Outstanding Faculty

FACULTY MODERATORS STEP UP TO DISMANTLE RACISM

In July, Dr. Carrie Hutchinson and Dr. Donte Newman introduced and moderated online webinars focusing on the present and historic damage racial injustice has perpetrated on communities of color, why it continues to occur, and ways in which all of us might work to implement positive change.

Hutchinson’s “Disrupting Racism: Foundations for Allies Seeking to be Accomplices” focused on identifying common roadblocks experienced by people with racial privilege who want to fight racism. Newman’s “The America We Know” series; co-facilitated by Interim Coordinator of Equity, Diversity, and Cultural Competency Roxane Byrne; is a monthly offering for the “racially inept to the racially competent” that brings together marginalized voices to critically examine racial injustice in America. The professors weighed in on these conversations and why they are crucial in implementing change, especially in our campus community.

Why, in your opinion, is the conversation about race important for staff and faculty at SBCC? How might our students of color benefit?

Hutchinson: The conversation about race and racism is important for everyone in our society, and SBCC is not exempt. Given SBCC’s critical role in educating our students, serving our community, and modeling best practices for diversity, equity and inclusion, the conversation about race is just as important here as it is anywhere, perhaps even more so. Students of all races benefit when SBCC faculty, staff, administrators, and other students gain racial literacy- that is, the ability to understand the impact of race in our society and hold meaningful, well-informed discussions about it.

Newman: It’s incredibly important to have honest, open, and transparent campus conversations about race because all of SBCC employees unconsciously hold implicit racial biases. We all hold hidden biases because of our socialization in a society that preferences dominant groups over non-dominant groups. It is through honest conversations where we can begin to radically rethink how we think about employees and students of color on our campus.

Describe your hope for the main takeaway(s) of your presentation.

Hutchinson: People with racial privilege who are newly interested in racial justice must identify our mutual interest and personal stake in dismantling systems of oppression so that we approach this work as though our lives depend on it, because they do. We must work under the leadership of people of color who are at the forefront of this movement, while identifying the ways in which we can leverage our racial privilege to best partner in a multi-racial coalition for our shared societal liberation.

Newman: My hope is that people will feel empowered and more confident to learn about racism, talk about racism, write about racism, challenge racism and practice anti-racism to dismantle racism.

ADVISOR OF THE YEAR

At its annual convention last November, the National Communication Association (NCA) awarded Associate Professor Sarah Hock, Chair of the Department of Communication and Faculty Adviser of Sigma Chi Eta Communication Honor Society, the Lynn M. Disbrow National Advisor of the Year Award for the second time. Professor Hock and two of her students were also selected to give a presentation, which focused on how Sigma Chi Eta creates a space for belonging at SBCC for high-achieving, leadership-oriented students.

PETER GEORGAKIS: 50 YEARS OF TEACHING, AND COUNTING...

Peter Georgakis, professor of mathematics, has taught for 50 years, 35 of them at SBCC. Georgakis was awarded the Presidential Award by the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges in 2011. The most prestigious award that the Mathematical Association gives, it is awarded every two years to an individual for outstanding contributions and dedicated service to two-year mathematics education. Peter was also the 1997 Hayward Award recipient, the highest award given to a California Community College instructor, and was named the SBCC Faculty Lecturer in 2005. He was a high school Teacher of the Year Award winner in 1976 and the Career Education Corporation’s 2006 Educator of the Year.

A FOND FAREWELL TO TREASURED FACULTY

Faculty members with more than 300 years of combined service to the college said farewell in the last academic year. That number far from sums up the long-standing legacies each of them has left to the institution and its students. We thank them for their incredible service and wish them all the best in their retirements.

Kathie Adams, 19 years Elizabeth Bowman, 13 years Randy Bublitz, 27 years Dina Castillo, 31 years Annette Cordero, 22 years Chella Courington, 12 years Sally Ghizzoni, 24 years Morris Hodges, 30 years Charles Melendez, 29 years Cathy Schermer, 10 years

Sandy Starkey, 13 years Donna Terpening, 11 years Sheila Wiley, 16 years Ann Wilkinson, 34 years Ronald Wopat, 29 years