Case Willoughby:
I mean, there were students who were real high flyers coming in, and there were students who were struggling with basic literacy, right? I mean, it’s that incredible gamut hugely diverse racially ethnically. And I was sort of bitten by the bug and found the mission to community college to be super important. I did work at a four year institution between there and my current job, but I have a real passion for community colleges and the potential we have, which we do not always live up to, but the potential we have to really open doors for people, for whom the doors really are largely closed.

Susana Muñoz:
Hello, and welcome to Student Affairs Now. I’m your host Susana Muñoz. Today on the podcast. We’re discussing community colleges, why they’re important and what the future holds for community colleges. Student Affairs Now is the premier podcast and learning community for thousands of us who work in alongside or adjacent to the field of higher education and student affairs. We hope you’ll find these conversations, make a contribution to the field and are restorative to the profession. We release new episodes every week on Wednesdays. Find us at studentaffairsnow.com or on Twitter. This episode is brought to you by two of our sponsors, Anthology and EverFi. As I mentioned, I’m your host, Susana Muñoz. My pronouns are she her hers, ella. I’m broadcasting from Fort Collins, Colorado. And you have the campus of Colorado state University. CSU occupies the ancestral Homeland of the Cheyenne Arapaho and Ute people. From wherever you’re listening today, we are due to investigate the original occupants of the land. I am thrilled to have the following individuals present for today’s conversation. Let me introduce our panelists today. Joining me are John Hernandez, Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher, and Case Willoughby. As each of you introduce yourself to our listeners. Please tell us a little bit about your interests at community colleges and how you’re entering into the conversation. Let’s start with John.

John Hernandez:
Well, hello, Susana. Thank you for having me. My preferred pronouns, are he him, his, el. My interest in community colleges, frankly, started as a community college student. I’ve always felt extremely proud of being a product particularly of the California community college system. And I feel that that experience is probably what triggered you know, genuine commitment and passion for this work, particularly at the community college. A first-generation immigrant, and like many of our students that come from that background education was something that was instilled in my home. And it became almost a way to fulfill the dreams and the aspirations of my parents. And part of the reason for coming to this country was to provide for better opportunities. And it really helps me, I think, to understand the impact of a college education and the role it has in providing economic mobility you know, open doors of opportunity.

John Hernandez:
And I professionally while I’ve had experience at both four year public and community colleges the majority now of my experiences in the California community college system. I’m currently at Irvine Valley College finishing my first year. What a year to come into a new position as president. It is my second presidency. And before that I was a vice-president of student services for 11 years, and I’ve always been drawn to the open access mission of the community college. So, you know, it, it attracts from the most highly talented student to that student that just needs a second opportunity in a fresh start. And we have such a multifaceted mission, whether it’s transfer certificates, associate workforce preparation, and training, learning, adult education. So I feel that it truly meets the needs of our community, which is, I think why that community in front of college is so meaningful and significant.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
Sure. Thanks for having me. My pronouns are she her and hers and I’m at the university of Illinois, Urbana Champagne. Here I am director for our office for community college research and leadership, otherwise known as CCRL and also faculty member in educational policy, organization, and leadership, and part of how I come into this space and place, or this conversation in terms of community colleges is have a lot of overlap with John in many regards. My first exposure to post-secondary education was community colleges in a sense kind of trailing behind my mom that she was a person. And and then also coming full circle with that, and that I had a college going culture in my, in my home. And so there was a certain expectancy though. My parents did not have college degrees that that I would right.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
And so I think that for me, what was attractive you know, someone’s what John mentioned about the multiple missions, but I felt that what really spoke to me was at the time that I discovered community colleges, I saw reflections of self. You know, as I was reading about the colleges and this whole notion of the people’s colleges and the mock proceses doors, and I’m very passionate about the trajectories of black and brown folk in particular, and then finding out that a critical mass of us as we enter post-secondary or not at the door sales of institutions like Illinois, but at community colleges. And so how do we help students to navigate more open systems you know, to more select the ones and think about how the community colleges are a game changer and foundational for further education gainful employment, and just enhancement of, you know, one’s overall mobility. So that’s basically what got me.

Case Willoughby:
So as everyone has said, so it’s not, I’m so happy to be here. Thank you for inviting me. And when I found out I was going to be on a panel with John Hernandez and Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher, I was just kind of tickled. So my name is Case Willoughby pronouns. He, him, I currently serve as the vice president for student affairs and enrollment management at Butler County Community College. We are in Western Pennsylvania and hour north of Pittsburgh. I have a bit of a bizarre career trajectory that kind of landed me in community colleges, and I’m extremely grateful, but it was not expected. So I’m the product of kind of high, highly selective SUNY schools and was working at Columbia university. And also part, although I have like the higher ed degrees kind of thing, I also did a degree in Hispanic civilization out of pure joy and love.

Case Willoughby:
And, and it was in Spain. And at my time at Columbia, there was an opportunity that appeared at this little school called Hostos Community College in the south Bronx. It was a transitional bilingual public community college, literally built to serve the Puerto Rican community. That was when it was built. That was, who was in the south Bronx. The demographics did change and I kind of took a leap of faith and it sounded fascinating. And I kind of believed in the mission of community colleges and the position seemed right. And they wanted you know, I knew some students would, would be Spanish speakers and I spoke Spanish and I kind of took this leap and it was the most extraordinary mind-bending welcoming, affirming, challenging experience where I met students who had extraordinary aspirations had this incredible diversity of preparation. I mean, there were students who were real high flyers coming in, and there were students who were struggling with basic literacy, right? I mean, it’s that incredible gamut hugely diverse racially ethnically. And I was sort of bitten by the bug and found the mission to community college to be super important. I did work at a four year institution between there and my current job, but I have a real passion for community colleges and the potential we have, which we do not always live up to, but the potential we have to really open doors for people, for whom the doors really are largely closed.

Susana Muñoz:
Wow. Thank you for that. I see if there’s like a theme happening in terms of definitely having sort of this culturally centered environment, but also the self-reflection of self in community colleges. I did not attend a community college, but I am a parent of a student in community college that currently, so that was one of the reasons why to decided to choose, you know, where she’s at is the self-reflection. So I was happy to hear that. So first what I want to ask is, you know, what role should or do community colleges play in the field of higher education? And that’s a very broad question, but I wanted to see how do you, how do you want to tackle sort of like, what, what what, what is the primary role that they should be doing within our field? Eboni, do you want to get started?

