Clarke, Chris: Hello, Tracy.
Fisher, Tracy: Hi! How are you?
Clarke, Chris: Good, thanks.
Clarke, Chris: How about you?
Fisher, Tracy: I'm okay, I'm looking… sorry, I'm looking at this little message at the top. Chris Clark is currently host. Okay.
Clarke, Chris: Hmm.
Fisher, Tracy: Reclaiming hosts may disrupt breakout rooms.
Fisher, Tracy: Okay, I'm not even sure. I've never even seen this message, but,
Fisher, Tracy: Okay… I think I just better… Reclaiming host… I'm gonna close that.
Clarke, Chris: If you really want to be host, go ahead and reclaim, it's fine.
Fisher, Tracy: How are you doing?
Clarke, Chris: Doing good!
Fisher, Tracy: Oh, I'm glad you're on! A little early, so…
Fisher, Tracy: Maria and I were kicked off of the centennial plaza… lists served?
Fisher, Tracy: So, I happened to go next door, because I… I just… I had a meeting this morning, and I said, I just popped into HR, and I was like, who do we see about this? Because I couldn't remember…
Fisher, Tracy: who? And then Claudia said, I think it's Chris? Or it could be Lindsey?
Clarke, Chris: It's actually… Leslie Vargas.
Fisher, Tracy: Oh, so yeah, we've been kicked off, we didn't know we were kicked off, so the whole year has gone by with no Centennial Plus yet.
Clarke, Chris: Oh, really?
Fisher, Tracy: Yes.
Clarke, Chris: Okay.
Clarke, Chris: Well, I can let her know that you need to be put back on there.
Fisher, Tracy: Yeah, both of us do. I don't know what happened, but both of us… it only came up because
Fisher, Tracy: We were… I was asking about the end-of-year purchase deadlines.
Fisher, Tracy: And and then Maria said, you know, I haven't received anything.
Clarke, Chris: Hmm.
Fisher, Tracy: And,
Fisher, Tracy: But she got the deadlines, but she saw it came from Centennial Plaza, and I… and we both said, no Centennial Plaza here, but I've been receiving it for years.
Clarke, Chris: I'll check into it.
Fisher, Tracy: Thank you.
Clarke, Chris: Yeah, no problem.
Clarke, Chris: What's Maria's last name?
Fisher, Tracy: Or Daz, O-R-D-A-Z.
Clarke, Chris: Thank you.
Clarke, Chris: Thanks.
Fisher, Tracy: Yeah, it's kind of bizarre.
Fisher, Tracy: I don't know.
Clarke, Chris: We're expecting a full house today? Looks like we got a lot of responses.
Fisher, Tracy: I think we have a lot of responses, and we have 3 guests from the directors of,
Fisher, Tracy: The college core directors.
Clarke, Chris: Oh, okay.
Fisher, Tracy: Yeah, it's nice that they could all make it,
Fisher, Tracy: And.
Clarke, Chris: Yeah, that's great.
Fisher, Tracy: it gives them an opportunity to talk about College Core, too.
Fisher, Tracy: Okay, Marie's on. So, Marie, I'm going to see if I can make you a co-host again, or a co-host.
Maria Ordaz: Okay.
Fisher, Tracy: Are you… does it say that you are…
Maria Ordaz: Let me check.
Maria Ordaz: No.
Maria Ordaz: Chris is a host, and you are the co-host, so I'm not…
Maria Ordaz: You were able to do it earlier.
Fisher, Tracy: I know.
Fisher, Tracy: Rebecca is a co-host.
Fisher, Tracy: And I was able to do it earlier, and I'm not sure.
Goldware, Rebeccah: What do we need to try to do?
Fisher, Tracy: Hi, Rebecca. Hi!
Maria Ordaz: Hey, Rebecca.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Hi, how are you?
Fisher, Tracy: Earlier, so Marie and I jumped on, actually.
Fisher, Tracy: You know, just after 1 o'clock, because we sure, and we're.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Morgan, thank you.
Fisher, Tracy: No, no, no, you're welcome. I was able to make her a co-host.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Huh.
Fisher, Tracy: But, for some reason, I… Can't do that.
Fisher, Tracy: No.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Is it something I have to do? Because it says claim host, which I don't necessarily want to do.
Fisher, Tracy: Oh, maybe Chris. Chris, can you try to make Maria a co-host?
Goldware, Rebeccah: He shouldn't have tools to do it, but try.
Clarke, Chris: We have host tools. Let's see…
Goldware, Rebeccah: Do you? Yeah, try it.
Fisher, Tracy: So strange.
Goldware, Rebeccah: What does she need host tools to do?
Fisher, Tracy: Well, I think we're all okay.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay.
Fisher, Tracy: you know…
Fisher, Tracy: Yeah, I think we're okay. You know, I was just… earlier, I was just gonna… I put her as a co-host.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yeah.
Goldware, Rebeccah: And then it went away?
Fisher, Tracy: Yeah, but…
Goldware, Rebeccah: Go away when I jumped on?
Fisher, Tracy: No, it was not… it was… So, I…
Fisher, Tracy: No, it didn't go away when you jumped on.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay, good.
Fisher, Tracy: I don't know. I got the strange message, too, about strange message, about reclaiming a host, and…
Fisher, Tracy: Yeah. I don't know, but I think we're good.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay.
Fisher, Tracy: There are plenty of us on this call.
Goldware, Rebeccah: That does ask the… beg the question of…
Goldware, Rebeccah: Do we have enough people? Which… Okay.
Goldware, Rebeccah: I…
Fisher, Tracy: Oh… we had 11 people confirm, I think.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yeah This is the… So…
Goldware, Rebeccah: Ethan, thank you for coming. You're one of the few students who has come to these meetings, so thank you.
Goldware, Rebeccah: I think… I mean, there's, like… my Brady Bach… my Brady Bunch botch is full, but that's because Maria takes up one of those, but that's okay.
Fisher, Tracy: Darcy and Dr. Davis are also here, and Frederick. The college corps is in the house!
Goldware, Rebeccah: Committee-wise. Yeah, I don't think we have most of the committee.
