On June 24th, Diablo Valley College President Susan Lamb notified faculty that the individual responsible for “much of the hate graffiti on campus this spring,” has been apprehended. Lamb also added that this student is no longer on campus and will be facing disciplinary action including suspension and expulsion. Police services have submitted information from the investigation to the District Attorney’s office for prosecution. The individual is not responsible for the initial graffiti threat.

Despite the individual being apprehend, there is still work to be done at DVC.

“Based on the conversations, it quickly became apparent that we, as a college, did not have a shared language and tools to discuss race or a clear process to move this conversation forward to create a more inclusive and supportive environment for both our students and our employees.” Lamb wrote in a faculty-wide email.

During the Spring semester, a racial justice task force  drafted the following recommendations: to “develop an institutional commitment to anti-racist training and messaging the importance of racial justice to the entire college community,” “create space and supportive environment for courageous conversations that further racial justice within the college community, increase action and commitment within college community to social and racial justice work”, “honor and respect the student demands by examining and addressing the structural and cultural conditions of the college”, “(with) collaboration with RPEC, establish an on-going commitment to measure and asses progress towards goals,” and to “ultimately, improve the DVC student experience and their educational outcomes.”

More work is going to be done at DVC as a result of the graffiti. A survey will be sent to students in the Fall regarding campus climate, DVC will also be working with a Communications Committee to improve on-going communication and messaging during the summer session.

Lamb also states that they are also creating an Incident Command Structure to “more effectively deal with both internal and external messaging during crises.”

The creation of an Ethnic department will continue to be discussed amongst the Social Science and Social Justice faculty.

DVC will also be reexamining the Nexus program which is a “that is designed to orient new full and part-time faculty to state, district and campus policies and procedures. It is also designed to acquaint new faculty with services and support available on campus both for faculty and for students.” DVC’s vice presidents will be looking at this program with race in mind, alongside ways to integrate racial justice issues into an overall curriculum. The task forces’ recommendations for a more diverse hiring process has also been extended to the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee and the district’s Human Resources.

Dr. Shaun Harper, founder of the University of Southern California (USC) Race and Equity Center will be working with a management team over the summer as well. He also will be presenting as a Convocation Speaker on August 23.