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
Sure, sure thing. I think there’s a critical role of community colleges. I mean, you know, for me, at least again, part of the attraction in terms of thinking about this, the segment of, of post-secondary was, you know and as Case mentioned there’s so much promise there’s feral, but there’s promise. And the promise was that, you know, post-secondary, shouldn’t just be about the elite. It shouldn’t just be about perpetuating elite interests. And so community college is really our time where, what was ushered in was a magnification of higher education, not to say that there still wasn’t segmented opportunities or stratification occurring. But that you know, again, there was this kind of sense that people should have the opportunity to have an on-ramp and that for some communities if it were not for the community college, there would be no post-secondary opportunity.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
Right. And so in that sense, there’s a critical role community colleges. And I liked how John put some emphasis on the fact that community is key in this, the whole way of framing, even though we have seen trending institutions seeking the drop community from their name, all right, that’s a whole nother conversation. But when we think about how they’re nested within their local communities and the extent to which again, this critical role as it relates to local industry needs workforce development within a community, but that has ripple effects for a state, for a region in terms of not just the kind of academic program aside, but the skills and the trade side of it the extent to which community colleges can provide the multiple entry points. Especially if they’re doing stackability well for students to come in and to get micro-credentials.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
Then another certificate have between these various certificates that can then lend themselves to degree completion and then still opportunities for more on-ramps right, in terms of baccalaureate or even in California, post-baccalaureate they are transfer pathways to graduate education that we see being played out with the the CSU systems, UCLA, Berkeley, they’re doing that. And so I think that community colleges have remained you know, like the sleeper hit, if you will. We talk about when the summer movie time and sacrifice a sleeper hit, I think that that’s community American community colleges, it is a uniquely you know, American invention one that has served as a prototype for tertiary education, you know, beyond the U S and they play a core role in our educational system so much so that honestly they could arguably be the centerpiece. And we’ve seen, you know, this play out when it was the great recession you know, the American graduation initiative, it was launched from the steps of a community college. And then president Obama said, you know, we don’t get to 60, 25 or 20, you know, 2030 without really engaging with and elevating an understanding the critical role of community colleges.

Case Willoughby:
So, one thing I’d like to I’d like to add is, is just, you know, and but he certainly touched on this. It’s just that notion of access, right? So our price point is usually the lowest game in town. It, it is largely not exclusively. We’re a largely commuter institution. So that really saves costs for folks who are thinking, you know, every, you know, just add 15, $20,000, if you’re thinking about a residence hall experience. And although those can be beneficial, I agree this can also be prohibitive. So where we really succeed is providing access to people within our geography. And that can be hugely important. We do not always have the records of student success we would like, and that is something we work on. And I think we’re getting better at, but that’s the next piece because letting people in and then having them leave possibly with debt or auto credential may not be serving them. And that’s important to consider too.

John Hernandez:
Yeah. I love the couple of things that were said I’m going to piggyback on. The access mission I mentioned is always been something that drew me to the community college system, but we all know that access without achievement fails our students and the community college. And I’m going to speak from a California community college perspective, which has 116 community colleges over 2.1 million students. I think something like one in four community college students nationally attend a California community college, and we are the most diverse segment of higher education. It is. I love that on-ramp metaphor. It’s it, in my opinion, community college should be the first stop, whether you’re a traditional or non-traditional student for so many reasons where I think so I think we’ve done the access mission extremely well, where we are all putting special focus and attention is on ensuring that we’re not leaving any students behind and that we are designing our learning environments.

John Hernandez:
That’s designed for success. And we have so many statewide initiatives, college specific initiatives to narrow down the opportunity gaps to ensure that we are truly meeting the needs of the students that we have. And for many, it is a transfer mission and it is a transfer focus. And we have so many educational partnerships with our four year schools. Eboni mentioned those continued on-ramps that go on to graduate, for example, at one of our local state four year schools, we have what’s called the gap four plus one, which is an accountancy program where students start at Irvine Valley College. They transfer it to the four year as an accounting major business major. They are guaranteed admission. There’s a whole lot of support and a cohort experience. And then they are after they transfer, they’re able to finish a one-year master’s in accountancy, which is like the four plus one model.

John Hernandez:
So I think community colleges are starting to and, and hopefully our, our, our four year brethren and frankly, sometimes just because of their own, you know priorities and initiatives to increase the number of students of color first-gen, non-traditional students. I mean, we’re the pipeline to that. So that’s a big, important piece. And then the other, the other part that I think has been touched on is that we truly have a an ability to drive and really impact the local economy. And especially now, as we talk about, you know, what, what will the economy look like in a post pandemic world? And, and when you look at, you know, workforce development, whether it’s retraining, recertification responding to middle-skill jobs, industry-driven short-term career at certificates, we can do that and we can do that extremely well. And that is an area that the four year schools, you know, don’t really you know, specialize in.

John Hernandez:
And then lastly many states, and I know in California, we’ve experimented with allowing a limited number of community colleges to offer a baccalaureate degree in specific disciplines that do not necessarily compete with the four-year institution. So it might be something that is not widely offered at a four year or in maybe a very, very rural part of the state that doesn’t have a local four year school in terms of access. So I know that there’s advocacy in California to expand that beyond a pilot program, make it permanent and allow more institutions to do that. And I know many states community colleges are offering baccalaureate. I think that’s a, that’s an evolution in terms of where I think we’re headed. But you know, I, I feel a little biased cause I feel like our students, again, doesn’t matter where they are in their, in their preparation and their mindset. It’s, it’s it’s just, I think the place that should be the first stop for, for almost all students.

Susana Muñoz:
Yeah, no, I love that. You said that in terms of, you know, having, perhaps being for the continuation of, you know, this is the high school and then there’s, you know you know community college pathway for all students. And so, you know, one of the things that many of us heard during the, the election cycle this year with this idea of, of free community college so I wanted to beacon just, just shed some light on what, what does that mean? And, you know, what does it mean for the people that you all serve? Yeah. Case do we want to start with you?

