Berkeley City College (BCC) announced that it has been awarded a highly-competitive nearly $3 million Developing Hispanic Serving Institution grant from the Department of Education to expand supportive services for Latinx and marginalized students. This is the College’s first grant since being named a Developing Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) by the US Department of Education in 2020. As a population that has been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, these additional academic and student support services come at a critical time.
Berkeley City College President Angélica Garcia kicked off the first of her campus community check-ins in her “Cafécito “Zoom, on Thursday, August 27, 2020. Faculty, staff, and students joined the President in this question and answer session focused on BCC updates and what to expect for the 2020 – 2021 academic year. Some of the questions from the event centered on getting to know President Garcia and the goals of the college. Some of the highlighted questions:
The Fall 2020 semester has begun at all four Peralta Colleges and we are excited to welcome students to classes again. Online learning can be challenging but there are many resources available for students from each of the colleges.
Student Services
Each college offers a wide variety of student services.
Here are links to each campus's student resources:
Berkeley City College
College of Alameda
Laney College
Merritt College
The free food giveaway programs at the Peralta Colleges we first announced in May and which now include all four colleges are certainly good news for students and the community. And now the program is in the news! Maaziq Madyun, a reporter for KRON TV Channel 4 recently stopped by the College of Alameda and filmed the following story, "East Bay grab-and-go lunch program helps fight food insecurity during pandemic," which was broadcast across the Bay area. The story is also available online here: https://gems.peralta.edu/all-four-colleges-now-offering-free-meals
The Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees were extremely busy in July following the unexpected resignation of Chancellor Dr. Regina Stanback Stroud on July 16, 2020.
Dr. Angélica Garcia, who started as President of Berkeley City College in May, was featured in the June 25, 2020 issue of Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, a national publication based in Virginia. With more than 30 years of experience covering education, Diverse has a monthly print and digital readership well over 100,000. That makes it one of the largest higher education trade publications in the country, and the largest audience of educators of color from more than 4,800 U.S. colleges and universities. The feature in Diverse provides excellent national exposure for Dr. Garcia, Berkeley City College, and the Peralta Community College District.
On May 26, 2020, Peralta Community College District reported that Laney College and College of Alameda had formed partnerships with Steph and Aisha Curry's non-profit Eat.Learn.Play and the World Central Kitchen to provide free meals for students. Now all four colleges have solidified their partnership with these great nonprofits to serve our community. Merritt College started their program on May 28. Berkeley City College began their program on Friday June 5th.
Due to the continuing Alameda County directive to shelter in place, the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees met via Zoom on June 23, 2020. This meeting was epic. Clocking in at 5 hours and 40 minutes or so, the meeting included a landmark vote on the District's relationship with Alameda County Sheriff's Office (ACSO) which helped draw 100 speakers for the public comment section of the meeting. Additionally, this meeting was the last for Dr. Tammeil Gilkerson, Laney College President, and Dr. Timothy Karas, College of Alameda President. The full video recording of the meeting is available on the Peralta YouTube channel here.
In response to dramatically increased food insecurity from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Peralta Colleges forged partnerships with two nonprofits – Oakland’s Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation and the World Central Kitchen – to provide thousands of meals to students at three of its four campus locations. The Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation underwrites the cost of the meals, while the World Central Kitchen helps provide food delivery and distribution logistics. Special thanks to Peralta Colleges Foundation Executive Director LaNiece Jones for helping make this new venture possible.
The Class of 2020 has shown unbelievable resilience and persistence. Because of the shelter-in-place directive in Alameda County, each of the Peralta Colleges celebrated graduations with a virtual celebration. Not even a pandemic can stop us from celebrating (with appropriate social distancing of course).
