Welcome Week Opens BCC’s Fall 2023 Semester

Berkeley City College kicked off the first week of the Fall Semester with Welcome Week activities to help students feel at home. Activities included free coffee and pastries on Monday, a very popular Boba Tuesday, a campus resource fair where students met with a host of student services and pizza on Wednesday, and a Latinx Bienvenida event with music and burritos on Thursday organized by Conocimiento Los Caminos HSI grant and the Undocumented Community Resource Center.

Fall is Free in 2023 and the semester kicked off on August 21, 2023. Welcome Week at the Peralta Colleges marks the beginning of a fresh adventure for both new and returning students.  Each College was bustling with events tailored to welcome incoming students into our tight-knit community. From Ice Cream Socials at Merritt to Pancakes with the President at COA, and from the Campus Resource Fair at BCC to a Block Party at Laney,  it is safe to say that Welcome Week was a great success!

Welcome (and welcome back!) to the Fall 2023 semester! We hope you all had a great fun-filled summer. In addition to celebrating the start of a new academic year, Peralta TV is also celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month with a selection of programming that includes documentaries focused on fine, digital, and culinary arts and more!

The Peralta Community College District held its Fall District-wide Flex Day on Thursday, August 17, 2023. The day was dedicated to professional development for faculty and staff, with a focus on equity and inclusion, as we prepare for the August 21st, 2023, start of the Fall 2023 semester.

Dear Peralta Community,

Parking Permit Process for Fall Semester

For the fall semester, we are reinstating parking permits at College of Alameda, Laney College, and Merritt College. We will be using a temporary system as we look to implement a new district parking enforcement program for spring. During the fall semester, there is no fee for parking, and we will not be ticketing.

At Berkeley City College, there is not a PCCD-owned lot available. Employees should check with the BCC business office for parking information.

We are excited to have begun the Fall 2023 semester at our four Peralta colleges. Congratulations are in order for students taking their first steps in reaching their education and career goals.

OAKLAND, Calif., August 14, 2023 – Laney College will offer students introductory courses in Artificial Intelligence & Data Analytics (AIDA) beginning this fall, to get students started on a pathway that will lead to careers in this exciting and innovative field. Laney becomes one of the first community colleges in the state with such a program. Laney's partnerships with industry leaders including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Intel, and Google will help prepare students for a career in the field or to transfer to a four-year school for additional study.

OAKLAND, Calif.– For the second year in a row, Laney College is offering free tuition – paired with added incentives – urging the community to pursue an educational goal or simply explore a passion with the help of the college’s 130 different programs and 600+ classes.

Dyana Delfín Polk, President of the PCCD Board of Trustees has provided a statement below intended to address community concerns with regards to PCCD's administrative leadership and to provide context for some of the decisions made by the Board of Trustees. 

The Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees, administration, faculty and staff continue to focus on our district's financial stability, full accreditation, and recent growth in student enrollment stemming from recent “Spring is Free” and “Fall is Free” enrollment campaigns. We trust this statement clears up any misinformation and informs the community about our next steps with regard to our permanent chancellor search.

The Bond Measures Oversight Committee (BMOC) will meet on Wednesday, August 9, 2023, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm in-person at the Peralta Community College District boardroom at 333 East 8th Street, Oakland, CA 94606, and via Zoom.