Racial Equity & Social Justice Taskforce

Advancing Racial Equity and Social Justice

Although it has taken much too long, academia, and specifically higher education, is now working to prioritize methods to address the remnants of racism/white supremacy within their institutions. At Cuyamaca College, President Dr. Julianna Barnes convened our Racial Equity and Social Justice Task Force to advance this effort directly in support of our Equity Lens. To support this task force, the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, Success and Equity (IESE) will provide additional leadership, coordination, and planning.

Racial Equity and Social Justice Task Force

To effectively interrupt the embedded complexities of racism/white supremacy in higher education, we acknowledge Patton's (2016) following propositions as the starting point from which the Racial Equity and Social Justice Task Force will begin their efforts at Cuyamaca College:

1. The establishment of U.S. higher education is deeply rooted in racism/white supremacy, the vestiges of which remain palatable;

2. The functioning of U.S. higher education is intricately linked to imperialistic and capitalistic efforts that fuel the intersections of race, property, and oppression; and

3. U.S. higher education institutions serve as venues through which formal knowledge production rooted in racism/white supremacy is generated.

Because of these harsh realities about higher education, it is critical to identify and employ an effective guiding lens to move us beyond racism/white supremacy. Therefore, the Racial Equity and Social Justice Task Force will employ the following tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in education to effectively identify and interrogate such spaces, practices, and systems within Cuyamaca College (Ledesma & Calderón, 2015; Howard & Navarro, 2016):

1. Centrality of race and racism: Within education, we must centralize race and racism, including intersections with other forms of subordination such as gender, class, and citizenship.

2. Challenging the dominant perspective: We must work to challenge dominant narratives and re-center marginalized perspectives.

3. Commitment to social justice: Our efforts must always be motivated by a social justice agenda.

4. Valuing experiential knowledge: CRT centers the narratives of people of color when attempting to understand social inequality. This is based on the oral traditions of many indigenous communities of color around the world.

5. Being interdisciplinary: The world is multidimensional, and similarly, research about the world should reflect multiple perspectives.

Task Force Leadership

• Cuyamaca College President Dr. Julianna Barnes

Office of Institutional Effectiveness, Success and Equity (IESE)

• Bri Hays (Sr. Dean IESE)

• Dr. Jesús Miranda (Dean of Student Success & Equity)

• Miriam Simpson (SSE Coordinator/Chair of Physics)

• Moriah Gonzalez-Meeks (Equity Advisor/Chair of Humanities and History)

• Dr. Tania Jabour (SLO Coordinator/English)

• Dr. Ticey Hosley (SSPR Coordinator/Articulation Officer)

• Katie Cabral (Campus Researcher)

• Rafael Ayala (Campus Researcher)

• Madison Harding (Tech Support)

Taskforce Members

• Dr. Jessica Robinson (Vice President Student Services)

• Christianne Penunuri (Director of College & Community Relations)

• Nicole Salgado (Interim Vice President Administrative Services)

• Nicole Jones (Dean of Counseling Services)

• Dr. Raquel Jacob-Almeida (Chair of Behavioral and Social Sciences)

• Manuel Mancillas-Gomez (Academic Senate President)

• Agustín Orozco (Associate Dean of Student Services)

• Greg Vega (Director of Admissions & Records)

• Dr. Marissa Salazar (Psychology)

• Dr. Lauren Halstead (Chair of English)

• Dr. Lauren Vaknin (Dean of Student Affairs)

• Karla Gutierrez (Chair of World Languages)

• Michelle Campuzano (Counseling Faculty)

• Alicia Muñoz (Dean of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences)

• Dr. John Escobedo (Title V Director)

• Natalija Worrell (Classified Senate President)

• Martha Galvan (Financial Aid)

• April Holman (VPSS Admin Support)

• Angela Tilley-Ruiz (Career Services)

• Rana Al-Shaikh (Student Affairs)

References:

Aronson, B., & Laughter, J. (2016). The theory and practice of culturally relevant education: A synthesis of research across content areas. Review of Educational Research, 86(1), 163- 206.

Howard, T. C., & Navarro, O. (2016). Critical race theory 20 years later: Where do we go from here?. Urban Education, 51(3), 253-273.

Patton, L. D. (2016). Disrupting postsecondary prose: Toward a critical race theory of higher education. Urban Education, 51(3), 315-342.