Butte College Diversity Committee works collaboratively with our diverse campus and local communities to establish a learning and working environment that is inclusive and equitable. We do this by honoring diverse identities and educating our community, identifying and responding to existing and emerging equity issues, and analyzing and recommending institutional change based on relevant research practices.
The Diversity Committee works to promote an inclusive community that embraces all aspects of diversity among administrators, students, faculty, and staff. In order to raise awareness toward this goal, the committee: A. Provides events, workshops, and trainings on campus B. Funds faculty, staff, and students to attend diversity trainings and workshops off campus C. Makes recommendations to faculty, staff, and administration on diversity-related topics D. Makes diversity and inclusion-related recommendations to campus committees, departments, and governing bodies D. Represents the college in outreach activities involving the community The committee revised it's Mission this January 2018 and defined it's vision and Values. It also developed a 3 year strategic plan. Below are its Vision and Values: Vision: In order to dismantle the historical structures of oppression, we promote social justice by inspiring an educated, aware, and accountable community of allies. Values: � Difference � Equity � Allyship � Inclusion � Representation � Awareness
Diversity Program funding
2020 Diversity Days
2019/20 Strategic Plan Items:
Advocated for a Diversity and Inclusion leadership position.
Continued the Diversity and Equity Informational Campaign on one topic each semester.
Continued Diversity Speaker Series with fall 2019 speakers and spring 2020 speakers:
At least two Safe Zone Trainings each semester since fall 2019.
Provide feedback and recommended onboarding of faculty and staff include: understanding unconscious bias and other inclusive, diversity and equity practices.
Recommended and assisted in implementing Unconscious Bias Training during EEO Training on a permenant bases.
Hosted a 19/20 Planning Retreat for the Diversity Committee members in the fall 19 semester.
As a Hispanic Serving Institution, and given the low rates of transfer for our Latinx population, despite the consistent growth of that population along with mixed race and other dashboard groups, the work of the Diversity Committee is crucial for fostering a welcoming environment for these students to maximize their potential.
And local demographic projections only show Latinx and mixed race populations will continue to increase dramatically over the next 5 to 10 years.
Our enrollment, completion, and transfer numbers are going to depend more and more on students with historically marginalized identities, and given that the overwhelming majority of our faculty is white, we have to find every way we can for mimoritized students to see themselves actually reflected and valued on our campus.
The Diversity Days events, the Diversity Speaker Series, and our Informational Campaign contribute greatly to campus efforts to make our campus a welcoming place for historically marginalized identities to succeed, complete, and transfer. Continuing to change campus culture will be key to increasing the success of these students, closing our equity gaps, increasing the number of students enrolled, completing, and transferring in the coming years.
The work of the Diversity Committee primarily supports themes 2, 3, and 4.
We support student engagement and faculty and staff professional development with Diversity Days events and speakers and our Informational Campaign (last year on My Culture is Not a Costume and Cesar Chavez Day Celebration Awareness and this year on My Culture is Not a Costume and understanding microaggressions posters tied to Black History Month, Women's History Month, and Asian and Pacific Islander History Month. Likewise our speaker series events have been attended by around 40 to 60 students, faculty, and staff each time who are both engaging and developing mindful strategies to work for equity and inclusion in and out of the classroom as a result.
In terms of using data-informed processes for continuous improvement, we try to make sure that the dashboard identities and areas where these students have disproportionate impact are addressed in our strategic plan items, our Diversity Days speakers and events, and our Diversity Speaker Series and Informational Campaign. We focus on providing student populations with disproportionate impact inspiring role models, like Victor Rios and Nina G., and on information and events that will increase their visibility and awareness of their issues on our campus.
In terms of maximizing resources, we've been extremely careful to make our funding go as far as we can, ensuring that we minimize catering costs, retreat costs, in order to focus our budget on the events and programs that will have the strongest direct impact on students.
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Our primary goals for this year, according to our strategic plan were to:
1. Plan and execute a successful Diversity Days series of speakers and events with increased attendance (we had around 1350 faculty, staff, and students attend last year)
2. Continue to fund and support the Diversity Speaker Series, which has been consistently well attended and has had a significant impact on those present.
3. Continue to fund and support the Diversity Informational Campaign, adding to the My Culture is Not a Costume Campaign and the Cesar Chavez spring campaign, and now our microaggression awareness posters aligning with the different identity-focused history months.
4.Collaborate with the EEO Advisory Committee on increasing the number and impact of EEO trainings, especially for fully understanding implicit bias and the kinds of practices/attitudes that can make it worse, now that these are mandated for all hiring committee participants.
5. Collaborate with the EEO Advisory Committee on initiating more equity-minded onboarding strategies for new hires.
6. Collaborate with Student Life in getting more training and more representation of diverse students on campus committees.
