Communication and Messaging

In response to both student and employee requests, the college is now sending out notifications regarding hate speech to both employees and students when they occur. In an effort not to propagate hate, the college will not send out the specific images but the general content. Individuals wanting to see the specific images can view them in the deans’ offices. Moving forward, the president will solicit recommendations from the Racial and Equity Communications sub-committee regarding future hate speech communications.

In an effort to affirm to students that we are their allies and that DVC stands against hate, the president sent a message to all faculty before the term began asking them to share the following message with students at the start of each class during the first week of instruction:

I am very glad that you are here and I want you to feel welcome, safe and connected to our college. DVC values each and every one of you, and does not tolerate racist attitudes or hate speech of any kind.  If you see or hear anyone spreading hate language anywhere on our campus, please tell me or contact Newin Orante (Vice President of Student Services) or Police Services. We take such incidences very seriously and will pursue and prosecute hate crimes on our campuses.

Our management team also worked to ensure that each bathroom had posters on all stalls expressing that we stand with our students against hate. Our amazing counselors also stepped forward to provide counseling for those students who were targeted by our most recent hate speech. Becky Opsata, our dean of institution effectiveness, is working with the Academic Senate to provide 60 second updates that faculty can share with students at the beginning of class to provide information related to safety and student success.

These are all individual projects, and what we need is an organized group who can look at communication and messaging across the campus and make recommendations to move this area forward in a comprehensive way. Therefore, in fall 2019 a Racial and Equity Communication sub-committee will be formed to take the lead in this work and report to the Communications Committee, which reports to College Council.

This sub-committee will be making recommendations related to messaging and positive images across the campus (e.g. research effective institutional practices, enhance resource webpage, and support and develop art/murals, posters, banners, etc.) Individuals interested in addressing college wide communication and positive messaging, please contact the current lead, Rosa Armendariz. All interested individuals are encouraged to show up and participate in college committees regardless of whether you are an official committee member or not.