Clarke, Chris: Are we waiting until we get enough for a quorum before we start, or…
Clarke, Chris: And Renee, do you know… How many we need to…
Clarke, Chris: To be able to do that?
Vigil, Renee: No, the meeting should be started. I'm just waiting to see if Rebecca's gonna hop on, because I know she had a meeting right before this. Yeah, there she is.
Clarke, Chris: And how many do we need to…
Fisher, Tracy: of.
Clarke, Chris: Make a quote.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Hi, I'm sorry, I had to, like, reconnect my…
Clarke, Chris: Zoom and…
Goldware, Rebeccah: And blah blah. So…
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay, I missed part of it. Renee, who are we missing?
Vigil, Renee: I'm double checking right now, but I think we're just missing a few others. You have forums, so you can technically start.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay, Tracy, are you ready?
Fisher, Tracy: Okay.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay.
Goldware, Rebeccah: So, we'll do Carl to order, we'll do welcomed, around, because, you know, we don't get to meet very often, and I'm not sure that this… this group has met before. So, I'm Rebecca Older, I'm the Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement and Economic Development, and Tracy.
Fisher, Tracy: I'm Tracy Fisher, I'm the Director of the Center for Social Justice and Civil Liberties.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Star?
Star Taylor: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Star Taylor, Professor of English at RCC, Vice President of our Academic Senate, and glad to be here.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Thank you. Is it Sedine?
Sabean Scott: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Sabine Scott, Instructional Department Coordinator at Moreno Valley College.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Thank you, and Chris.
Clarke, Chris: Hey everybody, Chris Clark here. I'm the Executive Director of External Relations and Strategic Communications.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Mache.
Rodriguez, LaShe: Hi, good afternoon, everyone. I'm Lashay Rodriguez, the Director of Government Relations for the District. My video's not working, so I have to use my avatar today.
Goldware, Rebeccah: You're hilarious, I've not seen this avatar, only Deb has the only one that I've seen with an avatar. This is great, okay.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Attached, I think it's starting on page 2, are the, minutes from the last time, and the group has changed a little bit. Sabine, I think you and I and Chris are the only ones that were here. Oh, and Tracy. So,
Goldware, Rebeccah: If there are any questions, comments on the minutes last time, I would like to take a motion, because these are things that go back to DSPC.
Goldware, Rebeccah: So when anybody's ever ready for a motion on the minutes.
Star Taylor: So, Rebecca, can we move, even if we were not in attendance? Yeah. Okay.
Goldware, Rebeccah: You're not… you're voting that the information is provided, not necessarily that it's correct.
Star Taylor: Okay, so I move that we accept the minutes from the… is it April?
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yes?
Star Taylor: April meeting.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Thank you, Star. Can I get a second?
Fisher, Tracy: Beckett?
Goldware, Rebeccah: Thank you. Is there anybody opposed?
Goldware, Rebeccah: or abstaining.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Then we will take them by consensus, thank you.
Goldware, Rebeccah: We've got, under goals and activities, and one of the things that we'll ask about, at the end is other ideas, future ideas for, discussion, but at this point, I'm going to turn it over to Lachey.
Goldware, Rebeccah: To kind of walk through our legislative plan, just to share a brief update with y'all, and then if there are questions, concerns, this is what was presented to, the Board of Trustees.
Goldware, Rebeccah: For their consideration, and it will be up for a vote at this next meeting.
Rodriguez, LaShe: Great, thank you so much for that, Rebecca. Yes, so, at the board meeting, I was able to provide them with a plan for our upcoming legislative, calendar. Seeing that the, conversely, we have now gone out of the government shutdown, we can now move forward with a continuing resolution that will go till January 30th.
Rodriguez, LaShe: As of right now, we've had us over several different topics of priorities that we've had. I do, to share my screen… well, I can't share my screen now, because I won't do it with Avatar. But we had, various
Rodriguez, LaShe: priorities such as student housing, addressing financial aid fraud, in addition to financial aid, expansion for students, who have DACA, immigration, multi-mixed immigration status, as well as expanding the amount of financial aid to be available. We also have, district,
Rodriguez, LaShe: capital overlay plan and maintenance as part of our priority, in addition to looking at expansion through the Marino Valley School of Public Safety, and looking at our different
Rodriguez, LaShe: work… excuse me, workforce pipeline projects that we have going on through the Inland Empire Technical Trade Center, as well as addressing different student basic needs and our student diverse populations, such as students with disabilities or LGBTQIU, as well as working class students as well. So we have quite a bit, of, priorities that we're going under. It does fall under the State Chancellor's 2030 vision program, so we are
Rodriguez, LaShe: looking at access and equity, access, or equity and access, equity and support and equity and success, that we can provide. So, coming for 2026, it looks like we're going to be a little bit more on the defense mode, federally, as we're looking to protect the Department of Education, as well as some of the workforce, funding that we receive, as well as grants, so that we can continue providing services to students.
Rodriguez, LaShe: And when we look at the state side, we're looking to see how some of those potential shortcomings coming federally may impact us on the state, and how the governor plans to fill those gaps. So, we're keeping, you know, our foot on the ground about that, and seeing what that's going to look like as far as what will be available to us, and making sure our members are staying informed about that. So we are planning to do some legislative visits coming up in January.
