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Critical Analysis of an Equity Plan: Moraine Valley Community College

Citlali Yanez Sanchez

Seattle University

SDAD 5910: Diversity & Inclusion in Higher Education

Dr. Paige Gardner

May 25, 2022

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Critical Analysis of an Equity Plan: Moraine Valley Community College

Introduction

Looking closely at institutional equity plans gives the opportunity to understand the

barriers that are causing inequities and learn what institutions are doing to become equitable. As

an equity-minded practitioner, I need to be able to assess my own racialized assumptions,

acknowledge my lack of knowledge, take responsibility for the successes of underserved and

minoritized groups of students, and be critical about my own practices and those of other

professionals (McNair et al., 2020, p. 20). Therefore, the practice of critically analyzing equity

plans can allow me to determine my own biases, what I know and don’t know, and be able to

learn from other institutions’ strategies. In this paper, I will be critically analyzing Moraine

Valley Community College’s 5-year equity plan that is part of the Illinois Equity in Attainment

(ILEA) initiative. Having the first woman as their President, Sylvia Jenkins, I’m intrigued to see

her work and contributions in this equity plan, especially as a woman of color. As the equity plan

of a community college, I also look forward to analyzing the priorities, populations, and

strategies used before and during these 5 years. While analyzing Moraine Valley’s equity plan, I

will be looking at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, as well as offering

recommendations that could improve this equity plan.

Moraine Valley Community College Overview

Founded in 1967, this public community college is located in Palos Hill, Illinois.

According to Moraine Valley Community College Facts (2020), the institution had 24,182

students enrolled in fall 2020, making it one of the largest community colleges in Illinois. The

average age for students is 23 which means Moraine Valley has a younger population compared

to most other community colleges. As of 2020, 63% of Moraine Valley students were enrolled as
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part-time and 77% were in transfer programs and the gender population was 54% female and

46% male. About 50% of the student population identifies as White and 40% identifies as

minority, with 24% of this being Latino/a/x and 10% African-American. It is also shown that the

poverty rate is 11.2% for individuals living within the college’s district boundaries.

Equity Plan Summary and Overarching Goal

Moraine Valley is an institution that is dedicated to serving the whole person. Through

Moraine Valley’s motto, “Changing Lives for a Changing World,” professionals show

commitment to prioritizing the mission, vision, and goals of serving students (Partnership for

College Completion: Accelerating Action to Close the Graduation Gap [PCC], 2020, p. 6). As

we know, Moraine Valley has many Latino/a/x, African-American, and low-income students.

These populations have shown to have many educational gaps that need to be addressed.

Therefore, this 5-year equity plan is intended to close the gaps of degree attainment for low-

income, first-generation, Latino/a/x, and African-American students. Furthermore, this equity

plan is observing the degree completion rates through the disparities of African-American and

Latino/a/x students compared to White students, and between low- and high-income students.

Looking at the persistence data for African-American and Latino/a/x populations

compared to White students, Moraine Valley knows there is a lot that needs to be done as those

gaps continue to exist. Likewise, with low-income students compared to high-income students.

With the participation of staff, faculty, and students, Moraine Valley started to work on this

equity plan in early 2019. A year later, data was shared about where equity gaps exist and the

work for this 5-year equity plan started. For fall 2025, there is a 31% stretch goal of completion

rates for both Latino/a/x and African-American students and a 30% stretch goal for students

receiving the Pell grant (PCC, 2020, p. 14-15).

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SWOT Analysis

Strengths

After analyzing Moraine Valley’s equity plan, a strength discovered was the number of

people that were part of the process of initiating this equity plan. Over 2,000 pieces of written

feedback from faculty, staff, and students of the institution were gathered, which helped inform

the plan (PCC, 2020, p. 2). On the initial introduction of ILEA and the equity data to campus

members, 70 employees expressed interest to be part of the efforts along with being part of the

committee of College’s Completion Commitment. Throughout 2019, 247 staff and faculty

participated in surveys and 60 in the debrief conversation. It is important to showcase staff,

faculty, and students’ voices but first these must “affirm one another’s dignity by demonstrating

readiness to benefit from each other’s experience and willingness to acknowledge one another’s

contributions to the common welfare of the college” (Yosso & Lopez, 2010, p. 89). During the

Staff Development Day on October 2019, 400 staff and faculty participated in diversity, equity,

and inclusion (DEI) discussions. Staff development days are a perfect way to continue sharing

experiences and knowledge that can contribute to the execution of an effective equity plan.

A second strength from Moraine Valley’s equity plan was the focus on the surrounding

factors that can cause a student to fail in higher education. With the structure and three categories

of the equity plan, which are diverse students based on race and ethnicity with a focus on

African-American and Latino/a/x students, low-income students, and equity-based strategies to

improve outcomes for all students, there is an emphasis in changing everything around the

students (PCC, 2020). Espino (2018) highlights the importance of focusing on the context and

not simply on the individual student to research and have a deeper understanding of the

challenges that Latino/a/x students experience in higher education (p. 7). Some of the
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institutional strategies that reflect this idea are increasing community participation, looking at the

financial struggles that causes students to stop attending college, change class start and end times

to meet the students’ needs, and providing more advising, counseling, and mentoring support that

will allow relationships to be built. With Strategy 1B: Directing Results through Educational and

Academic Mentoring (DREAM) Program Scale-Up, students will be able to have mentors that

can support with their educational and career goals as well as be exposed to social events where

they can make friends and build new relationships (PCC, 2020, p. 16). These all focus on the

students’ environmental, emotion, and social needs to improve their campus experiences and

higher education access for them to continue returning quarter after quarter and graduate in that

3-year goal.

