Campus President Edward Bush updated faculty members on the status of the “We Won’t Fall” campaign on Wednesday.
The “We Won’t Fall” campaign is a list of goals Cosumnes River College leadership hopes to achieve by the end of the fall semester. These goals are all part of a plan to urgently address structural racism within our institution and have brought racial equity to the top of many faculty meetings.
“The ‘We Won’t Fall’ initiative is based on the idea that we cannot do the status quo this fall semester, given everything that has taken place in society,” said Bush.
After a brief welcoming and introduction, Bush went on to highlight some of the strategies for “We Won’t Fall” which have been put together by constituency leaders.
“Let’s look at strategies that seek to redesign the structure of our institution by addressing systemic barriers that have existed at our college and not look to just reform or to develop a new program,” said Bush.
Some of these strategies have already been implemented said Bush, who then called upon constituency leaders to speak about what they have accomplished.
Academic Senate President Gregory Beyrer said they have been talking about infusing equity and anti-racism work in a variety of ways throughout the semester.
“In particular, we asked for our faculty committee chairs to report back to the senate and talk about how they are infusing anti-racism work into the work of their committees, or what their committees are doing,” said Beyrer.
Some of the strategies also involve redesigning curriculum and syllabi with equity in mind, which has already begun.
“The Curriculum Committee has added racism equity and curriculum as a standing discussion item on the meeting agenda,” said Beyrer. “They are encouraging the consideration of open educational resources, which is a way to reduce financial barriers for students and increase access.”
In addition, the Professional Development Committee is supporting CRC’s proposal for funding from the Institutional Effectiveness Partnership Initiative and working on a spring plan that includes a student panel to talk about their experiences, said Beyrer.
As Beyrer concluded, Los Rios College Federation of Teachers President Jason Newman spoke about how the faculty union has approached the campaign.
“One thing to mention is that we’re going through what is called an equity audit on our faculty and executive board, and equity audit for practices that we have been using in the past,” said Newman.
Newman concluded his segment by saying, “most importantly, we’re engaged right now in negotiations with the district,” and the issues that are addressed in the campaign are a large part of the negotiations.
After the constituency leaders checked in, Bush thanked them for their diligence during the pandemic and their willingness to fix these issues on top of the work already piling onto their plates.
“This work is really about us reimagining and rethinking the structure that I hope, in the end, would actually free us as educational professionals that will reinvigorate and revitalize us to be able to operate at our full creativity and innovation, allowing us the chance to meet the needs of all our students,” said Bush.
While the enrollment targets of the campaign will fall short due to the pandemic, CRC leadership will continue to create a plan of action this fall, and into the future.