Critical Role of Classified Professionals with Amparo Medina

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Learn why classified professionals play a critical role in student success and college operations.

In this episode, I interview Amparo Medina, Classified Senate President, Oxnard College, California.

(Scroll down to access the transcript.)

We discuss the following topics:

7:38:00: The role of classified senate & the tri-chairs (administrator, faculty, classified) model in key committees.
- AB1725
- 10+1

14:05:50: Example classified professional roles.

20:03:50: A significant barrier: the required or preferred doctorate to move up the organizational ladder.
- More on the inequitable practice of requiring doctorates for administrator roles.

Select Ms. Medina quotes:

"Classified professionals are on the front lines. We are the ones speaking with students on a day-to-day basis, and we have the information to be able to support student success."

"This is about how do we collectively support students. That is our end goal. It's student success and retention. The more individuals involved in supporting students, the greater the outcome is going to be."

"It's important to point out that the Classified Senate is not here to take over what the union does and representing us and collective bargaining rights. It's very separate. It has to do with the operational pieces. For example, Faculty Academic Senate needs to be consulted on curriculum. That is by all means part of faculty. What classified are involved in are the curriculum systems. The systems that we use to get to develop that curriculum. Another one is program review systems. We do program reviews on the operational side. Classified does the programmability, services, and business services--the components that classified are involved in. It's identifying how can classified be involved in the decision making process."

About Amparo Medina
Amparo has been in higher education and Classified Senate since 2015 when she started her career at Oxnard College. In her current roles as Student Activities Specialist and Classified Senate President, she advocates for both the needs of students and classified professionals. She has also established and coordinated several mentoring programs that provide mentorship to Oxnard students through peer mentorship, employee-student mentoring and career mentorship.

Amparo has worked to elevate the classified voice and inclusion in decision making at Oxnard College. She has successfully advocated for tri-chairs at both the college level and the district level where she has serves as a tri-chair of the Professional Development Committee, the District Council on Human Resources, the District Council on Accreditation and Planning, and the Anti-Racism Workgroup. Amparo also serves at the statewide level as an Area Representative for 4CS (California Community College Classified Senate).

Amparo earned an MS in Educational Counseling and a BA from UC Berkeley.

About Dr. Al Solano
Al is Founder & Coach at the Continuous Learning Institute. A big believer in kindness, he helps institutions of higher education to plan and implement homegrown practices that get results for students by coaching them through a process based on what he calls the "Three Cs": Clarity, Coherence, Consensus. In addition, his bite-sized, practitioner-based articles on student success strategies, institutional planning & implementation, and educational leadership are implemented at institutions across the country. He has worked directly with over 50 colleges and universities and has trained well over 5,000 educators. He has coached colleges for over a decade, worked at two community colleges, and began his education career in K12. He earned a doctorate in education from UCLA, and is a proud community college student who transferred to Cornell University.

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