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. 

In 2018, the Laney College Asian Pacific American Student Success (APASS) program worked with Laney College Dean of Enrollment Mildred Lewis, Ed.D. to create a multilingual Welcome Video to introduce students to Laney College to let students know they can call Laney College their home.  Featuring over a dozen of diverse students representing the cultural richness of the campus and Oakland, making the video was a labor of love for the all-volunteer cast. Shot in just one day and edited over several weeks with students speaking Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese and other languages, the welcome video has been shown at recruitment fairs, orientations and other community events. In fact, the video is the embedded in the Laney College homepage and is amongst the first impressions visitors have of Laney College. 

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.

We thought we'd share some impressions of the season of the Netflix series Last Chance U which featured our very own Laney Eagles. 

An article on Screen Rant explores what happened to the players once the cameras were turned off. Read it here

And a piece on SF Gate describes the show as "a love letter to Oakland". From the article:

We are excited to announce that the the Certificate of Achievement in Urban Agroecology program at Merritt College has earned an 100,000 U.S.Department of Agriculture grant to train students to become urban farmers using sustainable agricultural practices during the summer session.

Curbside Pickup is available for Fall 2020 at the CoA Library. Chromebooks, calculators, and books from the circulating collection are available through the COA Library Curbside Pickup/Returns service (limited hours and by appointment only). The library also is offering a number of innovate online services including:

The Bay Area has always been part of the worldwide efforts to better conserve the natural resources of our fragile world. Simultaneously, we are often on the forefront of efforts to diversify segments of our culture that have historically been uninviting and exclusionary towards people of color.

There is a great story on Bay Nature by Tamara Sherman,“Now is a Good Time to Hold Up a Mirror.” Bay Area Conservation Groups Say They Want to Become More Diverse. What’s Stopping them' that connects these two threads. In it, our very own Merritt College gets a nice mention.