City College’s Board of Trustees convened on Oct. 10 with a relatively small agenda.
Academic Senate President Joshua Ramirez presented a report from the Oct. 9 academic senate meeting and two main issues were addressed concerning a lack of chromebooks accessible to students from the library, and issues regarding the student course schedule. The board received an update on these concerns.
“We need more solutions to student scheduling needs because of the downsizing of the schedule,” Ramirez said. “Our academic counselors are running out of courses to which to refer students.”
The downsizing of class scheduling refers to the number of course offerings being cut from the student schedule for various reasons. Due to this, counselors are being forced to refer students to take courses out of district in order to fulfill degree course requirements.
California Virtual Campus is an online educational initiative that allows California community college students to take online courses at other eligible colleges, without having to fill out a separate application, and it maintains a students’ affiliation with City College no matter where one may take a course.
“Counselors are doing their due diligence and sometimes making the very difficult choices to refer students to courses out of district,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez also addressed the lack of chromebooks accessible to students through the City College library. Without access to chromebooks, students living off campus or who don’t own computers themselves cannot complete necessary assignments to perform well in their respective classes.
“Library faculty noted a shortage of much needed chromebooks that many students need long term for their coursework,” Ramirez said.
Following Ramirez’s report, board president Jonathan Abboud offered insight into a potential solution to address student needs for those who live away from campus in areas like Isla Vista.
“When I was first a trustee, somebody from our library asked to work with me on getting an office opened in Isla Vista for students living there to go do homework if they needed it,” Abboud said.
Prior to Ramirez’s report, a public comment deemed “anti-trans” by board president Abboud was presented by community member Caroline Abate at the beginning of the meeting.
“Your genotype is the chromosomes in DNA you received from your mother or father is created at conception and can never be changed,” Abate said. “Your genotype creates you as only a male or a female.”
In the allocated time of five minutes for public comments, Abate reiterated that ensuring that science taught at City College should be rooted in biological principles and “free of any infecting political agenda.”
“A college is a center of teaching, learning and must always uphold the highest standards for accuracy and rigor in education. Science should be taught without bias and free of any infecting political agenda,” Abate said.
Board president Abboud responded, “I don’t think these comments are reflective of the inclusive institution SBCC is, they do seem anti trans to me, and that’s not the institution we are. We are welcoming to all people here.”
The board will meet again on Wednesday, Nov. 6.