Rodriguez, LaShe: going to Sacramento to visit our state assembly and senators, and we are looking to see what things may possibly look like in DC. By that time, the continuing resolution will be ending, so we're not sure if we'll be in a full new budget for the legislative cycle, or if we'll be in another resolution going for another 90 days. So, there's still a lot of uncertainty on that, but we'll continue to make sure that we express some of the challenges and barriers that these
Rodriguez, LaShe: changes in executive orders may have impacting our students and our staff, to our legislators, so they can stay informed and to help advocate on our behalf. With the recent passage of Prop 50, we now have a new district line. We had, Congressman Takano, who now covers… who does cover, both campuses of Moreno Valley and Riverside, but now the Norco campus, which was formerly covered by Congressman Calvert, is now by Congresswoman Torres.
Rodriguez, LaShe: So we have a new legislator in the area that we can now work with on advocating for additional funding. So, and I know that she's been great partners with Congressman Takano, who's been a great partner and advocate for us, so we look forward to that partnership on that end.
Rodriguez, LaShe: Coming up on that, and so we are looking at the fact that 2026 is an election year, so we will have our primaries coming up and looking at action plans to engage students, as well as, our legislatures on,
Rodriguez, LaShe: just our planning, but also seeing who's going to be running up and who's going against, and just trying to stay informed on who these candidates are and who may potentially be some of our new elected offices. And I'm also looking here locally, too, because we do have some local seats coming up through our state and our county supervisors, so making sure that we're staying informed on that. We actually recently had a educational update of the chancellor
Rodriguez, LaShe: provided to the Board of Supervisors about last week, giving them an update on some of our workforce economic development initiatives to the board, so they can stay engaged with us and keep us on their radar, especially as they're looking for funding from the state when we're looking at workforce opportunities, Loyola authorization, as well as housing and affordable student housing opportunities with the county, and to expand and strengthen that
Rodriguez, LaShe: partnership with them. So, it was well received, and we look forward to continuing working with our county supervisors as our local legislators. So, I think that's kind of a good little snapshot of things I've been working on this year, but also what we have forward to looking into 2026.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Any questions for Lachey?
Goldware, Rebeccah: Go ahead, sir.
Star Taylor: Thank you, Lachey, that was a whole lot. Is there any way you could send out a synopsis of what you went through? What you just read?
Rodriguez, LaShe: Sure.
Goldware, Rebeccah: I was gonna say, can you send your presentation along with the, the attachment of the LEDGE program?
Rodriguez, LaShe: Yes, yes, I was hoping to be able to have that today on my screen, but it just wasn't working, but yes, I will send that to the group right after.
Goldware, Rebeccah: That would be great. If you could just send it to that civic engagement email, that way everybody will get it, that would be great. Perfect.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Anything else?
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay. Thank you, Lachey.
Goldware, Rebeccah: this kind of drives and ties into the next item. 2026 is the election year, there's a lot of stuff going on. From the college perspective, Tracy's got stuff that she can do at the center,
Goldware, Rebeccah: But what… things…
Goldware, Rebeccah: Do you think we need to be focused on, right? Civic engagement is meant to be pretty broad and
Goldware, Rebeccah: the areas that we can engage and support. So, one of the things that my group would need to know, specifically Lachey, but then also how this committee may or may not be able to support with, the operational piece of it, because I don't want the committee to get in college, like, activity work, but set, kind of.
Goldware, Rebeccah: platform of where we can go. So what do you all think that this committee can do to support the colleges and the work that they're doing at the
Goldware, Rebeccah: campus level, and then outreach into the greater community if and where we need to, supporting the work that Tracy does in her day job with the Center, and how the Center can be more of a resource.
Goldware, Rebeccah: And the ways that this committee can support it. Again, I don't want to get in the work that Tracy does, but create that overarching umbrella so that she can have this space where that work happens. So, as we look forward to 26, because this committee's not going to meet probably more than once a primary semester, unless there's something coming up and we need to, but what is it that y'all…
Goldware, Rebeccah: Think we need to…
Goldware, Rebeccah: kind of set some eyes for in the next year, in addition to the Ledge plan, or maybe there are things in the ledge plan once you get it, that you think we should focus on, which would also be fine. But I just kind of wanted to throw that out there. Tracy and I had started some conversations in that space, but, I think all three colleges have voting.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Right, Lachey? They all… I think all three have voting connections to the county.
Rodriguez, LaShe: Yes, they do. They either are designated as a vote center or a drop-off location, in addition to doing, student civic engagement, voter registration, and or inviting local electates to campuses to discuss some of the roles that they have. So, that's been some of the events I've been a part of with them.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yep.
Goldware, Rebeccah: So… What else? What else do you think?
Goldware, Rebeccah: Ideas, plans for this next year, we should be looking at.
Star Taylor: Rebecca, if I may, sitting, in the academic senate seat, for RCC, it would be really helpful, because what Tracy does is, a huge lift when it comes to events and anything out of the center, but I think that this group could be more visible
Star Taylor: In regards to keeping us abreast of what's going on statewide. Because I'm more than certain that the vast majority of RCC, Moreno Valley, and Norco don't know what's going on.
