When Laney College’s football was featured on the Netflix Series ‘Last Chance U’, it was a great opportunity to share with the world Coach John Beam's impressive program. But the players were the stars of the show: there were a number individual stories that couldn’t help but stand out.

To guarantee a strong start to the semester for Laney students, faculty and staff members joined together to create two virtual One-Stop Saturday Enrollment Events, January 23rd and 30th, as well as several Ask Me sessions, which took place during Welcome Week. This effort was led by Vicki Ferguson, Vice President of Student Services, and was made possible by our innovative and dedicated staff members.

The event took place via Zoom, where Laney representatives answered general questions, offered one-on-one support, and referred students out to specific Zoom rooms, hosted by each department. This event was supported with a Google ad, Facebook events, and posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, as well as a student-wide text message, generating over 4,200 impressions.

The events received advertising support from the District marketing office, with Google ad search helping drive prospective students to the virtual events. 

Jasminh Au is a current senior student for the Gateway to College Program at Laney College and has been announced as the program’s 2021 DREAM Scholar. She is an aspiring Oceanography major and is planning to directly transfer from Gateway to the Hawaii Pacific University at Honolulu. She is a resilient, confident and great student leader in the program.

William Ochoa, Director of Gateway to College says, “to my understanding she is breaking down barriers as to what a dually enrolled student can obtain through her tenure here at our program.” Each DREAM Scholar received a Phi Theta Kappa scholarship in recognition of their success. 

Laney College faculty member Dr. Meryl Siegal co-authored alongside Betsy Gilliland (from the University of Hawai'i Mānoa) new book published by University of Michigan Press. The book, titled Empowering the Community College First-Year Composition Teacher, takes a deep dive into the issues confronting educators undergoing the challenging process of being part of a student's first experience of higher education.

Critics call it a deeply honest portrayal of lives and struggles that is “a love letter to Oakland” 

The Netflix series Last Chance U: Laney has been named the 2020 winner of the IDA Documentary Award for best episodic series. The most recent edition of the show, which originally aired in the summer, focused on the Laney College football team during its 2019 season.

To strengthen Laney College’s relationships with local Asian & Pacific Islander business and community-based organizations, Dr. Rudy Besikof hosted two virtual meet and greet sessions on January 13 and 14. Special thanks to community leaders Tomoko Ha (TKO Consulting) and Jessica Li (Justice and Logic LLC), who gave their time as well as their incredible talent and wisdom toward hosting these two virtual receptions introduce Dr. Besikof to the community and discuss not only needs but ways to come together and collaborate.

The Laney College Art Department is presenting its first online virtual exhibition, End of Semester Student Showcase. The students enrolled in Laney Art Classes – Drawing and Composition and 2D Visual Design – have worked to develop skills in design, drawing and compositional foundations during the Fall Semester.

The Laney Art Department is impressed by the resilience of its students, and the creative expression they have shown despite such unprecedented circumstances. Projects throughout the semester have allowed the students to explore the role art can play in their lives and how art practice can support, enhance, and create a place of expression and joy.  

View the virtual exhibit online at the June Steingart Art Gallery Website: https://laney.edu/art/june-steingart-art-gallery/

The June Steingart Gallery at Laney College provides an accessible and professionally managed art gallery, reflecting the rich cultural diversity that exists on the Laney campus and the surrounding Bay Area community. When we are not sheltering in place, contemporary art exhibitions in various media are shown in the physical space ofthe gallery.

The End of Semester Student Showcase exhibition shows the perseverance, creativity and thoughtfulness of Laney’s Art students.  Faculty and students have had to adjust to an online studio structure, and we are very pleased to present the amazing work that has come from dedication to the artistic practice.  We hope you enjoy!

The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) is visiting (virtually) the Peralta Community College District on December 16 and 17 to follow up on our Colleges’ accreditation submittals, specifically the Special Reports submitted on November 1, 2020.   

While the Colleges remain fully accredited during a probationary period announced by ACCJC in January 2020, we are pleased to report that the District and Colleges are making progress on removing that probationary status.   
 
As you may recall, the probationary status was not about academics or education, but solely about finances and organizational matters.  

The ACCJC required the Colleges to provide additional evidence of financial improvement. That is exactly what College of Alameda, Berkeley City, Laney and Merritt Colleges have done, and we believe the reported results are excellent.   
 
We are confident the colleges have addressed the ACCJC concerns and have demonstrated each campus meets the requirements to be removed from probationary status.  
 
Each of the four Colleges reported growing enrollments and services to students through online winter and spring intersession offerings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, the campuses successfully conducted marketing and outreach campaigns to potential students seeking online instruction in California State University and University of California-transferable courses.   
 
All of the four Colleges noted increases in their individual “Dual Enrollment Programs,” which offers high school students an early start on their career technical education and opportunities to earn units toward their college degree.
 
The Colleges partner with high schools in Oakland, Berkeley and Alameda to promote educational equity by offering empowering, transformative educational experiences to local high school students.  
 
By increasing the Colleges’ offerings to high schools these new enrollments hopefully mean these students will have already begun their college experience by the time they graduate high school, giving them both a head start in college as well as saving them money.  

The Laney Biomanufacturing BIOSCOPE program has developed from a pilot project funded with Strong Workforce Program funds into a National Science Foundation - Advanced Technological Education (NSF-ATE) grant awarded summer 2020 for 3 years. The supply chain project is a partnership between Laney College, Skyline College and BABEC ( a bioscience non profit organization that works to increase access and equity in science education) and local high schools. Laney students make supplies (pouring agar plates used in biotechnology experiments - pictured) that are then sent to local high schools for their biology classes to learn some biotechnology techniques.  You can learn more about the BABEC project here.