Fisher, Tracy: Well, we've just… we're just at 31.
Fisher, Tracy: Yeah.
Goldware, Rebeccah: We'll give it another minute or two.
Fisher, Tracy: Hmm.
Goldware, Rebeccah: So, Darcy, Frederick, and Ariel are the RCC Serves folks.
Fisher, Tracy: District.
Fisher, Tracy: District College Corps RCCD serves.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yeah, okay.
Fisher, Tracy: Yep.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Well, we'll give her a couple more minutes, and…
Goldware, Rebeccah: See if anybody else joins us, and if not, then it'll be a quick-ish meeting. We won't waste people's time.
Goldware, Rebeccah: How about we give it, like, 2 more minutes?
Fisher, Tracy: Sure.
Goldware, Rebeccah: See? Right when I said that, star jumped on.
Clarke, Chris: Yeah, I don't see any way to share hosting. It looks like when I… when Rebecca jumped on, I stopped being the host.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Sorry.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Star, take your time.
Goldware, Rebeccah: You can hear us, and if you need to jump in, you'll jump in. Okay, we had a couple more people join, so we'll go ahead and get started.
Goldware, Rebeccah: just lost my mouse for a second.
Goldware, Rebeccah: I guess we'll officially call the meeting to order. I wanna…
Goldware, Rebeccah: thank Maria for stepping in while Renee is out, so thank you for taking notes, and minutes for us. You're welcome.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Thank you. Let's go through and do welcome and introductions. I'm not… if you would…
Goldware, Rebeccah: distinguish if you're on the committee versus just here to present, that'll help, in the meeting minutes. So…
Goldware, Rebeccah: I'm just gonna go through my Brady Bench boxes. If we can go Chris, Ariel, Ethan, and then we'll keep going.
Clarke, Chris: Sure, hi everybody, this is Chris Clark. I'm the Executive Director of External Relations and Strategic Communications for the District.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Ariel?
Dr. Ariel Davis: Hi there, Dr. Ariel Davis, Director of the College Core Program at Norco College.
Goldware, Rebeccah: And Ethan?
Ethan Lumahan: Hello, I'm, Ethan, the ASNC representative, for this committee.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Thank you.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Tracy, and then Fredericks.
Fisher, Tracy: Hi, Dr. Tracy Fisher, Director, Center for Social Justice and Civil Liberties, and I, co-chair this committee with Rebecca.
Jones, Frederick: Hello, Frederick Jones, Director of College Corp's Moreno Valley College.
Goldware, Rebeccah: And thank you, Darcy and LaShae?
Manzo, Darci: Hi everyone, I'm Darcy Mansell Perron, I'm the Director of College Corps at RCC.
Rodriguez, LaShe: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Lachey Rodriguez, Director of Government Relations for the District.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Thank you. And then… Sabine, Amy, and then Adrian, if you could introduce yourselves. And if you're on the committee, please highlight that.
Sabean Scott: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm a part of the committee. I'm an IDC Instructional Department Coordinator at Moreno Valley College.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Thank you. Amy?
DeArcos, Amy: Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Amy D'Arcos, and I'm the Administrative Assistant for Admissions and Records, and I'm on the committee.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Thank you. Adrian, and then Star.
Grayson, Adrienne: Hello, everyone! I'm Adrienne Grayson, Associate Dean of Educational Partnerships at Riverside City College, and I am on the committee.
Goldware, Rebeccah: And Star, I know you're in transit, but if… and if you can't, I'll move on in a sec.
Star Taylor: Can you hear me?
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yes?
Star Taylor: Okay, I'm Dr. Star Taylor, Professor of English and the Vice President of Academic Senate here at RCC, and I'm also on the committee.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Thank you, and Maria, just because you're here, thank you, if you could introduce yourself.
Maria Ordaz: My name is Maria Ordaz, and I am the Administrative Technician for the Center for Social Justice.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Thank you. I…
Goldware, Rebeccah: I'm a little, behind on getting some things out, like, the minutes from November 13th should be included, and they are not, so I will need to postpone that item for our next committee meeting, because I wasn't able to find them. And, Renee is out, so…
Goldware, Rebeccah: I, I struggled, as one might without their assistant if they are used to having them. So, we'll need to skip, taking action on the meeting minutes. We will get those out to the committee, so if
Goldware, Rebeccah: If the 4 or 5 months that have happened between now and then, you remember something, you'll be able to tell us before fall of next year, because we probably won't meet until then, so…
Goldware, Rebeccah: At this point, I will turn it over to Tracy. Tracy, please introduce, RCCD serves, and then, have the group share. Thank you.
Fisher, Tracy: Sure. So, thank you so much, College Corps Directors. It was a short notice, but really thrilled that you're able to be here.
Fisher, Tracy: So, our college core directors, who've already introduced themselves.
Fisher, Tracy: are joining us for this particular meeting, really, and I'm… I'm gonna hand it over to them, but really as a way to both talk about College Corps, but also to talk about, RCCD Serves Week, which, kicked off last Monday. And so, we just thought that just really in the
Fisher, Tracy: Really, in the spirit of civic engagement.
Fisher, Tracy: You know, this committee, but also civic engagement across the colleges.
Fisher, Tracy: and that really sheds light on what the students are doing, too. I thought it would be really great for college core directors to come to this particular meeting,
Fisher, Tracy: To really talk to the larger group about, just about the…
Fisher, Tracy: the kickoff, which happened here at the Center for Social Justice, but also the entire week. So I'm going to hand it over, so I'm not sure who's speaking, if it's going to be Darcy, or Arielle, or Frederick, but I'm gonna pass the baton.
Fisher, Tracy: To one of you.
Jones, Frederick: Alrighty, thank you so much. It's actually going to be a collective effort, so if I can share my screen, like most things that we do. So, hello, again, my name is Frederick Jones, I'm Director of Moreno Valley College's College Corps.
Jones, Frederick: And, we want to kind of share our team. So, of course, we put in our great partner, Dr. Tracy Fisher with us. Then we have Ms. Darcy Manzo, who also is a… she started off the whole thing, so she is the mother of… of all the campuses program. Then we have Dr. Ariel Davis.