Case Willoughby:
Sure. So, and I have not looked at the most recent versions of this because they, they keep changing and there have been different ways of proposing what free community college means is that last dollar after federal aid comes in, as the last dollar after student aid comes in and you know, who does it apply to? So there are always some questions around that, but you know, what we’re learning and what we learned in the industrial revolution was opening up K to 12 education for everybody and being free. It was a smart thing for the economy because we needed more trained people who could do more things. And what we know is that a high school education does not get you nearly as far, right? So opening up more post-secondary education or post-secondary education at the, in that same way has real societal benefits, you know, more and more of the family sustaining professions require post-secondary education of some type.

Case Willoughby:
Then it kind of Eboni noted that that could be a degree that could be, you need a transfer baccalaureate degree. There could be certificates that will get you something very specific. We also know that in the most recent well, in the, in the great recession in 2008, in 2009, or in the most recent recession, having a college credential helps reduces the likelihood of unemployment during these times of economic crisis. Right? And so they’re huge societal benefits of having a trained workforce. There are huge individual benefits of getting more people into the pipeline that will help them be successful and open up their eyes. There are also more democratic benefits. And I do not mean R versus D I mean thinking about people who can who have what general education, a good generalist educational offers who can kind of identify when, what they’re reading on Facebook than on sent to you is silliness and helping perhaps to reverse the trend of truth being optional which we’ve seen a lot in popular media. And that’s something that very much scares me. So I think there’s a lot of potential benefits to free community college.

John Hernandez:
I was going to add that in, I welcomed that in California, the legislature for the last several years has funded a college promise programs so that any student, if they come right out of high school and are enrolled full-time regardless of family income, the first two years of community college is free in terms of the enrollment fees. And frankly, our enrollment fees are probably one of the lowest in the country, but having said that, you know, we, we do know the reality of the demographics of the students in our state. And even that for many is, is that financial obstacle. So I do welcome free college programs, because I think what it does is it eliminates that particular financial barrier for many students. But frankly, I think that’s really the first step. You know, that’s one aspect of college attendance and college costs.

John Hernandez:
I think I’m seeing a continuous investment in zero cost textbook programs, open educational resources to help address the issue of textbook costs. Most of our colleges with state assistance funding and, and local general fund commitments have basic needs center, food pantries housing affordability assistance, knowing that one part of the price tag, which I welcome is not sufficient. And even for students, the way, the way the formulas are calculated in California, the cost of attendance doesn’t truly reflect the overall cost of living expenses. So for many students that still becomes a challenge, which is probably one reason we are seeing more and more students attending part-time because they are working 20, 30 plus hours. And it’s shifting the pipeline of what back in the day, might’ve been mostly a traditional student population that came right out of high school, full time to one that is attending to, you know, their own family and other financial needs. So whatever we do at the state and federal level to enhance that, whether it’s increasing the Pell grant award, I mean, I think this administration is going to be particularly with the first lady, very, very good for community colleges nationally. And I think all of those efforts really help us to think about the barriers that often are in place that make it prohibited for many students.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
I echo what each of my colleagues said, but I guess the only other thing I would mention is I do believe this is gonna happen during this administration and far more broader sense, you know, since we know there’s a couple of dozen states that already have a free tuition. But I think what has to happen is and there’s been some recent attention regarding this there’s a new report from American institute of research. That is criticizing. What we do have in a way of, of these programs is not necessarily being adult learner friendly and a sense of much of what we have seen play out to date again. And, and for us, the three of us were very much sensitive to things me and for years century. And this is another thing for free college has really no, we hear the nomenclature of free community college.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
A lot of these promise programs a good number of them are about you know, four year institutions, at least a quarter of them. And then for those that aren’t in are focused on community colleges is really a case where they’re focused on these eight. And even though we know we’re headed towards the cliff where that kind of drops off, but they’re still focused on these 18 year olds, no lag time, first time in any institution going full time. And so it’s not meeting the need and back to what Case said about. So as you think about who our learners are and the, the variation of terms of, well, where does, where does it kick in? This is a last dollar at what point, you know, before this or after that. And you have all of these other kinds of things relative to childcare cost or transportation other education related expenses that even in free college, certain segments are still not able to take advantage of it.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
And so I think that as the national conversation expands, so too should be an expansion and we need to call outside the frame as to who this can best serve. And, and especially when we think about adult learners, that one have never had any post and have had no experience or engagement with post-secondary. And then for that vast majority that neglect the majority of some college and no degree. Right. So how do we use it to have them think about re-skilling up-skilling retooling and as a means of getting them in, not just these 18 year olds to just fresh out of high school.

Susana Muñoz:
Yeah, no, I, I really appreciate that you sort of broke it down like that because, you know, when we think about like, sort of like the free by free community college, if not the fact gonna fix it right.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
It’s discounted, just like when people say, you know, you’re at a state institution, you know, I’m like, yeah, we stayed located and that always face the part. Right. You know, as we see this, this investment in higher ed and many states and just like open door doesn’t mean open access. So we gotta really kind of interrogate some of those, those ways in which we describe these, these measures.

Susana Muñoz:
Yes, yes, no, I appreciate that. I think for many of us that just hear it, so unpack the nuances of that. So thank you for that. And, and just, you know, sort of a related note, you know, in terms of you know, COVID, you know, what, what were some of the lessons that community college gained from the COVID pandemic? I know many of our institutions are you know, getting back to, you know, on campus. And I don’t know if we’ve taken the time to just sort of pause and think about, we don’t want to go to the ways that we were normally operating before. What can we do take advantage of an opportunity to think about new ways. So I wondered if you all could shed a little bit about, about that. So, John, do you want to get us started.

John Hernandez:
In several of the virtual chats with the president that I hosted with faculty and classified professionals, and certainly did it with our managers you know, have had conversations to help people reflect and think about the ways that the pandemic helped us to think and respond in how we provide tell a learning support and that there have been some good things that I would hope we don’t just hit the reset button and, and go back to the status quo from an instructional perspective at my former institution, I had, I remember over the years faculty who said, we will never teach in a distance ed, this is not consistent with our discipline and our pedagogy and, and, and, you know, what did COVID do? It forced everybody into an online environment. Granted not everyone mastered it beautifully. And, and people just began to push themselves out of their comfort zones with the technology, the tools, the instructional support.

