Strategic Vision for Equity 2021-2025

Issue 3

More recent focused outreach with a specific intent to increase access and enrollment of Latinx and African American students doesn’t readily connect back to a larger strategy to support and retain these populations.

The 2015-16 Student Equity Plan highlighted the need to tailor marketing and outreach efforts so that they were inclusive of the diverse population Foothill serves.

Activities aligned with these efforts included developing brochures and other advertisements highlighting college programs for underserved populations. The activities also included multilingual translation in printed marketing materials for students and families where English is a second language. Foothill should continue its efforts to diversify its marketing approach. Nevertheless, the college operating without a coordinated outreach program during an enrollment decline resulted in mostly indirect marketing efforts without a real end goal in mind. That end goal of where and how to focus outreach efforts is typically informed by a strategic enrollment plan, which is currently not documented. Particularly, the college missed an opportunity to address the declining trend in African-American student enrollment[5] observed after the 2013-14 academic year. Now with a more coordinated and properly staffed outreach department, the college can begin to address some long-overlooked challenges.

Dual enrollment (specifically, college classes taught at high schools) has been proposed as a strategy to address racial equity gaps. In the 2019-20 academic year, Foothill College’s Equity and Education governance council discussed this topic at length across multiple meetings. It was recommended that the college should continue to build dual enrollment partnerships with area high schools, prioritizing those predominantly serving racially disproportionately impacted student groups[6]. This recommendation aligns with AB288 and CCAP provisions[7]. Both the college and the student benefit from translating high school work completed for college credit into future enrollment at Foothill, but the college needs to work to develop pipelines within these partnerships that seamlessly connect those students to degree, certificate, and transfer opportunities at Foothill.

Current partnerships, not limited to dual enrollment, were created as a result of Foothill staff doing the work of moving beyond the Foothill campus and venturing out into surrounding communities and seeking innovative ways to offer a college education to those that may not be able to access the opportunity otherwise. Foothill’s Family Engagement Institute has long fostered successful partnerships in the community to service some of the most vulnerable populations of students in the community. It is worth exploring their approach to the work and their model of service in providing exceptional support to these populations.

Whether it is through a non-credit course, dual enrollment, adult education, summer academy, or career technical education pathways developed in concert with local non-profits, Foothill should work to not only understand the career and educational demands of those communities but demonstrate its ability to successfully meet those demands. With that, the Office of Equity proposes the following goals:

Foothill has already begun to see the beneficial results of a well-coordinated outreach and marketing team who holds a lens of equity in their efforts. Communication, recruitment, and partnership building will only improve as the campus further collaborates in its efforts to serve and reach its diverse community.

 

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