Jones, Frederick: And I will pass it to my colleague, Darcy.
Manzo, Darci: Thank you. Thank you, Freddie. Thank you to the committee for having us. We're so excited to share about this. This collaboration with the Center of Social Justice and Civil Liberties, I think, has been in the works, Dr. Fisher, for 4 years since I've been here. We really wanted to be able to find, a home, a hub for civic engagement, for students doing this work.
Manzo, Darci: And like Freddie mentioned, we work collectively in this program. The three of us directors, we meet every week to make sure that our programs align and that our students are meeting the same goals. We work across, partnerships with different community partners across the whole program, so it really is a collaborative effort.
Manzo, Darci: So Serves Week was our first alternative spring break experience, and, Dr. Davis is going to kind of walk us through the entire week, but we were thrilled to be able to partner with Dr. Fisher and the Center to have a day one kickoff.
Manzo, Darci: And so we invited all of the students at 9am on a Monday on spring break, and they still showed up, to come and really celebrate, kick off all of this work.
Manzo, Darci: we had a full packed day. I mean, it was from 9 to 3, totally packed. We had a lovely welcome and introduction to the center from Dr. Fisher. Many of our students, I will say the majority of our students had never been in that beautiful space. So for them to be able to walk in, to see the work that we're already doing with the community, and to know that it's their space to come and enjoy and to visit and to participate in, I think was really beautiful and a great way to kind of
Manzo, Darci: get us all on the same page. Dr. Davis led us in Get to Know You activities. We really talk about, you know, how we serve the community, but also building our own community within our own cohorts, and so it was a really great time to connect and reconnect with our fellows.
Manzo, Darci: Because we do start off this, service program with a group orientation. So this is kind of a chance to reconnect.
Manzo, Darci: And then I would say the highlight of the entire day was our nonprofit careers panel. And you see all of our lovely partners and guest speakers that we had. Of course, Dr. Fisher was on the panel, Augustine Avantes from Catholic Charities, a longtime partner of ours.
Manzo, Darci: Mr. and Mrs. Bufong from the IE National Black Grads organization was there, our very own Desiree Rivera from Basic Needs at RCC, and then one of our newest community partners from Meals on Wheels, Alex Arana. They all were able to speak to their own personal service journeys, and how they got started in community work, and how it led them to professional careers in the nonprofit sector.
Manzo, Darci: And community building. We had all types of questions of, like, how did you begin? How do I start a nonprofit? You know, what do you do for fun? Like, all the whole gamut. And then afterwards, they were able to connect over lunch and have a networking lunch, where the chancellor did stop by, and the students were just so thrilled, and he was able to address them and congratulate them on all of their work throughout the service year.
Manzo, Darci: really awesome lunch, really great opportunity for fellows to put themselves out there and network. And then we brought it back in, and we really completed our service journey by reflecting on all of the work that they've done over the year. We start looking at a critical service learning model with that orientation, really examining power structures, how to build authentic relationships.
Manzo, Darci: And make sure that we're, you know, walking into spaces to be helpful and not cause any harm, and then we talk about that work that we did, and we examine the why. Do you still have… what is your personal why, or why you're doing this community work? And what does that look like now after you have your experience? So we got to hash that out with each other, really beautiful reflections from our fellows, and then Dr. Davis led us in a self-care and reflection
Manzo, Darci: exercises, how to take care of yourself, what do you do for self-care, who's your support system. So, it really was a full, exciting day. A lot of hard work and fun went into it, but it was an awesome way to kick off, you know, a beautiful week of service. So, I'm gonna pass it over to Dr. Davis to tell us about that.
Dr. Ariel Davis: So, this schedule, as you can see, is jam-packed. We stuffed
Dr. Ariel Davis: everything in there we possibly could. And truth be told, we even have a couple of service events that didn't even make it onto the flyer.
Dr. Ariel Davis: So, this was, a true labor of love. I want to say several months ago, probably, like, September, October, I approached, Darcy and Frederick, and I said, hey, spring break.
Dr. Ariel Davis: we need to give them something. We need to give them some things to do. The way that College Corps works in the service for the student, they are supposed to have a consistent, set schedule with their assigned community host partner site. That's where they are supposed to do the most of their service.
Dr. Ariel Davis: But we can also curate, special community events, one-day projects, we can even throw a couple of fundraisers in there. We have a little bit of latitude to say, of our four focus areas, here are some things you could do that fit into those focus areas. And so, to give a little bit more context of these events and why we chose what we chose.
Dr. Ariel Davis: Overall, College Corps is supposed to teach civic engagement, and getting involved, and knowing who your legislatures, your leaders, your representatives, knowing who they are in a nonpartisan way. So, as an AmeriCorps-based program, we are definitely prohibited from telling a student.
Dr. Ariel Davis: who to vote for, who not to vote for, what political party to align with, but we definitely promote that civic engagement and basically getting out there and getting involved. Our four focus areas that kind of own in, and they're a little bit more specific, are food insecurity, K-12 education.
Dr. Ariel Davis: Climate action or environmental stewardship, depending on who you ask.
Dr. Ariel Davis: And then our fourth focus area is a little bit more broad. It's in community health and wellness. So, at our three campuses, that looks a little bit different, which is okay. We're kind of working off of our populations, what's local to us, what services we have available. So my community health and wellness focuses a lot on justice-impacted folks and people who are transitioning back into school.
Dr. Ariel Davis: Reentry students, ergo, we went to the reentry conference on Thursday the 16th. We had students
Dr. Ariel Davis: serving at the event, and we had students participating in the event because they were justice-impacted students, so it's beautiful to see them on all sides of the table. I really appreciated that.
Dr. Ariel Davis: Additionally, that community health and wellness can look like, peer mentor support, it can look like mental health, it can look like social-emotional learning at the K-12 school, so it definitely manifests itself in different ways. But we had our kickoff.
