Santa Rosa Junior College President Dr. Angélica Garcia laid out the district’s strategic plan for success, announced her contracted was extended for three years and voiced a need for inclusivity for all SRJC community members in her annual address Thursday at Burbank Auditorium.
Outside the auditorium, members of the Service Employees International Union protested a recent proposal to change benefits that would result in higher premiums, which they allege would disproportionately affect classified staff.
In her address, Garcia emphasized the importance of access, belonging and equity throughout the presentation.
“She’s not afraid of speaking up and highlighting everything that the JC is doing for the students,” said Luaceu Cruz, vice president of diversity for the Student Government Assembly.
Garcia stressed the importance of community colleges by recounting her own journey through higher education. She spoke about her brother, Chris, who is expected to receive a bachelor’s degree in sociology with additional certification for applied research methods in May after pursuing higher education for 18 years between Fresno City College and CSU Fresno.
“My core purpose in being part of a college community comes together to make sure that students like my brother and his sons will be received, supported and challenged to achieve their brilliant potential,” Garcia said.
Garcia presented the President’s Medallion of Honor — an award that recognizes contributions and outstanding efforts — to Sam and Ava Guerrera. The Guerrera couple became donors to SRJC in 2006, and have since funded laptops for students during the Tubbs Fire, the construction of the Roseland Campus and the student housing endowment. Additionally, they fund annual scholarships in their name for study abroad and international students.
Garcia said Sonoma County is an aging community, with one in five residents older than 60. She emphasized the need for SRJC to support lifelong learning with an aging population.
Garcia also recognized that Sonoma County’s demographics are diversifying; the population of kindergarten through 12th graders in Sonoma County is over 50% Latine, according to EdData.
SRJC experienced a sharp decline in enrollment and student success in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but numbers have begun to rebound in the four years since, according to Garcia.
Considering the present and future challenges for students and the education system, amongst a changing landscape of Sonoma County, Dr. Garcia presented a District Strategic Plan for 2025 through 2030, which will focus on four pillars: academic quality, student success and support, responsiveness to community, and campus climate and culture.
After the meeting, SRJC’s chapter of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1021, with support from SRJC’s All Faculty Association Union (AFA), protested peacefully on the lawn outside Burbank Auditorium.
Ongoing SEIU protests stem from proposed changes to the benefit packages for regular SRJC employees. The union represents SRJC classified staff who may be disproportionately affected by the proposed changes, set to begin Oct.1. SEIU members are concerned that the proposed health care benefit premiums are too costly and will detract from their cost of living adjustment, which has continued to grow in importance as the cost of living continues to rise in Sonoma County.
This change is not a sliding scale model based on individual income; it is a single standard payment, which may disproportionately affect classified staff who work less or have a lower salary.
“We feel it’s very unfair and we still need our cost-of-living benefit and our health care benefits [separate] because if we just have to pay for our own health care, we might as well just get a job somewhere else,” SRJC groundskeeper Traci Elledge, 62, said.
Tina Rosenberg, site supervisor of the children’s center at SRJC, said, “I’m here to represent my coworkers. Some of them are in the group of people who would lose income based on the fact that they want us to pay more for our benefits. And it’s impacting the people who are paid less or who don’t work full time.”
Jessica Melvin, vice president and lead negotiator of the SEIU 1021 Local Chapter, relayed a message to Dr. Garcia. “Practice what you preach. We want equity. Equity for students, equity for classified.”