Star Taylor: They may… they may know on our smaller scale, like in our immediate area, but just not maybe statewide. So I think having the information readily available for, the Senate to distribute, or the president to distribute, or just, maybe come on campus to have a talk, you know, when it comes to elections or any legislation… legislation.
Star Taylor: I can talk. That would affect the work we do, college-wide and even district-wide, I think will be helpful, especially as we navigate the waters of all the ABs that I've come across that affect what we do on a day-to-day basis and affect our students. I think will be really, helpful to all of us.
Goldware, Rebeccah: So, just to piece that apart a little bit, would it be… so, Lachey has… on government relations, there's, like, a tracker of all the bills that, on any given moment, that Lachey is following, and she sits on kind of an ad hoc committee with the state of government relations folks.
Goldware, Rebeccah: And then there's a state resource. Like, would the Senate…
Goldware, Rebeccah: I'm gonna focus on RCC. Would RCC want to see, like, even if it's just a written update to go to the Senate as opposed to a presentation that y'all have access to, maybe, like, each semester? It's certain… would that be…
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay.
Star Taylor: Would love it, would love it. That's why I wanted her to, send a synopsis of what she went through, because I… we have a Senate meeting on Monday, so it's very timely, so I can read off those themes, I mean…
Goldware, Rebeccah: dates.
Star Taylor: capture everything, but I can give an update to what, she presented, because it was great information, and I think that, the work that you all, have done and are doing, is important that a lot of us don't even know exist. So, I think to continue to be informed, I think that would be really helpful.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay, Lachey, let's talk about that and what we can produce for the Senate's
Goldware, Rebeccah: on a primary semester basis, so that way y'all will get an update. And I think it needs to go to the college senates versus the district senate, because I don't know that…
Goldware, Rebeccah: I mean, we can send it to the three of them, too, but I think more people engage at the college level, right? So, I think more faculty will see it, and probably more classified, too.
Star Taylor: They, they will, they will. So I think that I'm sending it out, campus-wide, so… so the college's presidents, vice president, and, secretary can have it.
Star Taylor: at our local, meetings, and then, our president… our president at RCC right now sits in the district seat, so it's a double dip. So, all three of them meet, and then they can disseminate in their smaller group, so I think, it's a win-win.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay.
Rodriguez, LaShe: You know…
Goldware, Rebeccah: Go ahead, Chris. Yeah.
Clarke, Chris: I'm almost thinking that…
Rodriguez, LaShe: our monthly Chancellor's report that we do for government relations could be the foundation of that. Sure, just was thinking that, Chris. Sure.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Let's start there from an operations standpoint. That may be… I'm not trying to have y'all do more work, that's not…
Goldware, Rebeccah: That's what this is.
Clarke, Chris: It would help it get better distributed, and it does have links to all of the pending legislation and everything already built into it, so… Yeah.
Goldware, Rebeccah: And then somebody would read it.
Clarke, Chris: I think Trustee Thinn reads all… He does.
Goldware, Rebeccah: You're right, Carrie does read it. That's true.
Rodriguez, LaShe: Oh, yeah, yeah, I was just thinking along those lines, Chris, so…
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay, no, that's a good… good. I'm happy to not… Tracy, did you have something?
Fisher, Tracy: I did, just to Star's point, and I'm just thinking about,
Fisher, Tracy: I'm thinking about… and maybe this exists already, and I don't know, but,
Fisher, Tracy: So, just… it does feel like right now we're really inundated with,
Fisher, Tracy: just a number of bills, and just… it's a shifting terrain, right? So, just thinking about…
Fisher, Tracy: Are there mechanisms at place at the colleges for the students to stay up to date?
Fisher, Tracy: on… On… on this, on this very, you know, like… if…
Fisher, Tracy: if… if… if indeed, a lot of people don't know what the, what, you know, the kind of shifts and the changes in the bills, or what is on the table, I just wonder, not to give the students so much, but just, like, I don't know, just…
Fisher, Tracy: are there… are there things already in place where they are aware of a lot of these kind of shifts and things that are happening? But maybe it's through the clubs on campus? Don't know, but I'm just.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yeah.
Goldware, Rebeccah: I'm thinking, yeah, Leslie, maybe we have a, you… let's find the best time, because…
Goldware, Rebeccah: We, as we head towards the end of the semester, it may not be the best, but talking with ASRCC, because maybe we do the same thing that we're doing with the senates with the Student Association, and frankly, they may have some that they want us to follow that are not on the list.
Rodriguez, LaShe: Yeah, that'd be great, and I know that we have the GR website where I do the tracking of legislation, as well as we have our legislative platform on there, and all of our elected offices, and their information on there, too, so that could be a good, just a useful tool… General. Some way to get it out there so that everyone knows where to, like, reach it.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yeah, agreed.
Fisher, Tracy: what… what… and then I'll just say this one more thing. What I was thinking about in particular, and I think, Kala, this is their last year, but College Core, for example, might be a place for that, right?
Goldware, Rebeccah: Sure. They're not… it's not getting renewed?
Fisher, Tracy: The state hasn't said anything.
Goldware, Rebeccah: For a calla?
Fisher, Tracy: Yeah, I… I think…
Goldware, Rebeccah: We don't know.
Fisher, Tracy: Okay. I think this might be their last.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay.
Fisher, Tracy: Yeah, but not for… but College Core will… is going on. So…
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay.
