On March 12, Academic Senate President Joshua Ramirez sent an email announcing a Student Equity Plan (SEP) for the 2025-2028 school years.
City College is asked by the chancellor’s office for the creation.
SEP would cover six areas exploring enrollment, English and math completion, persistence, transfer to a four-year institution, completion and student education plans. The SEP is made in hopes of improving student success groups toward a direct population of students.
It’s intended to provide state funding to support City College programs on campus as well.
“We try to do an internal study that says who are the students who are the most disproportionately impacted,” Ramirez said. “That’s one of the reasons why when it comes to the design of the Student Equity Plan we often identify DI (disproportionately impacted) populations.”
That means the plan will be based on a percentage of certain students in a particular group.
The current SEP steering committee includes Ramirez, Assistant Superintendent and Vice President of Student Affairs Paloma Arnold, English professor, ASG adviser and Raíces Program director Melissa Menendez, Director of Student Equity and Engagement Programs Roxane Byrne, Basic Needs Coordinator Juan Quesada and Career Center’s Research and Assessment Analyst Nicole Oldendick.
Ramirez mentioned Menendez is pushing for student involvement in this plan and urges students to be a part of the writing process.
“This is largely supposed to be an inclusive process,” Ramirez said.
Menendez said when involving the students in the plan there will be two per group in the six areas meaning a total of 12 students are needed. At the March 14 ASG meeting, Menendez made the announcement that students can join this plan and has already met with some members who are interested.
“The next step will be to reach out to students who belong in the groups that we identify that we’re going to try to address in the equity plan,” Menendez said. “So the students who we have in the room are the students who are impacted.”
She said students should be part of the plan and involved because students need to inform the committee on the challenges City College has. Any possibilities, ideas and solutions from students can be added to SEP for improvements.
“The students are the ones who we are trying to serve,” Menendez said. “The students need to, not need they should have a seat at that table to tell us what we need to fix and how to fix it.”
An interest form for employees was due Friday, March 21 and the SEP needs to be completed for the chancellor’s office by Nov. 30, 2025. More student outreach will be sent out after returning from spring break.
