Monday, June 1, 2020

SOCCCD Chancellor's Statement - Honor the Life of George Floyd (ASIVC & IVC Alliance with Justice, too)

Today's news

Sent out at 5:32 p.m.

Over the weekend, like you, I witnessed people throughout our nation, raise their voices in response to the killing of George Floyd and so many other black men and women who have died senselessly. We reached a new level of frustration for the ongoing issues of inequity, implicit bias, and racism in America and saw both peaceful protests and civil unrest occur as a response in cities coast-to-coast.

On behalf of SOCCCD, we share in your pain, discomfort, exhaustion, and call for change. As an institution that serves as a key source of service and education to our community, we take great responsibility in being part of the solution to effect change for our students of today and tomorrow.

Our work to infuse equity and inclusion in every policy and practice must not only be continued but enhanced. We must prioritize the creation of safe places to talk about race relations on our campuses. We must lead through listening to the disenfranchised and marginalized members of our college communities and identify how others can serve as effective allies.

Finally, and most importantly, we must engage our students in long-term solutions and support them with how to best influence change at micro and macro levels. The next generation of leadership is among us at Irvine Valley College and Saddleback College. Peaceful protests can serve as a means of public awareness to put a spotlight on injustice. But the riots, fueled by agitators, have been ensued by violence and community damage. We as a district must promote education, voting, and civic engagement. We will join our students in taking concrete action to make reforms at the local, state, and federal levels, but will focus on change within our District and the community college system. 

I recognize that the past few months have been hard on all of us—schools, families, and businesses alike. The pandemic has only made more evident that inequities at any level become exacerbated during crises. Our mission to students must be met with a long-term commitment to combat institutional barriers that prevent students from achieving.

We look forward to doing the difficult work with you. Together we can make a difference.

Kathleen F. Burke
Chancellor
South Orange County Community College District


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Sent today, 5:17 p.m.:

A message from ASIVC: Standing in Solidarity

Associated Students of Irvine Valley College

Hello IVC community and community-at-large,
Under unfortunate circumstances, we write to you with deep frustration, anger and in solidarity with the protest against the mistreatment and abuse of Black people in our community and across this nation. On May 25th 2020, an African American man named George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Heartbreaking incidents such as these, rooted in institutionalized systematic oppression of black people resulting in police brutality and discrimination, happen every day in the United States and enough is enough.
As student leaders and fellow activists representing the Associated Students of Irvine Valley College (ASIVC), we want to reassure members of the Black community here in Irvine and across this nation, we stand in solidarity with you. As student leaders and fellow activists, we encourage all IVC students, Black and non-Black, to utilize your voices and stand in solidarity with the protest demanding the end to police violence in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and all across the United States.
We ask that when participating in demonstration, please continue to practice social distancing as the stay at home order is still in place in the state of California. We stand together to continue our support for the Black Lives Matter movement and our Black community here at IVC. You matter, and your powerful voices matter. If you have the means, consider making a donation to George Floyd’s family to show your support during this time (https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd) and/or the Minnesota Freedom Fund (https://minnesotafreedomfund.org).
Lastly, rejoice in the words of the long term activist, Congressman John Lewis as he states, “I know your pain, your rage, your sense of despair and hopelessness. Justice has, indeed, been denied for far too long. Rioting, looting, and burning is not the way. Organize. Demonstrate. Sit-in. Stand-up. Vote. Be constructive, not destructive”. Remember buildings will be rebuilt but lives cannot be revived, vote in campus elections, local elections, county elections, state elections and all elections to turn our visions into reality.

In Solidarity,     

Feras Khatib,... [et al.]
* * *
Sent today at 5:06 p.m.
IVC Alliance with Justice [IVC administration/leadership]
Dear IVC Family: 
Irvine Valley College is committed to inclusion. We are committed to equity. We are committed to justice. So, too, we recognize our responsibility to actively carry out these commitments.
As individuals and as members of this campus community, we embrace and join those calling for justice in the killings of Breonna Taylor who was at home in bed in Louisville, Ahmaud Arbery who was jogging in Georgia, and George Floyd who was a patron in Minneapolis. Along with so many others, we call for critical change to stop all senseless acts. Bias, prejudice, discrimination and the violence they foment and breed must be replaced with fair-mindedness, empathy, and equity. 
As an institution, we know that we have a responsibility to be a place of high expectations and essential values, and the wisdom and fortitude necessary to put our best into action. These are essential antidotes to the indifferent violence perpetrated on Ms. Taylor, Mr. Arbery, Mr. Floyd and every other person subjected to such acts. 
Part of our place in the world is to call out, repair, and ideally prevent hate, indifference, and micro- and macroaggressions. IVC’s recent and ongoing resources include the new Office of Student Life and Equity, our Coordinator of Equity Programs, our Student Equity Plan, our Student Equity and Achievement Program, and our Institutional Effectiveness Partnership Initiative grant addressing multiple matters of diversity and inclusion. We are committed to caring, informed, proactive, inclusion-based programs, services and campus climate. Nothing less will do because anything less would disregard our clear responsibility and substantial ability to do the right thing.  
As a campus community, we believe in, embrace, and act on the power of enlightened education to bring about positive change, including informed and compassionate individuals who work to make themselves and others party to our highest ideals rather than our lowest possibilities. We will provide members of the campus community with virtual and other resources for discussing what is happening, expressing our feelings, sharing our hopes and fears, developing our individual and collective wisdom, and creating paths forward for restorative justice. Refer to the Student Equity at IVC site for upcoming resources. Also, please read a letter sent to students from the Associated Students of IVC (ASIVC) regarding George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.  
The IVC community stands firmly together against all acts of injustice, inequity, and racism while also standing solidly opposed to acts that take the focus away from essential change, including those resulting in violence and the destruction of property.
We raise our voices with all of those demanding an end to the injustices and we are insisting on individual, institutional, corporate, and national righteousness. Use your power individually and collectively to organize, to vote, to create the change we need in this country to eradicate racism, bigotry, and injustice, once and for all. 

At IVC, we remain committed to pursuing the truth and understanding necessary to develop the empathy, insight, and strength necessary to overcome. We are IVC and we stand with each and every member of the IVC campus community in these pursuits. 
Cindy Vyskocil, EdD
Acting President 
Davit KhachatryanVice President for College Administrative Services 
Christopher McDonald, EdD
Vice President for Instruction
Stephen Johnson, EdD
Interim Vice President for Student Services
June McLaughlin
Academic Senate President

(On behalf of the Academic Senate)
Scott Kennedy
Interim Chief of Police
Amy Hunter
Classified Senate President

(On behalf of the Classified Senate)
Scott Ferguson-Greene
President, CSEA
Lewis Long
President, Faculty Association

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a difference real leadership makes.

Bob said...

Please see President Elliot Stern's statement to these issues sent out at about 7:00 a.m. today.

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

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