Nikia Chaney is unique at Cabrillo College, which is close to Santa Cruz. Even from a distance, her vivid pink hair is visible. Of the 165 tenured or tenure-track faculty members at the community college, she is also the lone Black professor.
“In 2019, when I was originally hired, I didn’t research the school’s demographics or anything similar. She remarked, “I was simply incredibly grateful that I had a full-time job. But she felt alone as soon as she got to college. She remarked, “You don’t have faculty members who look like you.”
Spokesman Melissa Villarin stated that the goal of the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, which is in charge of all 116 of the state’s community colleges, is “to have the makeup of our faculty and staff mirror the student population we serve.” The office has been working to broaden its diversity as state lawmakers have been pouring money into makeshift remedies for years.
Although there has been a minor rise in faculty diversity over the last 15 years, “progress remains slow,” according to a study released in November by the chancellor’s office.
Villarin stated that although there isn’t a single answer, hiring, retention, and recruitment practices are frequently the source of the issue. For instance, she noted that the community college employment application website is “outdated,” and panels that choose applicants frequently need to be more diverse and well-trained.
“Hostile and inhospitable” to pupils of colour
During Chaney’s first English department meeting, a colleague gave her a report from 2018 regarding diversity at the college. Citing contacts with other students, staff, and administration, the report stated that “African American students experience Cabrillo College as a hostile and unwelcoming environment.” Students also observed that there was not enough representation in the entire school.
“My heart sank,” Chaney remarked.
Several studies demonstrate the advantages of having a more diverse staff, including the potential to reduce achievement discrepancies between students of colour and white students. One study found that students who are Black, Latino, and Native American/Pacific Islander obtain better scores, are more likely to pass a course, and are less likely to quit classes when they have a professor who looks like them. The study used years of data from DeAnza College, a community college in Cupertino.
It’s the notion of having a role model who resembles you. That could be the motivation a student needs to go to college, according to Cheche.
The percentage of tenured or tenure-track community college teachers who identify as Black in the state is around the same as that of Black students, according to a study from the chancellor’s office: between 5% and 6% in 2022, the most recent statistics available. Administrators at community colleges who identify as Black make up an even larger percentage.
However, there are disparities in representation. Despite the fact that over 10% of students at Lassen Community College in Susanville are Black, the college does not employ any Black faculty members full-time. Similar discrepancies continue at San Luis Obispo and other rural colleges in the state.
Based on information provided by the chancellor’s office, slightly more than 1% of Cabrillo College students last year identified as Black. Chaney is dedicated to supporting those pupils.
“I am aware of who I am as a teacher. I will not be able to stand in one place and accomplish nothing. She set up a classroom for an end-of-year party for pupils in Umoja, a state-funded academic programme to encourage Black students, but anybody can join. “It’s what keeps me here, but I really love it,” she added. Although Umoja has long operated on other campuses, Chaney was involved in the inaugural iteration’s rollout at Cabrillo College last year.
Turning on the music to the sounds of a drum circle, she stood beneath a Black History Month poster. She asked, “Do you have any volunteers who are going to get up and dance with me?” as a small group of people began to arrive. There were about 15 pupils and staff members present, the most of whom weren’t Black.
Mixed-race Umoja student Kyla Kientzel expressed her gratitude for Chaney’s work on behalf of students similar to her own. “Having other people who resemble me around makes me feel a little more at ease.” She remarked, “I’ve never had a Black teacher before. Kientzel wrote about her first name—which was given to her by her Black father—once in Chaney’s English class.
Boarding a plane for work
There are two campuses of Cabrillo College: one is located in the affluent beach town of Aptos, while the other is 20 minutes away in the inland farming town of Watsonville. In Watsonville, almost 80% of people identify as Latino, and in the campus’s 2018 diversity report, Latino students expressed that the community had a “welcoming” and “very communal” atmosphere. That friendly vibe wanes in Aptos, which has a 75% white population, according to the survey.
Approximately 18% of faculty members on both campuses identify as Latino, while approximately 46% of Cabrillo students do the same.
