In this column, employees of Glendale College with different roles engage in dialogue about their departments/divisions, as well as thoughts about a more student-centered campus. Partners are given the same three questions to ask one another, and the option of additional questions and/or taking a selfie together. If you are interested in participating in this dialogue, please feel free to email Sandy Somo or Julie Gamberg.
How long have you been at GCC, and what do you do here?
This is my 5th year at GCC and I’m Dean of Instructional Services. I’m the instructional dean for divisions and programs at the college including English, Credit ESL, Social Sciences, Language Arts, and Kinesiology divisions as well as Scholars Program, Study Abroad Program and Baja Program. I’m chair of the Graduation Requirements Committee, Adjunct Ancillary Stipends Committee, co-chair of Enrollment Management Committee. I also oversee our Instructional Services Office instructional support specialist, who assists with absence reporting and faculty payroll information, and administrative assistants who provide assistance and support for students’ faculty evaluations, C&I, and programs such as Scholars Program, Study Abroad and Adjunct Ancillary Stipends.
What do you wish people knew about your department or division that you think they might not totally understand?
As dean for the areas, divisions and programs that I work with, and I’m sure other deans can relate, there are a lot of cross-campus coordination and collaborations that happen behind the scenes, processes and procedures to follow, regulations and policies to implement and various issues and challenges to solve and overcome. There are a lot of micro and macro things that happen every single day on the instructional side of our college. Micro and macro including but not limited to: grade change petitions, addressing academic dishonesty, addressing and resolving student complaints, reviewing and approving or not approving requisitions, coordination of exciting programs and initiatives, completing program review, of course a lot of meetings, following up with tasks and action items, working with our Learning Environment Enhancement Task Force to update and upgrade our classrooms, monitoring our enrollments and course offerings, faculty tenure track class observations, faculty and classified employee evaluations, writing reports, and so much more. It would be too lengthy to get into all the details. Every day is different but fun, frustrating at times, exciting at most, but definitely very productive. There’s always something new to solve, to resolve, to address, to overcome, to change, to keep, to advocate, to pursue, to persist, to push forward, to improve, to support, to collaborate, to encourage, to empower, to celebrate and to appreciate. All to support our students, our faculty and our college. I was a faculty member before, and as an administrator, I may not be in a classroom teaching, but my role and commitment to create impact for our students, our college, and our community remain the same. I absolutely love what I do. I’m very fortunate to be working with division chairs, faculty coordinators, vice presidents, other deans and staff at GCC who are very responsive, proactive, and committed to our students, programs and initiatives. I’ve been in education for over 17 years and have worked at other community colleges as administrator and faculty. I have to say that, at GCC, we have the most engaged college community of faculty, administrators and staff who are genuinely dedicated to our students.
When you think about our movement toward a more student-centered campus, how can the rest of the campus be more supportive of your department/division?
Equity, access and inclusion are huge right now and are essential components in education in any discipline. As our college moves towards a more student-centered campus in various divisions, departments and areas, it’s not enough that we speak words about equity, access and inclusion; it’s more important that we take deliberate and purposeful actions in our areas collaboratively to create changes in our college culture, curriculum, teaching-learning approaches, services and operations that are aligned with social justice and anti-racism to truly ensure student success, access, equity and inclusion particularly for our disproportionately impacted students. I think the college’s work towards anti-racism is starting to emerge. We are all on the frontlines, and we need to be consistent with that work in our actions and words all across disciplines and service areas on our campus. After all, we’re all here for our students, and our main purpose is to serve our students, so they can achieve their education and career goals.
Reflection
I truly enjoyed talking with Tiffany and sharing our experiences with each other. Tiffany is definitely one of the faculty at GCC who’s very active, deeply committed and genuinely dedicated to our students. She’s highly involved in various initiatives on campus including professional development and assessments. I think Tiffany and I connected well with our conversations related to the emerging work and discussions at the college about equity, inclusion and anti-racism. We also both got excited talking about our passion for community college students, and the impact our college can make to our students’ lives. I look forward to connecting with Tiffany again soon.
How long have you been at GCC, and what do you do here?
Total, I have been at GCC 14 years. I started as an adjunct instructor in Credit ESL in Fall Semester of 2007. Then in 2014, I was a temporary full-time hire at PCC. Then I was hired as a full-time, tenure-track instructor in Noncredit ESL. I was hired as the “Pathways Assessment Coordinator.” So I am coordinating our common assessments, placement, and AB705 work. I also support the Noncredit ESL faculty as the professional development coordinator. I love to bring faculty into conversations about making learning truly about students, cultivating the learning environment so that students basically can’t not learn!
What do you wish people knew about your department or division that you think they might not totally understand?
Noncredit ESL is a very rigorous language program focused on getting new immigrants up to a level of English that helps them accomplish their goals in the community, in their education, and as New Americans! Our faculty welcome students into classes all semester with our open-entry/open-exit program, so we are very aware of retention and student engagement in our courses. I think every member of Noncredit ESL has an untapped expertise in connecting with students quickly to support their learning. Our faculty is very committed to helping students find their place in our program. I also wish that people understood that supporting students with first language support is a game changer. Many of our students at GCC have a lot of linguistic capacity in other languages! Our office staff in Noncredit ESL is very multilingual and is able to create this linguistically welcoming environment for students of many languages. Helping students navigate the college system is a huge lift, and language support really supports inclusion across the college.
When you think about our movement toward a more student-centered campus, how can the rest of the campus be more supportive of your department/division?
The students in Noncredit ESL are so diverse. Many come from great expertise in their country, doctors, professionals, business owners, programmers, robotics professors. There still is some implicit bias that Noncredit students come because of a deficit, their English. At times, I get concerned that they may not be seen for all of who they are and what they bring with them. They are starting new lives, many of them unable to practice in their area of expertise, faced with a choice of starting over in something else or pushing through a long road of getting to do what they already did in their country. As I have learned about noncredit students since being hired in 2015, I’ve been amazed by the stories our students have. The grit and perseverance they represent. As they articulate into credit programs, I hope that the GCC community can see them as students who bring a wealth of career, past education, linguistic resources, and drive. The other thing I can think of is connection. Our students want to articulate into your program! But they sometimes need a connection with faculty or staff to make the jump. I would love to have more of these organic connections with all of the departments at GCC so that we know where to send students for their next step!
Reflection
Talking to Agnes was really inspiring. She is passionate about diversity, equity, inclusion, and access. This is work that I continually feel overwhelmed at the magnitude of. As she spoke about it, she has clear goals for where she wants to go, and she is aware of the challenges of this work. However, she emphasized that there are so many steps that she’s grateful for that are moving forward at GCC. She also emphasized how much supporting faculty is part of her passion. She believes that supporting faculty is key to serving more students better. Talking to Agnes reminded me what an honor it is to work with so many passionate people at GCC. And to practice gratitude for every step toward anti-racism and equity in the work we do – even though there is a huge list of work that is not done yet. What an inspiring leader in our community.
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