Ahead of the Traditional System Fortunately, since 2015, the district had been shifting a significant number of programs and student services to become 100% online by July 2020. We found we were in a stronger position than most other colleges when the pandemic struck.
The Impact of Learning Three populations experienced disproportionate impact: working adults, adult students with children, and Latino and African-American males. Working adults and adults with children tend to be disproportionately people of color and Latino. Latino students were additionally impacted by the COVID epidemic in terms of healthcare access, progress towards completion, and completion rates.
There were still challenges.
Many of our students lacked access to laptops and Wi-Fi. Therefore, we opened our campuses and parking lots for students to access Wi-Fi services during the pandemic with 24 hours of security available to them. We also distributed tens of thousands of laptops, Wi-Fi devices, and millions of dollars in direct student aid; thanks to federal stimulus dollars and the generosity of local foundations like United Way and the San Diego Foundation.
Latina students had made significant gains, outpacing their counterpart Latino male students. Data based on social class shows that Latinas, from working class families, were on par with other student population groups; however, male Latino students and student parents continued to struggle.
Parent Graduate – May 28, 2021 Photo courtesy of San Diego City College
As a son of a single mother who went back to college, it was difficult for her to take on the financial burden of returning to school, coupled with family and work obligations. But she found a way to do so. The SDCCD continues to explore how to support these specific student populations that have to some degree been ignored by a higher education system that hasn’t found ways to serve them, or meet them at where they are at in life. Fast forward to early 2022, The district along with San Diego City, Mesa, Miramar, and Continuing Education colleges created several taskforces and committees focused on ambitious, bold goals by which we can close the educational gaps that emerged during the pandemic.
In addition to emergency grants, the district’s colleges have distributed thousands of laptops to students to enable them to participate in online classes – April 17, 2020 (Left to right photo courtesies: San Diego City College and San Diego Mesa College)
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San Diego Latino Legacy – Timeline • Milestones • Stories
Chapter 8 – Facing COVID-19
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