November 2, 2023 • 16 mins
From the division of Student Affairs at California State University, Dominguez Hills, Beyond the Rhetoric explores how the division is tackling challenging issues and helping students succeed.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
Imagine a windswept college campus perched atop a picturesque cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean,
a bastion of liberal arts glittering in the sun amid the well-established opulence of Palos Verdes.
That was the vision that many had for California State University Dominguez Hills when it was first conceived in 1960 to serve
(00:34):
the growing affluent population that had been flooding into the South Bay region of Los Angeles since the end of World War Two.
But where exactly that college would be located within the South Bay remained in question more than five years.
Would the campus sit on that exclusive cliff in Palos Verdes?
(00:55):
Or would it end up in San Pedro or even Rolling Hills Estates where an old bank building held the first classes in 1965?
(01:19):
Palos Verdes seemed to have the inside track.
The allure of that cliffside campus, a Harvard of the West, some called it was too strong to resist the name of the future.
School was even changed for a time to California State College.
Palos Verdes. But this prized real estate was proving too costly and eventually a more inland unincorporated
(01:44):
area known as Dominguez Hills emerged as the frontrunner for the college's permanent home.
But the tug of war between various South Bay locations was still continuing on the evening of August 11th, 1965,
when a traffic stop near the corner of Avalon Boulevard and 116th Street sparked the events that began the Watts Rebellion.
(02:08):
Dr. Donna J. Nicol, chair of the Africana Studies Department, gives us some of the context.
So Dominguez was Palos Verdes State College back in the day, and it was too expensive to purchase property in Palos Verdes for permanent campus.
And so they were looking for an alternative location. And there were three places that were up for grabs Carson Torrance and San Pedro.
(02:33):
San Pedro wanted it badly. Vincent Thomas, who was responsible for the bridge, he was lobbying to get the campus in San Pedro.
But it is too expensive to grade because you guys are on this hill.
It would be just entirely too costly. So that put them out of contention.
But it was a big battle between them. The next option was Torrance, which was a bad option because it would have been where the refinery is now.
(03:01):
And so the final choice was Dominguez. Dominguez is sitting on an oil field, but a much less active oil field.
So you could you could grade it, You know, it would be cheaper.
So from a just pure finance perspective, this was the obvious choice.
But there was so much tug of war between the governor's office and Vincent Thomas
(03:26):
and the folks in Torrance that it had come down to a very contentious vote.
And then the riots happened.
(03:50):
Whether or not the choice to place the permanent campus in Dominguez Hills was a direct response to what happened in Watts that August,
or whether it was a politically convenient response for a decision that was largely driven by finances remains up for debate.
But whatever the reason,
the legacy of the Watts Rebellion and the establishment of the campus of CSUDH on Victoria Street in Carson seemed to be permanently linked.
(04:21):
For our purposes, it's more important to understand the legacy that CSUDH has created over the last six decades.
The university has a long history of serving the underserved.
Today, approximately 80% of the university students are from underrepresented populations and 70% are first generation college students.
Both statistics are among the highest of all institutions in the CSU system.
(04:48):
Here's Dr. Nicol again. So Dominguez always stayed true to being an open access campus because they wanted to serve the folks in this community.
And because the schools in this community, the high schools, the feeders were always under-resourced themselves.
Why not continue to at least have some place for those students to attend?
(05:09):
That is why Dominguez was predominantly Black for many years.
For any college or university to properly serve a student population that has not
historically been served well or who are the first in their family to attend college.
Intentional effort is required. It's not enough to simply admit these students and hope for the best.
And for a population of students that have seen falling graduation rates across the CSU system in recent years.
(05:35):
This intentional effort can often mean the difference between graduation and dropping out.
So what exactly do I mean when I talk about supporting students success?
Many things, actually. From the most basic needs, such as food, housing and health care to more nuanced support, such as mentoring,
(05:57):
community building, leadership training and cultivating a culturally engaging campus environment.
And most colleges and universities, including CSUDH,
Student affairs plays a critical role in ensuring this work gets done.
It's our job to be responsive to the needs of our students, whatever those needs might be.
(06:17):
Here's the Vice President for Student Affairs, Dr. William Franklin. What we do, how we do it, who's responsible,
and who we hold accountable for ensuring that we're moving the needle towards student success has never been more important than it is right now.