Dr. Ariel Davis: And that evening, we had a virtual training, so we also do both film and book discussions with our students, where we give them the opportunity to explore topics that are relevant to their service. So that film discussion we did that evening was on the Amazon rainforest and the way that the trees and oxygen cycle there impact the whole planet Earth.
Dr. Ariel Davis: We also went to Huerto Del Valle Community Farm, and I always tell people, do not show up there unless you are ready to work. They are going to put a shovel in your hand. You are going to work. But I love Maria, their executive director, and their whole team. They are super welcoming. The students who came out to do some farming with us, they actually went home with fresh, organic, red cabbage, lettuce, beets, so they basically, were given some part
Dr. Ariel Davis: gifts to go take home and cook. All of it organically farmed, no pesticides, no chemicals.
Dr. Ariel Davis: We also did some food insecurity events, in the sense of that's one of the greatest needs in the Inland Empire. We definitely have a lot of people, both students on our campuses and people out in the community who are food insecure. We had a tour of the Civil Rights Institute in downtown Riverside.
Dr. Ariel Davis: And so I love that space in conjunction with our Center for Social Justice and Civil Liberties. Both of them talk about the impact of civic engagement and political activism in the Inland Empire, and both of them have fantastic art. I just want to throw that out there. The artwork that they display is beautiful in both cases.
Dr. Ariel Davis: Saturday, we actually had a triple header, so students had the option to go to a 5K fundraiser with the 100 Mile Club. They could go do a river cleanup with the IE Water Keepers, which is more of our environmental stewardship. And then we also had a launch party with Blue Zone, which focuses on the community health and wellness.
Dr. Ariel Davis: And we even gave them a Sunday event. We get students who say, Saturday, my Saturday is so busy, my kids have soccer. Cool! We gave them a Sunday event, too. So the students have the ability to do so much within this week, and we are so eternally proud of them. And I believe we have a couple of more facts and data on the next slide.
Dr. Ariel Davis: So, in terms of some of the numbers, some of the data, so this was our first, alternative spring break that was district-wide, where all three colleges joined together to curate this.
Dr. Ariel Davis: As we mentioned, the launch party was phenomenal, and the students gave us such wonderful feedback to say they really enjoyed the space, they really appreciated the environment of the space, so I'm glad that they enjoyed that. This will definitely be the first of many. I want to throw that out there, like.
Dr. Ariel Davis: This was the first one, but there were no burnt pancakes here. We are definitely doing this again. Additionally, we engaged 9 different community host partners, and that's for our official events, not even our off-the-books events, but we engaged 9 community host partners. We offered 5 different virtual trainings, so I mentioned the one on the Amazon Rainforest, but we also did financial, literacy.
Dr. Ariel Davis: Including information on the Cal Kids Scholarship. We also had a different film discussion on the movie, the documentary 13th by Ava DuBernay. We had resume building, we had all sorts of virtual trainings that could be done on Zoom, and that was for our students that may not have had transportation to and from.
Dr. Ariel Davis: We offered over 40 hours, so a student could have gotten more than 40 hours if they did every single event. We did not encourage them to do every single event, we don't want to burn them out, but they had that opportunity to get 40 hours within that week, and amongst the students who did serve, even if it was just an hour here, 2 hours there, we had over 300 hours of students that we compiled in just that week alone, which in the scale of College Corps is just…
Dr. Ariel Davis: Amazing. So, now that the students are winding down, we do have some who have finished their 450 hours. Our next stop is going to be our closing ceremony. So, for Cohort 4, on May the 15th at the district office rooftop, we're going to be giving them certificates of participation.
Dr. Ariel Davis: I always have to clarify that. We are saying they participated. We're not saying they're all done yet, we're just saying you have participated in College Corps this year. But we're gonna have wonderful food, engaging conversation, we'll have more networking, we will also have a couple of guest speakers, and so I'm just really excited to just kind of send this on home. This is my fourth cohort of College Corps. I've also been here since the beginning, like Darcy.
Dr. Ariel Davis: And I just have to say I'm just super proud of my cohort and my whole district's cohort, for the impact that we're making on the community of the Inland Empire.
Dr. Ariel Davis: I know that was kind of a short presentation, but we can definitely field any questions that you may have as well.
Goldware, Rebeccah: I'm sure other people have questions, but one of mine is, is there a presentation where this goes to board?
Fisher, Tracy: I'm so glad you asked that question, Rebecca.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay, good.
Fisher, Tracy: Because I think that it should! This presentation right here needs to go to board.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yeah, so I guess,
Goldware, Rebeccah: I can tell you deadline, or I don't know submission process, Tracy, I assume it would come, through you and up through STAR, so I would highly recommend that. It's April, so May, because we just had board, the board meeting for May would be Cinco de Mayo.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Just so you know, and it happens to be at Norco, which I asked if they would be having chips and salsa, and then words about a budget came up, and I just stopped listening.
Dr. Ariel Davis: We will be having chips and salsa. The DIA committee is hosting a little bit of Cinco de Mayo fanfare, so I am in full support of that.
Goldware, Rebeccah: 60?
Dr. Ariel Davis: by a committee member.
Goldware, Rebeccah: I've… yes. So, if the committee… if you all
Goldware, Rebeccah: wanted to, and this is a quick turnaround, but you could send it in if Star wanted to, and you could still make Cinco de Mayo. If not, you can make June 9th. Obviously, there's plenty of time, because the cabinet meeting before the board meeting, because that's the order of things, is next Monday.
Fisher, Tracy: Like, this Monday?
Goldware, Rebeccah: Like, this one that's coming up in a couple of days? Yeah, so you would have to get… but I mean, the slides are already done, so you just have to send them to Rochelle and Inez.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Which I think technically yesterday was the deadline, but it's fine. Like, between you and me, we know people here, so… but I also don't want to push it too far. The cabinet meeting after that would either be May 11th or June 1st.
Goldware, Rebeccah: And that would be, still for the June 9th board meeting, which would be the last one if we don't do Cinco de Mayo, that would be the last one you could do before the academic year is done.
