Welcome to the 2022 – 2023 academic year at BCC

August 19, 2022

Dear Berkeley City College Community,

Welcome to the 2022 – 2023 academic year at BCC! To our colleagues who have been engaged throughout the summer with student support, facilities maintenance, instruction, and all the departments in between- Thank You! It has been a busy summer and your presence and commitment to students does not go unnoticed. To our faculty colleagues who were able to step away for a few months – Welcome Back! We are ready for your energy and enthusiasm to get our Fall 2022 semester underway.

What an amazing start to our 2022- 2023 academic year with our Fall Flex Day development. My deepest gratitude goes out to the Professional Development Committee for their hard work and planning for this day. I also want to acknowledge the administrative team for their leadership and support to ensure that BCC is ready for students, faculty, and classified professionals alike.

During the morning session, there were key administrative updates regarding accreditation, institutional effectiveness, updates from key divisions, and the return to campus procedures. The recordings and presentation will be made available to you for your reference. And while the leadership team tried to provide as many updates as possible, there are a few that I would like to share with you in this communication.

Enrollment:

As of this week, our FTES enrollment stands at roughly 71% of our Fall 2022 target. Given that students are still signing up for courses, and that there are several late start and dual enrollment sections that will fill, we anticipate being much closer to our overall enrollment goal by the end of the semester. To bolster enrollment and underscore our commitment to supporting students in their academic pursuits, Berkeley City College launched our Fall is FREE at BCC campaign. To qualify for the program benefits, students must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and/or Dream Act application, and enroll in a minimum of three (3) units at Berkeley City College. For more information, please visit the Fall is FREE at BCC web page.

Highlights the program benefits including paying for students’:

1. Enrollment Fees
2. All Student and Campus Fees
3. AC Transit (minimum 6 unit enrollment)

Institutional Effectiveness Partnership Initiative (IEPI):

This past March, Berkeley City College (along with our sister colleges and the District Office) submitted an application to the California Community Colleges Institutional Effectiveness Partnership Initiative (IEPI). The purpose of the IEPI is to help colleges achieve institutional goals through full Partnership Resource Teams (PRTs). The PRT works with a college to understand the issues thoroughly, help the institution develop an improvement plan, and provide follow-up guidance during early implementation of the plan.

In alignment with PCCD’s commitment to initiate a Professional Development and Learning Center (PDLC) that would support training for employees throughout the District, and consistent with our overarching institutional goal of fostering greater diversity, equity, inclusion, and access (DEIA), Berkeley City College submitted a plan that focuses on expanding the professional expertise of faculty, classified professionals, and administrator; as well as supporting our institutional effectiveness efforts. This IEPI grant comes with a comprehensive set of work, meetings, and collaboration with a Peer Resource Team (PRT). Upon completion of our work with the PRT, Berkeley City College will receive $200k to assist in bringing our improvement plan to fruition. The PRT initial visit to BCC is on October 31, 2022. I have connected with the presidents of the Senates, Andrea Williams for Classified Senate and Matt Freeman for Academic Senate and we will begin the work of our PRT preparation as early as next week. We will provide more details in the weeks to come.

Return to Campus:

VP Sean Brooks sent communication on Monday 8/15/22 with the logistics for accessing campus. Please refer to his communication for the details. I do want to underscore that ALL Berkeley City College Students received an email today reminding them of the vaccination policy requirement. They have been directed to complete the required information to be compliant with the vaccination policy for in-person classes. The student ambassadors and the classified professionals assisting with enrollment workshops have been assisting students as much as possible. For those faculty teaching in-person, I recommend that you share the information (or the email they received and that is attached to this message) on your CANVAS shell about the vaccination policy. However, if a student has still not completed uploading the required documentation, we will have stations throughout the building to assist them. Our goal is to support students to complete this requirement and remain enrolled in their classes. Please follow up with your respective dean with any additional questions.

Closing Comments:

Today was a day of much energy, movement, reflection, preparation, and connection throughout our community. Our opening session with our colega, Janine Greer, grounded and reminded us of how important it is that we continue to work on our connections with “self” and with “others” as a form of remembering compassion, preserving our mental health, and engaging with one another from a place of “love.” Our speaker Maiana Minahal from Kapi’olani Community 3 College provided the space for us to reflect and name those aspects of our personal, societal, and professional lives that contribute to burnout as educators. The brown bag sessions brought colleagues together to reflect on how we can create educational spaces that promote social and emotional learning. And our afternoon session grounded us in the collective safe space that is BCC to support students in crisis. I hope you were able to glean some elements of learning and techniques to incorporate into your lives, all while reconnecting and building community.

My wish for each of you is to find space for joy, rest, and laugher this weekend. Just as we are preparing for and excited to welcome new and returning students to BCC, so, too, are students ramping up to begin/continue their pursuit of higher education. For so many BCC students, this experience will encourage them to pursue their goals and achieve their dreams.

Our Community. Our Strength. Our Dream.

In Community,

Dr. Angélica Garcia President