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Counseling Department Releases Testimonial in Support of Black Lives Matter

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The Counseling Department has released this encouraging Testimonial in support of Black Lives matter.  Thank you so much for supporting this effort!

The faculty and staff in the Counseling Division at Palomar College stand against racism and discrimination. We support the efforts of Black Lives Matter in bringing awareness to police brutality and we will not tolerate history continually repeating itself with respect to systematic and institutional discrimination.

“Every day, we recommit to healing ourselves and each other, and to co-creating alongside comrades, allies, and family a culture where each person feels seen, heard, and supported…we acknowledge, respect, and celebrate differences and commonalities…we work vigorously for freedom and justice for Black people and, by extension, all people.” (BLM, 2020)

We will continue to support an environment of equity, diversity, and inclusion. We will continue to stand in solidarity with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) to combat racial marginalization and oppression. We are here to listen, learn, and support by providing personal counseling for anyone who has been impacted.

Umoja & Puente Provide Testimonials for Black Lives Matter

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Student groups Umoja and Puente have provided these supportive statements for Black Lives Matter.  Thank you so much  to the students  and faculty leadership for these organizations!

Dear Palomar Community,

The Umoja Program at Palomar recognizes that this moment of pain, in which we yet again mourn Black deaths, is just one moment in a long series of such moments. The country has seen protest after protest and yet we find ourselves in the same place again and again. We call for an end to anti-Blackness, and we sincerely hope that this current moment of solidarity will lead to necessary and overdue systemic changes, not just at Palomar but in the nation. We fully support the proposals put forward by Black Palomar students. Black Lives Matter!

In Unity,

Umoja Program, Palomar College

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Dear Students and Palomar College Community,

The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmed Aubrey have been catalysts to worldwide protests, yet they speak to a much larger picture of racial disparities that are the result of systemic racism. The Puente Project at Palomar College acknowledges the pain and anger of the Black community, with an understanding that the suffering caused by oppression and injustice goes beyond this particular moment in time.

Puente stands in solidarity with the Black community. We know that statements of support are not enough, and that real change comes from action. Our organization is driven by a vision of equity and social justice, and we are committed to serve as allies in the dismantling of systems of oppression on our campus and in our communities. We recognize our communal responsibility to speak out against racism and amplify Black voices. Tu lucha es mi lucha; your struggle is my struggle.

In Unity,

The Palomar College Puente Project

Library & Information Technology Program Shares Black Lives Matter Testimonial

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Our Library program has provided this strong  testimonial in support of Black Lives Matter.  Much thanks to our colleagues who wrote this and shared  it with the campus.

The faculty of the Library & Information Technology (LIT) stand in solidarity with Black, Latinx, Indigenous and People of Color and condemn violence and racism towards them! We, as a program, are committed to contributing to the improvement and transformation of the library profession by training library workers who know about and will work to remove barriers and provide equity in library services, policies, spaces, and collections. The LIT faculty are committed to taking antiracist action to ensure that our program nurtures the excellence of Black, Latinx, Indigenous and Students of Color and are committed to preparing students to successfully serve diverse library communities. The faculty will continue to regularly review and update our curriculum to address the rapidly changing environment in which alumni/graduates of the LIT program will be leaders in their field.

American Indian Studies Program Provides Powerful Testimonial

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Our American  Indian Studies program has provided this powerful testimonial in support of Black Lives Matter.  A huge  thanks to our colleagues who wrote this and shared  it with the campus.

As faculty and staff of the American Indian Studies department of Palomar College, we condemn the state and police violence against our Black relatives. We affirm our commitment to social justice and stand in solidarity with our Black community at Palomar, Tom-Kav (Fallbrook & Bonsall), Tovalum & Shikapa (Vista & San Marcos), Panakare & Mixéelum pompáwvo (Escondido), Wahaumai  (Guajome), Ahta’, Awilkilkil & Awi kuesaay (Rancho Bernardo), and all unceded territories.