And so student affairs has to not only lead the way.
(06:38):
We've got to be able to model the way to student success.
It is the essence of what we have to do.
Some of the models that have been championed nationally around student services, student life, student success.
Many of those models were created decades ago, and they were created decades ago when these institutions were not designed for first generation,
(07:02):
Pell dependent, low income students of color.
And we've just continued to do them without making sure that they serve students that we've admitted.
I say all the time. Cal State, Dominguez Hills notwithstanding.
Many institutions are going to have to redesign what they do as soon as they learn who their students are.
(07:24):
And so we're trying to really have conversations with students about what their needs are, about what their challenges are,
and then began to look and see what are our policies and practices that we've always done, that
feel really good that may not be serving them to the level with which they need to be served.
(07:44):
When you're coming from unified school districts that are anything but unified and working,
especially post-pandemic, with some of the learning challenges that we know that that pandemic left.
Student Affairs, Student Life, Student Services. We're going to have to do some things differently.
(08:10):
So how exactly does student affairs take on this responsibility?
That's a big and complex question to answer, but that's exactly what this podcast is about.
I'm Dr. Matthew Smith, senior associate vice president of Student Life and dean of students at California State University, Dominguez Hills.
(08:31):
And I'm the host of Beyond the Rhetoric. We'll be getting into the weeds and attempting to answer this question,
examining the work that we do and the variety of ways that we aim to help our students succeed in each of our episodes.
But I want to give you a little bit of a taste of what we'll be talking about.
Let me introduce you to some of my colleagues in the Division of Student Affairs here at CSUDH.
(08:53):
D.H., who's Dr. Tiffany Herbert, Associate Vice President of Health and Well-Being.
My cluster has student psychological services, student health services, Toro Care,
which is case management and basic needs and Center for Advocacy Prevention and Education, which deals with intimate partner violence.
(09:16):
A part of our mission here in health and well-being, sort of the hub of providing health services to the campus.
And so we should be a one stop shop for being able to decrease barriers for students and provide increased access to health equity,
(09:37):
health services of all kinds. And so our belief is that all of these services are human, right, health care, psychological care, food, housing.
And so when we put the cluster together, we decided that there would be no more walls between the departments.
(09:58):
So it's not a situation where you say, go over the psych services, you land in Toro Care, your needs are assessed.
We look at what you're looking for, we look at what the barriers may be,
and then we find all the resources possible to assist you, whether they're in our cluster or outside of our cluster.
(10:30):
And here's Dr. Myra Soriano, interim associate vice president of Student Success.
So the Student Success cluster is comprised of a dynamic group of units that
together are really aimed to invest in the holistic development of students,
from creating access to helping with the transition to our university,
(10:56):
to helping foster the development of a sense of belonging and designing culturally affirming
co-curricular programing that bolsters the retention and success of our students.
This group has units that represent what I would describe as student access to retention and student success.
(11:17):
Entities including our Education Opportunity Program, Guardian Scholars,
our newly developed Office of First and Second year Experience and six culture and identity centers that
really target the various identities that make up our diverse student community at Dominguez Hills.
(11:38):
These units really are critical in helping with identity development.
And when we think about the college student experience,
students are developing an interest in exploring identities and exploring how their lived experiences inform who they are.
And that, coupled with the learning that happens in the classroom,
(11:59):
really are the ingredients for creating opportunities for students to succeed and to gain success, however they define that.
So as the Senior Associate Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students,
my cluster is really responsible for providing a variety of programs and services that are designed
(12:24):
to help students with learning inside and outside of the classroom as well as student development.
Our goal is really to provide them with a community that supports their success and helps them to accomplish their goals.
And and this is wide ranging from students who live on campus to students who are involved in clubs and organizations,
(12:44):
to students who seek support and advocacy from our Student Disability Resource Center.
And this work today is probably even more important than it has been historically coming on the heels of a pandemic.
You know, we're seeing a variety of different challenges and things popping up,
everything from students who have lost two or three years of social interaction and
(13:07):
building relationships with their peers to help-seeking, to leadership training.
A lot of the work that we do really, again, enhances the learning inside and outside of the classroom and as well as helps
prepare students with leadership skills that they'll need for the workforce.
