Executive Summary
In 2015, West Hills College Lemoore (WHCL) completed its 9th year of operation as a fully
accredited college. WHCL is well established as a pillar of the community and prides itself on
providing high quality educational opportunities for its students.
As time went on, the college expanded its reach into surrounding communities. In 1962,
Lemoore and Avenal became a part of the district.
While classes were offered as early as 1964 in Lemoore, a classroom and office were built in
1981 on land purchased from the city and named the Kings County Center. In the early 1990s, the
California Postsecondary Commission designated West Hills College as the community college
provider to the Hanford and Armona areas.
From its early beginnings as the Kings County Center, WHCL has grown to be a comprehensive
community college serving 6164 unduplicated students in the 2014-15 academic year. Carrying out
the district vision of “The relentless pursuit of student success”, West Hills College is the second
college in the West Hills Community College District. WHCL increased its reach into the community
in Lemoore, with a West Hills presence at Naval Air Station Lemoore.
West Hills College Lemoore was the first new community college built in California in this century
when it opened in 2002. The campus earned college status from the Board of Governors in 2001 and
full accreditation in 2005, giving the district two separate colleges, jointly governed by the West Hills
Community College District. At this time, WHCL became the 109th community college in California.
West Hills College Lemoore was recently voted the best community in Northern California by USA
Today.
Demographics
Over half of the student population is less than 24 years of age. WHCL is overwhelmingly Hispanic
(55.05%) with White Non-Hispanic as our second largest ethnic group at 25.8%. The WHCL student
population by ethnicity reflects the overall service area population. The female to male ratio is more
than 1.5:1. In terms of trends, while the population of the local area is mostly unchanging in total
size for the next projected decade and slightly majority male and Hispanic, the student population is
increasingly Hispanic and increasingly female. The demographic makeup of the college is contained
in the tables in appendix A.
Equity Plan Writing Team and Process
Our team reflects a broad swath of our college and represents administration, classified staff,
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teaching faculty, counseling faculty and students. We initially convened in May 2014 and met
roughly weekly to work through the planning and writing of the project. We began the work by
setting our researcher to the task of collecting the data necessary to evaluate the disproportionate
impact as this information provided the basis for the rest of our activity and goal planning. With
disproportionate impact information in place, we began to consider the activities appropriate to
address the issues that our research revealed. In this second iteration, our data revealed a few new
populations to add to our planning.
Our drafts received feedback from campus constituency groups at various points along the way. We
requested and received review and approval from classified staff units and faculty senate through
our participatory governance structures, specifically our Planning and Governance Council. The
West Hills Community College District Board of Trustees approved the plan on December 8th, 2015.
Key Findings of the Research and Response
Some of the key findings in each of the 5 indicators include:
Access
The disproportionately impacted (DI) groups include 35+ years old students, male students,
Hispanic/Latino students and students with disabilities who are participating in Disabled Students
Programs & Services (DSP&S). Our disabled student population is a borderline disproportionate
population. We include them in our planning because they showed up in our DI data last year and we
feel it best to continue our efforts. To address the needs of these groups, WHCL will focus outreach
efforts on underrepresented student groups, streamline our educational
planning processes through early semester, focused interventions, create clearer pathways for
adult students, and develop our On Demand student services system to address the needs of
non-traditional students to create an environment of diversity on campus. We foresee these
activities being effective toward achieving our goals for this indicator.
In the area of access, there is a 1.8 – 4.8% gap with students 35 and older in participation rate
compared to the reference group. Our goal is to reduce these gaps by the goals of these activities
are to close gaps in participation rates for the target populations 0.8-3.8%.
We see coordination with other campus programs and initiatives to include: student services and
other categorical programs as well as instructional support.
Course Completion
The disproportionately impacted groups are African American students and current and former foster
youth. Efforts to address this will include improving early alert functions to quickly identify struggling
students, increase target populations’ supplemental
instruction to improve course success, and
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improve our promotional efforts of services that support target population
students.
Our goal is to close the completion gap for African American students from 9.6% to 4.6% and
from 19.6% to 9.8% for foster youth as summarized in the table below:
We see coordination with other campus programs and initiatives to include: student services and
other categorical programs as well as instructional support.
ESL and Basic Skills Completion
Basic Skills Math
The disproportionately impacted groups include African Americans, Males, ages 19 and under,
20-24, and 55+. To address the needs of these groups, WHCL will focus outreach efforts on
underrepresented student groups, streamline our educational planning processes through early
semester, focused interventions to create clearer pathways for adult students, and develop our On
Demand student services system to address the needs of students who create an environment of
diversity on campus. We foresee these activities being effective toward achieving our goals for this
indicator.
We see coordination with other campus programs and initiatives to include: student services and
other categorical programs as well as instructional support.