We acknowledge the pain and anger Black communities are experiencing due to the policing and systemic racism that has led to the abuse and murder of Black people. We denounce the lack of accountability within the U.S. justice system and recognize that it is a product of a pattern of violent imperialism, settler colonialism and white supremacy. As American Indian Studies scholars and educators, we recognize that the roots of racism lie within an interrelated structure of inequity, and that the U.S. nation state grew out of these same roots. We denounce this horror.

We have a responsibility to fight for the well-being of our Black relatives. Black people, as displaced Indigenous peoples themselves, share a complex historical relationship with the Indigenous peoples of this continent including slavery, intermarriage, resistance, and solidarity. We also acknowledge the insidiousness of anti-Blackness in Indigenous communities throughout all our nations and communities in America, north, south, east and west. We are committed to holding ourselves, our relatives and our communities accountable when we perpetuate anti-Blackness. We doubly dedicate ourselves to the work of decolonization and anti-racism while maintaining and revitalizing Indigenous Nationhood.

We are here to listen, support and commit to concrete actions that contribute to the safety and well-being of all Black students on and off Palomar campus. We support the convened students, staff, faculty, administration and community representing the Black Lives Matter movement on campus and locally who have demanded major transformative change. This includes: a reassessment of the qualifications and training of Palomar Police and Security including race-conscious trainings; the hiring of Black Faculty, Staff and Administration who are engaged in Black Consciousness initiatives; the creation of a Black Student Resource Center; the auditing and reformation of academia including the development of anti-racist resource materials, trainings, classes, COR’s, & SLO’s, all while promoting anti-racist and inclusive classrooms, college spaces and engagement. And we can do more. This can not be solved by education alone. This is a time to hear the heart beats and voices of our widowed, fatherless, and suffering Black relatives. This is a time to learn and act with compassion, integrity and solidarity.

As we fight for Indigenous sovereignty, we also fight for Black liberation. We will continue to support and uphold Black student voices at our college and in our communities.

All lives matter when Black Lives Matter.

In solidarity and allyship,

– The American Indian Studies Department of Palomar College

Transitions Summer Program – Doing Equity Work

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On Friday, Aug. 14, more than a dozen students (15 in all) around San Diego County opened their computers and logged into a unique celebration, held on Zoom, to mark the completion of the first Transitions summer session provided over the internet. The program helps previously incarcerated individuals adjust to a college campus and successfully begin or resume their higher education. The summer sessions served as an orientation to the program and include tutoring, weekly team building activities, guest speakers and various other forms of support.  Campus leaders (Hossna Sadat Ahadi, Suzanne Sebring, Nora Kenney-Whitley and team) and leadership from other institutions (Professors Xuan Santos, Martin Leyva and team), provided motivation and celebratory remarks for our students.

Empowered Women Projects at Palomar this Fall

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This August 2020, the Empowered Women channel launched on Microsoft Teams. Around November 2020, no date confirmed yet, Palomar College will be hosting a virtual event for the American Association for Women in Community College, San Diego Chapter. If you would like to join the Empowered Women channel, please join the Equity and Inclusion Teams. Palomar College Empowered Women will also be featured in the AAWCC Chapter San Diego newsletter this semester! Our campus lead on this channel is Dr. Hossna Sadat Ahadi.

Plenary 2020 Dedicated to Antiracism Work & Action

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The Palomar College Fall 2020 plenary event was designed with a strong focus on two areas, online teaching and institutionalizing antiracism.

For our first day of plenary, several of our Palomar employees volunteered their time to lead valuable workshops to help Palomar College institutionalize antiracism, which included the following workshops: “Combating Racism:  How you can make a difference,”  “Bridges, not Walls: Palomar College Puente Program,”  “From Black Lives Matter to Black Students Matter: How Can You Help Support Umoja Students Virtually?” “Seen and Unseen: Perceptions of Black and Brown Women in the Classroom,” “Seeing Your Blind Spots: Using Disaggregated Data to Improve Student Experience for Retention and Success,” “Decolonizing Your Course Syllabus,” “Creating a Culturally Responsive Classroom,” and “Providing Equity for Formerly Incarcerated Students.” On day two of plenary we are looking forward to contining our focus on antiracism with an all-college session titled “Institutionalizing Antiracism at Palomar College” in which we will hear powerful testimonials from our own employees and will be provided with numerous ways we can all participate in this important work.

