Chaparral 2021-2022: 30.5 Letter from the Editor

Letter from the Editor

by Joanna Parypinski

Did you know that April is California Community College Month?

The California legislature made this recognition official in 2019. With this in mind, it seems like a good time to reflect on our role as a community college that promises the opportunity for every student to get a high quality, low cost education. This is the focus of our April issue of Chaparral, where you’ll find some robust and engaging discussion of how we can best live up to the promise of the community college and what impediments we are facing in serving this fundamental role in the community.

The articles in this issue discuss the problems of top-down initiatives (are we turning CCs into transfer mills?), anti-humanistic trends in the implementation of educational reforms, the return of the Classified Council Student Worker Scholarships, the threat of Calbright, the Part Time Faculty Conference, how governance committees represent the interests of the community, making cross-campus connections, how Garfield students feel about in-person vs. remote learning, and information on participating in the Steps Challenge! In this issue, we’ll also celebrate personal and professional milestones, as well as share recommendations of what we are reading.

We are, after all, a community college, and I hope that Chaparral continues to offer everyone an opportunity to communicate with their community and engage with the issues that matter most to us.

Sincerely, Joanna Parypinski
Chaparral Editor-in-Chief