Equity Plan Reflection

• Office of Student Needs was created in 2019 and a Director of Student Needs was hired to serve undocumented students, foster/former foster youth, homeless/housing and food insecure students
• Director of Student Equity Experience was hired in 2021 to oversee first-year learning cohorts: Umoja, Puente, and First Year Experience
• Center for Identity, Exploration, and Inclusion opened, followed by centers for Latinx, African American, Native American, and LGBTQIA+ students in 2022
• Faculty Fellows program launched to support students identifying as Latinx, African American, Native American, and LGBTQIA+

• Additional evening online information sessions for students and parents offered for Puente, Umoja and general students.
• Outreach sessions offered in Spanish.
• Student Ambassadors included in both online and in-person outreach efforts.

• Student Convocation shifted to event highlighting the student experience with student emcees.
• In 2022, Early Admissions (EA) events shifted to a Guided Pathways model of connecting students with counselors in their meta-majors, or with counselors in first-year cohorts Puente and Umoja, and general counselors for undecided, non-cohort students.
• In Summer 2022, offered in-person Welcome Onboard Workshops (WOWs) for incoming first-year students unable to attend an EA or Orientation class. Students provided a brief orientation during these 2-hour workshops and an appointment with a counselor to develop an education plan afterward.
• Adopted Signalvine texting platform to connect with students from application to registration and onward.

• Implemented Degree Works to allow students to track their progress toward their educational goals and to create different versions of ed plans to inform them of their UC or CSU transfer options.
• Integrated Career Coach and Handshake into Counseling classes to help students connect their educational path to their career goals.

• Academic Senate task force of Math, English, ESL, and Counseling faculty developed supports for students entering transfer-level Math and English, including corequisite classes and embedded tutoring.
• Developed a user-friendly Guided Self Placement tool.

More student-centered onboarding activities have resulted in increased enrollments of targeted groups despite an overall drop in college enrollment. Analysis of enrollment data from spring 2018 to spring 2022 shows an increase in the following:

• Increase in Asian student enrollment from 18% to 18.7%.
• Increase in Hispanic student enrollment from 28.3 to 30.4%.
• Increase in African American student enrollment from 2.3 to 2.5%.

Data shows that the three-year transfer rate for African American students increased slightly from 17.0% for the cohort entering in Fall 17 to 19.2% for the cohort entering in Fall 18. Similarly, the transfer rate for Latinx students increased from 10.4% for the Fall 17 cohort to 14.2% for the Fall 18 cohort. During the same period, the transfer rate for White and Asian students dropped about one point.

WVC received distinction as a 2022 Equity Champion of Higher Education for Latinx Students because 65.97% of our Latinx students earned an Associate Degree and also earned an Associate Degree for Transfer.

In the summer of 2020, West Valley College developed The Anti-Racism and Inclusion Action Plan, which we will use to support and align with the 2022-2025-Student Equity Plan.

In the 2019-2022 Student Equity Plan, it was clear that we focused our efforts on all students, and not specifically on underserved groups. This is a major shift in the 2022-2025 Student Equity Plan. Though our data does not clearly show disproportionate impact for many underserved groups, our planning efforts intentionally focus on underserved groups, specifically African American, Latinx and First-Year/First-Generation Students.

The 2022-25 Equity Plan has been a campus-wide effort. Twenty-five faculty, classified professionals, and administrators participated in writing the plan. It was reviewed multiple times by our student government, Academic Senate, Classified Senate, and College Council. Enacting the plan will also be a college-wide responsibility. We expect that funding for the different initiatives in this plan will come from a variety of sources including the college’s general fund, Basic Needs funding, Strong Workforce funding, Covid relief funds as well as SEAP funds.

This planning cycle we received support by our data analyst and have formulated a plan to continue to collect data with a focus on disaggregating data to document measurable success of our efforts.

The Office of Student Needs was able to serve housing and food insecure students immediately. Food distribution began in collaboration with Second Harvest within weeks of the campus shutdown, not only to students but also to the neighboring community. Housing insecure and homeless students were helped through collaborations with the Bill Wilson Center and West Valley Community Services.

Cranium Café was introduced to the campus in late fall 2019. The campus was able to quickly pivot to offer online and Student Services support. Signalvine, a texting platform, was adopted to inform students of campus events and activities, as well as by individual offices to relay deadlines for applications and drop dates.

The campus library’s Textbook and Technology Program realigned for fall 2020, and students were able to drive through to pick up and return semester book loans, laptops, hotspots and calculators. Student Service programs DESP, EOPS, and CalWORKs offered drive-through services to distribute equipment, book loans, materials, and gas cards.

During the early stages of the pandemic, the college shifted to offer fewer orientations and workshops as it grappled with reaching students in the online environment. By fall 2020 more student services offerings were held remotely with employees and students becoming accustomed to the new modalities. Convocation was offered online with students taking the lead in the presentation.

In fall of 2021, we began to offer more face-to-face orientations and workshops along with continued online options, expanding overall opportunities to engage with the college.

The pandemic allowed us to provide more support and assistance for students online, a modality we continue to use and enabled us to provide students access to resources. It also slowed our work on our Anti-Racism and Inclusion Action Plan simply because we focused on serving the immediate needs of our students during the pandemic.

West Valley College has grounded its equity work in the Anti-Racism and Inclusion Action Plan, created in 2020, and will continue to use the framework in our equity work going forward in 2022-2025. The goals of the plan intersect in many areas with this SEA Program plan. Four main goals include:

• Goal A: Unearth, examine, acknowledge, and identify concrete actions to account for the racial history of West Valley College.
• Goal B: Address Anti-Blackness and systemic Racism in the campus culture.
• Goal C: Implement sustainable actions to contribute to an Anti-Racist culture at West Valley College.
• Goal D: Create a welcoming, supportive, and inclusive campus climate.

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.

West Valley College has grounded its equity work in the Anti-Racism and Inclusion Action Plan, created in 2020, and will continue to use the framework in our equity work going forward in 2022-2025. The goals of the plan intersect in many areas with this SEA Program plan. Four main goals include:

• Goal A: Unearth, examine, acknowledge, and identify concrete actions to account for the racial history of West Valley College.
• Goal B: Address Anti-Blackness and systemic Racism in the campus culture.
• Goal C: Implement sustainable actions to contribute to an Anti-Racist culture at West Valley College.
• Goal D: Create a welcoming, supportive, and inclusive campus climate.

The 2022-2025 Student Equity Plan focuses on closing the achievement gap for African American/Black, Hispanic, and First-Year, First Generation students (70% are African American/Black and Hispanic). The plan calls for a) Increased focus on disproportionally impacted students, b) Increased interventions specifically for disproportionally impacted students, c) Greater campus-wide involvement and d) Reveals a need for greater data collection.

West Valley’s Student Equity 2022-2025 budget will primarily be used for Employee salary and benefits. Additional funds will be used for supplies and materials. The Office of Student Needs will continue to receive funding from the SEA Program budget for the food pantry as well as from the District Land Corporation, private donations through the WVMCCD Foundation, and California Community College COVID-19 Recovery Block Grant funds. The college has received a 5-year Learning-Aligned Employment Program grant (LAEP) to fund on- and off-campus student internships. WVC will also implement the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) program in 2023.

Please contact Renee Paquier, Interim Vice President, Student Services, Diversity, and Inclusion at (408) 741-2180, for further information