Earth Sciences Department

Student Equity Policy

(adopted April 6, 1994)

The Earth Sciences Department is committed to providing equal access to all students regardless of their race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, physical limitations, native language, basic skills, representation from traditionally under-represented groups, final educational goals or any other characteristic that might separate them from the mean. However, this policy in no way implies that we will not demand from all of our student’s equivalent performance for equivalent academic evaluation rewards. Further, all students attending classes in the Earth Sciences Department are expected to follow those rules, regulations and policies as clearly stated in the Palomar College Catalog, on Course Outlines of Record and the individual class syllabi.

To further student equity, this policy includes the following goals:

GOAL 1.     TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF NON-EXEMPT MATRICULATION STUDENTS, FOR WHOM ENGLISH IS THE SECOND LANGUAGE, WHO COMPLETE DEGREE APPLICABLE COURSES.

Objective:  To reach more ESL students.

Activities:   Let all ESL students know that the Earth Sciences Department has instructors who have varying degrees of fluency in Swedish, Spanish, and French and that these instructors are available during office hours for counseling with respect to particular problems they may be having with an Earth Sciences course.

GOAL 2.     TO IMPROVE ACCESS TO LEARNING AND SUCCESS FOR ALL STUDENTS TO REFLECT THE PROFILE OF THE ADULT POPULATION PALOMAR COMMUNITY COLLEGE SERVES.

Objective:  To reach more historically under-represented students  students for who English is their native tongue but whom, because of race, sex, religion, physical disabilities or other mean-deviant characteristic have not been enrolling in Earth Sciences classes.

Activities:   Develop a new Earth Sciences Brochure and send it to Palomar College offices and student organizations so that they are more aware of our courses.

GOAL 3.     TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF ENROLLED STUDENTS RETAINED TO THE END OF EACH TERM.

Objective:  Inform students of services available such as counseling, tutoring, mathematics and reading assessment and instructor availability.

Activities:   After each exam, make available to all students a list of places where they can get such help. Make clear to all students any options to improve his/her grade that may be available within the actual course structure.

GOAL 4.     TO IMPROVE THE TRANSFER READINESS AND ACTUAL TRANSFER RATE USING APPROVED CHANCELLOR'S OFFICE DEFINITION.

Objective:  Inform students what they need to do to transfer successfully in the Earth Sciences.

Activities:   For each of our disciplines, develop a one-page document describing the proper preparation for each of our transfer majors. Send these lists to the Transfer Center to check for accuracy; then send the lists to the Counseling Department.