Meeting with Alex Boeckelheide, and Chief Matchan
September 21, 2017 | 9:00 PM to 10:00 AM, G2
In attendance: Yajaira De La Paz, Dr. Christopher West, Kathy Kottaras (chair), Alex Boeckelheide, and Chief Matachan

AGENDA:

Review Faculty Workshop and Feedback to Protocol

Since the publication of the the protocol and during Friday’s workshop with faculty and staff, we've received valuable questions and concerns, specifically regarding the posters that were printed, and I think it's important that we reconvene as a committee to revisit the poster as well as discuss next steps.

Positive feedback:
The committee, president's office, and campus police have received much thanks for the work we've been doing on this. Many have expressed gratitude for a space to discuss our undocumented students' needs as well as for a clear protocol in the event that an ICE agent comes to campus, as they admitted that they would feel panic if they were not given the tools and guidance for how to respond. Kudos to all of you for dedicating your time and effort to this!

Important concerns about the poster that need to be addressed:
Concerns that #4 and #5 should be moved above #2 and #3 (Namely that after remaining calm [or in the midst of remaining calm]) the point person would call Campus Police FIRST. This is what is stated on the four page protocol, but it's not clear on the poster.
Concerns that the posters should include (or that a separate set of posters should be printed) to let students know that PCC is a Safe Learning Environment and to include information about Safe Zones as well.
Concerns about the roll-out and communication of the protocol. I’d like to continue to work on this.

II. Per that point, we’d to like to request that Rajen convert his next President Forum to this topic. Perhaps he could invite Chief Matchan and a rep from our ad hoc committee to be with him so that we could work on addressing people’s concerns and questions.

MEETING NOTES:
Responded to concerns about poster: roll out vs. content; Committee decided to keep content as is
Questions to Chief Matchan regarding input on protocol; Chief Matchan and his team reviewed the protocol but would have liked to have been part of the conversation earlier
Committee expressed continued concerns about President Vurdien’s letters to campus, and more importantly, about administration’s long-term financial support of Safe Zones; Safe Zones is overworked and underfunded, and yet the entire campus continues to rely on their services.

Next steps:
Committee members requested that administration provide long-term financial support to Safe Zones Center for undocumented and LGBTQ+ students *see Note #1 below
Committee members discussed how President Vurdien needs to be proactive in response to students’ needs as they change in response to current events (whether it be cessation of DACA or events like rollback of Title IX) *see Note #2 below
More copies (8.5x11) of poster will be distributed to faculty and staff mailboxes with letter from President Vurdien
Within the next few weeks, PCC will organize a teach-in for campus community to learn about needs of undocumented students. Comiittee members discussed need for more workshops. See Note #3 below
Kathy will present to Academic Senate (5 min) on Monday, September, 25, 2017

Next meeting: Tuesday, September, 26, 2017, 11:30-noon, Location TBD

Note #1: During College Council, an hour after this meeting, VP Olivo announced grand opening of “Dream Center.” Committee needs to meet with VP Olivo regarding need for permanent funding from general budget for servces and staff that can coordinate the center and its programming, as well as need for better communication. The center will be called the Safe Zone Center as it advocates for the LGBT population as well, which is why we opted to not calling it a "Dream Center" to allow a more welcoming center

Note #2: On Friday, Professor Kathy Green sent an email to the English Division: “some of our active duty National Guard students, who have been called up for one-week disaster relief deployments to Texas, Florida, and elsewhere, have been getting less than kind feedback from PCC faculty. Some of our PCC students have dropped classes, and one withdrew from school entirely, because of uncooperative faculty who refused to allow a test retake or provide notes for missed classes when the students asked for one week off for a short-term deployment.” This shows that we have a widespread need for greater empathy and accommodation across campus, since many PCC classrooms are not safe learning environments. The committee requests that the administration continue to be proactive and set the tone across campus, provides Faculty with more culturally competency training, and hires more culturally competent faculty.

Note #3: During the Faculty Workshop at noon, Kathy, Chris, and Yajaira spoke with David Steinam about creating a 508 compliant video of the workshop for those who could not attend, since we are receiving many emails. People have questions. On Friday, the library, and Admission & Records reached out to request additional workshops.

Agenda for Tuesday, September, 26, 2017, 11:30-noon, Location TBD

Discuss permanent funding and better communication with administration; need to schedule meeting with Dr. Olivo
Schedule more workshops; assess needs and requests; discuss teach-in model
Schedule video taping with David Steinam