Goldware, Rebeccah: And there's no meeting in July, so…
Dr. Ariel Davis: And I'm happy either way, so Tracy, if you do want to submit that, you and VC Goldware have all the juice, so if you guys want to get that pushed through for May, I'm happy to assist. It'll be right here in my backyard. But if it gets moved to June, that'll work too. Just let us know, and we are… we are all happy to be there.
Goldware, Rebeccah: So, Tracy, that's, that's your call, and if you want to push it through STAR, I can let… I can call and let the girls know we have a last-minute submission, if… potentially for…
Goldware, Rebeccah: 5-5, so… Other questions for the group?
Goldware, Rebeccah: I think it's super cool, what you guys have all done.
Goldware, Rebeccah: It's a big lift, and it's very cool, impacting a lot of humans who are gonna turn around and become
Goldware, Rebeccah: Aye.
Goldware, Rebeccah: informed citizens, so…
Manzo, Darci: I just want to point out that we have one here. Ethan is a former College Corps Fellow at Norco, so…
Goldware, Rebeccah: And I appreciate him staying involved, right.
Manzo, Darci: That's how…
Goldware, Rebeccah: But that's how it works, right? You stay in the community.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Any other questions? Go ahead.
Grayson, Adrienne: Yes, I'd like to say that, so… I hosted one of the events that they had on Thursday, April 16th, so we had the…
Grayson, Adrienne: 4th Annual Supporting Successful Reentry Conference for our justice-impacted community, so not just our students, but it was open to the entire San Bernardino and Riverside County community, and it was such a wonderful event. It was so…
Grayson, Adrienne: energizing and, rewarding and good to be in community with folks, and the College Corps fellows were a tremendous help that day, and they all came with positive attitudes and smiles on their faces, and just…
Grayson, Adrienne: a readiness to assist and fit in any way that they could. And so an actual email is coming from me soon to thank you all. Sorry that I haven't sent that yet, but I just wanted to say to the committee that it was, a pleasure to have
Grayson, Adrienne: the College Corps Fellows there on Thursday, helping in that space, and
Grayson, Adrienne: the… so we had our planning committee meeting, debriefing yesterday, and the team just couldn't speak more highly about the College Corps Fellows, so thank you so much for being a part of that day.
Grayson, Adrienne: And thank you for including us in your, your week of service.
Fisher, Tracy: Well, you were… I just want to say, you were also present.
Fisher, Tracy: For the kickoff.
Grayson, Adrienne: Which was so impressive, to see them there on Monday, ready to go, engaged.
Grayson, Adrienne: asking questions, taking initiative, talking to folks that they might have never known before. It was… it was really, great to be in that space, so thank you for inviting me on Monday.
Goldware, Rebeccah: That's awesome. I'm gonna put Chris on the spot.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Chris, did we have anybody taking video, or…
Goldware, Rebeccah: Writing anything about any of this throughout the week?
Clarke, Chris: We do have an article that was just written by Jessica Vieira, our… our.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Home Affairs Operator.
Clarke, Chris: at RCC.
Clarke, Chris: Cool. And I believe that's gonna be in the next district newsletter. We just missed the one that just went out, but…
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay.
Fisher, Tracy: I think it's out No?
Goldware, Rebeccah: I think the… I don't know if the copy… did the copy go into it?
Goldware, Rebeccah: The copy may have been…
Goldware, Rebeccah: too late for when the… I didn't… I didn't look at the newsletter that closely, but if there are pictures or anything else that can be shared from the week,
Goldware, Rebeccah: with the… with the, the team. These are things that we want to make sure that people, see and hear about.
Clarke, Chris: And if we… and if there's specific events or anything that you want a photographer, please let me know, and…
Clarke, Chris: We'll get a photographer or a videographer
Clarke, Chris: Out to… to help record that.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Yeah, once this… as you're building, and know in the future for scheduling, or even other activities, maybe it's not the week long, if it's at a specific campus, let your public affairs officer know. Tracy knows how to get ahold of us, so, just making sure that enough, recognition is out there. We don't want to overwhelm you.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Right? Like, if we send it out to all of the school districts and be like, hey, show up, and, like, thousands of people show up, that might be overwhelming, but…
Goldware, Rebeccah: That would be cool!
Manzo, Darci: I don't know, I think we're ready. I think we're ready for this.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay, sweet.
Manzo, Darci: I just want to say that we, invite you all, all of the committee, to our closing session. It always is a really great time, and it's on the rooftop at the district, so it's nearby, and students are… we pick a student from each cohort, and they share their story of the year. We have a short keynote speaker, and they get their certificates. It's a really inspiring event, it's a very joyous celebration, and so you're all invited.
Manzo, Darci: We're gonna have Mama T's there, same menu as the MLK brunch.
Manzo, Darci: to entice you. So, yeah, we'll send that out to the committee, but, we hope you all can join us.
Goldware, Rebeccah: That would be awesome. When is it, Darcy?
Manzo, Darci: It's May 15th, it's a Friday, from 11 to 2. We'll probably start the program at around 11.30, 1145.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay, if it's not already on the chancellor's calendar, he's gonna want that. And by default, the trustees, and if you do make Cinco de Mayo, then that has to be, added in your… to pitch for them to show up to it.
Manzo, Darci: Great.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Sweet!
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Anything else for the Riverside Service Group?
Goldware, Rebeccah: Culture.
Taylor, Star: I have a question and a comment. Yeah.
Taylor, Star: First of all, beautiful work, you all. This is, I mean, it looks like it was a total success, and I appreciate what you all have done. I didn't know anything… I've been at RCC for a very long time.
Taylor, Star: And I didn't know much about what was going on until, I think, a few years ago when I saw a presentation at Board. So, again, thank you all for what you do. My question is,
Taylor, Star: twofold. One, you guys should do… get… put this show on the road, and do a presentation at the Senate, because everybody needs to know the great work you're doing wholesale. Because I feel like you guys are siloed, and you guys have put a lot of work, sweat, tears, blood.
Taylor, Star: You know, whatever, into what's been done for the students.
Taylor, Star: but also for the community, right? So, it needs to be shown, so I would love for you all to do, a tour to all the senates and, showcase the work. Number two.