Fisher, Tracy: That's an, you know, a space in which
Fisher, Tracy: they, I think, would be… you know, it's a great space for the… for that information to funnel through.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yes.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Any… so there's… we got a couple of pieces. Anything else for right now? We can keep coming back to this, like, this is something that we should keep doing, but right now, really, it's in Lachey space, so that we can engage and get information out,
Goldware, Rebeccah: to people.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yeah. Okay.
Sabean Scott: Oh, go ahead. I was just gonna add that at Moreno Valley College, we have the Mountain Lion Update, and it's a submission that goes out to MVC all, and that might be a good place to put updates on legislation and things happening as far as the election next year.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yeah.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Lachey, when you go out there, who… who do you normally communicate with at NBC? Does, like, Mickey send stuff? Like, who sends stuff out?
Rodriguez, LaShe: Rosalinda, mainly, are the two, probably Julio sometimes, just kind of depends on the event or what they're looking for in the engagement, but…
Sabean Scott: Leslie Vargas has been sending out the Mountain Lion update.
Rodriguez, LaShe: Yeah. Yeah.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay.
Rodriguez, LaShe: Sure.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Do any of the colleges have,
Goldware, Rebeccah: I guess, committees like this as a counterpart, or no? Everybody's like, College Core is a thing with Kala, and they have their working group, but, like, I'm not sure that there are committees at the college level that…
Goldware, Rebeccah: would mirror… Even doing the civic engagement stuff.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Are you… Thank you, Star. I don't… I don't know, Tracy, you're not aware of anything, right?
Fisher, Tracy: I'm not, I just know that each campus has, each college, rather, sorry, each college has a college core.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay.
Fisher, Tracy: But, like.
Goldware, Rebeccah: If somebody was doing a, A land acknowledgement.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Like, there's not a committee…
Fisher, Tracy: They would pick a committee that's already in existence and or form an ad hoc, right?
Goldware, Rebeccah: to do… Sabine, you don't know anything. Sorry, I assume you would jump in if there was something unique at RCC, but…
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Like, because one of the things… go ahead.
Star Taylor: I think, the thing about, like, land acknowledgements and all that, I think those come when people… and we're in a meeting, like a big meeting like Flex, that's the only… I think the only meeting I've heard RCC do a land acknowledgement. I don't think that there's a separate committee
Star Taylor: for that.
Goldware, Rebeccah: So that work would happen in a vacuum, not up through… okay. And so this is…
Goldware, Rebeccah: similar, but not… So Chris is running marketing, and some of the colleges have, like, their own marketing committee, and some of them don't. So I'm just… as Tracy and I were talking about the functionality of this whole committee.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Like, it… we're trying to find out… figure out, is there a counterpart at the colleges, or is this kind of its unique body, and then…
Goldware, Rebeccah: moving it forward. So we'll… at this point, we'll start with engagement with both the senates and the students, and we already have a centralized resource within government relations.
Goldware, Rebeccah: at least for tracking bills, and then we'll, and the election stuff, we can have that run through what government relations is, and then coordinate with the three colleges.
Goldware, Rebeccah: But outside of that, if this group is gonna do stuff, I don't want it to just land on…
Goldware, Rebeccah: the Center for Social Justice, because that's where we think it's supposed to go. So we'll have to be thoughtful in what other things that we pick up, if it's policies or guidelines or, like, land acknowledgement, we've kind of left, and it's laying with the board. And so they say it at the outset of a board meeting, but I can't recall…
Goldware, Rebeccah: if we did land acknowledgement at the graduations this last year, like, my brain's not working that far back.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yeah, I can't remember. So, it would have been the last two years that we would have had land acknowledgement if we did it during commencement, but I'm not sure that that happened. So, I know we do it at the board meeting, it's on board agendas, but I don't know where else we do that, and
Goldware, Rebeccah: Like, where that would land for review, because at some point, we should probably…
Goldware, Rebeccah: look at it, but I don't know that that's necessarily a committee's job, right? So.
Clarke, Chris: Rebecca?
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yeah, go ahead, Chris.
Clarke, Chris: Just interjecting one thing.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yeah.
Clarke, Chris: Well, one of the things that we've been doing in the district's newsletter is including an article about government relations, and in that article, Lachey has been addressing… and that's on a monthly basis, she's been addressing legislation that's key, or that's coming up.
Clarke, Chris: And has included links.
Clarke, Chris: So, that's one way that we've been trying to communicate that. I think it's a good idea to maybe
Clarke, Chris: Add it to the… Each of the colleges has an internal newsletter that's for their planning and development.
Clarke, Chris: And so… We can add either that article to those, Or we could,
Clarke, Chris: I still kind of like the idea of a
Clarke, Chris: maybe a quarterly newsletter or something after we have our meetings with the Chancellor, so that we can have it vetted and that this is the official things that we want to communicate.
Goldware, Rebeccah: From… from an advocacy perspective?
Clarke, Chris: Yeah, yeah.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay.
Clarke, Chris: And we could do something quarterly, and we could have,
Clarke, Chris: It'd be similar to the Chancellor's update, but that way we could send it to students, classified, faculty, management, you know, all of the different constituency groups, if
Clarke, Chris: If that makes sense to do it that way. I don't Yeah, necessarily, of doing…
Clarke, Chris: A different one for each group.