Higher education and specifically student affairs has changed.
(13:28):
And as a result, right, the Dean of students role has had to change and evolve with it.
Some of that change isn't necessarily just because of drastic changes with our student population as much as it is our profession.
Learning about what the needs of students truly are and taking on a moral responsibility to try to meet that need.
And so I think this kind of elevation of consciousness about our work has now required
(13:53):
individuals like myself in this role to think about how do we truly meet students where they are?
What does it mean for institutions to meet students basic needs?
What does it mean for us to provide culturally relevant, culturally sustaining leadership, development and training?
(14:13):
What type of modality should we be attempting to reach students in and engage students on?
And just responding to the ever changing needs of the society around us.
And so I think today one of the main differences between what this role would have looked like ten,
15 years ago is this kind of occupational consciousness around who are our students,
(14:35):
what are those needs and what is our responsibility in trying to meet them there and being prepared for them,
not just them being prepared to arrive on our campuses.
In future episodes of Beyond the Rhetoric, you'll be hearing from professionals from across the CSUDH campus.
(14:55):
We have six areas that comprise our division of student affairs that we call clusters, including athletics,
educational partnerships, enrollment management, health and well-being, student life, and student success.
(15:18):
Our goal is simple We want to shed some light onto what it takes to help students successfully make it through college.
Higher education is often a seminal experience,
an opportunity that will have a wide ranging impact on a person's future and what that future will look like.
It's a critically important journey, but rarely does any student get from point A to point B very easily.
(15:41):
In fact, often that journey can be equal parts exhilarating and overwhelming.
This podcast is about that journey and how we as student affairs professionals
help to guide our students toward success regardless of their circumstances.
We will be telling these stories and illustrating what it means to be a college student in the
21st century and what colleges and universities do to support students during this experience.
(16:05):
It's just important to understand that academic affairs, student affairs, institutional technology, institutional research, business and finance.
And last but not least, advancement.
We have all of those partners at the table strategically early and often, trying to build this runway to help students take off.
(16:30):
Thanks for listening and we can't wait to start the conversation.
Beyond the rhetoric is a production of the Division of Student Affairs at California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Imagine a windswept college campus perched atop a picturesque cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean,
a bastion of liberal arts glittering in the sun amid the well-established opulence of Palos Verdes.
That was the vision that many had for California State University Dominguez Hills when it was first conceived in 1960 to serve
(00:34):
the growing affluent population that had been flooding into the South Bay region of Los Angeles since the end of World War Two.
But where exactly that college would be located within the South Bay remained in question more than five years.
Would the campus sit on that exclusive cliff in Palos Verdes?
(00:55):
Or would it end up in San Pedro or even Rolling Hills Estates where an old bank building held the first classes in 1965?
(01:19):
Palos Verdes seemed to have the inside track.
The allure of that cliffside campus, a Harvard of the West, some called it was too strong to resist the name of the future.
School was even changed for a time to California State College.
Palos Verdes. But this prized real estate was proving too costly and eventually a more inland unincorporated
(01:44):
area known as Dominguez Hills emerged as the frontrunner for the college's permanent home.
But the tug of war between various South Bay locations was still continuing on the evening of August 11th, 1965,
when a traffic stop near the corner of Avalon Boulevard and 116th Street sparked the events that began the Watts Rebellion.
(02:08):
Dr. Donna J. Nicol, chair of the Africana Studies Department, gives us some of the context.
So Dominguez was Palos Verdes State College back in the day, and it was too expensive to purchase property in Palos Verdes for permanent campus.
And so they were looking for an alternative location. And there were three places that were up for grabs Carson Torrance and San Pedro.
(02:33):
San Pedro wanted it badly. Vincent Thomas, who was responsible for the bridge, he was lobbying to get the campus in San Pedro.
But it is too expensive to grade because you guys are on this hill.
It would be just entirely too costly. So that put them out of contention.
But it was a big battle between them. The next option was Torrance, which was a bad option because it would have been where the refinery is now.
(03:01):
And so the final choice was Dominguez. Dominguez is sitting on an oil field, but a much less active oil field.
So you could you could grade it, You know, it would be cheaper.
