n DISCOURSE
of justice, communication studies and
sociology, which aligns with enrollment
trends in these majors.
How have community college student
demographics changed in recent years?
The demographics have changed in reflec-
tion of our community and our state. Our
students are very diverse in terms of race
and ethnicity. Two of our four colleges are
now Hispanic-Serving Institutions — Cos-
umnes River College and Sacramento City
College — and American River College
is very close to Hispanic-Serving status
(defined in federal law as colleges where
Hispanic students constitute at least 25
percent of total enrollment). The Latinx
(the gender-neutral term for Latino) pop-
ulation is the most rapidly growing part
of our student population. We also have
a large number of first-generation col-
lege students — that continues to grow.
We’re really the gateway for immigrant
30
comstocksmag.com | August 2019
students from all over the world; we have
a significant immigrant population at our
colleges. ... If you walk on our campuses,
the faces of our students are the faces of
modern California.
More than 15 percent of Los Rios stu-
dents are taking only online classes.
How has the growth of online education
positively affected your students, and
what more needs to be done to ensure
online education meets their academic
needs?
The demand for online courses continues
to grow, and we are engaged in thoughtful
planning for what our online future for
students should be. … One area of em-
phasis in the coming months will be to
identify degrees that students can earn
online. There are tremendous oppor-
tunities with online for students whose
lives make it difficult for them to attend a
class on the ground, so we’re excited about
the opportunity to provide more online
courses and fully online degrees. Our goal
is to announce in early 2020 a specific on-
line degree, which we anticipate will be
the first of many. It’s a great opportunity
to utilize the inventory of classes at all
four colleges.
How is Los Rios working to develop the
workforce of the future?
One of the most important things our
community colleges do is partner with
business to make sure we do have the
training and workforce that is needed. Our
career technical education programs have
advisory committees with business par-
ticipation, so we’re regularly having that
conversation about what are the needs and
how can we meet them. Health care is an-
other example. We meet regularly with all
the major health-care systems to discuss
what their needs are. The world of work is
changing so dramatically that some of the