7. Actively recruit at least two more equity-minded faculty to serve on the Academic Senate, Curriculum Committee, BCEA Union, and the PFA Union as new positions come available on these.
6.
Strategy 1 - Senior Level Officer of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Position
The need for a senior-level Officer of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is undeniable when one considers that since fall 2006, Butte College’s population of students of color has risen from 23% to 41%. All indications suggest that this trend will likely continue for the foreseeable future. In order to meet the needs of the “now” student, whom our college president has described as racially diverse, sexually diverse, and gender non-conforming, the college must be positioned to consider issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in all decision making and to be proactive in response to national, state, local, or college-level discourses, events, or policies related to diversity and equity. This position would work with colleagues across the institution to create a campus climate that affirms the values of diversity and equity as vital aspects of the learning environment while also articulating the importance of actively engaging diversity as part of the intellectual development of students who will compete in a global marketplace. Ultimately, this position would be in charge of developing and implementing a strategic vision and plan for diversity and equity efforts across the whole institution.
More specifically, the Officer of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion would work with faculty, staff, and student leaders to help the school actualize its diversity and equity objectives. As the Chancellor’s Office moves toward the consolidation of programs that support disproportionately impacted student groups, this position could potentially oversee programs that are currently aligned in their aims but have not had the institutional support needed to align their work in more collaborative ways. Some of these programs/services potentially include Student Equity, MESA, EOPS, VRC, Inspiring Scholars, Safe Place, Title IX, DSPS, HSI, GSEC, EEO efforts, and perhaps Student Life. This senior-level position could also be responsible for creating a strategic, intentional professional development program for faculty and staff around diversity and equity issues.
While the population of students of color has nearly doubled in the past 10 years, our faculty of color has increased by 1% in that same time period and remains woefully behind at just 12%. At the recent Strategic Planning Retreat, the senior-level Officer of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion was identified as the top priority for supporting student success and creating an inclusive campus environment. These efforts should focus on eliminating barriers to student success, preventing the recurrence of concerns expressed by students, and remedying the impact of these concerns on individual students and the campus community. In order to ensure a safe and welcoming environment that provides equal opportunity for success to all students, our college needs to 1) address hiring issues including unconscious bias training, 2) provide professional development for faculty and staff on cultural competency/cultural humility and privilege, and 3) strategically plan our college-wide efforts to close equity gaps and educate all students, faculty, and staff on the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion. This position could provide leadership on all these issues.
Strategy 2 - Supporting Diversity Days and Related Events: Speakers, Workshops, Trainings, and Initiatives on Campus
The Diversity Committee requests support to enhance and increase its current activities on campus. We request additional funding for keynote speakers, secondary speaker honoraria, travel costs and other costs associated with Diversity Days and related events.
Butte College’s Strategic Initiative 6 - Enhancing a Culture of Inclusiveness – emphasizes community “by actively promoting an environment that celebrates the uniqueness of each individual. The campus climate is characterized by diversity, understanding, mutual respect, and inclusiveness.” The Diversity Committee supports four vital aspects of this initiative: 1) Educating the campus and community that diversity is shaped and informed by many characteristics including but not limited to ability, age, culture, education, ethnicity, gender identity, language, religious beliefs, sex, sexual orientation, and socio-economic status; 2) Assisting in Hiring and retaining a diverse workforce; 3) Creating and sustaining programs, projects, and events that promote a greater understanding of diversity; 4) Developing annual reports that describe the results of diversity efforts and ensuring campus discussion of college progress.
The Diversity Committee is intimately involved in all aspects of this strategic initiative, including EEO planning and implementation, outreach to minority populations, and providing the members of the campus community exposure to a myriad of diversity-related issues via activities during Diversity Days and throughout the year.
Here, we request additional funding to support our current activities. Our present budget is $13,000. With this budget we typically have one or two keynote speakers, several events throughout the year as well as costs associated with t-shirts, travel, honoraria, meals, etc. And while this year, 2019/20, the committee was successful in receiving additional funding, this funding is not guaranteed in the future.
It is very difficult to get quality speakers with our current funding. Many speaker fees are in the thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars. If we are to continue our activities on campus, it is imperative that we increase funding.
One of the most effective ways to effect change is to send college employees to diversity training workshops and conferences or to organize such workshops at Butte. However the budget we currently have does not allow us to do this or many of the other activities the Committee needs to be effective.
Strategy 3 - Diversity Speakers Series
The Committee seeks to continue its Diversity Speakers Series, which has been a great success in its first and now second years, with now hundreds of attendees total. We are asking for additional funding, so we don't have to depend on Equity funding for this series to support at least four speakers each year (two each semester).
