Feke Tutuila, a second year student athlete and secretary of Wayfinder, the Pacific Islander student club at Laney College, was an invited panelist on a CalMatters webinar in August with state chancellor Dr. Eloy Oakley. Feke, a member of the Laney College football team recently featured in the Netflix series Last Chance U, asked Oakley how he plans to improve language accessibility for students who do not speak English well. Oakley said the number one priority is to hire more faculty of color, including those who speak other languages.

The webinar was sponsored by CalMatters and the full 1 hour 8 minute program is available online here:

You can skip the introduction and go straight to Feke's question here. 

Chancellor Oakley responded to the question by stating, “The more that we can diversify our faculty and our staff, including our administrators, the greater the likelihood that there are people on campus who understand the culture, the language, the traditions of individuals who have come from other parts of the world,” Oakley said.

He emphasized the importance of “decolonization of curriculum,” by rethinking the way colleges teach.

“We need to have culturally competent individuals on our campuses who have that sensitivity and who are asking the questions that you’re asking before the student even has to ask that question, is our content being received by our students in the way that they understand.”

More information about the webinar is available on the CalMatters website here. 

Many thanks to Feke for representing Laney College and the Peralta Community College District so well on this panel discussion.