John Hernandez:
So in some ways I feel like what it has also done is it has helped many students. I will tell you at my institution prior to the pandemic, only 18% of our instructional schedule was DE online. We can never go back to that low number because what it’s done. And I can validate this while it’s maybe anecdotal with conversations with students over this past year, through our drive-through events, that for many students, particularly those who are working and are part-time, they now found that they could move quickly in terms of degree to completion, because we had the full gamut of all of our requirements and courses available online. So I think, I think the pandemic, frankly really allowed us and our faculty in particular to, you know, experiment with this new modality and to learn ways that they’re still going to want to incorporate maybe some hybrid aspects of, of what they do.

John Hernandez:
I mean, to think that our chemistry colleagues were like a year, a year and a half ago, trying to figure out how were they going to do, you know, successful demonstration of learning in an online format for a chemistry lab, and people figured it out they found ways to do it, the other thing. And so I’m obviously focusing on the good, there’s also a downside to all this, but I didn’t want to say that student engagement and participation, we’ve seen a tremendous increase, whether they were workshops, counseling, appointments, support services, tutoring town halls you know, and so now we have folks are in our library in our career center saying in terms of an access perspective, we’ve got to continue to offer much of our support in an online modality, because the expectation, particularly for students who are part-time and working to have to drop everything and come physically on campus, when we have the way to reach and touch and be impactful, I think needs to happen.

John Hernandez:
And then the other thing I would just say is that, I mean, just so beautiful that we, we all mobilize to do laptop loaners, to do wifi hotspots, to do a series of drive-through to provide food assistance and other kinds of mental health support. But there was, in my opinion, a huge downside for so many of our students, the sense of isolation, the lack of engagement for some an asynchronous learning style where they kind of had to do it on their own worked for convenience, for others, they’d lost a sense of community of structure. We’ve had to ramp up our mental health support. We’ve seen a decline in the state, I think nationally in enrollment, we were pretty flat last year. We’re pretty fortunate, but the students were losing, I think, where are the students that are the most vulnerable to begin with?

John Hernandez:
And then of course there’s the challenge of our students. When we did a fall spring survey, we found we were doing a good amount of intervention and support in providing the technology, the hardware, but for many of our students, they were still struggling living in multi-generational families, not having a quiet place to study, competing with a wifi connection and just feeling isolation. And so I, I do believe that the pandemic taught us the best, also taught us to look at where our students were most in need. And I think as we, I think we’re still redefining what we’re going to look like this fall and let alone the spring. I’m hopeful that we do pick up those lessons learned and apply them in a way that helps us to think differently about how we deliver, deliver educationally purposeful learning environments. Oh, I’m sorry. Susana, a couple points

Case Willoughby:
Following up from John because I, I really underscored, well, I mean, I think the nationwide drop was about 10% in community colleges nationwide. That’s roughly, if it was eight towards of 12, I forgive me. And I think that’s exactly what John is saying is the most vulnerable chose not to go to college that year. It was scary. It was unknown if you’re already on that edge and maybe not. So we I’m worried that we lost a whole high school, graduating classes, students who may not come back ever. Right. That’s what they, it very much concerns me. On the positive side, you know, the side of never letting a good crisis go to waste. In December, 2019, I called together a meeting that would happen on March 11th, 20, 20, right? So I called this meeting together because we didn’t have any fully online degree programs.

Case Willoughby:
We had a lot of online courses and we were about to kind of trip over into some of our degrees will not go fully online. We don’t want this to just happen and stumbled into it. We want to be intentional purposeful. Let’s do this thoughtfully and we’re going to plan it. So on March 11th, 2020 at 8:00 AM, there was a conference room of about 18 people, maybe vice presidents, cabinet members, deans, student affairs, leaders, publicity and marketing people, and three white boards, the size of the one in my office by 11 o’clock. It was written top to bottom with all the stuff we had to do to get online, going for fully online, the way we want it to around 11 o’clock all accounted members in the meetings. Our phones were bouncing and we were called to cabinet. There is a COVID question. Something happened on campus.

Case Willoughby:
We all went home by two o’clock that day. And then we closed like the rest of the country. So, you know, we had this three white boards full of stuff we needed to do because we can be fully online and we’re hoping for fall 21. And yet nine days later, we were fully online. I mean, we had, I think we had the most ironic story of COVID. What it taught us though, was, you know, that’s definitely not the way to do it on purpose. There were lots of bumps in the road, lots of things we had to figure out parts of our enrollment pipeline just didn’t work online at that moment. Some professors who had purposely never taught online now suddenly had to. So definitely not the ideal on-ramp, but what we’ve learned is we can do this. So now we have to do it because although lots of students still will want face to face and will succeed better in that environment. The, for a student body who is facing multiple commitments child responsibilities, work responsibilities so much more than quote unquote the mythical traditional undergraduate student online is such an amazing opportunity that we owe it to our students to do more of it and keep doing it better. And I think we’ve learned that we can, agree.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
I guess my, you know, the only thing I offered just then piggybacking off of what Case just shared about online is to say that you know, some of the lessons learned while we know that we all had to quickly pivot is that we want to be attentive to thinking about, and dis-aggregating the data to understand that there has been disparate impact of, of COVID and not just call it as like racism was a pandemic before COVID. So we have parallel pandemics. There’s been a cluster of crises in terms of leadership for folks out west the climate you know, the economy for us writ large alongside right. A health crisis, this global and a racial reckoning. And, you know as I think about so colleague Linda Garcia, who’s the ed of obsessing yet at UT Austin, our center for community college, student engagement and some of their work specific to community colleges and the impact of COVID like their data is definitely showing that you know, black and Latin necks and indigenous students, native American students were more likely to report having trouble keeping up right with what their classes in this pivot to, to online.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
You know, and so in contrast to their, their you know, white counterparts in terms of the coursework, I know some of the work we’ve begun with urban Institute through our CTE CoLab. So career tech, ed collaborative learning online we’re also seeing some of that play out and wanting to be intentional about now that, you know, is his case. And John mentioned that we see that we could do it, we want to do it, but now, now we can’t come in with intentionality of not just having to do the quick pivot, but to be purposeful in terms of making it sure that we embed equity consciousness and, and how we do online in terms of, you know, are there culturally relevant materials embedded you know, how are we using culturally responsive pedagogical approaches as we disaggregate the data and look at who the participants are in these online settings as well who might be struggling in terms of digital literacy pieces, broadband access, the logistics of that beyond just the content of the course and, and working with, and thinking about how do we cue up technical assistance?