Taylor, Star: I, as a faculty member, would love to know how we can get involved, because I know a lot of people would love to…
Taylor, Star: I'm gonna speak for myself. Would love to be involved with what's going on. I know I bug Adrienne about a lot of things, so I would love to be involved, so I'm saying this sincerely.
Taylor, Star: that please tell me how I can get faculty involved, even though I'm stepping… I'm stepping down from Senate and from Chair, because I'm tired. I'm still willing to work. I really want faculty to be involved in all of these good things that are affecting our students.
Taylor, Star: Because they're all our students, and they're all… they all belong to us.
Taylor, Star: So I want faculty to be involved in all of these great things that are going on. So please, please, please tap me in and let me know how I can assist to,
Taylor, Star: Put the word out about the good work, and also get some bodies to assist.
Dr. Ariel Davis: I want to say, Dr. Taylor, thank you so much, for that offer, for that willingness, for that openness.
Dr. Ariel Davis: Believe it or not, my vice president, Dr. Tarrant, actually also recommended for us to visit, Academic Senate. So, faculty do play a large role in our recruitment, which we are actually in the process of recruiting for our next cohort. We're already on cohort five, like…
Dr. Ariel Davis: blows my mind. It feels like we just got started yesterday. But we are in the process of recruiting, and in that recruitment, we do work with faculty, both on campus and those who are online.
Dr. Ariel Davis: To either do a live presentation, or we have actually discussed also a brief video presentation to introduce students to College Corps, its benefits, and some of the things that our graduates and our alumni have also been able to do part of… as part of their participation in College Corps.
Dr. Ariel Davis: So the students, we should mention, for their service, the students can get up to $10,000 in financial aid to help them with not only their current educational costs, but when they do decide to transfer or even do a master's, which I've had some students do both.
Dr. Ariel Davis: They have some funding that actually follows them into the future, and they can use that when their education is a little bit more expensive. So we are all about the, lowering… lowering, the reducing, the eliminating student debt. So we really try, we really go out of the way.
Dr. Ariel Davis: to approach this as not only a financial aid opportunity, but a resume building, a career building, a career path exploration type of a program as well. So that's kind of what we promote. We have our application on a QR code, and we actually share a district-wide application, but it's divided by campus, home campus.
Dr. Ariel Davis: And so, any recruitment materials for NORCO, they'll still work at Moreno Valley, still work at RCC, so we're always happy to come and present, whether that's for faculty or the students themselves, or engage in some of the on-campus events to do recruitment, too.
Jones, Frederick: And then I…
Taylor, Star: volunteer your guys' services now. So I would love to see you guys at Fall Flex, because that's when the majority of the body is in session, is at Fall Flex.
Taylor, Star: Spring Flex, it's here and there, but, yes, Fall Flex, that's when the majority of us are in session, so I would love
Taylor, Star: I would… I'm almost saying demand that you guys be at Fall Flex in, August, because, yeah, that's when you can get ahold of all of us.
Jones, Frederick: And then, if I may also interject, for the part where we're working with our, classes, we're working with Dean, we've, also been working with the state chancellor's office on, projects specifically with college corpse.
Jones, Frederick: When we're creating a resource for our African American students. In addition to, that, we're also working, to create… because our program does support
Jones, Frederick: our Rising Scholar initiatives as well, so we are,
Jones, Frederick: really trying to get out there more and support with them, out in the community. And then, one thing that we are going to be, releasing soon is more internships, because a lot of our students that have served have gone on to do their bachelor's or their master's, so we do have, across campus opportunities for students to come, and if they're not even…
Jones, Frederick: Since they wouldn't be enrolled in the program, but they can still support and learn because there's different elements that we, work with throughout the community.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Very cool.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Anything else for… this group.
Fisher, Tracy: Yeah, so, we're definitely gonna do the board. I think it's just…
Goldware, Rebeccah: When?
Fisher, Tracy: Yes.
Fisher, Tracy: So, I don't know, if we have 5 minutes at the end, maybe Ariel, Darcy, and Frederick could just stay on, if we've got 5 minutes? Sure.
Goldware, Rebeccah: We will. I'm sure we will.
Fisher, Tracy: Yeah, I think we will, too. So, and then we can… Make it happen.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Most excellent. Okay.
Goldware, Rebeccah: We'll keep moving then.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Lachey, I appreciate you, coming. If you could give the general GR update, and…
Goldware, Rebeccah: Share what's happening in your world.
Rodriguez, LaShe: Sure, sure, there is quite a bit going on. I'd like to start federal, and then I'll work my way down to local level government. When I look at the federal side, we are in week two of a three-week session. This is a short session.
Rodriguez, LaShe: Congress right now, is in what we call a continuing resolution. It does expire at the end of September 30th of this year, and so, we are still fighting and working with Congress to pass an actual budget. Right now.
Rodriguez, LaShe: The way it is functioning is that different agencies are funded at level funding just to keep flowing up until September 30th, in which Congress then has to decide which agencies will be funded and how much to move forward with the fiscal year 2027 budget. If you recall, there has been made, the administration had made some, recommendations about huge cuts to the Department of Education, what directly impacts us. Some of these cuts include reducing the
Rodriguez, LaShe: complete a minority-serving and Hispanic-serving institution designation.
Rodriguez, LaShe: As well as an elimination of adult education funding, and as well as the, interagency agreement between the Department of Education and Labor, which transfers some of the career technical education programs into the Department of Labor.
Rodriguez, LaShe: And so these are things that we have been, in opposition of. We've sent various letters to our congressional delegation, and the U.S. Senate, to, basically oppose these changes and cuts, and to keep… attack the Department of Education as it is, and to increase funding, if not have the level of funding for these programs.
Rodriguez, LaShe: We've had, Congressmember Takana sign on to a few letters, as well as U.S. Senator Chip Ann Padilla, to write to the chairs of the Appropriations Committee in the congressional level to keep these,
Rodriguez, LaShe: programs funded. We've also been working with our other congressional member, Calvert, as well as keeping our, due to the defense fund budget funding for the APEX Accelerator through the Inland Empire TEP Bridge down in the Marco area.
