June 17, 2024
Dear SRJC Community, 

Last week, I shared with our college community the need to commit to an intentional cultural shift in the norms of our workplace for equity and justice to occur.  

Accountability is acknowledging and taking responsibility to address the issues, creating an environment where we have a shared responsibility to disrupt the oppressive policies, procedures, and behaviors that have perpetuated discrimination based on sex, race, class, gender, and more.  

Today, I want to share two initiatives that exemplify our commitment to accountability. As part of my commitment to transparency and clear communication, I will be providing a regular update on these initiatives as part of the District Monthly Updates – Fostering Open Dialogue and Community Engagement and Operational Assessments & Changes.  

Fostering Open Dialogue and Community Engagement 

We will collaborate with Rooted in Love, the consulting firm supporting our Cultivating an Ecosystem of Belonging program, to host over 20 sessions beginning this summer and continuing through October. These sessions will be hosted in person at each site, or offered via Zoom, to provide opportunities for our students and employees to share their experiences, concerns, and recommendations. Feedback from these sessions, as well as the Campus Climate Assessment survey results, will be provided to the IDEAA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Anti-Racism, and Accessibility) Taskforce as they develop recommendations to cultivate a community of belonging, safe spaces, and collaboration at SRJC. The dates and locations of these sessions will be shared shortly.  

In the fall, I will be hosting Cafecitos with the College, and the Vice Presidents will be holding drop in times on each of the sites to build community and engage with our students and employees.  
 

Operational Assessment & Changes 

Beginning with SRJC Voices, we have identified changes to undertake immediately to address some of the systemic changes we need.  

1. Board Policy and Administrative Procedure Review and Revisions – Board Policies and Administrative Procedures provide the framework for how we ground our decision making. President’s Cabinet will continue to identify and prioritize which board policies are creating barriers and revise the policies and corresponding administrative procedures, including hiring practices, through the appropriate participatory governance process within College Council.  
    
2. Clear Reporting Mechanisms – We will implement transparent and accessible reporting mechanisms for incidents of discrimination including revision of the 2.7 Unlawful Discrimination Complaint Form for reporting and tracking complaints. We will also conduct a process improvement analysis for resolving employee concerns and grievances including a documented, consistent, timely, and clear procedure.  
    
3. Vice President of Human Resources Update – We have launched the search for our next Vice President of Human Resources and invite our college community to participate in the open forums in October 2024.  
    
4. Training Programs – We are creating training at new employee orientations to specifically address Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on employment discrimination. This training will also be available to all employees. We are also launching additional mandatory training on supervisory practices, IDEAA, and anti-discrimination for managers. These programs will be designed to educate and support managers and help them recognize, address, and prevent discriminatory behaviors and practices. 

I appreciate the acknowledgment by many of our constituent group leaders about the shared responsibility we all feel is needed to undertake this work and look forward to collaborating with each of them to continue to identify new operational changes and the implications of this work on their purview.  I will invite constituent group leaders to a meeting this summer so we can combine our strategies and efforts to address the systemic issues we face and foster a community of excellence and equity.  

In community, 

Dr. Garcia

Angélica Garcia, Ed.D. 
Superintendent/President 
707-527-4431, angelicagarcia@santarosa.edu