Equity as it Stands on SMC’s Campus Today
Colleges across the nation are devising plans to create more equitable environments for their students and staff - including Santa Monica College (SMC). SMC’s 2019-2020 Equity Plan states that “Santa Monica College continues to see pervasive data across every student success indicator demonstrating that the College is not effectively serving Latinx and African American students specifically.”
The school's Equity Plan outlines what benchmarks they hope to reach regarding equity, and the steps taken since 2014 to reach that goal. This includes increased spending on resources such as professional development for staff, and student support programs like the Adelante Program, which was created by SMC’s Latino Center, and the Black Collegians/Umoja program. The plan was developed jointly by Equity Steering Committee, which is composed of faculty and administrators, and the Academic Senate (A.S.) Joint Institutional Effectiveness Committee.
The Equity Plan outlines that the “college is considered a minority serving institution (Latinx and African American student population of 49 percent). According to Institutional Research conducted by SMC in 2019, 61 percent of the roughly 30,000 credited students per semester are “racially minoritized.”
SMC’s 2019-2020 Student Equity Plan also addresses the issues the school has faced in regard to equity and their projected goals for the year ahead. One sector of the plan discusses the lack of “any dedicated equity staffing to create, coordinate, and sustain the training, planning, and strategy development of the campus community around racial equity data, best practices, and principles.” The plan stated they will be establishing an “Institutional Equity, Planning and Effectiveness” leader to monitor equity data and coordinate efforts to address institutional equity gaps across every sector of campus.
Sherri Bradford has worked for SMC's Black Collegians program for 23 years, starting as a counselor and now running the entire program. Bradford recognizes the amount of work needed to create a more equitable campus.
"It is challenging to move the needle, unless there are consistent campus wide required opportunities for this professional development to occur," Bradford said. “Every part of the cog in the wheel of a college plays a role in how we execute better experiences [for our] black and Latinx students.”
Organizers of the plan have also contributed funding to the Veterans Center, the Scholars program, Guardians Scholars, Chemistry Bootcamps and Math Workshops. According to the SMC website, the school has three different committees working on advancing student equity - the Equity Steering Committee, the Student Equity Center, and the A.S. Equity and Diversity Committee.
This year, A.S. created the Director of Equity and Diversity position. The position aims "to advocate for the protection of students’ rights to equity, diversity, and inclusion," according to the A.S. constitution.
The current Director of Equity and Diversity, Karla Bellot, is passionate about increasing student access to the resources that both A.S. and SMC have to offer. The immediate online environment has revealed disparities in student access to technology. “Not everyone at SMC right now has good Wi-Fi, a good computer, [or] a good phone to use during class," Bellot said.
Bellot started her first semester at SMC not fully aware of the programs and resources available to her. Looking back now she encourages other students "to get involved, because if you don't get involved, nothing's gonna change.”
As head of Black Collegians, Bradford does more than just oversee the program. Many students come to her for advice, whether that be academic or personal.
"If they get in a class, and it feels like they're being microaggressed every other minute, it doesn't matter that they got a great enrollment day to get into this class, if their experience was not a good one,” said Bradford.
Bradford says many students that come to her for advice have similar reoccurring experiences. For one, she has had several students express feeling like they don't see other people that look like them within their own classrooms.
"Depending on what class it is, if a topic comes up related to Black folks in America, they feel like they're put on the spot as the sole representative and the [person to] speak on whatever topic that is," said Bradford.
While Black Collegians and Adelante both aim to narrow the equity gap for students of color, Bradford says students shouldn't have to seek out alternative resources in order to feel like they belong on their own college campus.
“It shouldn't have to be where students come to Black Collegians or the Adelante Program to feel a sense of belonging to the campus," Bradford said. "We have to take responsibility as employees of the college to create an atmosphere where our Black and Latinx students feel welcome."