Rodriguez, LaShe: This has been really impacted by the fact that we are currently in, as you know, an election cycle, and so it seems right now, as most predict, that when Congress leaves at the end of this month, they'll be out for a week, and they'll come back for about 4 weeks before they go into summer recess.
Rodriguez, LaShe: And so, many members are either up for re-election or looking to be elected, and so, it seems that most predict that
Rodriguez, LaShe: By the time we get through summer recess and reach August, that Congress will more than likely push forward through another continuing resolution to January of next year, so that the full election cycle can play out, and then we'll have a new set of leadership coming that January to hopefully come together and put together a full-fledged budget.
Rodriguez, LaShe: Part of those efforts is we've also been putting in congressional requests on behalf of the district, should this budget get passed with what they call congressional district funding, funding requests.
Rodriguez, LaShe: These are districts' requests specific to, the membership and our district. We put in a request for about $2 million to U.S. Senators Shift and Padilla for mental health services throughout the district.
Rodriguez, LaShe: Federally, they have looked to reduce what is called the SAMHSA funding arm, which is the, mental health services arm funding. So, we're looking to essentially, close that gap that will no longer be the SAMHSA fund and use it through this congressional district funding request.
Rodriguez, LaShe: And we've also sent requests, to Congresswoman Nora Torres, who, based on Prop 50, should she be re-elected, she will now be our new elected representative for the Norfolk campus.
Rodriguez, LaShe: And so we put a request for the Corona Education Center, which will have some additional programming going out that way, to expand some of our upskilling and training programs that we do have. So, we've been in a lot of contact with our congressional members and our senators, and informing them some of the impacts some of these budget cuts are going to have on our programs, and to hopefully support them and keep them funded.
Rodriguez, LaShe: Based on feedback from them, it looks like they are very much in aligned with what our priorities are, and we need to support that. We are lucky, as the state of California, where we are not so heavily reliant on federal funds as other states are across the nation, so luckily, we are in discussions with the governor's office about how do we close that gap, that small margin that we won't receive on the federal funding side.
Rodriguez, LaShe: Which actually brings me to the state, update portion of my, update today. We are in the midst of what we have, the May revise. Earlier this year, the governor actually put out his budget for the state of California.
Rodriguez, LaShe: And through this process, the legislator then comes up with, additions or amendments to make for it. So, actually, I was in Sacramento just earlier this month with the State Chancellor's office, looking at budget requests to protect, California community colleges, and specifically, our district. Some of our budgetary requests that we hope make it to the May revise will be to, expand credits of prior learning that came from our Norfolk campus.
Rodriguez, LaShe: With our Veterans Education, which was originally the Mapping Articulated Pathways, which has now been adopted statewide by the State Chancellor's Office. And so, it does have, funding for one-time funding and ongoing funding of about,
Rodriguez, LaShe: $7 million in ongoing funding, and then it was $43 million in one-time funding for that expansion program. In addition, we have, we are asking for continued support of student services, as well as restoring strong workforce programming, and especially here in our district, is serving our students' basic needs and really pushing for more affordable housing student projects and funding for that.
Rodriguez, LaShe: The state chancellor, along with our district, is supporting, some legislative requests to put affordable, student housing projects and define it. Define it either in, the budget and have its own separate allocation, or put in what, what's already a state agency, either the Housing Community Development Department, or into, the facilities bond, or the facilities,
Rodriguez, LaShe: department for the state of California so that they can have the authority and the administration of that, but to also keep it funded and keep it going, as there are still, quite a bit of projects that we still have to fund throughout the state of California, especially with us. We do have our projects in the campuses of Moreno Valley and Norco that still need to be funded, and so we will be, submitting projects, resubmitting our projects to get funded again for that.
Rodriguez, LaShe: But we do have a champion, this time around with Assemblymember Jackson, who is actually sending a letter to the governor's office, to support fully funding the additional projects that are up there. So we hope that, with Assemblymember Jackson and the support of other,
Rodriguez, LaShe: legislators that will hopefully get some movement going on that way, or at least find some way to continue to have student housing, affordable student housing being a priority for the city as we move forward.
Rodriguez, LaShe: recently this week, we additionally had some meetings with some state agencies to, discuss how we can overcome some of these implications that may happen on the federal side, especially as we look at financial aid. There's looking to, have cuts to workforce Pell grants.
Rodriguez, LaShe: And, so we were talking with the Student Aid Commission about how they can help, students maximize their financial aid need through realigning California Cal Grant C. And so the district has been supportive of this budgetary request through the Student Aid Commission, and they're working with the State Chancellor's Office to ensure this meets and makes it to the May revise, which we'll keep looking out for. And, hopefully, we'll get some of these,
Rodriguez, LaShe: things in there. It's a lot of avid… it's a lot of priorities for the state, not just for community colleges, but for a lot of other things that we're working around, so we're trying to make sure that we keep this as a highlighted need, with, with, that it falls in line with the state, master plan for, education.
Rodriguez, LaShe: Another few things that I'm following is a slew of bills that are going through. I know that we have, one that's really been a priority is our nursing pilot program. It's been reintroduced several times, but we're hoping that this time it gets to the governor's office, and hopefully he'll be able to sign it so that we can expand our nursing program here, as well as other colleges throughout the state of California.
Rodriguez, LaShe: And there's also been a huge need just for bachelorate degrees at community colleges in general, so there's a slew of bills that we've been supportive of, and this definitely falls in line with our bachelor degree, which is a very rare, unique one through the Marino Valley School of Public Safety, that aligns very much with the workforce needs in the emergency management world. So, we want to be able to strengthen that program and expand in other areas that
Rodriguez, LaShe: need to meet the workforce regional needs and gaps that we have here. So, we are just… I'm just staying, very much informed right now. There's so many committee, hearings going on throughout the day and through the week, so I'm just keeping on top to see what bills make it through and what don't, but also making sure, that our voices are heard and advocating on, behalf of all of our students to make sure that we are successful.
