Making the case for student achievement at an underperforming educational institution
PERALTA COLLEGES – The Peralta College system is composed of four local schools in the East Bay (Laney and Merritt Colleges in Oakland, Berkeley City College and College of Alameda.) Combined these four schools serve 24,000 students annually.
More than a “junior college”, the four Peralta campuses serve the needs of the community by providing vocational training, remedial academics and transfer opportunities to traditional four-year colleges and universities.
- The Peralta Colleges are more than “junior colleges”, they’re pipelines for the community.
- The Peralta Colleges are conduits of information to illuminate student curiosity.
- The Peralta Colleges are transportation portals that deliver students to their wildest dreams.
- The Peralta Colleges are crystal balls for students to visualize their futures.
As much as the Peralta Colleges help students, much of their well-meaning mission is hamstrung by its own ham-fisted bureaucracy.
As great as the Peralta Colleges are, they could be better. As much as the Peralta Colleges help students, much of their well-meaning mission is hamstrung by its own ham-fisted bureaucracy.
How can the Peralta Colleges promise to maximize student potential when the college’s own potential is self-sabotaged by its administrative policies?
To be fair, the Peralta College mission is unique
To be fair, the Peralta College mission is unique. How many community college systems anywhere have four local, self-managed campuses competing for common resources? While each campus offers much of the same General Education classes, each campus also specializes in particular vocational training, offers unique AA degree programs and has its own student community to serve.
Complicating matters is the constant turnover in the upper-management ranks at each campus that stifles continuity of purpose.
Sure, there are interim administrators, but their ability to contribute is limited to answering phones and interviewing for the regular position.
The Peralta College student community needs a sanctioned advocate in the Peralta College offices. I propose that this position be created to coalesce the disparate colleges into one cohesive student community.
This position should be led by someone who can combine the macrovision of creating a grand Peralta College student community with the microvision detail that maintains each campus’ unique flavor.
This brave soul should be prepared to navigate through the morass of administrative red tape and limited bureaucratic vision to create the needed connections between students and the spirit of the Peralta College stated mission.
As we all know, the only constant in life is change.
As we all know, the only constant in life is change. A beneficiary of the status quo would say that change is unnecessary. I would ask that person to step down from their Ivory Tower and put themselves in a student’s shoes.
If students succeed, it’s in spite of Peralta’s policies, not because of them.
Learn from their experiences how frustrating it can be to try to navigate the messy maze of Peralta’s bureaucracy. Talking to students at street level, all one hears is “Why isn’t this?” and “Why is that?” If students succeed, it’s in spite of Peralta’s policies, not because of them.
Proponents of the status quo might point to metrics that state how well Peralta Colleges are achieving their stated achievements. Even if those claims are true, the Peralta Colleges can be doing much better.
The greatest place to hide incompetence is within a performing organization. Change is only painful when you resist it.
A version of this article was published at the Laney Tower in 2017.
You must be logged in to post a comment.