Student Equity Plan Summary 2018-2021

The 2019-2022 West Valley Student Equity Plan focused on Access, Course Completion, Degree Completion, Basic Skills Completion and Transfer. The targeted student groups included Asian, Hispanic, African American, veterans and foster youth. Upon reflection, the plan targeted a wide group of students, rather than focusing on those most disproportionally impacted. However, the college has made progress in the four areas listed above, and the fifth, Basic Skills Course Completion is no longer applicable due to AB 705. Major goals accomplished include:

• Redesign of outreach with the development of a Campus Recruitment Team focused on increasing enrollment of African American, Latinx, and First-Generation students.
• The development of a data dashboard that tracks data on course, degree completion, and student service programs. This allows us to retrieve data to inform our equity work.
• Degree Completion has seen a big uptick between 2019-22, partially because of a retooling of degrees offered for transfer. Counselors and students are utilizing DegreeWorks to track student progress and clearly identify courses needed for degree completion.
• WVC has increased transfer rates, performing at the top in the Bay Area for our transfer rates. WVC received distinction as a 2022 Equity Champion of Higher Education for Latinx Students because 65.97% of our Latinx associate degree earners earned an Associate Degree for Transfer, and this percentage is as good or better than the same metric for the rest of WVC’s associate degree earners.
• The development of the Office of Student Needs centralized in one office to address student needs rather than in separate locations across campus.
• Faculty Fellows, Student Ambassadors, Student Resource Centers and the Center for Exploration, Identity and Inclusion provide opportunities for information, support and community.
• Faculty across campus have adopted the Caring Campus initiative, communities of practice, and professional development to create equity-minded and culturally competent classrooms for students.
• Corequisite classes, embedded tutoring, Stats and Chem Jams, and summer bridge have been offered to students to prepare for transfer-level gateway courses.
• Guided Pathways is developing clear and welcoming pathways for students from start to finish.
• Online Advantage Orientation was developed to allow students to fulfill this requirement in an online format.

The majority of the 2019-2022 West Valley Student Equity budget was used for Employee salary and benefits. Additional funds were used for supplies and materials, design and furniture for the new Center for Exploration, Identity and Inclusion, the Office of Student Needs and the food pantry. Consultants, presenters, and guest speakers were also charged to this account. Additional funding for the Office of Student Needs was provided by the District Land Corporation and by private donations through the WVMCCD Foundation.