Engagement Summary

Students, faculty and staff were in agreement that the overall environment of the campus is positive and supportive. The faculty, staff and students were diverse, and the faculty was accommodating to students attending part-time with work and family responsibilities. Because of this unique feature of the student demographic at SJCC, students didn’t have time to get involved, give back, or develop leadership skills; few students got involved and many struggled with balancing work, family, and academics.

To properly inform students on mental health resources available on campus, faculty and staff needed comprehensive training. A consistent source of stress for students at SJCC were financial concerns. Resources which the students appreciated were the food pantry, emergency fund, and the student organizations. Multicultural competence training was available to staff, and dialogue on national and international events were encouraged by programming on campus.

To achieve a more inclusive environment for students of all backgrounds, it was recommended that SJCC took a more proactive and coordinated effort to create a welcoming campus environment so that students feel they belong.

Another recommendation was for SJCC to work closely with partners on campus from different offices to provide multicultural competence and unconscious bias training.

The next suggestion was to engage students in conversations about organizing and implementing more peer support.

The final recommendation was to use technology more effectively to promote events and services to students and to facilitate connectedness among students.