Area Report for Board of Trustees

The Equity, Diversity, and Transformation (EDT) Division is charged with embedding equity in everything we do at Highline College. Below are updates of the ongoing work.

Core Theme 1: ACCESS, Reduce Barriers and close equity gaps to access for all community members

This summer, the Cultural Learning Communities (Umoja Promise & Juntos), TRiO, MESA, and the Outreach and Recruitment team collaborated to host two Summer Melt events created to keep students engaged and connected before the fall quarter. In July, we welcomed students with an Ice Cream Social, and in August, we hosted a community BBQ Cookout. Both events featured a resource fair with multiple campus partners, allowing students to learn about the support services available at Highline. These events created opportunities for students to build connections, access resources, and feel a stronger sense of belonging as they prepare to begin their college journey.

Core Theme 2: STUDENT LEARNING, Increase educational success, collaborate to improve

The Highline Community Pantry donated a refrigerator to the Cultural Learning Communities and stocked it with “at-home” style foods so that students can have access to simple foods such as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cereal, microwaveable frozen meals and snacks such as yogurt and hummus cups. 

In late July, Umoja students attended the Umoja Student Leadership Summit at CSU Bakersfield. During the summit, students participated in workshops and keynote sessions focused on student leadership, personal growth, and community building. In addition to these sessions, students stayed in the campus residence halls, giving them the opportunity to experience college life firsthand. This experience helped students strengthen their leadership skills, build connections with peers across the Umoja community, and gain insight into the transfer opportunities available through higher education.

IR collaborated with Academic Affairs to support Program Improvement efforts, including the development of a new dashboard focused on the unique needs of our ELCAP department, enhancements to other dashboards and a compilation of data resources for the newly proposed Program Improvement process.

Core Theme 3: COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS, Create a more inclusive working environment and a more valued, visible relationship with communities we serve

The Support Center team volunteered at Unkitawa First Nations food pantry and assisted with sorting and packaging items for local Native communities.

Report submitted by Vice President of Equity, Diversity and Transformation, Dra. Maribel Jimenéz