At the January 22nd, 2024 meeting of the California Community Colleges Board of Governors, the San Diego Mesa College Ethnic Studies Faculty Council was awarded the prestigious Exemplary Program Award.

Looking to address equity issues on campus, San Diego Mesa College sought out advice and expertise from the Center for Urban Education (CUE) at the University of Southern California. “We needed to have someone hold up the mirror to us because it can be difficult to change from within if you don’t know what you need to change,” said Dr. Pamela Luster, President of Mesa.

San Diego, CA — Today, San Diego Mesa College will host the Advancing Racial Justice and Equitable Outcomes in Community College Institute, scheduled for Sept. 12 at San Diego Mesa College, is the third such meeting organized by the University of Illinois Office of Community College Research and Leadership. Issues of race on community college campuses will be the focus of the conference.

Recently, San Diego Mesa College discovered the posting of flyers across campus that targeted particular ethnic groups. The College followed its free speech policy, and only removed flyers that were improperly posted. This included postings on electronic signboards causing potential damage to college equipment. The Art Gallery was also impacted as materials were defaced with flyers posted over them. The incident was reported to District Police as well as the San Diego Police Department, who continue to monitor the situation.

San Diego Mesa College strongly opposes the racist language used by those who are posting these fliers. To be clear – any doctrine that elevates one group above another has no place at Mesa College and we condemn any language or actions that promote racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, violence, discrimination and other forms of hate.

Double majoring in political science and philosophy, one might think that she wouldn’t have time for much else, but 19-year-old Ava Fakhrabadi is able to maintain a 3.89 GPA while balancing life between being a student, AS president and Student Trustee.

Part of the Title V Grant has been used to build the LOFT for faculty and staff professional development on campus. Learning Opportunities for Transformation is housed on the fourth floor of the Learning Resource Center. To help faculty on campus to create syllabi and classes that have more equitable outcomes, the Course Redesign Institute and New Faculty Institute were created for faculty to participate in on campus.

One of the first steps in reaching the goal of becoming the leading college of equity and excellence was looking at the system of testing and assessment for students to be placed in English classes.

It has been just over two years since San Diego Mesa College made a commitment to be the leading college of equity and excellence, and in such a short time period, more than 60 programs on campus have been developed to progress toward this goal.