Chaparral 2022-2023: 31.5 Reaching Across: Building Bridges with Colleagues

How long have you been at GCC, and what do you do here?

Val

I have been employed with GCC since 2005 as a Human Resources (HR) manager. In this role, I oversee the operations of the department and spearhead people initiatives, primarily, in recruitment, technology, legal compliance, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA), professional development, and employee relations. On any given day, I am an advocate, change agent, problem-solver, listener, policy enforcer, cheerleader, coach, and/or advisor on various HR matters. I am inspired by working with and helping employees grow for the betterment of themselves and the college.

What do you wish people knew about your department or division that you think they might not totally understand?

Val

The Human Resources department is multifaceted. It consists of many different functions that are critical to the employee experience of approximately 1300 employees at GCC. Currently the department has nine HR professionals, eleven when fully staffed, who perform and/or administer one or more of the following activities: recruitment, leaves and worker’s compensation, legal compliance, policy and procedure development, Human Resources Information Systems, DEIA, employee/labor relations, classification and compensation, professional development, records administration, risk management, performance management, and HR strategies.

Employees are critical to the success of the organization and HR through its program's aims to cultivate an engaged, diverse, and talented workforce in a positive work environment where employees are committed to work that aligns with the mission of college. Human Resources provides services and benefits that are designed to maximize employee talents and support their work with students. Some of the work in HR is transactional but most of the time is spent helping and developing employees so that they can bring their “best” self to work. The work is both rewarding, challenging, and complex in nature. The department is employee-focused and mission driven. Many perceive that HR only focuses on compliance because we enforce laws and policies and procedures. Rules and regulations are established to ensure the safety, security, fairness, and the well-being of all employees and prevent future unforeseen problems.

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?

Val

As we move towards a more student-centered campus, I believe it is important for every employee to stay focused on their role in contributing to the mission of the college which centers around students. Every interaction and learning experience that employees have with students has an impact on the student’s college and life experiences.

Division and departments can support HR by understanding what we do and why, complying with District policies and procedures, and contributing to building a positive culture of innovation, growth, continuous improvement, and inclusivity.

I enjoyed the conversation with David today. I appreciated hearing his perspective of HR and learning more about teaching art in the classroom. David and I started at GCC the same year so it was great to reflect back on the evolution of GCC and the important and meaningful work we have done together over the years.

How long have you been at GCC, and what do you do here?

David

I started at GCC in 2005 and have several roles, including teaching drawing, design, and printmaking; co-chairing the Studio Arts area; managing the Art Gallery @ GCC, and placing both student and professional contemporary artworks in prominent public places around campus, including the three murals you see in GCC's various courtyards. You see the work of GCC art students throughout Sierra Vista, in the Library, and at the Art Gallery.

I've also had substantial experience with governance, including being the very first Student Equity Coordinator (back in the day when equity wasn't as recognized as a central value as it is now), on Guild Exec for a brief stint (where I drove everyone nuts with my "non-GCC" world view about social justice and community organizing), and sitting on the RTEP Committee. I also was the faculty advisor for LGBTQ students for several years, also back in the days before awareness about inclusivity wasn't well developed. (First, we were "the gay student group," then we morphed into a gay/straight alliance, and then we transformed into Prizm, before LGBTQ equity became fully integrated into College Services as it is now.) I always have so much gratitude for the ways GCC has evolved in these areas – often behind the curve and sometimes ahead of it – through the tireless efforts of my colleagues.

Val and I reminisced about how much the College has transformed since our first days in 2005. That year was a turning point for GCC, with many newly-hired staff and faculty in several areas already oriented to DEI (before we called it that). I expressed to Val my appreciation for her early efforts to develop the Faculty Diversity Internship Program. Val was truly ahead of the

curve in getting the College to make concrete, structural, and enduring commitments to faculty diversity. Getting GCC to make discursive commitments to social justice has never been hard; however, getting practical commitments to structural change and resource re-allocation hasn't been very easy.

What do you wish people knew about your department or division that you think they might not totally understand?

David

I don't think people understand how collaborative, kinesthetic, and integrated the work we do really is, both in Studio Arts and in VPA in general. The stereotype is that our classes are "fun" (which is a shock for students who quickly realize our arts faculty is not fooling around, requiring technical skill, conceptual sophistication, and creative expression all at once). There's a lot of physical activity in a studio arts classroom – and our alums and transfer partners often note that our program is the closest to a real, working artist studio. This means staff and students are moving easels and props, mixing vanishes and resins, experimenting with small and large pieces of paper and canvas, building from wood, paper mache and clay, talking health and safety, using serious power tools, making digital mock ups, learning to color mix, analyzing contemporary and historical artworks, and investigating what makes for creative careers and lives. I'm not sure that those who teach in conventional classrooms or work in offices understand how many different types of learning happen simultaneously – from developing motor skills, to learning to collaborate with peers, to struggling with originality and creativity, to writing thoughtful criticism of peer's work, to the worst part – accepting constructive criticism with grace in front of all a room full of 25 critics who can see your work directly compared to those of your peers. Rather than viewing our work as "recreational" or "niche," I wish people saw our work as integrated, global, embodied, and expressive. I wish people understood that visual literacy and material competence are equal players in making well-rounded, effective lifelong learners.

In sharing, Val added the importance of art-as-story-telling and a method of sparking public conversations, and we talked a bit about art and student experience. She and I underlined how art is a direct way of connecting learning to student life experience, answering the question of how we make college relevant to a diverse student population. There's no faster route to getting a student to connect their experience than through artistic self-expression.

Then, Val and I laughed when I added the last point, which I stated awkwardly; I blurted "And, art is not just for rich kids!" Although the Chancellor's Office for years has tried to prune back art education at the community college level (arguing it's "expensive" and "not a basic skill"), guaranteeing access to art and artistic expression to all students is a form of economic justice, as I see it. Having the tools to express oneself visually (or verbally, or musically, or mechanically) is a special sort of human right, that should be independent of whether we're at art school, private college, or public institution.

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? 

David

In my view, we underestimate how important physical space is to learning, and the COVID pandemic really destroyed facility-based programs like mine. The foundation of a strong arts program is a safe, clean, well-stocked physical space to think and create. I can't express how many students over the years have complained that they have no space of their own in their own homes (if they're housed) – so many of them stash their drawings under their beds or ask to store artworks in my office. In my view, a student-centered campus is a place to offer an alternative to an overly social-mediated, overly screen-centered, virtual life experience for our students. This is not to discount digital tools – we've used them in Studio Arts for years and they make my in-person classes better and more rigorous. (Still begging – a decade later – for computer stations in the Studio Arts classroom, if you can hear me, oh gods of Program Review.) However, a central aspect of learning is presence. And, so we're facing a new educational conundrum – how we balance physical and digital experience (and balance parking with limited bandwidth). Though it's certainly the job of faculty to stay abreast of innovations in digital pedagogy, I also worry that it's so easy to take for granted how precious having a space – or a studio, or a library, or a campus, or community engagement center – really is to meaningful thought and authentic expression. (Or, to merely feeling safe at all.) As most artists (and most humans), will tell you, it's a gift to have a space to create.

So even though I'm the guy who makes the exterior spaces on campus look good with murals, photos and tapestries, I urge us to also invest in safe, clean, well-equipped internal learning spaces. Our students deserve them.