Delta College’s board of trustees covered topics ranging from pandemic response to enrollment.
VACCINE MANDATE
“We, as a board, voted to have people vaccinated, I think that this is an area where we really need to pass this because it will further delay some student enrollment and we don’t need that.” Trustee Janet Rivera brought up how the vaccines can delay student enrollment and they got on it quickly because they didn’t have a mandate originally.
The college was given $1.6M to cover the costs of Covid tests as part of its ongoing mandating and tracing efforts. Trustee Chelsey Pham was hoping that eventually the students and employees get the vaccine so that they don’t keep testing constantly.
ENROLLMENT
Acting President/Superintendent Lisa Aguilera Lawrenson displayed enrollment statistics for Fall 2021.
She said “…the head count is down 4.9 percent compared to last year.”
Lawrenson, who took over as acting president/superintendent on Sept. 21, gave the report in her capacity as vice president of instruction.
Lawrenson said the “…units enrolled is down by 5.7 percent from 2020, a year ago.”
Enrollment fell after the board passed the mandated vaccines in mid August. Lawrenson didn’t know “…if there is a direct correlation, but there was definitely a drop in enrollment.”
RECLASSIFICATION OF EMPLOYEES
Board President Charles Jennings asked then Delta College president/superintendent, Omid Pourzanjani about the job description changes for two positions: Executive Director of Information Technology and Assistant Director of Facilities Management and Operations.
Jennings said the job description for the IT role had to be presented to the trustees. Student Trustee Lance Elliot showed a document displaying the funds for the job position.
“I’m sort of befuddled how we can allocate funds to a position that does not yet exist if the job description hasn’t been adopted by the trustees,” Jennings said.
He suggests that the job position that popped up “…should be eliminated if they’re using the funds to create a new position.”
RECOGNITION OF INDIGENOUS HERITAGE MONTH
The meeting had topics like this covered and they had also made some other decisions like recognizing specific things and people.
As Indigineous Heritage started to approach slowly, the board of trustees voted unanimously to endorse the resolution recognizing Indigenous people’s day and Indigenous Heritage Month.
“It was a historic event today in this resolution, we are making additions to and recognizing that need for land acknowledgement,” said Morio Moreno, a Delta College art professor.
Others acknowledged as part of this effort were professor
Ricardo Aguilar, who is a strong advocate for Indigenous People’s Day on campus, President of Indigenous People Adjustment Center Gerald Arnett, and Cassandra Hernandez and Veronica Brown for working hard in reaching out.
