Trustees hold meetings on education equity

Efforts being made to remedy the ‘achievement gap’

By Don Clyde
The Guardsman

Sonja Holman speaks from the podium to (L-R) trustees Steve Ngo, Chris Jackson, Josh Nielsen and John Rizzo during an Ocean campus student equity meeting on Feb. 9. JOSEPH PHILLIPS / THE GUARDSMAN
Sonja Holman speaks from the podium to (L-R) trustees Steve Ngo, Chris Jackson, Josh Nielsen and John Rizzo during an Ocean campus student equity meeting on Feb. 9. JOSEPH PHILLIPS / THE GUARDSMAN

Students, faculty and administrators from City College told a panel of trustees the problems facing underrepresented populations and put forward solutions to bridge student achievement gaps during a series of Student Equity Hearings.

Speakers directed their concerns about financial aid, student employment, student support services, retention programs and basic skills to trustees Chris Jackson, Steve Ngo and student trustee Josh Nielsen on Feb. 9 to 11, 17 and 18.

Students who identify as African American, Native American, Filipino, Latino and Pacific Islander are 19 to 21 percent less likely to complete two- or four-year degrees than their white and Asian counterparts, according to the City College generated Student Achievement Gap and Social Equity Report released in October 2009.

“Let’s face it, if you do not have a good focus of getting into the college, if you do not have your support, if you do not have jobs and financial aid, it’s extremely difficult in this world to be a successful student,” Chancellor Don Griffin said at the first day of hearings.

Financial Aid runaround
Jackson said about 85 percent of City College students qualify for some form of financial aid, but only around 40 percent apply.

Several students said the process of acquiring aid in the form of grants, scholarships and loans was too daunting due to the number of offices spread around Ocean campus.

“The paperwork is just too much,” City College student Crissy Leuma said. “My deepest concern is why can’t we have a space for all of these things to be one-stop.”

Jorge Bell, dean of financial aid, said he was working with the chancellor to establish a centralized location in the new Multi-use Facility — formerly known as the Joint Use Facility — to house scholarship, financial aid, admissions and records and counseling offices.

Others said lines at the current financial aid office are just too long and drive students away. A major concern was the lack of knowledge among incoming students about aid services.

Nielsen suggested that information about aid programs could be made available to new students during the matriculation process.

City College student Laura Medina, 20, advocated on behalf of undocumented AB 540 students.
“They’re afraid that if they speak out about their concerns they’ll be deported. They’re afraid if they ask for what they need they’ll be denied,” she said.

AB 540 students qualify for many scholarships, but are prohibited from applying for those that require U.S. citizenship or residency. Medina said there is only one AB 540-specific scholarship available.

Even more students were upset about current hiring practices for on-campus jobs due to paperwork bureaucracy and multiple tuberculosis screening procedures leading to several weeks of processing.

“New hiring has taken up to two months,” according to Tracy Faulkner, director of the Family Resource Center. “The TB process is very onerous.”

Support services covered
The number of counselors available to students has been hit hard due to California’s budget crisis.

Lindy McKnight, dean of counseling and student support, said her department, which supports incoming students, has approximately 1,200 students per counselor. After completing 23 units of credit courses, students roll over into the department of continuing student counseling.

Bill Goodyear, chair of the continuing student counseling department, said his staffing ratios were about 1,000 students per counselor. Consensus among counselors at the hearings was that about 200 students per counselor was “acceptable.”

Ngo acknowledged the current student-to-counselor ratio was “pretty awful.”

“In my department alone we lost 10,000 hours for the fall in counselor contact with students,” Goodyear said regarding City College budget cuts.

“I don’t know whether, in terms of the current fiscal crisis, much impact can be made if we cannot hire the necessary professionals to do the work,” said Robert Clark, chair of the multicultural retention services department, counselor and professor with the African American studies department.

Prerequisites criticized
Ngo said 91 percent of African Americans and Latinos are not testing into the collegiate level regarding math and English skills. In contrast, 84 percent of Filipinos test into pre-collegiate levels.

One of the major problems facing students with low-level English skills is a long series of English courses required before advancing to transferable English 1A and above, according to Bruce Smith, dean of liberal arts. He said City College has one of the longest programs among community colleges, with some students taking years just to come up to collegiate level.

He said about 14 to 21 percent of students who pass a basic English class do not opt to move into the next class in the sequence. Several students also said they wished the classes were available with a Pass/Not Pass option.

Another problem has been access to classes. Smith said about 2,400 students could not get into English classes last semester.

Dennis Piontkowski, chair of the mathematics department, also said access is a barrier to student success.  He said the elimination of 2010 summer school amounted to 56 canceled math sections, about 15 percent of a year’s total.

“Across the board from low-level math courses to high-level math courses, the success rates for African American, Filipino and Pacific Islander students are much lower than the general population,” he said. “We need to have a major initiative at this college to encourage Latino, African American, Filipino and Pacific Islander students to aim high.”

Next steps
Jackson, Ngo and Nielsen said they are compiling the testimonies of all who spoke during the Student Equity Hearings, and are working to bridge the achievement gap through new policy.

Their findings will be discussed at the next board of trustees meeting 33 Gough St. in San Francisco on Feb. 25.