“It doesn’t mean everything’s going to go back to normal,” said C.C. Sadler, President of LBCC’s Classified Senate, regarding the upcoming spring semester during Wednesday’s Board of Trustees meeting.
Last month, LBCC trustee members unanimously voted in support of a vaccine mandate for all students planning to take in-person classes this spring.
Interim Executive Vice President of student services, Dr. Nohel C. Corral spoke on how this mandate will go into effect.
“For our students, we are looking at January 3rd as being the deadline to submit proof of vaccination or request for exemption. After January 24th, if students have signed up for in-person classes and not provided the appropriate documentation, they would be dropped,” said Corral.
Online classes at LBCC will still be available this spring for students to enroll in, regardless of vaccination status.
In addition to classes, LBCC hopes to bring some of its activities back on campus.
“We do plan for on-campus activities, student extra curricular events, other cultural heritage events, as well as employee meetings,” said Corral. “We do anticipate needing proof of vaccination or approved exemption as well for in person access.”
Another item that was addressed at Wednesday’s meeting was LBCC’s redistricting. Redistricting happens every 10 years following the federal census in order to adjust each of the school’s district areas based on population.
Several draft maps were presented during the meeting, showing some of the potential adjustments that could be made.
One of the possible adjustments shown was moving Catalina Island from area four to area three. Herlina Chico, trustee member of area four, voiced her concern regarding the adjustment.
“I don’t want to see Catalina Island in the third district, I want to keep it in the fourth district,” said Chico. “Unless you have a strong understanding of the unique dynamics that take place on the island, it’s difficult to get the services there.”
Also brought to light at the meeting was the annual faculty and staff ethnic diversity update.
Kristen Olson and Jennifer Ramos, from the human resources department, presented demographics regarding the racial diversity of this year’s faculty and staff recruitments at LBCC.
Ramos briefly discussed the progress that has been made in the school’s recruitment efforts this year in terms of its ethnic diversity.
“What we’re most excited about is the conversion numbers from those recruitment efforts. The ethnic diversity of classified staff actually hired increased from 75% to 94% from the previous year when we look at the total number of permanent placements,” said Ramos.
LBCC is scheduled to hire 40 new faculty members next year and hopes to continue to improve its ethnic diversity in the future.