At Clark College, President Bob Knight told a packed room Thursday, “It is all about the student.” But he could as easily have said, “it is about all students.”
At his annual State of the College address, Knight focused on efforts at the college to promote equity and provide support for students and faculty of color. He touted gains — albeit small ones — in the number of people of color in prominent positions on campus and pointed at programs he said will help more students of diverse backgrounds graduate on time.
“We still have lots of work to do, but I can assure you we are committed to this goal,” Knight told the audience in the Gaiser Student Center. “Every day, we’re working to make Clark a more equitable and inclusive environment for all our students, and all our employees, as well.”
Knight noted that social equity is a key component of the Vancouver community college’s five-year strategic plan, and that the college has made gains in meeting those goals. The college has operated a Diversity Center since 2015, retrofitted dozens of single-stall bathrooms to be gender-neutral and is exploring the concepts of privilege and inequity in classroom curriculum. The college has also added programs serving students experiencing food or housing insecurity, like the Penguin Pantry food bank located on campus.
Presidential Coins
Clark College President Bob Knight recognized six people with Presidential Coins following his annual address. They are:
• Security officer Eben Ayers, who manages training for all new parking enforcement and security personnel.
• Randy Broberg, a volunteer tutor in the Clark College Veterans Resource Center.
• Karen Hagen, accounting and IT manager for the Clark College Foundation and longest-tenured employee of the Foundation.
• Vanessa Neal, who oversees employee development opportunities and co-chairs a teaching and learning days workgroup.
• Janice Taylor, interim associate director of tutoring services.
• Bill Raedy, an adjunct math instructor who stepped in to support a student in his class, a veteran, who was contemplating suicide.
Since its 2015-2020 strategic plan was adopted, the college went from having 12 percent employees of color to 16 percent, from one person of color on the executive cabinet to four, and from one African-American tenured faculty member to five.
“Those aren’t huge numbers,” Knight acknowledged. “But we are making progress. Our students want to see people on campus who look like them.”
What went unmentioned in Knight’s speech — an annual celebration of the things going right at the college — were details of the threats to that mission on Clark College’s campus. Anti-Semetic and racist posters were left at Clark College in late 2017 and early 2018. A student at that time also reported having a racist slur shouted after them when they were crossing the street, while another student received a racist message on social media. The incidents rattled the college community, and Knight, who called the perpetrators “cowardly” at the time, pledged to “fix what’s going on at Clark.”
Knight did note in his speech on Thursday that there have been struggles to support students and staff of color, but again pledged to work toward solutions.
“I continue to hear from employees of color and students of color that they don’t feel safe or supported,” Knight said. “This is not acceptable to me or to the leadership of the college.”
