Hello everyone, and welcome to the August “pause” before our Fall 2020 semester begins on August 24th. Many of you successfully completed units during our all on-line summer session and my hope is that you are taking the necessary steps to stay healthy and safe during these continuously challenging times.
There is so much in the international, national and local news about the future of higher education in the era of the pandemic. What we thought would be a few week crises has now stretched into months, with the knowledge that we will be continuing in this learning environment through the fall semester with uncertainty about the spring semester. We are becoming accustomed to seeing each other in a video box, with reliance on broadband and internet access taking on a heightened meaning. All of the economic and social challenges continue to impact us all, while continuing to take strategic steps to stay healthy and safe. an incredible, indescribable time.
I will share that during these days I gain my inspiration from our students to continue to work toward equity, inclusion and healing….which are our themes for the year. Throughout the pandemic to date, my observation of our students is that they are staying the course while looking for the path forward. They are passionate about their learning goals and are looking to us at Gavilan to be equally committed to providing the very best services and resources possible so that they can continue to learn and help our world recover.
This reflection takes me to our Guided Pathways project, and the strength it provides for our students, no matter how they show up to learn. Guided Pathways is about equity: re-imagining, restructuring, enhancing, creating student supports and processes that will benefit all students and get them to their desired outcome as simply and quickly as possible. Our GP advocates state that "Equity is the vehicle, Social Justice is the goal". Such a timely statement is reflective of the work our Guided Pathways team will be doing all over campus this fall semester: Caring Campus, food and technology distribution, Black Lives Matter discussions and advocacy through our Board’s recent resolution and the Board of Trustees Fellowship program. Guided Pathways is the vehicle, the car and the map that will take our students through their Gavilan journey and get them to where they desire to go, by staying the course while looking for the path forward.
In this virtual world we will continue the structure of the Guided Pathways work group teams (Guidance Team, Tri-chairs, work group leads), the Guided Pathways web page, adding our newsletter for students and staff. Work group leads will report back through participatory governance channels for information and input on the work.
Here are our partners involved in the Guided Pathways work at Gavilan:
- Guidance Team: Denee Pescarmona, Jessica Hooper, Randy Brown, Mayra Cortez, Vania Parakati, Student TBA
- Tri-Chairs: Randy Brown, Mayra Cortez, Vania Parakati
Work group Leads-
- Onboarding: Veronica Martinez, Jessica Hooper
- Clustering: Jennifer Nari, Tiffany Palsgrove
- Mapping: Leslie Tenney, Dean TBA
- Completion: Carina Cisneros, Denise Besson
It is clear to me that at this moment in this history of higher education and the Guided Pathways initiative, there are a number of important elements:student-focused enrollment and information processes and embedded academic and student support are key, particularly during this time of distance education. More importantly, the students who will be most impacted by this change are our equity populations. If we want to improve our service to our students most in need, we as a college need to move forward. I am confident that we will, and our students will continue to be the source of my inspiration in the uncertain months ahead.
