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.
Oakland, CA – Laney College’s APASS (Asian Pacific American Student Success) program was awarded a prestigious $1.5 million U.S. Department of Education AANAPISI (Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution) grant to support job training, job placement and career pathways for ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) and Asian American Pacific Islander students. While Laney College has received two previous AANAPISI grants, this is the first grant that specifically supports job training and placement for AAPI and ESOL students.
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
Season Five of the Netflix series Last Chance U. debuted on July 28, 2020 and features coverage of Head Football Coach John Beam and the Laney College Eagles Football team over the course of the Fall 2019 season. The series has received positive reviews and in a way has turned Coach Beam and student-athletes Dior Walker-Scott, RJ Stern, Nu'u Taugavau, and Rejzohn Wright into celebrities. Have you watched the series yet?
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
We here in the Peralta community welcome Dr. Rudy Besikof as Laney College’s Interim President. He has been at the college since 2018, when he was hired as its Vice President of Instruction, the same position he previously held at Mt. San Jacinto College for more than two years prior to joining Laney. Prior to becoming a Chief Instructional Officer in 2016, he served for five years as a dean, first at Woodland Community College as its Dean of Instruction and Learning Resources, and later at Los Angeles Valley College as a Dean of Academic Affairs. Prior to becoming an administrator in 2011, Dr. Besikof taught English and English as a Second/Foreign Language in two and four-year colleges not only in California, but also in Colorado, Japan, and France.
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.
These are challenging times for everyone. All of us have had to make adjustments in the way we work or study thanks to the ongoing shelter in place guidelines. As recently announced, all four of the Peralta college campuses as well as the district office are closed through the end of the year while the Fall 2020 semester will be taught online with just a few exceptions. Working at home is now the reality for most Peralta employees. Our homes are now our offices too.
In 2019, Peralta Community College District received $1.8 Million in grants awarded by the California Virtual Campus - Online Education Initiative (CVC-OEI). A grant in the amount of $400,370.00 for Improving Online CTE Pathways with a Focus on ESOL and Adult Students was awarded to Laney College in order to create and expand online opportunities in: Business Management and Supervision; Construction Management, California Green, and Sustainable Building Standards; Legal Community Interpreting; and provide wraparound support through counseling and tutoring.
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.