Goldware, Rebeccah: I, yeah, totally agree. Well, there's not that much… we're too close to each other to have that variation.
Goldware, Rebeccah: what it… so my thought is to bring this back to this collective in, let's say, March, because if that works, then we can start doing that as the end of the…
Goldware, Rebeccah: One is we come into election cycles, right? May revise could be when the… maybe we send it out at the end of May, post… as the budget… state budget is, moving through, and then at the… as the ledge program. So let's think about when the best times for those would be.
Goldware, Rebeccah: My suggestion is that we bring all of that back as examples to this committee in… you can say yes or no from a operations perspective, and we're just gonna fold it into your newsletters. But if there are pieces missing, then you can be like, hey, what about?
Goldware, Rebeccah: But intent-wise, we'll continue to move through our operations so that, one, senates are going to get hit in the spring, students are gonna get hit, and then we'll look at doing it in the newsletter so that there's…
Fisher, Tracy: And then, obviously, the reference back to the existing page.
Goldware, Rebeccah: So that people feel more informed and they know where to go. And there's a decent amount of resources on Lache's page that refer people out in terms of, like, right? You've got register to vote and stuff like that on your page, I'm pretty sure.
Rodriguez, LaShe: Yes, we do.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay, cool. Okay, anything else there?
Goldware, Rebeccah: From an outreach plans for 26 and moving things forward.
Clarke, Chris: Okay, cool. I would mention just the…
Clarke, Chris: To let everybody on this committee know where the, government relations page resides. So if you go into the rccd.edu website, and click on institutional… go to the district area, click on Institutional development.
Clarke, Chris: In economic… no, institutional advancement and economic development.
Clarke, Chris: click on that link within the district pages, and then when you go there, you can see that there's a government relations submenu on the left-hand side. So you click on that, and that takes you… that way you can see all of our delegation, you can see the full…
Clarke, Chris: Legislative platform as it's… once it's approved by the board.
Clarke, Chris: You can see… Any grassroots and connection to these, legislation tracking…
Clarke, Chris: That we've got, so you can see all of that on that, government relations page.
Rodriguez, LaShe: Nothing.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Thank you.
Rodriguez, LaShe: I put the link in the chat for anybody who wants to.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yeah. Thanks, LaShey. I, I don't click through like Chris does, because he wants to get credit for all the clicks on all the pages.
Goldware, Rebeccah: I just… I just Google…
Rodriguez, LaShe: Oh, yes.
Goldware, Rebeccah: CD and government relations, and it's the first one that pops. Google's so great. Anyway, no, Chris, you're right. So, anything else, questions, comments?
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay, the next thing that we have on there is maybe… this is my attempt.
Goldware, Rebeccah: So we're gonna start with this committee. We tried a while ago, to get some kind of guidelines that is not an AP, it is not a BP, but guidelines for engaging in political activity. And,
Goldware, Rebeccah: there is a draft on what is page 3 of the agenda. I'm gonna give you all a minute, because I don't know that anybody knew there was a page 3 on the agenda, to kind of look through this. This is
Goldware, Rebeccah: high level. It is not meant to infringe on anybody's First Amendment right. This is purely directed at all of us as people who are paid by this institution as employees, regardless of your classification, and trying to make it so that when elected officials come here.
Goldware, Rebeccah: We know, and we can support appropriately. So, I'm gonna be quiet and give y'all a minute.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Questions, comments?
Goldware, Rebeccah: concerns…
Clarke, Chris: So I've read through and… and
Clarke, Chris: I've read through this one, and I've…
Clarke, Chris: Written and read through other ones that we've done in previous years, and know some of the trouble we get in for suggesting that government relations needs to coordinate our efforts.
Clarke, Chris: So maybe in the guideline heading.
Clarke, Chris: We should talk about that they're… guidelines on… government relations,
Clarke, Chris: As it applies to representing the institution.
Clarke, Chris: and then keep it focused on institutional items instead of talking… I mean, because they know they have the free…
Clarke, Chris: speech rights, and they know they have the right to communicate with their legislators, and I don't want to
Clarke, Chris: Come across patronizing on it, something like that.
Clarke, Chris: But, I think if we can… Talk about…
Clarke, Chris: And talk about, more specifically, the benefits of having us be aware of the political activity that's happening.
Clarke, Chris: So… and we could put more…
Clarke, Chris: toward that. Obviously, I've read this… this one before, and
Clarke, Chris: I think it's a great start, but I think others in this committee might have other suggestions, so I would encourage you to…
Clarke, Chris: you know.
Clarke, Chris: Go through this with a red pen, with suggestions, but let's talk about what we want this document
Clarke, Chris: To do for us.
Clarke, Chris: And due for the government relations, and then…
Clarke, Chris: we'd encourage your feedback and comments on it before it gets widely distributed. This… when we've done this type of thing before, we've had, people, respond,
Clarke, Chris: And I think sometimes without even reading the whole thing, just thinking, oh, they're trying to…
Clarke, Chris: You know, dictate how we… politically, and…
Clarke, Chris: That's not it at all, so we have to be very clear.
Clarke, Chris: What we're doing and… and how that… should be communicated.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yeah, just more flavor. Chris, tried to send one of these out about a year ago, maybe it was a little longer ago than that, and… well, it'd have to be, because Darius was still here. And there was a response to everyone.
