The Academic Senate met on Wednesday, March 13, discussing Guided Pathways, the budget forum held on March 11, and future planning for City College.
Guided Pathways was created in order to make it easier for students to understand what courses they must take for their educational goal, according to their website. It was revealed at the Senate’s meeting that the organization will be presenting at a statewide Pathway to Equity conference in April. The goal of the conference is to inspire other campuses to do something similar, according to Margaret Prothero, the Guided Pathways Faculty Coordinator.
Prothero took time to remind those in the room of the Guided Pathways mission statement.
“Education is meant to achieve social justice, equitable social economic outcomes, and intellectual professional personal growth,” the coordinator said.
The “four pillars” were brought up during the discussion, which included the focus of students, issues with equity gaps, opportunities missed, and priority strategy.
“The amount of work that has been accomplished in these different groups with so many different people, through so many college presidents, and BPS is surreal,” said Kimberly Monda, president of the Academic Senate, when talking about Guided Pathways.
Prothero discussed the “my path” button students have in their pipeline, which is located between Starfish and Canvas. When a student clicks on the button, they will be taken to a separate page full of many different resources. This includes financial aid help, CSU and UC transfer aid, help finding online courses, and more. This can include things in relation to what courses a student must take for their specific major or what financial steps they have to take for aid.
Discussion of the budget forum recently held on March 11 was brought up during the groups’ meeting as well. It was revealed that Erika Endrijonas, the president of City College, is planning to establish a budget committee starting in the fall, according to Monda.
“The anxiety and fear that I had that big decisions were going to be made quickly, [but] they’re not,” Monda said. “We are going to have time to talk in the fall, so that was a big relief to me.”
A plenary will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 3 to discuss the current budget crisis and the challenges that come with it. It will be hosted by Cornelia Alsheimer-Barthel, Tara Carter, and Kimberly Monda. The group discussed what they believed should be brought up during the upcoming meeting.
“This is really our opportunity to come together across divisions to work more collaboratively as colleagues and as members of this campus community,” Carter said. “We can’t operate in our own little spheres.”
The group’s next meeting will be held from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 27.