For many years, minoritized faculty and staff and allies on campus had requested that the Diversity Committe work on explanding the Diversity Days style offerings and the reflection they inspired to more consistent events throughout the year. The Diversity Speaker Series and our Informational Campaign have been our response to these very valid requests. Diversity and inclusion needs to be something our campus actively values and makes visible year round, not just for a week int he spring. In its first and second years, the speaker series has covered important LGBTQ+ issues, including the legacy and current status of HIV/AIDS, homophobia, transhpobia, coming out, trans pride, and many more. We held a particularly compelling series on homelessness last fall, and this spring we have two writers workshops that address both local and global issues. For this work to continue, we need the assurance of continued funding.
Strategy 4 - Educational and Informational Campus Campaign
The Committee seeks to implement each semester an educational and informational campaign focused on issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. For example in the fall 2019, in collaboration with CSU Chico, the Diversity Committee sponsored a "We're A Culture NOT A Costume" Poster campaign. Posters were disseminated throughout the campaign and also on various Social Media sites.
This spring, we are focusing on raising awareness about microaggressions, and focusing on microaggressions that target particular groups whose histories we celebrate each month in the spring, so Black History Month in February and Women's History Month in March, for example.
For many years there has been a request that the Diversity Committee expand it focus beyond Diversity Days by highlighting important topics, speakers and events throughout the year. In January 2018, the DC's three year strategic planning committee prioritized collaborating and partnering to identify and disseminate at least one diverse educational, informational campaign per semester as a goal for the academic year.
Strategy 5 - Support Student Equity in Their Work to Get A Retention Specialist for Native American Students
Student Equity is asking for a 10 month employee student retention specialist for Native American Students, and we believe this request would go a long way to closing equity gaps, especially in completion of basic skills for those students and want to support their request.
Native American students are the only population at Butte College with disproportionate impact in all five student success indicators: access (4.3% equity gap), retention (7.9% equity gap), transfer-level math and English completion (15.5% equity gap), transfer to a 4-year college (57% equity gap), and earned certificate/AA degree (62.2% equity gap). Additionally, equity gaps for our Native American students actually increased during our last reporting period between 2016-17 and 2017-18 in the areas of access, transfer, completion for transfer-level math and English, and earned certificates/AA degrees. Both the breadth and persistence of equity gaps for this population of students despite significant efforts to provide appropriate support suggest that a more targeted, intrusive intervention is necessary to adequately address the equity issues for Butte College’s Native American students. We believe that a retention specialist dedicated specifically to this population would drastically increase their access to services and supports on campus and in the local communities in order to improve student success and close equity gaps.
A Committee meeting room
Student Equity Funds
| Original Priority | Program, Unit, Area | Resource Type | Account Number | Object Code | One Time Augment | Ongoing Augment |
| Description | Supporting Rationale | Potential Alternative Funding Sources | Prioritization Criteria | |||
| 1 | Diversity Committee | Personnel | $0.00 | $180,808.00 | ||
| Senior Level Officer of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Position | The need for a senior-level Officer of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is undeniable when one considers that since fall 2006, Butte College�s population of students of color has risen from 23% to 41%. All indications suggest that this trend will likely continue for the foreseeable future. In order to meet the needs of the �now� student, whom our college President has described as racially diverse, sexually diverse, and gender non-conforming, the college must be positioned to consider issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in all decision making and to be proactive in response to national, state, local, or college-level discourses, events, or policies related to diversity and equity. This position would work with colleagues across the institution to create a campus climate that affirms the values of diversity and equity as vital aspects of the learning environment while also articulating the importance of actively engaging diversity as part of the intellectual development of students who will compete in a global marketplace. Ultimately, this position would be in charge of developing and implementing a strategic vision and plan for diversity and equity efforts across the whole institution. More specifically, the Officer of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion would work with faculty, staff, and student leaders to help the school actualize its diversity and equity objectives. As the Chancellor�s Office moves toward the consolidation of programs that support disproportionately impacted student groups, this position could potentially oversee programs that are currently aligned in their aims but have not had the institutional support needed to align their work in more collaborative ways. Some of these programs/services potentially include Student Equity, MESA, EOPS, VRC, Inspiring Scholars, Safe Place, Title IX, DSPS, HSI, GSEC, EEO efforts, and perhaps Student Life. This senior-level position could also be responsible for creating a strategic, intentional professional development program for faculty and staff around diversity and equity issues. The Student Equity Program could potentially fund a portion of this salary as long as other currently funded personnel are shifted to other sources of funding. However, this senior-level position should be district funded in order for the college to demonstrate its prioritization of diversity, equity, and inclusion not only as institutional values, but as intentional, strategic planning efforts. |
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| 2 | Diversity Committee | Personnel | 11_099_110_1_676000 | $0.00 | $25,000.00 | |