Goldware, Rebeccah: So… That's why we're trying. Not because he's gone, because technically he's still here.
Clarke, Chris: One response, I'll…
Goldware, Rebeccah: There was more than one response. But again, I see your point, Chris. But yeah, very much open to feedback. If the collective was like, this is a horrible idea, this is gonna…
Goldware, Rebeccah: not be a good use of resources, the faculty are going to take issue with it. I don't necessarily have an issue… I don't… I'm not concerned that people will take issue with it, because everybody's going to read whatever they want into it.
Goldware, Rebeccah: I'm trying to use it as… not really a compliance piece, but
Goldware, Rebeccah: a place that people know where the boundaries are, a little more clearly defined, and good, bad, right, or wrong, we have electives on our campus all the time, and we don't necessarily know. And…
Goldware, Rebeccah: it's okay when they're coming to give a presentation to a class, but the moment that switches into a campaign-related activity, we got a problem, and I want to make sure that, one, the faculty are protected in their classrooms so that they know
Goldware, Rebeccah: what those boundaries are. Usually they're being invited to a political science classroom, so it's… it's not an issue. But sometimes it is, because theory and practice are different, and if you work in theory and you haven't stayed up on current legislative changes, you may not necessarily know that, certain things
Goldware, Rebeccah: have changed, one, but two, during campaign… during political activities, and campaign time specifically, making sure to give, equal access is important. So,
Goldware, Rebeccah: that's… that's really where it comes from, and giving whoever's sitting in Lachey's role
Goldware, Rebeccah: Like, something to work with to go…
Goldware, Rebeccah: I think for the most part, Reno Valley's really good, like, when they have an event. Like, Lachey's one of the first places they call, and they're like, okay, those are the things that we need to do, but then she's informed. Norco just sent a note, what, earlier this week, and was like, hey, Supervisor Spiegel's coming in January. I'm like, wow, this is great, we normally don't get this kind of notice. This is awesome.
Goldware, Rebeccah: So…
Goldware, Rebeccah: I… Chris, I see your point, and this is… this is really meant for y'all to take a first read. If there's anything that flags initially that's a concern, we will bring this back, because I want to make sure that you have enough time and…
Goldware, Rebeccah: We will send it out to the group, as a collective, so that when we have this next conversation, because my thought is, if there are questions and comments, we address it in the committee, and if they're not, we'll take it through DSPC and…
Goldware, Rebeccah: we'll… we'll see what happens. Again, these are guidelines.
Goldware, Rebeccah: They won't necessarily be, attached to a board policy, but we would reference them in,
Goldware, Rebeccah: as a guideline to link to something else, and probably… I don't know what the correct AP is, but,
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yeah.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Maybe… maybe 3,500, what's… we'll see. But, questions, comments?
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yes.
Star Taylor: I'm reading this, and, first of all, I love that there's a document even existing, filling all this out. But my question is, I'm asking this question because I know somebody who was dismissed, not from the district, but from another institution, for speaking up
Star Taylor: Speaking up on beliefs that were against his institution's beliefs.
Star Taylor: So, my question is, and I'm going to fumble through this question, Should we have…
Star Taylor: an outright statement that… and I know we have a paragraph on here that talks about people speaking on their personal behalf versus the institution's behalf.
Star Taylor: But I'm wondering if we… there's a way to be clearer about if you go out in public.
Star Taylor: let's say I'm not representing RCCD's work, but I have an RCC the,
Star Taylor: you know, shirt on, or RCC, or Norco, or Moreno Valley shirt on, they're gonna automatically assume that I'm speaking on behalf of
Star Taylor: RCC, Norco, or Moreno Valley. So… my fumbled…
Star Taylor: Enfeebled question is, do we need to have… something that states
Star Taylor: You know, if you're going to speak
Star Taylor: you know, on behalf of the institution or the district, you know, do these things. If you're not, you know, I mean, I don't even know what my question is. I'm just…
Star Taylor: Afraid that somebody's gonna go out there and speak on the…
Goldware, Rebeccah: Inadvertently. Yes. No, I hear you. So I think that's where, and…
Goldware, Rebeccah: I've had back and forth with General Counsel on this, right? Because his go-to is, no, it's going to infringe on First Amendment. So, by default, if I'm wearing an RCC shirt, that does not mean I'm speaking on behalf of the institution.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Right? Like, that in and of itself is not going to affirm that that's what I'm doing. It may imply it.
Goldware, Rebeccah: I… I… I agree with that. So let me… let me parse that one out with him a little bit, because the imp… the implication of what… I… yeah, let me,
Goldware, Rebeccah: I'll see how much I can.
Star Taylor: make your question better when I stumble through it, when I talk with him about it. I can stumble, you know, if you want me to stumble through with Keith, by all means, but you know what I'm getting at, right?
Goldware, Rebeccah: I totally do, yeah.
Star Taylor: And, you know, I'm sure Keith will be able to decipher, a fumbled, muddled, attempt, because I know he encounters this
Star Taylor: probably quite a lot, or has had the question, so I know we hosted something about First, you know, the… our freedom of speech and First Amendment, and, he has a lot to say about First Amendment.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Oh, I forgot you guys had that. Like, it was during Flex or something, right?