Governance Task Force Pauses for Equity Input

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Recently, Lawrence Lawson stepped down from his role as co-chair of the governance task force.  In summary, he did so to make room for staff and faculty who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People Of Color (BIPOC) to weigh in on the last crucial steps of this project.  We have worked with Dr. Hossna Sadat Ahadi and Amber Colbert to get recommendations for assistance for next steps.  I have included Lawrence’s powerful message below.

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Memo from Lawrence Lawson

[Email from June 12th]

I’ve been doing a lot of listening and learning in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. I’ve been particularly challenged by reading How to Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi and have given lot of thought to the idea that dismantling systematic oppression, discrimination, privilege, and racism is more effective when one confronts policy instead of individual people. I can (do and will) confront individuals  in my life who express bigoted opinions, but I’m convinced that long terms gains in the struggle are much more likely to be won by confronting and changing policy.

With that in mind, I’ve thought a lot about our work on the Governance Structure redesign. Over the past year, our goal was to create a more efficient, meaningful, and transparent process to facilitate collaboration and decision-making at Palomar College. Threaded throughout our conversations was the idea that we needed to be inviting and inclusive of a wide range of voices throughout the GovernanceStructure.

Maybe we succeeded. Maybe we didn’t. Maybe there are policies we explored and discarded or never explored that would ensure more participation from our BIPOC colleagues. Maybe our revisions are continuing or creating processes which inadvertently distance the voices we need close. Given that we have expanded our time frame to complete this project, I think this is the time to explore these questions (and others) and make sure that we’re getting this right.

While I believe White folks, like myself, should be striving for true equity by doing the heavy lifting of dismantling systems that privilege White voices and White bodies, I also believe our group needs to be co-lead by someone who can authentically speak to the oppression and discrimination built into governancesystems (such as our local governanceprocess) through their lived experiences. Such a person (or persons) would be much more likely to identify weaknesses in our revised documents and structures that might exclude our BIPOC colleagues from participating fully and, with the group’s support, further refine (or create anew) processes that are equity-focused.

As such, I have spoken with my co-chair, Interim Superintendent Dr. Jack Kahn, about resigning my position as co-chair of this committee upon appointment of a BIPOC Co-Chair. To be clear, with my resignation, I am requesting that my role be assumed by a BIPOC colleague (or colleagues) who can help take this project down the stretch and ensure it does not privilege the voices our governancestructure has always privileged and instead ensure, through policy, that our governance structure goes out of its way to ensure that the voices of our BIPOC colleagues, specifically, are sought and welcomed and heard and that their opinions greatly impact our shared governance work.

Ideally, that person might be a current member of the Governance Task Force

However, I have also reached out to Dr. Hossna Sadat Ahadi and asked her to reach out to folks who might be interested in this work.  She’ll be in touch with us over the next few weeks on that front. She notes that we might need more than one other co-chair to ensure we’re including enough perspectives to ensure we get this right, so please be open to a tri-chair scenario.

Thanks for taking time to read this message. It has been an amazing experience leading this group; I have learned more than I could have imagined. My experience at this college has been enriched by the relationships I’ve built with many of you through this work. Thank you for that.

(22 July Update]

Since this email, Dr. Mireya Gutierrez-Aguero has come on board to assume my former co-chair position. Our internal work to also find a Black/African-American co-chair was initially unsuccessful, so we reached out to colleagues at neighboring colleges. Responding to important local criticism of that decision, we recommitted to reaching out internally for a Black/African-American co-chair and should have news to announce soon. We appreciate the campus’ patience as we work to get this right.