SBCC’s Dumbed-Down “Strategic Plan”

by Celeste Barber

Dec 22, 2023

New banners to match SBCC’s recently approved Strategic Plan. Photo: Celeste Barber / edited by www.sbcurrent.com for clarity

I taught College English at SBCC for twenty years. Mercifully, I retired just before the college reversed course and steered full-on into the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Anti-racism (DEIAA) headwind.

I write his because at this month’s Board of Trustees meeting, City College’s Strategic Plan (Item 14.1) was very nearly presented with no discussion, and no public comment. It passed on a 3-1-1 vote (3 for, 1 opposed, 1 absent) and – had Trustee Veronica Gallardo not requested it – no posting of the Plan for the public to review.

The brief discussion on the dais became an attack on Gallardo rather than an examination of the Plan, first by college president Erika Endrijonas, Ph.D. (who serves at the Board’s pleasure), and then by Ms. Gallardo’s own colleagues (who serve at the public’s).

Remarkably, the Strategic Plan excludes any mention of actual education. The term, “education,” appears nowhere in the four-page document, except as an aside to terms of paramount importance to college leadership. On page one, under “Goal,” it says “The college will develop and implement innovative, high-quality, equity-focused, evidence-based, anti-racist, culturally responsive teaching and learning experiences, educational programs, and services, with a focus on the closing equity and opportunity gaps for historically marginalized students” [emphasis mine].

In Search of a Mission

Isn’t the mission of a community college – and all public educational institutions – to offer students, above all, an education that prepares them to enter the workforce, to manage their lives independently, and one that fosters citizenship?

The above statement highlights instead – at the expense of education – every DEIAA buzzword contained in the acronym.

The Strategic Plan’s second page includes under “Care & Stewardship”: “Increase SBCC’s ranking in statewide total compensation within the parameters of a sustainable budget and with a goal of achieving equitable compensation that does not increase economic inequalities.”

Where in the document is there the laudable call to be number one in education – both academic and vocation – programs that anticipate the community’s workforce needs?

A third example taken from “Campus Climate”: “Measure improvement in college climate, including increased feelings of belonging, respect, and value for all students and employees.”

Measure “feelings”?

How about measuring student success rates? The ability to read, to critically think and perform at or above college level – all are objectively measurable.

School boards and administrators deal in abstractions, including the presidents’ offices within our elite universities. City College’s Strategic Plan is far removed from the classroom. Teachers, on the other hand, deal in reality, engage closely with their students and attend to their individual needs.

To clarify, I’d like to share stories about two former students of mine. “John” was a white kid from Northern California who attended SBCC about twenty years ago. “Eduardo” was local, a first-generation Hispanic student and also first in his family to attend college. Both young men were exceptional students. Yet, neither would have been challenged to succeed, given the current DEIAA mandates.

John’s Story

John had enrolled in the English 100 remedial writing program. I assigned the in-class first-day writing sample to gauge where the students were in their composition skills. John’s essay was unreadable. The words were there, but scattered in the sentences, as if he had blindly dropped them from a scrabble board onto blank paper.

I then arranged a meeting with him. John told me about a brain tumor diagnosed two years earlier. Following surgery and months of recuperation, he missed much of high school. He came out of recovery with his brain short-circuited, literally. The sentences formed in his brain somehow could not be formulated on paper.

I gently explained that English 100 was designed so that students could take the course two times, full credit each time, and suggested he consider that possibility. John would have none of it! He intended to pass, to take English 110 in the spring, and then transfer to Berkeley the following fall. He set the goals, and I determined to help steer his course.

For weeks, we’d swap drafts every class meeting, on Monday-Wednesday-Fridays. I promised to review every draft he gave me and return it the following class period. He, in turn, would have the paper back the next class meeting. Back and forth. For weeks.

He never wavered in his determination.

Then, about three weeks before the semester ended and portfolios were due, the essays became not simply readable, but fluid. John had rewired his brain. To this day, he stands as the most inspiring person I have ever met.

John earned a “high pass” from English 100 and signed up for English 110 with me the following semester, earning a final grade of “B.” Yes, he was at Cal the following fall semester.

Eduardo’s Story

His was equally moving. We were reading Antigone that semester in English 111 (Critical Thinking and Literature). Through a Great Books private grant, actors had been hired to perform scenes from Sophocles’ play on the West Campus overlook, a mini amphitheater. During the morning performance, I noticed that Eduardo sat quite still, intense throughout the hour. He was riveted to the stage. Afterwards, I sat down and talked to him. Suddenly, this normally quiet young person became animated: “Ms. Barber, it was so real. It was better than a movie.”

He shared that this simple no-frills performance was the first live theatre he had ever experienced. He had become intimately engaged with the characters as the actors performed just feet from his seat. This ancient Greek play and its enduring theme of allegiance to king or to conscience, spoke to him – directly to him – across the centuries.

A Shared Cultural Heritage

Why am I sharing John and Eduardo’s stories? Because, had those DEIAA protocols been in place then, I would not have those stories to remember, and now, to share. John would not have realized his dream of attending Cal. Eduardo would not have awakened to the beauty of our shared cultural heritage.

SBCC did away with Remedial English about five years ago. Administrators were unhappy with the disproportionate number of “historically marginalized” students assigned to preparatory courses in English and Math.

First, they tried fast-tracking, by combining English 100 and 110 into a single one-semester course. Then, students were permitted to self-assign their course placement, thus no longer the need for assessment testing, which SBCC had once touted as a model for the state’s community colleges.

Finally, all remedial courses were discontinued.

Students Deserve – and Should Demand – Better

Eduardo would not have experienced the thrill of live theatre. In 2015, City College administrators summarily ended the Great Books program, including prohibiting the interim director from applying for the renewable grant. How many Eduardos have been denied the thrill of discovering what theatre and art can bring to their lives? And most importantly, that such works beckon to them, personally.

Lost in last Thursday’s board presentation of the Strategic Plan were our students and their right to be accepted for who they are and for what they desire from a community college education. Young people like John and Eduardo deserve better than to be pigeonholed by skin pigment and nothing more.

Today, Santa Barbara City College – and colleges across the country, including Harvard and Penn – are more concerned with pronouns than the human beings they profess to teach.

Perhaps SBCC’s faculty and Board of Trustees should enroll in a remedial class. No telling what they might learn.

SBCC’s Dumbed-Down “Strategic Plan”

by Celeste Barber

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