So from a just pure finance perspective, this was the obvious choice.
But there was so much tug of war between the governor's office and Vincent Thomas
(03:26):
and the folks in Torrance that it had come down to a very contentious vote.
And then the riots happened.
(03:50):
Whether or not the choice to place the permanent campus in Dominguez Hills was a direct response to what happened in Watts that August,
or whether it was a politically convenient response for a decision that was largely driven by finances remains up for debate.
But whatever the reason,
the legacy of the Watts Rebellion and the establishment of the campus of CSUDH on Victoria Street in Carson seemed to be permanently linked.
(04:21):
For our purposes, it's more important to understand the legacy that CSUDH has created over the last six decades.
The university has a long history of serving the underserved.
Today, approximately 80% of the university students are from underrepresented populations and 70% are first generation college students.
Both statistics are among the highest of all institutions in the CSU system.
(04:48):
Here's Dr. Nicol again. So Dominguez always stayed true to being an open access campus because they wanted to serve the folks in this community.
And because the schools in this community, the high schools, the feeders were always under-resourced themselves.
Why not continue to at least have some place for those students to attend?
(05:09):
That is why Dominguez was predominantly Black for many years.
For any college or university to properly serve a student population that has not
historically been served well or who are the first in their family to attend college.
Intentional effort is required. It's not enough to simply admit these students and hope for the best.
And for a population of students that have seen falling graduation rates across the CSU system in recent years.
(05:35):
This intentional effort can often mean the difference between graduation and dropping out.
So what exactly do I mean when I talk about supporting students success?
Many things, actually. From the most basic needs, such as food, housing and health care to more nuanced support, such as mentoring,
(05:57):
community building, leadership training and cultivating a culturally engaging campus environment.
And most colleges and universities, including CSUDH,
Student affairs plays a critical role in ensuring this work gets done.
It's our job to be responsive to the needs of our students, whatever those needs might be.
(06:17):
Here's the Vice President for Student Affairs, Dr. William Franklin. What we do, how we do it, who's responsible,
and who we hold accountable for ensuring that we're moving the needle towards student success has never been more important than it is right now.
And so student affairs has to not only lead the way.
(06:38):
We've got to be able to model the way to student success.
It is the essence of what we have to do.
Some of the models that have been championed nationally around student services, student life, student success.
Many of those models were created decades ago, and they were created decades ago when these institutions were not designed for first generation,
(07:02):
Pell dependent, low income students of color.
And we've just continued to do them without making sure that they serve students that we've admitted.
I say all the time. Cal State, Dominguez Hills notwithstanding.
Many institutions are going to have to redesign what they do as soon as they learn who their students are.
(07:24):
And so we're trying to really have conversations with students about what their needs are, about what their challenges are,
and then began to look and see what are our policies and practices that we've always done, that
feel really good that may not be serving them to the level with which they need to be served.
(07:44):
When you're coming from unified school districts that are anything but unified and working,
especially post-pandemic, with some of the learning challenges that we know that that pandemic left.
Student Affairs, Student Life, Student Services. We're going to have to do some things differently.
(08:10):
So how exactly does student affairs take on this responsibility?
That's a big and complex question to answer, but that's exactly what this podcast is about.
I'm Dr. Matthew Smith, senior associate vice president of Student Life and dean of students at California State University, Dominguez Hills.
(08:31):
And I'm the host of Beyond the Rhetoric. We'll be getting into the weeds and attempting to answer this question,
examining the work that we do and the variety of ways that we aim to help our students succeed in each of our episodes.
But I want to give you a little bit of a taste of what we'll be talking about.
Let me introduce you to some of my colleagues in the Division of Student Affairs here at CSUDH.
(08:53):
D.H., who's Dr. Tiffany Herbert, Associate Vice President of Health and Well-Being.
My cluster has student psychological services, student health services, Toro Care,
which is case management and basic needs and Center for Advocacy Prevention and Education, which deals with intimate partner violence.
(09:16):
A part of our mission here in health and well-being, sort of the hub of providing health services to the campus.
And so we should be a one stop shop for being able to decrease barriers for students and provide increased access to health equity,
(09:37):
health services of all kinds. And so our belief is that all of these services are human, right, health care, psychological care, food, housing.