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
How do we do culture and with faculty and, you know, program leaders around the bundling and the sequencing of the courses and what would make sense about what might be gateway pieces and how do we reorganize when those come in so that students don’t get cooled out? We think about stuff, but math particularly was not applied math or how we replace it and maybe have a stack or something else called rec. How do we you know, encourage, and I know in California, there’s, y’all are, you know, kind of a litmus test of what we can aspire to in some ways when it comes to getting ahead of it is the expectation in many cases that faculty do some, some again some equity walk with the talk, right? And so are you actually creating the syllabus that is equity center and just because you and your institution say you’re equity minded, equity mindedness, actually doesn’t equate to be an equity action.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
Like you can think about it. You can have the awareness, you can have the knowledge that, I mean, you have the disposition, the wherewithal let alone the action step. So how do we, you know one of my favorite colleague, friends Michael Baskin, who is a community college president, he’s always telling folks, you know, you need to their statements and then there’s the steps. Then you need to steps, you know, beyond your statements. And so I think COVID has taught us that, especially in lieu of it happening parallel to the racial pandemic, right. Is enough with the platitudes, right? So what is it that we’re doing when we talk about how all of this plays out, and then another thing that again, kind of going back to the free community college piece not apples to apples, but who also was, again, being overlooked are adult this 25 plus, you know learner the one that needs to upscale, rescale, retool.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
You know, we’re seeing that where the data is showing that the pandemic when compared to other, you know, age cohorts of students struggling more, right, because their incomes have been drastically impacted in a different way than our traditional college age student who is an emerging adult, but still has mom and dad is a, you know, a soft land. And so we gotta, we gotta think about, you know, these household financial situations because that has been a large part of the students that we lost at our colleges you know, because I’ve had to keep lights on, I gotta put food on the table and you know, I have the tendency. And so, yeah, I can’t re-enroll for spring. Yeah, so we got to keep all that forefront.

Susana Muñoz:
No, I love that. You just reminded us that it’s where we’re operating at four pandemics, not just simultaneously. And so the, the compounding impact of that on our students and the fact that we say a lot of rhetoric around equity, mindedness, equity particularly, or, you know, we saw that, that the statements and how do we get beyond through the performativity of the rhetoric and how do we act, how does that get institutionalized in our practice, in our teaching and in ways that hold people accountable, right. To those values. So, but yes. Thank you for that. So I have device and questions for each of these. So I’m going to ask you to just sort of take a step. I know John, you are a community college president, so I wanted just to see what are the, sort of, some of the more challenges and rewarding aspects, your role, but also your emerging HSI. Then I wanted to see how that designation plays a role in how you’re leading your institution right now. Thank you.

John Hernandez:
As I think of what are some of the challenges that I often struggle with as a, as a president, I think navigating the often competing expectations between external stakeholders, internal stakeholders, and granted even with an internal stakeholders, it’s not homogeneous in any way in terms of expectations and where you put your focus. One of the things that often frustrates me, our statewide policies and regulatory oversight, at least in California community colleges grew out of the K-12 system. And when you look at our ed code and our mandates, we are so much more aligned in the K-12 system than we are with our higher ed partners and beings that, you know, formulas and mandates that just, you know, just drive everybody crazy. Cause they might’ve been well-intended at some point in time, but just you know, seemed so irrelevant in, in, in our current environment.

John Hernandez:
I think frankly for me, what I have found most rewarding as a vice-president student services. And I, I can say that it’s been equally rewarding as a college president. I kind of alluded to this earlier, excuse me, is the, the, the role that we all have, the role that I have as the president, particularly in setting the vision direction and expectation, particularly for designing learning environments, as I said earlier, where it’s designed so that every student can experience a success and that puts the onus on us as educators. And, and part of that is creating and sustaining institutional culture that, you know, validates students where they are that affirms their sense of belonging that, you know, we’re doing. I love some of the aspects and, and, and the, the, the, the critical pieces that Eboni just shared, but you know, that we are looking and re-examining at whether it’s our institutional policies, our procedures, our structures and, and really asking you know, are we reviewing them critically through an equity lens?

John Hernandez:
Are there unintended consequences? What role do we have to make sure that those inequities no longer exist? And how is it that we can play a role in transforming our educational institutions so that it doesn’t continue to marginalized students. And so for me, I find that level of work extremely gratifying especially know when you’re in a role where you have the ability to create the space and the messaging and the expectations to, to, to move an institution in that direction. And then I guess you mentioned you know, we’re, so Irvine valley college is and minority serving institution. We’re an, an, a PC institution in a couple years, if the trajectory goes as we’re, as we’re planning, you know, we’ll, we’ll be able to apply for a Hispanic serving institution status. I think the way that, that also shapes the way I lead is that I try to be as authentic when I come into a space that it’s part of my lived experience and that ultimately is how I lead.

John Hernandez:
And so, you know, just recognizing, you know, the intersection of my identities as an immigrant, as a first-generation, as a Latino gay cisgender male, I mean, those are all aspects that shape and influence my experience and my educational journey. You know, I didn’t see a lot of people that looked like me that represented my multiple identities, particularly in leadership roles or faculty roles. And so I, I, frankly, as you know, even in high school community college, I never imagined that I could be shaping and influencing educational environments and never imagined that I could be where I’m at. So I do feel that you know, part of my, my work is about inspiring others, instilling hope and whenever we shatter, you know, any, any barriers, regardless of whether it’s who we are, you know, I think it really opens up a sense of opportunity and hope for students.

John Hernandez:
And I’ll just, I’ll just share quickly. Cause I know we’re running out of time when almost a year ago, when they announced my appointment and they had, you know, my picture and whatever on the, on the, on the banner, on the web page, I received an email from a student who I’ve never met. It went to the generic president’s office email. He happened to have the same last name as I did Hernandez and, and emailed me and just said, I saw the web page, and I’ve never seen another Latino in a leadership role. And I just want you to know how this is inspired me to know that I can achieve everything that I’m working hard to do. And that maybe someday I can also have a doctorate in front of my last name. And you know, that to me, I realized that’s, you know, to me, that symbolizes the hope that we bring in these roles and the way that we’re able to inspire others and particularly the students that we’re serving. So that’s how I bring my authentic self into you know, these leadership roles.