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yeah, okay.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay, I will raise that with him. Anything… because, frankly, that would happen to faculty. Like, you all don't have a clock in and out
Goldware, Rebeccah: Where you could, like, anybody could be wearing a football shirt, or a, fill in the blank. I mean, you give shirts out for all kinds of events. Marino Valley, like, everybody's got shirts for everything, so,
Goldware, Rebeccah: I would actually, like, I… I see the concern for what I would generally refer to as classified or management, but, like, you… faculty don't have start…
Goldware, Rebeccah: We're end time, so if you go somewhere, it's hard to take that hat off without actually going, I am not that… that's not the hat I'm wearing right now. I'm just star. I'm not star faculty member representing discipline, or the Senate, or… yeah, okay.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay, let me, because in theory, there should be no implication to students.
Goldware, Rebeccah: There should be no implication to students.
Goldware, Rebeccah: But to your point about the student clubs, there would be a potential… Okay.
Goldware, Rebeccah: What else? .
Star Taylor: Also, Rebecca, we were talking about, you know, how social media blows up everything.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yeah.
Star Taylor: And so, it takes everything out of context.
Star Taylor: So, I'm thinking about faculty implications, I'm thinking about even bullying, you know.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yeah.
Star Taylor: If a student.
Goldware, Rebeccah: The offline stuff.
Star Taylor: Now, if a student finds somebody on social media and decides to take their… to register with their classes to harass them, it's a whole icky… icky thing, especially in this…
Star Taylor: you know… Temperature refine ourselves.
Goldware, Rebeccah: app.
Star Taylor: Yeah.
Goldware, Rebeccah: So on the bullying piece, At least, I mean…
Goldware, Rebeccah: I tried, like, I tried to do Principles of Community, Tracy knows what that is, because of UC, but, like, we don't have, like, a bullying policy. Like, student… student conduct would be the only place, and that would only be on the student side. So that's another piece, but the cyber…
Goldware, Rebeccah: I didn't think about that, but you're 100% right. It could absolutely go there pretty quickly. So, okay. Well, that's two new post-its for activities and stuff for me to do, so…
Clarke, Chris: It's all… it's also covered by the Title IX and Title V.
Clarke, Chris: regulations as far as bullying. There is… there is some language in that, so…
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay, any other questions, comments, concerns?
Goldware, Rebeccah: And, sorry, I say this in all seriousness, if it makes sense for you to share this with Joe or your executive committee, I wouldn't want it to go too broad, but if you want other feedback,
Goldware, Rebeccah: And, I don't know…
Goldware, Rebeccah: who the faculty… the other two faculty are for this committee. I'm not sure if this one's filled out, but if you do share it with Joe, it would be worthwhile sharing it with, and I can share it with Adam and, Kim in addition, but…
Goldware, Rebeccah: I would… I would hate to get to DSPC and this be the first time they see this. So, and I do have one-on-ones coming up with most of them,
Goldware, Rebeccah: So, that would be… that'd be cool.
Star Taylor: Thank you.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Anything else on guidelines or the campaign activity?
Goldware, Rebeccah: Cool. Tracy, what do you got planned?
Fisher, Tracy: So the…
Fisher, Tracy: biggest thing that we're working on right now, and it moves into 2026, into the spring, is, the Body of Freedom project.
Fisher, Tracy: And it's a project in the sense that we are offering these free workshops, we're in collaboration with Ramona High School, with Division IX Gallery, the City of Riverside has supported us on this.
Fisher, Tracy: And offering, free workshops of all ages, different times of the day, and we have some upcoming ones, for December. We'll have, I think, two more in January, and they range, like, the ones I'm referring to that are upcoming, like, there's one next week on, mosaics, and…
Fisher, Tracy: We're also working with the…
Fisher, Tracy: with, RCA, with… also with Mission Inn Foundation. They're also on board and collaborating and offering, so I think December 7th is one, December 11th is another workshop,
Fisher, Tracy: Painting, another mosaic, one on the 7th, and the… and what… with these particular workshops is that the…
Fisher, Tracy: the art that's created in the workshop is then featured in the exhibition, the Body of Freedom exhibition. And so, that's in, kind of, mid-spring, March…
Fisher, Tracy: 6th through May 7th?
Fisher, Tracy: I think we'll also be…
Fisher, Tracy: working with, the music school again, with the COIL and the students, and offering, hopefully lunchtime jazz again, because that's one of the more popular programs.
Fisher, Tracy: We have, this year,
Fisher, Tracy: we have Community Action Leadership Academy… two Community Action Leadership Academy interns.
Fisher, Tracy: And, So they'll probably end up doing some sort of…
Fisher, Tracy: project here, so last year, for example, the students started a social justice book club. It was late in the year, had a bit of a slow start, so that might be… there's some talk about kind of giving that a reboot, which would be nice, kind of starting a little bit earlier.
Fisher, Tracy: And making it, they had all the great ideas, and, but I think it just…
Fisher, Tracy: started too late. So those are just… just some of the things that are… that are, kind of coming up for the… for the spring term.
Fisher, Tracy: The other… just one other thing I'll say is that, we're also looking to have a stronger, more, I would say.