Basic Skills English
The disproportionately impacted groups include White students, Males and the 25-34 age group. To
address the needs of these groups, WHCL’s Achieving the Dream Core Team will work collaboratively
with English and Math faculty to redesign courses to address the needs of target population
students. WHCL will focus outreach efforts on underrepresented student groups, streamline our
educational planning processes through early semester interventions, and design interventions
focused on target population success. We foresee these activities being effective toward achieving
our goals for this indicator.
Our coordination efforts will include instructional services, student services, foster youth,
Achieving the Dream and Basic Skills Initiative.
ESL
Our ESL program demographic numbers are quite small (n=68). Nearly of all of these are in the
Hispanic/Latino demographic. Additionally, approximately half of these are Portuguese speaking
Brazilian international student athletes who are supported through our international student services
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and athletics program, and therefore have diminished equity needs. In light of these factors, we are
not planning specific activities around ESL for this planning season. Our plan includes a number of
activities that will support this population from the perspectives of course and degree completion.
Degree and Certificate Completion
The disproportionately impacted group are Hispanic or Latino students, Filipino students, students of
more than one race, and individuals with disabilities. To address this, WHCL will engage target
population students in our success initiatives through special workshops, outreach to complete SSSP
components, mentoring and internships, as well as engage our faculty to sharpen their cultural
relevancy in the classroom through the work of the equity committee. Our On Demand student
services system will provide another avenue for our target population students to be as well
prepared as possible to persist and complete degrees and certificates.
Our coordination efforts will include instructional services and student services.
Transfer
The disproportionately impacted groups include students who are Hispanic or Latino, Filipino, of
more than one race, and individuals with disabilities. WHCL will address transfer issues through a
program of information and outreach in a variety of transfer related matters. The college will staff a
transfer center with qualified personnel who will engage reentry students, DSP&S students, and
develop a transfer mentor program. As a college generally, WHCL will enhance transfer pathways
through further development of AD-T degrees to streamline the pipeline for our students. Our plan
responds to this indicator by replacing the vacant transfer counselor position. This key faculty
member will coordinate the outreach and promotion of students in the target populations through
the matriculation milestones necessary to transfer. They will also educate staff to increase their
effectiveness and sensitivity to cultural needs of the target populations.
Our coordination efforts will include instructional services and student services.
District wide Initiatives Effecting Multiple Indicators
There are a number of district wide initiatives that will effect several indicators. In truth, even in a
relatively small college, all of the initiatives working together is a system more complex than a plan of
this sort can adequately describe in a few paragraphs. We have included in each indicator section a
table to display graphically the relationship of each particular activity to others in the college. This is
intended to keep the reader’s attention focused on the fact the activities of our college do not each
happen in vacuums. Our staff, which is small in number, is working at a variety of these activities at
any given moment. The precise nature of the interaction between programs is beyond the scope of
this plan to describe and would itself take dozens of pages to give an even cursory treatment.
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For section F, we have chosen to describe two initiatives that are particularly wide spread and to
show the nature of the coordinating activities through them. We describe our Achieving the Dream
initiative (Money, Math and Minutes or M3 = Success) and Reg 365, which is our year round
registration system.
Conclusions
What follows reflects the current state of equity planning for West Hills College Lemoore. It reflects
thoughtful consideration of serious and fundamental matters for the college. It is the best thinking
regarding practices that will serve a diverse and unique population in the most effective ways. It is
a snapshot of an ever-changing landscape of equity, and while complete as submitted, is only the
next step of a larger ongoing conversation regarding how the institution serves disproportionately
impacted students. This conversation will continue after submission through the evaluation phase
and into future plans that will arise from ongoing research and self-evaluation.
Funding
West Hills College Lemoore Equity team plans to allocate funds to a variety of activities and
people as diverse as our student population. We will hire new staff in the form of a director
funded at 25% in coordination with our new Title V grant, a transfer counselor who will direct our
transfer center, an equity coordinator who will be full time and central to the equity functions of
the college, and numerous supplemental instructors and mentors to carry out a variety of
functions.
We will allocate funds to redesign courses, train faculty to be more pedagogically culturally
sensitive, and to train students to create events that will emphasize the ethnic and cultural
distinctives of our diverse population.
Our funding model is enhanced by our college-wide coordination and cost sharing with Title V,
SSSP, educational services, student services and our Basic Skills Initiative.
West Hills College Lemoore has committed and will continue to commit significant resources to
equity planning and implementation. The planning process requires input and effort from a wide
swath of our college community. Faculty, staff, administration and students all contributed
considerable energy and expertise to the process. The college also provides resources in the
form of related, coordinated, program funding and activity. We will coordinate with our Basic Skills
Initiative, DSPS, EOPS and CARE, CalWORKs, SSSP, Title V, and other categorical programs. These
coordinated activities will enhance our implementation and strengthen our equity efforts collegewide, provide a context for an ongoing, evolving, institutional conversation around equity topics,
and make the best use of our equity resources.
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Contact Information:
Equity Coordinator:
Joel Ruble
Dean of Students
555 College Ave.
Lemoore, CA 93245
(559) 925-3127
joelruble@whccd.edu
www.westhillscollege.com
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