The Academic Senate gathered on Jan. 29, discussing new immigration policies and their implementation, which began during winter break at City College.
Recent Immigration Protocols
The Senate discussed protocols for faculty to take if Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrives on campus.
Assistant Superintendent and Vice President of Student Affairs, Paloma Arnold sent out an email over winter break that included protocols staff should be aware of if questioned by ICE regarding a student. Arnold put an emphasis on this email.
Arnold informed the Senate that if approached by ICE to take any officer to the office of the superintendent-president.
She added that faculty doesn’t need to release anyone or information to any law enforcement without a warrant or a subpoena. A subpoena is a way law enforcement can gather information from a person if they’re not a part of the case.
“Please know your rights and also convey this to your students what their rights are as well,” Academic Senate President Joshua Ramirez said.
The discussion led to international students and Arnold explained students who hold an F or M Visa aren’t protected by a warrant or a subpoena. An F Visa is for academic studies and an M Visa is for nonacademic or vocational studies.
“Our international students are really concerned,” Chair of Physical Education Kathleen O’Connor said. “We’ve already had one this week who was an athlete saying she was going to go home because she just didn’t feel welcome in the United States.”
The Senate briefly brought up that red cards have been ordered and will be distributed around campus. The Center of Social Justice and Equity has red cards currently available for students as well.
Vacancy Position
Assistant Superintendent and Vice President of Academic Affairs, María Villagómez explained the recent vacancy for the position of Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences. This position was previously employed by Dean Elizabeth Imhof.
Villagómez explained a new dean will not be appointed this semester. There are currently other deans who were given Imhof’s recent work short term.
English composition & literature professor Kimberly Monda did not agree with this situation.
“The fact that they’re all taking on this extra work sucks for all of us and also leaves us with many gaps,” Monda said.
City College is actively searching for Imhof’s replacement.
Federal Funding Freeze
With the recent funding freeze implemented by President Donald Trump, the senate talked about how this may affect City College.
Brought to attention by Arnold, she says direct financial aid will not be affected. This includes any Pell Grants and student loans many rely on for tuition.
“We released a notice to students saying your financial aid will continue to be disbursed as normal, this currently doesn’t impact the state financial aid,’” Arnold said.
Arnold explained some programs at City College such as DSPS and CalWORKS need to potentially be aware of the funding freeze due to indirect federal funding.
Budget Solutions
The Senate allowed Christopher Renbarger, the newly appointed assistant superintendent and vice president of business services to introduce himself. Renbarger began to state some of his ideas to help with City College’s budget.
He informed the Senate he wanted to gain their feedback for future budget decisions.
Renbarger told the Senate he hopes to change how the budget is approached to people who are responsible for a budget area at City College as well.
“I want to sit down with each of those folks in a small group and have discussions about what their program looks like, what their budget needs for the future are, how those align with funds that are available,” Renbarger said.
Renbarger spoke about what should be focused on when discussing the budget which included operational maintenance and research requests for program enhancements.
Senate members shared gratitude toward Renbarger for his new position and his ideas on the budget approach.
“I thank you, what you just did in two and a half minutes has been so significantly lacking,” Laura Woyach, accounting and finance professor said. “This was a foreign topic up to this point.”
The next Academic Senate meeting will take place on Feb. 12.