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True diversity
It is not enough for higher
education institutions to
have diversity policies.
Ricky Shabazz interviewed by Loren Smith
T
he American TV show Community,
which aired between 2009 and
2015, humourised the experiences
of community college students. The usual
stereotypes – a single mother, a former drug
addict, a film student – featured, yet the
show gave them a depth usually not afforded
to such characters. For example, the high
school quarterback and prom king, Troy
Barnes (played by Donald Glover), wasn’t just
depicted as an arrogant jock. In the show,
his true self is revealed as a sensitive, goofy
nerd. He takes dancing classes, admits he is
afraid of centipedes, and dumps a girlfriend
because she called his best friend “weird”.
It’s this diversity of humanity that Dr Ricky
Shabazz, the president of an actual
community college, wants to underscore. In
Sydney to headline the Community Colleges
Australia Conference, Shabazz, who leads
San Diego City College, says it is not enough
for higher education institutions to have
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diversity policies, they must reflect them in
their hiring practices and subject offerings.
This dovetails with his presentation
topic, ‘Achieving Student Success for
Disadvantaged College Students’, in that it
models inclusion and achievement among
this demographic. Many of the college’s
17,000 students are members of an ethnic
minority, and a third of them come from
families who earn less than US$20,000
($27,000) per year.
He also told Campus Review that not
enough people are aware of the value a
vocational education delivers.
“In order to build a spaceship, you still
need machinists,” he said.
Further, he asserted that in terms of
earning potential and student loans, a
community college education stands up
against a university one.
Campus Review followed up on Shabazz’s
previous statements and standpoints
on issues concerning diversity within
community colleges internationally.
CR: You say many community colleges claim
to be committed to equity and social justice,
but few actually practice this. Can you explain
what you mean by that?
RS: I mean a number of things. The San
Diego City College is one of the oldest
community colleges in the country, and
when you look at our student body, which
is largely diverse, the dominant population is
Hispanic. We’re a Hispanic-serving institution,
and I’m proud to say that when you look at
our student population and our employee
demographics, while they’re not spot-on,
the demographics of our employees do in
fact reflect the student population.
The reason for that is first, my chancellor
is a black woman. Our board president is
a Latina, and they carry out into our hiring
practices and our priorities a commitment
to social justice and equity. So it begins
at the top and has both horizontal and
vertical integration into all of our institutional
priorities. It really begins with hiring. I’ll
give an example. We have a diversity equal
opportunity representative who reviews all of
our interview questions before a committee
can move forward with an interview. So,
we ensure that the questions are vetted for
unconscious bias.
We have a diversity statement that requires
a question around diversity in every one
of the interviews. We train our employees
before they’re allowed to sit on an interview
committee about unconscious bias and
cultural capital. That’s just one of many
examples where we carry out into practice
this commitment to social justice and
educational equity.
How does that affect the student experience
and perhaps even their life after graduation?
It affects them in a number of ways. One,
they feel comfortable being in classes with
staff who they know are committed to social
justice and equity. The staff come from
similar backgrounds. For example, I was the
first person in my family to go to college.
My mother had me at a very young age, so
I not only understand but have very similar
experiences to those of my students. My
story is just one of many examples of our
faculty and staff.
Since that commitment to social justice
and equity is carried out in the employment
process, individuals who come to work at
our organisation know how serious we are
about cultural capital. And so that allows our
faculty to have empathy and understanding,
and it informs the curriculum development
process so that our students are taking
classes that are created from the outset with
equity and social justice embedded in the
curriculum.
Can you give an example of a course
that has that?
We’re one of the few community colleges
that has both a Chicano/Chicana Studies
Department, as well as a Black Studies
Department. Those are two programs that
are traditionally found at the four-year level,
and while we’re not the only community
college that has those programs, our courses
teach American history from the standpoint