| Keynote Speaker Fees for Diversity Days | Bringing in high-quality speakers--a key aspect of Diversity Days--is very expensive. Limiting ourselves to local or very inexpensive speakers, prevents us from exposing our students to exciting speakers that mirror their own diverse backgrounds and serve as inspiring role models. We can't depend on Student Equity funds to help us with these costs every year, and if Diversity and Inclusion really is a district priority, Diversity Days, which has the highest attendance of any equity and inclusion event on our campus (over 1300 students, staff, and faculty last year) should be district funded. on an ongoing basis. |
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| 3 | Diversity Committee | Personnel | 11_099_110_1_676000 | $0.00 | $22,000.00 | |
| Diversity Days other speakers and event cost | In addition to the primary keynote speaker, costs associated with a second keynote and other invited speakers for the 17 additional sessions that take place during Diversity Days need to be covered. We can't depend on Student Equity funds to help us with these costs every year, and if Diversity and Inclusion really is a district priority, Diversity Days, which has the highest attendance of any equity and inclusion event on our campus (over 1300 students, staff, and faculty last year) should be district funded. on an ongoing basis. |
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| 4 | Diversity Committee | Personnel | $0.00 | $10,000.00 | ||
| Diversity Speakers Series | The Committee seeks to continue offering the Diversity Speakers Series which will continue to choose at least two speakers per semester. The campus community will be invited to submit proposals for potential speakers and/or events and a subcommittee to the Diversity Committee will continue to coordinate the selection process and assist in the implementation of the event. |
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| 5 | Diversity Committee | Operating Expenses | 11_099_110_1_676000 | $0.00 | $12,000.00 | |
| Diversity Workshops & Training | In the past we have regularly sent faculty and students to diversity training workshops and found it to be a very productive activity and a good use of funds. However, with the budget cuts, we have not been able to do this for several years. Having this funding would also allow us to participate in the annual Diversity Conferences such as NCORE. If we don't have access to new training each year, we will lack access to the most innovative diversity and inclusion programming and the most significant topics for contemporary students. |
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| 6 | Diversity Committee | Operating Expenses | $0.00 | $1,500.00 | ||
| Diversity Educational and Informational Campaigns | For many years there has been a request that the Diversity Committee expand its focus beyond Diversity Days by highlighting important topics, speakers and events throughout the year. In fall of 2018, we began our first Diversity Speaker Series, and the program has grown and become increasingly successful since. Members of our campus community submit proposals for equity and inclusion-related speakers, and priority goes to topics that most directly affect our students, like the timely homelessness fora we held last fall. We're averaging between 40 to 60 attendees to each event, sometimes many more, especially at the evening events held in collaboration with CSU, Chico, so this program is having a tremendous impact. We cannot continue to rely on Student Equity funding, and we're hoping this program will also be district funded on an ongoing basis, so it doesn't risk losing the momentum it has built. |
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| 7 | Retention Specialist for Native American Students | $0.00 | $83,942.00 | |||
| Full-time, 10 month, retention specialist focused on supporting Native American students. | Native American students are the only population at Butte College with disproportionate impact in all five student success indicators: access (4.3% equity gap), retention (7.9% equity gap), transfer-level math and English completion (15.5% equity gap), transfer to a 4-year college (57% equity gap), and earned certificate/AA degree (62.2% equity gap). Additionally, equity gaps for our Native American students actually increased during our last reporting period between 2016-17 and 2017-18 in the areas of access, transfer, completion for transfer-level math and English, and earned certificates/AA degrees. Both the breadth and persistence of equity gaps for this population of students despite significant efforts to provide appropriate support suggest that a more targeted, intrusive intervention is necessary to adequately address the equity issues for Butte College�s Native American students. We believe that a retention specialist dedicated specifically to this population would drastically increase their access to services and supports on campus and in the local communities in order to improve student success and close equity gaps. Butte College serves an average of 100-150 students annually who identify solely as Native American; we believe that there are at least twice this many students who identify as at least part Native American but who are counted as either Hispanic or multi-ethic students in our MIS reporting system. Our Native American students report that their success in college is compromised by housing issues, food insecurity, textbook costs, instructors� lack of cultural awareness/competence, and having to navigate the complexities of higher educational bureaucracy. The retention specialist position is designed specifically to help students with these kinds of challenges with a case management approach. This position could also serve as a liaison between Butte College and local Native American tribal communities and support agencies, like Four Winds of Education and CSU Chico�s Tribal Relations Office to ensure collaboration and relationship building, which are key tenets for building rapport and trust between the college and Native communities. As the community college system moves to the student-centered funding formula, colleges are incentivized financially to provide more support to traditionally underrepresented groups, so the investment in this position will likely produce positive financial outcomes for the college. An operational budget of $5,000 is also requested, so the retention specialist can provide community outreach, sponsor Native-specific events, and support Native American students with textbooks and/or school supplies. |
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