When it comes to hiring faculty and staff at San Diego City College, the largest group of new employees identify as Hispanic/Latino, according to a report released at the Dec. 5 College Council meeting.
According to the report, San Diego Community College District data shows that of 134 new contract employees hired from July 2017 to June 2023, 38 identified as Hispanic/Latino.
The second-most represented ethnicity for new hires is white, with 37 of new hires identifying this way.
This data was part of a college diversity hiring report presented by Dean of Institutional Effectiveness and Co-Chair of City Planning Susan Murray.
Other categories that respondents could select to represent their ethnicity included Native American, Asian, Black, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, Two or More, or Unknown/Non-repondent.
Vice President of Instruction Matilda Chavez pointed to the “two or more” option and anticipated an increase in responses for this category.
“We are (going to) see more and more of this reported,” Chavez said, “that people will look and say, ‘How do I identify?’”
Academic Senate President María-José Zeledón-Pérez added that students as well as staff are facing the same questions about their own ethnicities.
“It really goes into so much more than what meets the eyes,” Zeledón-Pérez said.
She used an example of someone who is Afro-Latino and feeling unsure of how to report their identity.
Zeledón-Pérez emphasized the importance of understanding that ethnicity is different from race and within ethnicities you have all races.
“Our understanding of identity has evolved and the systems in place for the way that we capture and track this information are slower to change,” Murray said.
Later in the same meeting, Dean of Information and Learning Technology Robbi Ewell gave a status report for City College’s Wi-Fi system. He stated that the first phase is nearing completion.
“That means that every building on campus has now been set up with the new Campus Connect Wi-Fi infrastructure,” Ewell said.
Multimedia Journalist Luke Bradbury contributed to this report.