Susana Muñoz:
Thank you. Yes. You gave me chills. Like, literally I was like, that’s, it’s super powerful. And the fact that you’re impacting so many and inspiring so many to, to follow in your footsteps. So thank you for that. Eboni, I’m gonna turn it over to you for a little bit as a faculty member and a researcher who examined community colleges in multiple ways, what, what has surprised you and, and about the ways in which scholars are researching community college has maybe how should scholars be approaching community college research? I know not an easy question, right?

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
Yeah. It is in a sense that, okay, so here’s you known me long enough. Case has a good sense of me too. And John, I know will appreciate this. I’m going to call a thing, a thing. So here’s the thing. We got a lot of Johnny come lateness. Okay. Three of us, ain’t new to this, we true to this. But we got a lot of Johnny come lately. And so by that, I mean that what this happened now, in the sense of some of the research around community colleges dare I say, opportunistic from some in the research community. You know, so we have a new administration in particular, you know, our FLOTUS is unapologetically unabashedly, you know advocate, a champion for community colleges. And so we, we see that the pendulum is swinging where additional attention, resources and alike are going to be channeled toward, toward that end.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
But we thought it has happened before, right? So during the Obama administration, those first two terms, all of a sudden, you know, community colleges out of Cinderella to ball. And I remember getting emails from some folks where it was like, Hey, Hey, so can you send me a reading list? And, you know, I want to, I want to do some community college stuff. I wanna, you know, and I was like, oh, before you weren’t thinking about community colleges, but you see that there’s an RFP, but here I feel, but then now you want to couple up with people, who’ve either been doing this right. Where this is not something new in their, in their portfolio, but this is kind of the mainstay and centerpiece of it. And trying to catch up. So that’s it, there’s some, when you talk about how should people approach college research, won’t be authentic, don’t come through with this interest convergence, whereas kind of a parent that you know, you’re just on a bandwidth because this is, you know, and we see that with stem sometimes like people just doing stuff where that’s, what’s hot you know, that’s what, you know, because I’ve been around long enough where there’s many, a conference short of going to you know, council for the study of community colleges or AACC like community college lead for innovation, community college specific spaces where peripheral at best.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
Right? You, you, you, you lucky if you could count, pass one hand, how many sessions across three and four days or around community college matters, right. Again, outliers to that would be ACPA in the sense that they have a nearly six decade oh, commission on two year roles, not two years student development you know, our student development in two year colleges anymore. It’s just community colleges right at this point. But the point is, for me, that was organic. And me being, I felt like, you know, you know, I know Tiffany had to say she had, she had a black unicorn, but I was like, I’m doing a corner with you girl, because coming into the space of like, you know, ASHE, back in the day, the association for study of higher ed or, or other, you know, of these professional organizations, we were never centered as mattering.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
We were always on the margins as community college scholars. And so, because we had never been a part of what was the dominant discourse, right. Yeah, I’m giving people sat on now that, you know, are they dabble? Right. So that kind of thing. So when you say, what can folks do, ones come from a place of authenticity and care about the work and that interest convergence to, or being opportunistic too, is there’s none but space, room and opportunity. Okay. You want to get, if it, you can make a splash, don’t dip your toe, that you can get some, okay. So we need lots of stuff that folks can attend to. Who’s this attain out there. Listen, listen, I’ll give you a little, they’ll give you a little sneak peek. Okay. We got enrollment crisis right now. Right. We just talked about plus their prices right now.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
So what’s happening in the community college space about that, because again, what leads is often this four year centric, vain can’t campus, climate issues come on, community colleges got racialized realities, but we don’t hear about that even though if you unpack the data, my colleague, Luke wood, and I did some work where we looked at, you know, issues of like crosswalking Anti-Defamation league data with FBI crimes statistics reports and then looking at what we have in the way of what the department of ed is getting from the colleges. And we’re seeing the same trajectory that’s happening in K-12 or four year for the two year sector. That hate is on the rise on these campuses. And when you unpack the data and terms of reported hate crimes, that the highest category, the leading category are racial hate crimes. Okay.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
There’s some research for you. We need we’re on executive leadership and training and these professional training programs and the changing of the guard we had, what we thought was going to be this bubble, where all the boomers were going to make an exit. We had the great recession, what was projected as this exit didn’t readily occur. So then there was a bottleneck in terms of some of the advancement opportunities, unless people really mobile. But now we’re getting to a point where we need to look at that again in terms of this changing of the guard, because there’s it too often, is it where higher ed programs don’t have a class on community colleges let alone a suite of offerings around the community college space or socialize their students in the understanding that they are very viable career pathways for self engagement for fulfillment and where you can really make a difference in terms of students being able to self-actualize that that’s not being prioritized and a lot of these programs.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
And so there’s missed opportunities there. I’m thinking about Nicole Hannah Jones and board’s okay. Guess what they real white community college spaces. So y’all study some of these boards, you know, if we’re talking about diversity, walk, diversity talk and that kind of thing what are the trends in terms of what we see relative to board appointments? Because there’s a lot of politics to that that’s happening to completion data, you know, doing work around naturing and community colleges you know, in a way that is punitive when they are playing such a huge part in the success story of so many students. And so really kind of targeting and poking it, that beer around how you know, the the college student board, like how, how do we look at success and who was completing and wasn’t attrition. And so you have to have, you know, no time off continuous enrollment only be full-time because that’s not our students, right.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
So we need more research around that. I can go on like a litany where if I started, if I had a scroll and then we unrolled it, it would bump you on your toe and then keep on going across the floorboard, because it’s that much stuff that we really can attend to, because this has often been a area that’s overlooked or treated as an afterthought. But there’s a core of us and we know who each other that you know often I had this thing where I be joking about you seeing those capital one commercials Jennifer Garner, and you know, my boy, Sam Jackson, they’d be like, listen, your wallet. Well, guess what, when all I was coming up with with link and it was, it was only letting my wallet, this was what I was passionate about and gonna attend to. So we need other folks that want to be champions it, regardless of the change of regimes in terms of administrations or who wants it to be nice to community colleges or not today, because we know we matter. And so it was about, you know, going from those margins and centering the institutions to matter. And then I guess that’s why I’m so passionate about is because community colleges have been among the most marginalized of institutions within the higher ed realm seeking to do the most with the least, but those that are most minoritized in society.

