How do you offer mental health support and therapy during a pandemic? You have to pivot!
While traditional ways of doing therapy have shifted, the Berkeley City College Wellness Center is offering mental health services to students via Zoom. BCC is fortunate to have a four mental health providers, three trainees, and a licensed supervisor, a team that is committed to being in service to our most vulnerable students.
Since late spring semester when CoA received its first shipment of Chromebooks, the library staff and faculty have been working with the administration to check out computers for student use. At the start of the fall semester CoA’s library was the first in the district to roll out curbside distribution of library resources. Staff are coming in 3 days a week and have checked out nearly 100 Chromebooks to students so far.
The summer of 2020 brought renewed attention to the violence continually perpetrated against the BIPOC communities in the United States. In response to the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Aubrey, Breonna Taylor, and so many others, the California Community Colleges Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley challenged every college in the system to take action against structural racism through his detailed Call to Action. And the Peralta Community College District has taken this call seriously.
Laney College, as a member of the third statewide cohort of the Program Mapper Project —a partnership between software developer Concentric Sky, the California Community College Chancellors Office and Laney College – completed its commitment this summer to create and publish program maps on its website.
Over 100 BCC faculty, staff, and administrators came together for a day of professional learning centered around “Building Community and Advancing Equity and Racial Justice.” The event took place on August 21, 2020 and began with community-building activities first thing in the morning, followed by a greeting from the shared governance leads. Lasana Hotep, anti-racist educator and Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging at the University of California, Berkeley, delivered a rousing and informative keynote presentation on the subject, “Antiracism is a Marathon, Not a Sprint: Core Competencies for Equity Advancing Educators.”
In an effort to have greater outreach to our student community and expand its bandwidth, the Laney Student Employment Services Center has partnered with several Community Based organizations and the City of Oakland to provide employment and career readiness services. Specifically, in partnership with the Oakland Housing Authority, the Employment Services Center is hosting a weekly hiring event spotlighting a different employer each week. As a result, approximately 17 participants have received employment! Additionally, as part of the Oakland Workforce Collaborative led by the City of Oakland, the Employment Services Center hosts a monthly hiring event for students and other Oakland residents. The first hiring event focused on Essential Worker jobs, and had 80 job seekers registered, with approximately 13 Laney Students, and 15 employers presenting their open positions.
On Tuesday, September 29, 2020, at their regular governance meeting, the Peralta Community College District (PCCD) Board of Trustees appointed Dr. Carla Stalling Walter to serve as the District’s Interim Chancellor effective October 1, 2020 and continuing through February 2021 or until a permanent chancellor is hired. The Board approved the contract including an annualized salary of $314,943. Interim Chancellor Walter previously served as the District’s Vice Chancellor of Finance and Administration and started serving as Acting Chancellor for the District this past July. She brings more than 20 years of successful experience in financial administration and in higher education, including leadership posts at Chabot-Las Positas Community College District and State Center Community College District.
Responding to a statewide shortage of certified nursing assistants, College of Alameda is planning to offer a no-cost Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) training program starting with the Spring 2021 Semester. Demand is growing for CNAs. According to labor market information in California, the number of Nursing Assistants is expected to grow faster than the average growth rate for all occupations. Nursing assistant jobs are expected to increase by about 15 percent, or 15,800 jobs by 2026.
Back on the afternoon of August 18th, 2020, the Berkeley City College Society of Scholars (SoS) team welcomed over 100 in-coming students, through an engaging and entertaining Virtual Orientation. The SoS Orientation was designed and led by the BCC SoS Student Staff team, and supported by SoS Counselors and campus Administrators. The Virtual Orientation included a warm, enthusiastic and thoughtful “Welcome” by BCC President, Dr. Angelica Garcia, followed by inspirational words from Vice President of Student Services, Dr. Stacey Shears, and a positive and upbeat message from Associate Dean of Educational Success, Martin de Mucha Flores.