Fisher, Tracy: relationship with College Core. So, right now,
Fisher, Tracy: I think College Corps is in the… in the… they're planning to apply for more funds for the next, either 3 or 5 years, but…
Fisher, Tracy: having a stronger relationship, or dare I say institutionalized, but just kind of a stronger link
Fisher, Tracy: between College Core and, a space like the Center, I think would actually help
Fisher, Tracy: the college core across the, you know, at the three colleges. So, so that's… that's, recently had a… recently had a conversation with Darcy Manso, who spoke here in this… who spoke for this committee in the spring.
Fisher, Tracy: spoke to this committee in the spring, and she heads College Court RCC, and we are really… we really had kind of the beginnings of a conversation around that, of, like, how to make it more robust, where, even
Fisher, Tracy: Perhaps some of the college core, like, there could be some kind of, symposium.
Fisher, Tracy: That includes the College Corps students, or at least thinking about the community partners having a symposium. So those are all kind of ideas that are moving around now, not so much for 2026, but really for, well, 2026-2027.
Fisher, Tracy: So, yeah, those are just some of the things that are… that are happening here.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Cool. Thanks. Questions, comments?
Goldware, Rebeccah: I'm excited, some of this stuff, like, I was like, put it on my calendar, I'm like, I can't go.
Goldware, Rebeccah: So, I try… I try to make it to your stuff. The jazz… if you all haven't been to the lunch jazz thing, when she does that, it's so great. And, like, people come downtown, like, it's… it's good. So, I like… I'm glad that there's a book club coming, like, there's some stuff that…
Goldware, Rebeccah: I don't… and I don't know… did we get your webpage, like, functional? Like, up in…
Fisher, Tracy: Yeah, it is. We actually have… I mean, it's… it's functional and running and up and, but we're gonna add some things to it. We have now, like, well, we've recently added some things to it. I think we're gonna just… we're always just trying to refine it just even more, but we've now… so for people who are interested, or outside groups are interested in… in tours, they, the tour request form is
Fisher, Tracy: is now on the website. So they click on the tour request form, they fill it out, they send it back to us. So, like.
Fisher, Tracy: Making it a little bit more interactive in that regard, right?
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yep.
Fisher, Tracy: But our Instagram following is pretty good now. I think we have over 1,300, which is…
Fisher, Tracy: For the center, that's good.
Fisher, Tracy: So,
Fisher, Tracy: So yeah, so we're just doing, I think, different… just trying to think of different ways, right? And really activate different ways to make the programming
Fisher, Tracy: to further outreach, right? So people… more people know about it. So there are a couple of things now, I think, with the city. There's something like a culture hub, where we have events we can let the… that… that particular,
Fisher, Tracy: they have an Instagram page, they'll take it, right? Whatever we're doing, they'll take it, and they'll also, kind of run with it and give it a lot of publicity. So, it's those sorts of things. I think the stronger
Fisher, Tracy: our community base is, also the greater reach, too, right? Like, both within the district and beyond.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yep. Cool.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Questions, comments for Tracy?
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Sigrid had asked us to put CIRT on here, she's not here, so we're gonna skip that, and we'll put it on the next one. She wanted to talk about what, CERT is doing. I think it's a great program, I think it should be promoted, but I'll give her the opportunity to chat about that, and we'll put that on the agenda for next time.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Are there any updates from the colleges?
Goldware, Rebeccah: I don't know what it would be, but I wanted to make sure there was opportunity for y'all to… to share.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Hopefully there'll be more people next time.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Because there's nobody from Norco, so…
Goldware, Rebeccah: Unless, Ethan, I know you're a student, but I don't know which college you're at, so thank you for joining, because this is… you're, like, the third student who's come to one of these committee meetings, so I'm just grateful that you were able to join us.
Ethan Lumahan: Of course, I'm from Morocco, so…
Goldware, Rebeccah: Oh, great, see? We have coverage then. Thank you.
Goldware, Rebeccah: New business questions, comments for the good of the group?
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay, what we'll… the plan will be is Renee will reach out after the spring semester starts.
Goldware, Rebeccah: To make sure the faculty are back, we'll get a new date that works for them, and then we'll get a… another committee meeting. There's a handful of to-dos for the team to come back with, and we'll do another run. Any feedback that y'all have on the political activity is great, and…
Goldware, Rebeccah: If there are questions, comments, or other agenda items, feel free to send them to that civic engagement, email. It goes to Renee, and we can keep information. It does have the committee, so if you needed to know who was on that. And then we also have a web page
Goldware, Rebeccah: For civic engagement, so you could just Google RCCD, or Chris could tell you how many clicks you could go through.
Goldware, Rebeccah: And…
Goldware, Rebeccah: we post our minutes and all of that stuff once they've been finalized, so the ones for April will go up in the not-too-distant future.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay?
Goldware, Rebeccah: So, if you need anything, let us know. Otherwise, I'll give you a few minutes of your life back.
Goldware, Rebeccah: I appreciate you all. Have a good day.
Clarke, Chris: Thank you.
Fisher, Tracy: Thank you.
Rodriguez, LaShe: Thank you.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay, Chris and Lachey, we're gonna take a minute. Renee, if you want to hang on, you can.
Vigil, Renee: Can you just push, end recording real quick? Sorry.
Vigil, Renee: Thank you.
Vigil, Renee: But I'm listening.