Equity, Pathways, & Inclusion

2025-2028 Student Equity Plan Imagining Sessions

Thursday, March 20, 2025
Session 1: 1:30 p.m. or
Session 2: 2:45 p.m.
In the EpiCenter – Media & IT Building, Room 104

RSVP for the Student Equity Imagining Sessions

Please join us on SMC Spring Professional Development Day for one of our in-person Student Equity Imagining Sessions! In these sessions, members of the newly established EPI Working Group will be joined by Hugo Yepez, our Guided Pathways regional representative from the Chancellor’s Office, to facilitate gathering your ideas utilizing a framework adapted from the 2025 CCHALES Student Equity Planning Workshop. The theme of that workshop was “Roots of Renewal: the Power of Planting Seeds”, and we would like to continue in that spirit to strategize the planting of the “seeds” from our SMC community. Your participation in these interactive sessions, combined with survey feedback, will inform a draft plan for review in summer 2025, with final approval by the Board of Trustees in fall.

In addition to the in-person PD Day sessions, EPI will also offer two virtual Imagining Sessions in late March/early April. We will circulate registration information for those sessions soon.

As a pre-cursor to the Imagining Sessions, we encourage you to join our partners in Institutional Research on March 10 and 13, 2024 for a virtual look into “The State of Equity at SMC: Taking Stock & Charting Our Progress” from a data-driven perspective on our progress and goals. Register for one of two virtual data sessions by clicking on the links below:
Option 1: Monday, 3/10 (2 pm - 3 pm)
Option 2: Thursday, 3/13 (11:30 am - 12:30 pm)

We look forward to hearing what you can imagine for Equity at SMC!

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.

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How EPI is Working to Meet Our Commitments

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

EPI Programs, Activities, and Grants

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

The following guiding documents serve to focus the foundational work for the division of Equity, Pathways, and Inclusion to better meet our racial equity imperative to close equity gaps. EPI's aim is to create a campus where no student fails or misses their academic goals due to barriers created or overlooked by the institution.

Student Equity Plan

With the input of nearly 100 faculty, classified, and managers, SMC's Student Equity Plan (SEP) 2.0 for 2022-2025 was developed and submitted tot he Chancellor's Office. The SEP 2.0 Inquiry Phase Summary Report is now available for our Campus community to review.

The Chancellor's Office charged us with an unprecedented method of shaping a transformational and community driven, fluid SEP (rather than transactional and compliance oriented,) which calls for SMC to be more inclusive and dynamic in our approach. To capture a wide range of experiences to contribute and engage in the work needed to advance our equity efforts, SEP 2.0 Phase 1 preliminary work was collectively developed by cross-hierarchical and cross-functional teams including faculty (both instructional and counseling), classified professionals, and managers. Our goal was to ensure that the diverse voices, unique contributions and experiences of all of our employee groups were reflected in the development of SEP 2.0.

By structuring the development of the plan in this way, it ensures that our SEP makes equity everyone’s work.

Read The SEP 2.0 Inquiry Phase Summary Report

Our Presentation Road Show went off without a hitch: EPI presented the report and templates to various SMC groups and committees before submitting to the Board of Trustees in December. The board approved and the template responses were entered into the official NOVA Online System with the Chancellor’s Office. The NOVA SEP template is a living document, and the Santa Monica College 2022—2025 SEP will continue to be developed as we enter the 2025-2028 Student Equity Planning Cycle,

SEP 2.0 was a truly monumental effort, especially considering the accelerated timeline, and none of it would have been possible without the hard work of so many over the last year. We value the perspectives of each and every member of the SMC community, and cannot express enough gratitude for those who came together and contributed to the 2022—2025 Student Equity Planning Cycle at SMC.

Stay tuned for more progress and ways to contribute to SMC's Student Equity Plan 2025-2028!

Contact Us

For questions or to learn more about Equity, Pathways, & Inclusion, please feel free to email us: EPI@smc.edu

Main Phone Line
310-434-4408

View the Equity, Pathways, & Inclusion New Hire Handbook, part of the new 2024 SMC Onboarding Resources

The EPI Team:

Llanet Martín, Ph.D – Dean of Equity, Pathways, & Inclusion
Silvana Carrion-Palomares – Project Manager, National Science Foundation Grant
Guido Davis del Piccolo – Faculty Lead, Redesign/Guided Pathways
Daniella Washington – Faculty Lead, Redesign/Guided Pathways
Paige Glaves – Administrative Assistant II

Please excuse our dust as a more comprehensive webpage is being developed for this new department and its associated programs.