In light of increased turmoil surrounding LGBTQ issues across the country, an effort to support incoming LGBTQ students has begun in the form of a new LGBTQ-centric learning community at LBCC.
“We want students to know there is a community here,” Jen Nellis, the professor who pioneered this project, said.
Learning communities are a way to encourage student success. Students in the cohort would share three core classes, attending them together as a means to ensure they know at least one other person in their college classes.
Long Beach City College will become one of the few community colleges in California to have an educational cohort dedicated specifically to LGBTQ students.
Nellis cited the rising number of anti-LGBTQ laws proposed across the nation as the catalyst for proposing this learning community.
The American Civil Liberties Union is a national nonprofit organization and law firm that focuses on defending and preserving the civil rights and liberties of Americans. It also tracks bills pertaining to several different civil issues, including bills pertaining to LGBTQ rights.
Since the beginning of 2023, the American Civil Liberties Union has tracked over 400 anti-LGBT bills across the nation. Of these, 38 have passed into law, 341 are advancing in their state court systems and 87 have been defeated.
“We need learning communities like this now more than ever,” Paul Savoie, another political science professor involved with the cohort, said.
Savoie signed on to teach the cohort’s government or history class and was immediately on board to join the cohort of faculty involved in this new endeavor.
“All of our students on campus need to have an enhanced sense of belonging, especially coming out of COVID,” Savoie said. “It’s just another way of telling students you belong here.”
Unlike established learning communities like UMOJA and PUENTE, groups to help ethnic minority students learn and thrive in community college and beyond, there are no set standards or guidelines for curriculum structure.
Beginning with three general education courses including a first year English, history and government course, Jen Nellis hopes to expand the cohort curriculum to include an ethnic studies course and other English classes.
Nellis will be teaching the learning community’s version of English 1. While the curriculum has not been finalized, she said she would be incorporating more readings from LGBTQ authors as part of her updated curriculum.
Faculty members involved with the cohort will meet in May to further discuss the goals of this new learning community and solidify course curriculum. The cohort is set to begin in the fall 2023 semester.