The district is cognizant of the deficiency in diversity, specifically concerning Black faculty.
“My true feelings are for Nikia [Chaney].” “We must address this issue as it is not appropriate,” stated Adam Spickler, a board trustee for the community college district. In my opinion, we’ve done a respectable job broadening diversity in other areas. However, it is imperative that we focus on African American academic members.
Spickler cited the administration of the college’s enhanced diversity as one improvement. This year’s 23 administrators include four Latinos and three Blacks.
Spickler stated that considering Santa Cruz County’s demographics, the general lack of diversity is not shocking. Although there are a lot of increasing Asian and Latino Approximately 1.5% of communities are Black, based on statistics from the most recent census.
As a student today and as a child growing up here, Kientzel doesn’t always feel safe. “I get treated well when I’m by myself, but in stores, my brothers and I get followed.” To avoid giving the impression that we are attempting to steal anything, we constantly make sure our hands are out of our pockets,” she remarked.
Mikias Abesha is a third-semester Cabrillo College student and the president of the Umoja club. However, he discovers that there are other difficulties than the lack of diversity as an international student from Ethiopia.
He declared, “Everything is different.” “I didn’t understand any of my teachers during my first semester.”
Amharic is his first tongue. He claimed that Umoja provided him with a break and that he felt at home among the advisors there. His current objective is to transfer to UCLA. He declared, “Los Angeles will be much more diverse.”
Chaney could not bear the experience. She claimed that because her daughter was one of the few Black pupils in her elementary school, other students would frequently bully her. She made the decision to go back close to friends and family in the San Bernardino area, where there is a larger Black population, after spending two years living in Santa Cruz County intermittently.
She declared, “I need to live in a town where everyone looks like me.” She now takes a weekly flight to attend classes campus programs.
Spending millions to diversify the faculty
Legally speaking, public universities are prohibited from taking into account a job applicant’s race or ethnicity due to a 1996 constitutional amendment that outlawed affirmative action in California. In 2020, voters upheld the prohibition. However, the chancellor’s office and state auditors concur that universities can employ different strategies to accomplish the same objective. For example, offering diversity training to all staff members engaged in hiring would help them better identify and address their own biases.
College districts were mandated by the chancellor’s office to create a plan in 2021 for encouraging diversity in hiring. As of October 1, the last day to submit plans, 68 out of 73 districts, according to Villarin, had done so.
The districts that represent the colleges in Eureka, Stockton, Cupertino, and Los Altos are among the surviving ones, she noted, along with Los Angeles and Glendale. “The coming days” is when they will submit their proposals, she said.
It is mandatory for colleges to examine the demographics of job seekers; however, of the four community college districts assessed by the state audit, only one had done so. The chancellor’s office deputy counsel, Fermin Villegas, announced that his group would be offering “more oversight and monitoring” going forward.
The majority of the millions of dollars that the Legislature sets up each year for initiatives aimed at diversifying hiring go to the 73 community college districts in the state, which then divide them among the 116 community colleges. According to Villarin, the majority of districts got roughly $139,000 last year. According to reports, among other things, the districts trained and mentored present and prospective faculty members with the funds.
In accordance with the chancellor’s office guidelines, Cabrillo College is experimenting with a “cluster” model: concurrent hiring for eight new positions based on the qualifications of the candidates in their academic fields and their dedication to supporting underserved students.
A report from the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges states that one benefit of cluster recruiting is that it can help prevent situations where one faculty member becomes the token person of colour. in higher education.
Chaney noted that there are other Black and Latino administrators and staff members who help kids in different ways, pointing out that she is not the only supporter of Black students on campus. Many of them were county residents who came to the college in the last year or two.
Chaney stated that while having mentors who are part of the community is beneficial, having faculty members who are knowledgeable about Black culture is also essential, even if the two aren’t the same in her situation.
Chaney didn’t have time to clean up after the Umoja event, so her coworkers hauled the leftover food and supplies to their cars. She hugged each person as she said farewell, “I’ve got to run.” In order to catch her flight home that afternoon, she drove to San José.