Susana Muñoz:
Yeah. You said a lot. That was a lie. Yes. But it had to be said it had to be in here. Yeah. Like they had things. So I appreciate that that the list. Yes. and then yes, the long list. So so Case the question that I have for you our audience in this podcast is largely largely student affairs educators. What should our field know about aspirational goals of community college students, and what can the field of student affairs do better to support student affairs, administrators, and practitioners?

Case Willoughby:
So I think in, in the major student affairs organizations, there is still they’re still centering traditional four year residential students, right. And they, and many programs and sessions you might attend, those conferences will still have this defacto assumption that students live on campus. They’re, full-time, that’s, that’s not even really the norm in four year institutions now, but it’s not even close to the norm for two year institutions. So I think really understanding who community college students are, right. More likely to be working more likely to be parents, more likely to be non-traditional age, more likely to be students of color. That’s going to be a key factor in that. Now I’ll also say that sometimes the mark can be missed a little bit in that, you know, so a lot, a lot of conversations happen around social justice.

Case Willoughby:
ACPA has their extraordinary imperative or racial and just strategic imperative for racial justice. Wonderful, important things. What I don’t hear as part of that, and I think should be, is thinking about student success, because if we’re talking about racial justice, but not having a conversation of what are the equity gaps in terms of disparities, between different groups of students crossing the stage at the end of their time at your institution, right. What are the differences in, are they walking away? Whether without a degree, how much debt, you know, we have a huge student debt crisis in the country and it saddles people for years. And if it sells you without a degree, that is a huge burden for decades, right? You can’t get out of that debt that is on you can’t get out of it with bankruptcy. So I would like to see a greater time together of some of these concepts of thinking about student success, what supports need to be in place at, in this concept of social justice work, because I think they are really connected.

Case Willoughby:
I would also say that you know student development theory you know, I was recently, I was at a conference that I, I co-chaired a few years ago. It was a part of years ago, which talked about student development at the two year college, because so often to your colleges. And I’ll be curious if, if, if John, you hear this too, we didn’t do that student development stuff. We wanted to graduate as though it’s separate, right? If you’re helping students grow intellectually, emotionally interpersonally interculturally, those skills are also going to help them cross that finish line. Oh, and also be more successful, whether they’re going on to a four-year institution or whether they’re going on to the world of work, right. These are not, these are not things we should disentangle. These are things we should think about holistically. Specifically, I also want to add that.

Case Willoughby:
I think the world of community college community college research has a lot to teach our four year counterparts. So there’s I’ve wrote about this in an article in a about campus. There’s a great work done by the community college research center at teacher’s college led by Tom Bailey, whole body of research called guided pathways. Really thinking about how you bring students in how you want to make sure that there are key services that you want to ensure that most or all students take advantage of. Career services are awesome. And career inventories can really help people clarify and define and lock into a goal that matters to them. But when no one uses them until six weeks before they graduate, because they need a job suddenly, right, you’ve missed, you’ve missed the boat and all those people who, who had treated before, because they were on a path that made no sense for them.

Case Willoughby:
So guided pathways is marvelous that I’m not going to even try and discuss it now. But it is holistic. It thinks about the academic, the student affairs, the wraparound kind of support you need, how you design a college experience that leads more people from the beginning to a successful outcome. I’ve never heard of that concept talked directly or indirectly at a four-year environment. And it’s, it’s excellent. I, and I have a colleague at teacher’s college now because they’re talking about that concept at teacher’s college, which is exclusively a graduate school. So the notion that is not, would not be helpful at a four year institution saddens me. And I think we, we have so much to teach and share that to equity’s point, I’m glad ACPA has a strong commission for two year college, but I, I, I even there, the voice isn’t as loud as I think it could be, or it’s not as heard as I think it could be to better the, the organization and the profession. So those are some of my thoughts around that.

Susana Muñoz:
Yeah, no, I appreciate that. I appreciate that. And, and you bring into the space, there’s an association of that that you know, community colleges are, have this, our assets, and we need to treat community college as assets and within the four year institutions that’s when you need the feedback. So, so as we, as we conclude this podcast, this podcast is called student affairs now. So I’d love to hear quickly what each of you are pondering questioning troubling now. So I’ll start with Case.

Case Willoughby:
So, and I, and I can’t say this is particularly exclusive to community colleges. This is higher ed in the US as we’re in a time where alternative facts are indistinguishable in some corners, from research to verifiable information, we’re at a time where politics is directly interfering in what is taught in institutions of higher education what we’re allowed, you know, the notion that governors and legislators are, are getting involved in curriculum, right? Not saying it’d be great to study this because we have a labor industry. I don’t mean that, but in sort of starting to sensor, right. Starting to really do that. I am, I’m nervous about its impact on democracy, about our ability to really prepare young people. And non-traditional people, Eboni, I heard your words in my head before you said them, right? So, but our ability to prepare our graduates and our former students to, to engage effectively in democracy and to identify we’ll call a thing, a thing, identify the BS when it comes across their Facebook feed or their Twitter feed, and realize that this is not useful information, right. We saw how this played out in the pandemic and it’s harming all of us. So these are some things that I think are the big challenges. Student affairs has a role in that. I am unsure what it is, but we’re going to keep fighting the good fight on it.

John Hernandez:
Well, I will just focus it from my institution’s perspective and we’re spending a lot of our energy this coming year. And again, I’m just coming up on my first year anniversary, but one of the things that it was very clear in the search process was it, this institution was looking for leadership from the top all the way, you know, through the organization, but particularly from college president to lead us in a intentional direction where there was already a commitment to student equity social justice, and to really re-examine our institutions in, in a more critical way than it had been done before. And a lot of wonderful work had been happening organically prior to my arrival. And this past year, I think we’ve spent some, some good space and time having conversations you know having faculty participate in, in cohort experiences through the USC race and equity initiative. You know, we use the, from equity talk to equity walk as a, as a primer for intentional conversations and planning. And so I’m, I’m, I think we have a unique opportunity, and I know that there are, there are pivotal points in history that, you know, we probably have failed to act.

John Hernandez:
And I, and I feel that frankly, if we don’t truly put into place some action oriented work, then all we’re doing is playing lip service. And I get the sense, at least from, you know, from a very critical core at my institution that, that we’re ready, we’re poised. And so I’m giving a lot of thought about what my role is and being front and center, and that’s what it’s been this last year, you know, not bringing in a consultant to lead this work, I’m leading this work. And so I’m, I’m optimistic. I know that it will not be easy work, never is, but and knowing that we’re all in a very different place in our equity journeys, but I’m really looking forward to you know, some focused action oriented work this coming year and just to really lay the groundwork for that.

