De Anza 2005: Pathways To Student Equity

Achieving the Goals of the Educational Master Plan
Approved by the Academic Senate on 1/22/01

Preface:

Student access, retention and success require a commitment of resources, time, thought, planning, and positive attitude from the entire college community - administrators, staff, students and instructors. The following document focuses primarily on the commitments of faculty to achieving these ends. This document is intended to map out the ways that faculty will take responsibility for implementation of student equity goals outlined in our Educational Master Plan. We are hopeful that administrators, staff and students will each take up this process and develop their own complementary plans which would detail their responsibilities in the college-wide effort to achieve the goals of access, retention and success.

No matter how strong the commitment of faculty may be, we realize that true progress in this area cannot happen without the contributions of the entire campus community. For example, students are responsible to attend classes and set aside adequate time for study (i.e. 2 to 1 ratio of out of class to in class time), to utilize the resources that are available to them (i.e. office hours, tutorial services, counseling, etc.), and to give their best efforts to complete the assignments that are given. Administrators need to make available appropriate resources to ensure that faculty and students who are making their best efforts can be successful, i.e. quality research data, appropriate funding for the Tutorial Center and Readiness Program, and other key areas of support for teaching and learning. In fact, student equity begins with the positive interactions on initial contact with the college. Staff are often those individuals who make that initial contact and therefore are key in establishing a supportive, empathetic climate. For example, Admissions and Records front line staff and division Administrative Assistants in the first two weeks of the quarter can make the difference in this initial perception by a student. Further, the design and maintenance of the college website so that it is culturally and linguistically sensitive and accessible to all students is another example of the importance of the role that staff play.

We hope that the next steps in bringing about the integration of the mutual responsibilities of all campus groups will include a dialogue between Student Equity Team members and the various constituency groups. We look forward to working with the Classified Senate, DASB and Administrators as participate in the development of Divisional plans for achieving the goals of our Educational Master Plan. We are convinced that with the effort of the entire college community, we can improve teaching and learning and move toward these goals of increased access, retention and success.

focus group

DeAnza's Student Equity Plan