with Bob Brew, Deputy Executive Director and ELSEE Cohort 1 (2017-18) and Patrick Crane, Director of the Office of Community Colleges and Workforce Development and ELSEE Cohort 2 (2018-19)
 
The Executive Learning Series on Equity and Empowerment (ELSEE), facilitated by Sonali Sangeeta Balajee and Josh Todd, brings together educational administrators, faculty, and students from across Oregon to delve into discussion of systems of power, privilege and oppression, and the application of an equity lens in the work we do across education. Institutions put together a cohort of up to 8 representatives and together participate in a yearlong course that includes a culminating project meant to being to shift outcomes towards equity at their institutions.
 
Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission, the government agency overseeing pubic higher education in our state, has put two cohorts through the ELSEE, one in 2017-18 and a current cohort in 2018-19. HECC entered the ELSEE with a specific goal. HECC is “committed to increasing college completion rates overall and also completion rates for specific racial and ethnic groups,” explains Patrick Crane. “ELSEE was about learning tools to put the equity lens we already had into practice. Yeah we have a policy, but how do we really see it through?”
 
Patrick says both cohorts agree that ELSEE gave participants “a space that is removed from the structural authority that determines how we interact with each other, and build relationships we wouldn’t have otherwise built. It has given us time and space which doesn’t exist anywhere else in the organization to unpack the structural racism in the world and at work…and think about how we at HECC both interrupt and reinforce structural racism.”
 
Beyond relationship building, Cohort 1’s ELSEE project is beginning to impact the way things happen at the state agency. Bob Brew shares that the “ongoing project was to examine the hiring, recruiting, and retention practices to look for unconscious bias or things that discourage folks from applying. We put a new tag at top of job notices that says ‘research shows women and people of color are less likely to apply if they don’t meet 100% of qualifications. We encourage you to apply even if you don’t think you meet all the qualifications.’” HECC also disabled a function in their online recruiting tool that removed candidates from the pool if they said they did not meet all the qualifications. Bob remembers, “we were in the midst of  a hire… and with these changes two of the top 5 candidates were women and one was a women of color who would have been kicked out because they checked the ‘I don’t meet the qualifications’ box but they were the most qualified. One of them was hired.”
 
Now, the cohorts are working together to think about how to bring lessons from ELSEE to the whole 124-person agency.
 
“What I came a way with was, are good intentions aren’t enough,” says Bob. “Because systems are entrenched. If you want to disrupt them, you have to do so intentional and planfully.” 

Campus Compact of Oregon has restructured our staffing for the coming 2019-20 school year and we are currently hiring for three staff positions - Equitable Pathways AmeriCorps Program Manager (who will manage the expanded Connect2Complete program), College Access Corps Program Manager, and Communications and Marketing Manager.  We are very excited to welcome new team members! This also means that several longtime staff are transitioning  this summer. These are their reflections. 

Matty Jeringan

What roles have you held at Campus Compact of Oregon?
I first joined Campus Compact in August 2013 as the Leadership and Development Specialist AmeriCorps VISTA serving with the student advisory board, supporting fundraising, and managing the MLK Day of Service. The next year, I served as the AmeriCorps VISTA Leader mentoring, training, and assisting our VISTA team serving across Oregon. Since August 2015, I have served as the AmeriCorps Program Manager for the Connect2Complete educational equity partnerships in our K12 schools and community colleges. 
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What was the hardest thing about working here?
The hardest thing has been navigating federal funds to do equity work, when at times, they feel in opposition to one another. It has also been a challenge (albeit enlightening) to engage in our own internal equity work as we have started to shift our own policies and practices to better serve each other and our partners. 

What was the best thing about working here?
The best thing about serving with Campus Compact is being able to witness positive impacts on student lives, and to be a part of the professional development of Oregon's upcoming leaders in educational equity and racial justice. Our AmeriCorps members are catalysts for change and have gone on to influence classrooms, policy decisions, higher education institutions, shake up graduate schools, and create safer spaces for Oregon's most vulnerable students. Additionally, Campus Compact's intentional hiring practices have led to a diverse staff of incredible folks that have exhibited patience, guidance, and leadership as our organization has shifted toward focusing on racial justice. I hold a great deal of gratitude for being able to participate in collaborative learning that has shaped my own equity lens in order to better serve our communities. 

What is next for you?
I will be attending Portland State University this fall to obtain my Master's in Social Work. I hope to be serving queer populations through clinical mental health and policy work. 

What would you say to the next person to take on your job(s)? 
Do not be afraid to slow down the process. Pause and reflect. Offer as much gratitude to those around you as possible. Center your work around black feminist ideology and practice. Collect and utilize solid data. Remember the positive impacts of your indirect work when tasks are overwhelming. Thank your AmeriCorps members for their service.