John Hernandez:
And it’s certainly, you know, w you know, everything that happens nationally finds its way, one way or another on our college campuses, there are obviously things that are troubling me. Case already touched on a couple you know, and and, and that’s kind of the, the, the, the political environment and dynamic that we have to navigate as well. And sometimes, you know, it may feel like our hands might be tied by our boards by, you know policies and things of that nature, but if we’re not going to be bold, and if we’re not going to really lead in the way we need to, I just feel like it’ll be a missed opportunity once again.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
Wow. Yeah. Hmm. Well, I guess there’s this past year and a half, I think has presented many of us you know, practitioners and scholars. Those we serve with a lot of soul searching is, I mean, it’s just been a lot, people are carrying a lot, they’re holding a lot. And, and so as we move into this next AY the academic year I think we still have to extend some grace. In many regards and I think that like my colleagues, I, I do have some concerns about what is quickening in terms of you know, quickening and pace and trending in terms of these statewide bands that are targeting teaching a truth. Cause you know, my thing is when we talk about calling a thing, a thing truth hurts, right?

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
But you can’t have, you can’t expect people to be healthy and whole, and you can’t have healing or reconciliation without truth. And so I think this next year, certainly in many classrooms across the country you know, and it was recently, I think there was a, some summer session classes at a few at saw headlines at a few different community colleges that were paused and, or cancel, you know where, you know it was instructor in, I think it was Oklahoma where she said, I didn’t even mention Critical Race Theory. Right. But, and so I think that there’s a way in which CRT is misunderstood, is being co-opted as a concept. And that the way in which these bills are misconstruing, you know, this has, is we gotta really prompt people to, to think in a more nuanced way about what is going to be, cause it’s a chilling effect.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
I feel that’s gonna happen on teaching the learning across the board. If this happens, because think about them, how paradoxical or ironic it is that we can have just past Juneteenth, but we actually can’t really teach about the antecedents to why we would even have such a holiday, right. Because there’s the censorship on, oh, they’ll say anything about slavery. Don’t say anything about equity. You don’t say anything about race racism, don’t mention certain gender identities or sex. It’s this whole sweeping, you know, kind of a thing, which is so interesting because much of the focal point has never been squarely on the effect that the cannon is, you know, part of how dominance functions is Jason Kat says is, is by remaining unexamined. And so we’re at a really critical juncture where there’s pushback from school districts all the way through community colleges and universities that I think is actually going to continue to heighten.

Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher:
And so I’m, I’m, I’m interested in see where we are as we move into the fall through the spring of this, this next academic year, but that’s it we’re going to stay the course as Tia McNair and Estella Simone with Ghana Legon walk opt-out our equity walk, our talk in terms of how we really try to hold ourselves accountable because the company I’m in, we don’t see, we don’t do this. It’s about all of us kind of collectively understand and that we could go for a throwaway group and we can not just put the onus school on students are victimizing students, but the understand that there are more structural and systemic issues at play so that once we can kind of get at those layers of the onion up individually and personally, or in a personally, and institutionally, then we can start moving the needle on shipping at, because again, we got to get honest with that, though, right? We gotta be truthful. And so you can’t chip away at the structural impediments and the systemic and equities, many of which are racialized, unless we combined the truth. So it’s going to be interesting to see how you know, it was one of my favorite closest truth will prevail. Right. so hopefully it will.

Susana Muñoz:
Yes. Thank you for that. Thank you for leaving us for something for us to think about and, and to, and, and I think y’all just gave me a lot of some hope as well as you’re leading and you’re researching and your institutions and your students. So thank you. Thank you again to our panelists and grateful for your time and for being guest with us today at Student Affairs Now. I want to thank our sponsors, Anthology, transform your student experience and advanced co-curricular learning with Anthology Engage. With Engage. You’re able to easily manage to in organizations, efficiently plan events, and truly understand student involvement to continuously improve your engagement efforts at your institution. Learn more by visiting anthology.com/engage, and also like to thank EverFi. Thank you for your support. How will your institution rise to reach today’s socially conscious generation.

Susana Muñoz:
The students rate commitment to safety, wellbeing, and inclusion, as important as academics and extracurriculars. It’s time to reimagine the work of student affairs as an investment, not an expense. For over 20 years, EverFi has been trusted partners with 1500 colleges and universities with nine efficiency studies behind their courses. You’ll have a confidence that you’re using the standards of care for students’ safety and wellbeing with proven results transform the future of your institution and community. You learn more at everfi.com/studentaffairsnow. Shout out and Natalie Ambrosey the production assistant for this podcast who makes us all sound and look good. Thank you for listening. If you have ever received weekly newsletters, please visit our website and pull down to the bottom to the home page to add your email. And while you’re at it, check out our archives again. I’m Sustenna Munoz. Thanks for our fabulous guest today who joined us and to everyone who’s listening and watching make it a great week. Thank you.

Websites: 

Home

https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/

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Online Courses:

Books: 

Jain, D., Melendez, S. N. B., & Herrera, A. R. (2020). Power to the transfer: Critical race theory and a transfer receptive culture. MSU Press.

Kelsay, L. S., & Zamani-Gallaher, E. M. (2014). Working with students in community colleges: Contemporary strategies for bridging theory, research, and practice. Stylus Publishing.

Kisker, C. B. (2021). Creating Entrepreneurial Community Colleges: A Design Thinking Approach. Harvard Education Press. 

Mullin, C. M., Baime, D. S., & Honeyman, D. S. (2015). Community college finance: A guide for institutional leaders. John Wiley & Sons.

Wang, X. (2021). On my own: the challenge and promise of building equitable STEM transfer pathways. Harvard Education Press.

Reports:  

Fast Facts

https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/publications/what-we-know-about-guided-pathways-packet.html

https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/103777/racial-and-ethnic-equity-gaps-in-postsecondary-career-and-technical-education_considerations-for-online-learning_0.pdf

Podcasts: https://occrl.illinois.edu/our-products/democracy 

Videos: https://occrl.illinois.edu/our-products/videos 
Articles:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1086482218765752