What is Equity, Pathways, and Inclusion?
The Division of Equity, Pathways, and Inclusion is committed to developing an integrated
infrastructure to support and meet the needs of all our college campus community (students,
faculty, staff, administrators) to reach SMC’s racial equity imperative and student
success goals both inside and outside the classroom.
To meet our commitments to reach SMC’s racial equity imperative and student success goals, the EPI division is driven by SMC’s equity mission and vision and strives to:
- Work with the various institutional bodies and key stakeholders to develop, align, support, and assess equity-focused decision-making, programming, education, training and activities to promote and advance equity, pathways and inclusion
- Foster greater collaboration, synergy, action, and change to build engaging, culturally-responsive, inclusive, and equity-centered experiences for all our college campus community (students, faculty, staff, administrators) who belong to historically racially minoritized and disenfranchised groups.
- Identify and work towards removing policies, practices, and procedures that create inequitable barriers and experiences to the access and success of all our college campus community (students, faculty, staff, administrators) who belong to historically racially minoritized and disenfranchised groups.
- Center a culture of care and belonging, both inside and outside the classroom, to improve the racial climate at SMC
- Draw from existing scholarship and evidence-based practices to provide leadership, support, education and accountability in advancing equity, pathways and inclusion.
- Work to cultivate an environment at SMC where equity and inclusion is inescapable because it’s infused in everything we do
The division of Equity, Pathways, and Inclusion is currently in our inaugural year of service and are diligently working to build an infrastructure to meet the commitments of the EPI division. To date, the EPI division has been supporting and collaborating on the following programs, activities, and grants:
- National Science Foundation (NSF) Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) STEM/Equity Grant
- California Trustee Fellowship Intersession Project grant with the Math Department
- California Guided Pathways (Redesigning the Student Experience)
- Equitizing Gateway Courses Program (EGC)
- Institutional Effectiveness Partnership Initiative (IEPI)
- Student Equity Plan 2.0 (2022 - 2025)
- SMC Campus-Wide Equity Audit with Hotep Consultants (2022-23)
- Caring Campus Initiative
- Student Equity and Achievement Program (SEAP)
- The EpiCenter (formerly The Center for Teaching Excellence)
- Program Maps
- Student Care Teams
- GPS
- Direct Connect