Rodriguez, LaShe: And speaking of which, I'm moving over to our local, we do have
Rodriguez, LaShe: great relationships with our Department of Education here and our school districts, and it looks like, as we look into the June primary, we will have on that ballot quite a few federal, state, and county-wide seats that will be on there. Traditionally, we don't have too many local seats, but we do have one in Miriam Unified School District, which will be on the primary if you live in that district, as well as the City Council of Riverside.
Rodriguez, LaShe: They have two… three seats that will be on there as well, too, in the June primaries, so look out for those. But the other local seats will probably… will be on the November ballot, coming up for the general election. So, if you don't see them in June, you'll probably see them in November because they are a local seat. But the top two vote-getters in the June will advance to the November, primary. So, be sure to look out, and don't forget to register to vote.
Rodriguez, LaShe: but also to stay engaged, and please let me know if you have any questions or any way that I can help support any of the efforts, especially as College Corps are making their way with civic engagement.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Thanks, Lachey. Any questions, comments?
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay, cool.
Goldware, Rebeccah: I don't know if there are any updates. The last item we have for discussion is any updates the colleges.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Have.
Goldware, Rebeccah: So I don't know… We've only got a couple people. Star, Adrian, I don't know if you all have…
Goldware, Rebeccah: Updates, Amy.
Goldware, Rebeccah: If you've got, updates from the campus, and it's okay if you don't.
DeArcos, Amy: I'm sorry, I don't have any updates at this time.
Goldware, Rebeccah: That's okay.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay. Is there anything else for…
Goldware, Rebeccah: the good of the group. Not just gonna occupy people's time if they don't need anything.
Grayson, Adrienne: Rebecca, I have a question. Is that something you would like us to start doing? Do you want me to…
Grayson, Adrienne: To ask, our leadership team if they have specific updates that they would like to bring to this committee every time we meet?
Goldware, Rebeccah: I… I… I don't want to say no.
Goldware, Rebeccah: mainly because I know this meeting is being recorded, and Maria does not need to put this next part in the meeting, but, I think, many of you who have been involved in this, it… I don't want these, and Tracy and I have talked about it, we've tried so hard for a couple of years, like, we don't want these to be report-outs.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Of just what the colleges are doing, and no tangibles. So, like, the update on RCCD service was great, right? It's all three colleges, there's this event and activity, long week of activities that were planned, like, most of us weren't necessarily as in the loop as spring break, people disappear.
Goldware, Rebeccah: but making sure that it goes to board, because we want all those people to see it. So I'm excited about that. But, none of that's really…
Goldware, Rebeccah: A strategic planning group.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Right? Like, this is a District Strategic Planning Council subcommittee.
Goldware, Rebeccah: And so, we've struggled with what our overall focus is without you all coming together and then just sharing what's going on in your colleges. Like, that's not str… I don't see any of that as being strategic planning.
Goldware, Rebeccah: there's no policy development through this group. I mean, I guess we could, but I have yet to see it happen. At the very offset, we talked about, land acknowledgement, but…
Goldware, Rebeccah: the chancellor is of the opinion that we've got a land acknowledgement, whoever the chair of the board is reads it, and then I think the colleges decide where and when they want to include it, like, for commencement, if it's going to be…
Goldware, Rebeccah: at the local level, if you want it included, but outside of that, I don't know
Goldware, Rebeccah: What the broader structure and intent is for this group. And while we will probably meet in the fall.
Goldware, Rebeccah: I don't know that this will continue being a District Strategic Planning Council committee when we roll into 27.
Goldware, Rebeccah: If you want to read between the lines on that one.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Right? New leadership is gonna happen, so it's gonna be…
Goldware, Rebeccah: looking at some of those committees and the structures, I know that there has been an outrageous load placed on faculty, because all of these district strategic planning councils all have subcommittees, and that load then falls on the number of faculty who have to be on committees, and then on the management side, where we fit, and we go because we're told to, but, I know getting some of these committees filled
Goldware, Rebeccah: Across… I mean, I want to say there's more than 20 of them across DSPC as a total. Like.
Goldware, Rebeccah: it's a lot. Like, stars nodding your head, because you've been, like, between her and Joe, they've been trying to help me fill just the RCC committees.
Goldware, Rebeccah: So, it's… it's been a… it's been a big lift.
Goldware, Rebeccah: and you're not going to bring anything, I don't believe, the colleges, I don't believe, are going to bring anything to or through this committee that then needs to go up, like, to Cabinet for approval, right? It would go through your college process, or if it's a class for something TNL, or something in that space, so…
Goldware, Rebeccah: No.
Goldware, Rebeccah: But if you know something, I want you to share it, but I don't want to send you on a…
Goldware, Rebeccah: A goose chase to go find stuff, or try to solicit info from people.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Frankly, I can have the PAOs do that if I needed it. Go ahead, Stuart.
Taylor, Star: also, stuff that's set in Senate and stuff that's set in rooms that we sit in, it's like, I don't know if it would be appropriate for this group, not that, you know, we're trying to hoard or gatekeep any information, but we just don't want to, you know, just blurt out stuff that are like, oh, okay, that's nice to know, but… and?
Goldware, Rebeccah: And, yes.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Very much.
Taylor, Star: and.
Goldware, Rebeccah: It's the so what, now what? Now what am I gonna do with it? Where do I go with it?
Taylor, Star: Right.
Goldware, Rebeccah: So, yes. So, no, I don't want to give you any work. Now, if this, for some reason, new person says no, continue forward, then I guess we'll have a different conversation and see what we can…
Goldware, Rebeccah: come up with.
Goldware, Rebeccah: But that's why this group only meets once a… once every semester.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Because I… I don't know what the… the other meat of the purpose would be.
Goldware, Rebeccah: So… Any other new items, general questions?
Goldware, Rebeccah: Okay, I'll give you guys all, minus the RCCD serves people, 10 minutes of your life back, and, we… after, folks return in August, we'll solicit new dates, for the fall meeting, and we'll go from there.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Huh?
Goldware, Rebeccah: I appreciate your honesty.
Sabean Scott: D.
Goldware, Rebeccah: Have a good one. Thank you.
Sabean Scott: Alright, thank you.