came to campus to deliver the 2019 Leonardo Dorantes Memorial Lecture, “Building Community in an Hour of Chaos.” A noted scholar and award-winning journalist, Dr. Hill offered a critical analysis of the current social and political moment. By identifying key issues, challenges, controversies and trends that have emerged or lingered during this challenging time, he outlined the work that must be done to sustain the progress of the “Freedom Struggle.” Moving beyond mere critique, he provided concrete solutions, as well as hope and possibility for healing our national, local and university communities. His bold vision of the future, where social progress and the pursuit of equality depend on listening to each other while adopting a fearless attitude toward change, was enthusiastically received by the audience of faculty, staff, students and members of the community.
CHANCELLOR OAKLEY’S “VISION FOR SUCCESS” VISIT TO CAMPUS “As a Community College, you are at the epicenter of all things that are going on in the community,” noted California Community Colleges Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley when he visited SBCC as part of his listening tour of all 155 California Community Colleges (CCC) last fall. The purpose of the tour was to discuss the CCC’s Vision for Success, its goals and the state’s progress on achieving those goals. Oakley described their “Vision for Success” in its most basic terms as making sure that students from all backgrounds succeed in reaching their goals and improving their families and communities. He defined and then elaborated on six specific “bold and straightforward” goals: • Increase credential obtainment by 20 percent • Increase transfer by 35 percent to UC and CSU • Decrease unit obtainment for a degree • Increase employment for CTE (Career Technical Education) students • Reduce and erase equity gaps • Eliminate regional gaps He spoke seriously of how “our students are going through very challenging times,” namely, “war, recession, a gig economy or an economy that forces them to continually change jobs without having reliable access to health and welfare benefits
26 |
or retirement, growing housing insecurity and growing food insecurity. We have to adapt to help them meet those challenges,” he stressed. “We were built to be the most adaptive system of higher education in the country.”
| 2019-2020 Report to the Community