And so when we put the cluster together, we decided that there would be no more walls between the departments.
(09:58):
So it's not a situation where you say, go over the psych services, you land in Toro Care, your needs are assessed.
We look at what you're looking for, we look at what the barriers may be,
and then we find all the resources possible to assist you, whether they're in our cluster or outside of our cluster.
(10:30):
And here's Dr. Myra Soriano, interim associate vice president of Student Success.
So the Student Success cluster is comprised of a dynamic group of units that
together are really aimed to invest in the holistic development of students,
from creating access to helping with the transition to our university,
(10:56):
to helping foster the development of a sense of belonging and designing culturally affirming
co-curricular programing that bolsters the retention and success of our students.
This group has units that represent what I would describe as student access to retention and student success.
(11:17):
Entities including our Education Opportunity Program, Guardian Scholars,
our newly developed Office of First and Second year Experience and six culture and identity centers that
really target the various identities that make up our diverse student community at Dominguez Hills.
(11:38):
These units really are critical in helping with identity development.
And when we think about the college student experience,
students are developing an interest in exploring identities and exploring how their lived experiences inform who they are.
And that, coupled with the learning that happens in the classroom,
(11:59):
really are the ingredients for creating opportunities for students to succeed and to gain success, however they define that.
So as the Senior Associate Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students,
my cluster is really responsible for providing a variety of programs and services that are designed
(12:24):
to help students with learning inside and outside of the classroom as well as student development.
Our goal is really to provide them with a community that supports their success and helps them to accomplish their goals.
And and this is wide ranging from students who live on campus to students who are involved in clubs and organizations,
(12:44):
to students who seek support and advocacy from our Student Disability Resource Center.
And this work today is probably even more important than it has been historically coming on the heels of a pandemic.
You know, we're seeing a variety of different challenges and things popping up,
everything from students who have lost two or three years of social interaction and
(13:07):
building relationships with their peers to help-seeking, to leadership training.
A lot of the work that we do really, again, enhances the learning inside and outside of the classroom and as well as helps
prepare students with leadership skills that they'll need for the workforce.
Higher education and specifically student affairs has changed.
(13:28):
And as a result, right, the Dean of students role has had to change and evolve with it.
Some of that change isn't necessarily just because of drastic changes with our student population as much as it is our profession.
Learning about what the needs of students truly are and taking on a moral responsibility to try to meet that need.
And so I think this kind of elevation of consciousness about our work has now required
(13:53):
individuals like myself in this role to think about how do we truly meet students where they are?
What does it mean for institutions to meet students basic needs?
What does it mean for us to provide culturally relevant, culturally sustaining leadership, development and training?
(14:13):
What type of modality should we be attempting to reach students in and engage students on?
And just responding to the ever changing needs of the society around us.
And so I think today one of the main differences between what this role would have looked like ten,
15 years ago is this kind of occupational consciousness around who are our students,
(14:35):
what are those needs and what is our responsibility in trying to meet them there and being prepared for them,
not just them being prepared to arrive on our campuses.
In future episodes of Beyond the Rhetoric, you'll be hearing from professionals from across the CSUDH campus.
(14:55):
We have six areas that comprise our division of student affairs that we call clusters, including athletics,
educational partnerships, enrollment management, health and well-being, student life, and student success.
(15:18):
Our goal is simple We want to shed some light onto what it takes to help students successfully make it through college.
Higher education is often a seminal experience,
an opportunity that will have a wide ranging impact on a person's future and what that future will look like.
It's a critically important journey, but rarely does any student get from point A to point B very easily.
(15:41):
In fact, often that journey can be equal parts exhilarating and overwhelming.
This podcast is about that journey and how we as student affairs professionals
help to guide our students toward success regardless of their circumstances.
We will be telling these stories and illustrating what it means to be a college student in the
21st century and what colleges and universities do to support students during this experience.
(16:05):
It's just important to understand that academic affairs, student affairs, institutional technology, institutional research, business and finance.
And last but not least, advancement.
We have all of those partners at the table strategically early and often, trying to build this runway to help students take off.
(16:30):
Thanks for listening and we can't wait to start the conversation.
Beyond the rhetoric is a production of the Division of Student Affairs at California State University, Dominguez Hills.
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