After continuously hearing from the student body, in the Thursday, April 20 meeting, the Board of Trustees voted to approve attorney Lauren Joyce serving as a legal resource for City College students.
The board had a discussion about the possibility of implementing a resource for students seeking legal support. Before the pandemic, City College had resources in place for students who were in need of legal advice, but it fell as one of the casualties of COVID-19.
Lauren Joyce would be brought on to work with students to provide legal information as a stepping stone, but would not be authorized to offer actual legal advice.
“The intention of this contract is to be able to provide a first legal resource for students,” Vice President of Student Affairs Paloma Arnold said. “It is a first point of contact to answer some basic legal questions to be able to refer students to other legal resources.”
Board President Jonathan Abboud shared insight about University of California, Santa Barbara having a similar resource where an attorney is provided for UCSB students. Abboud highlighted that City College students have sought out the same opportunity.
Throughout the discussion, there were differing opinions. Trustee Marsha Croninger feared that students wouldn’t benefit from an attorney that was not able to give actual legal advice to the student, and felt that they would instead gain more from actual legal representation.
“This does not accomplish what we are trying to accomplish,” Croninger said. “Our students want access to some legal advice.”
This movement would cost $6,000 and would require students to sign a waiver before meeting with attorney Joyce to guarantee no concrete advice is allotted. The board passed the agenda item with amendments.
As the faculty advisor of women’s lacrosse, Raeanne Napoleon presented in front of the board to bring light to the team’s current situation. Napoleon recommended that City College move forward in creating a women’s lacrosse academic program, alleviating the issues with being a club team. The adviser also requested an improvement for bridging the gap between future club teams within the Office of Student Life and City College’s Athletic Department.
As a club team under the Office of Student Life, women’s lacrosse does not receive funding from the school so the expenses fall on individual players and fundraising.
The team has ranked in many categories this season. They ranked No. 1 in their division with a 10-1 record, No. 8 nationally, and third at the League Championship in San Diego on April 15 to 16, beating schools such as Stanford University and the University of California, Los Angeles, according to Napoleon.
The remainder of the Thursday meeting centered around student equity and inclusion, sustainability and the developing stages of the presidential search.
The Board of Trustees will reconvene on Thursday, May 18.