Weaknesses

Moraine Valley’s equity plan has also shown to have weaknesses. One of these

weaknesses is the low student feedback and input they took into the creation of this equity plan.

For the campus engagement of this equity plan, there seemed to be many staff and faculty

members that took part of this process. Nonetheless, there wasn’t proof of students’ feedback,

statements, or concerns during the campus engagement or used for the creation of the equity

plan. From Moraine Valley’s strategies, under resources needed there was never a need for

student voices or feedback about the programs and initiatives. According to ACPA (2018),

students also need an environment to share opinions, ask critical questions and challenge

educators (p. 12). These opportunities to engage with staff and faculty were not given to students

besides being able to share experiences with other students and mentors to build connections that

can support with academic success, but it was an optional resource (PCC, 2020, p. 17). As the
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target populations, students of color and low-income need opportunities to express their opinions

and concerns as it can benefit and improve this equity plan.

Another weakness shown in this equity plan is the lack of staffing and the ask for

volunteers to provide more mentors for students. Although there are great programs proposed as

the strategies for this equity plan, asking staff and faculty to volunteer can lead to the loss of

more individuals as it becomes overwhelming and tiresome. “Besides completing their official

work requirements, faculty members of color feel stress from unofficial duties placed upon

them” (Turner, Myers, & Creswell, 1999 as cited in Steele, 2018, p. 112). Many of these extra

duties usually consist of mentoring students of color or being part of committee work, but these

do not guarantee professionals a promotion or even recognition (Steele, 2018, p. 112). Instead,

these asks and extra labor can lead to emotional, physical, and mental burnout that can lead to

losing that mentor in your program. Having a small campus means less students but also less

staff and faculty so the ratio of students to mentor needs to be balanced. Otherwise, this will lead

to overworked and burnout staff and faculty.

Opportunities

As a community college, Moraine Valley has an easier view of the changes happening

across campus and the community. With this smaller population, Moraine Valley can create

programs that might be more successful and easier to access and execute. From Strategy 3B:

Standardizing Class Start/End Times, Moraine Valley has an easier access to students’ needs for

changing class times and courses offered. With this, I think there is an opportunity to target more

data like knowing if students have a job and if any additional financial needs are preventing them

from attending classes. Students may not simply attend classes due to time but these can be

conflicting with work, transportation, or access to a computer or internet. The data retrieved from
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students can be useful to open opportunities for community collaboration and creating

community resources. From a scenario given on McNair et al. (2020), many students weren’t

submitting homework on time due to the lack of access to a computer or internet service, which

often led to staying on campus late nights but having only limited time due to campus/library

closer and all other responsibilities (McNair et al., 2020, p. 66). This is a chance to look at

providing community resources that could offer low-cost or free internet services for students.

With Strategy 1A: Increasing Access for Low Participation Communities, there are many

opportunities to increase community engagement and collaboration with high schools around the

state. In this strategy, the college data shows that these low participating communities are

predominantly minoritized and most have the lowest average family income (PCC, 2020, p. 16).

As Dancy et al. (2018) mentions, funding for K-12 education is largely determined by property

taxes and children who live in higher property neighborhoods benefit from more resources and

vice versa for students in poorer neighborhoods (p. 187). Therefore, these students in the low-

income communities do not have the same benefits or access to higher education. They cannot

attend campus tours or pay to be part of conferences often offered by institutions. With this

strategy, Moraine Valley can connect with low-income schools to have someone come in

multiple times a year to provide workshops, support students with college application processes,

and give information about the opportunities there are for these students if they decided to attend

college.

Threats

With all strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities, come threats that can cause the

downfall of this equity plan and the institution. A particular threat noted is the needed funding

that is mentioned in most of the needed resources after each strategy. Many of these strategies
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describe needing additional funding for giveaways, trainings, programs like Ad Astra or Starfish,

and to bring in more staffing. The threat is knowing where this funding will come from and

whether it will affect other institutional programs, departments, offices, and staff and faculty.

According to Welton et al. (2018), “states are decreasing funding to PK-12 and higher education

institutions and it is uncertain how their institutional goals for racial equity can prevail with

limitations in resources” (p. 8). These budget cuts have left “university and college departments

scrambling to continue to support low-income and underrepresented students” (Seltzer, 2017, as

cited in Welton et al., 2018, p. 9). This threat could lead Moraine Valley to failure if the need of

funding isn’t met or funding is taken from other important areas of the institution or community.

A second threat for Moraine Valley’s equity plan is the changes that COVID-19 has

caused. This equity plan was initiated before the pandemic, but in response to COVID-19

departments moved quickly: additional funds were allocated, technology was available for

check-out, and applications for CARES Act funds were being accepted (PCC, 2020, p. 12).

Nonetheless, “supplying devices often was not enough, as lower-income students lacked access

to Wi-Fi and reliable high-speed internet” (Flaherty, 2020 as cited in Harper, 2020, p. 158).

These are times where COVID-19 is not gone and changes continue to happen with students and

the institutions. It is important that conversations of COVID-19 and its threats continue to

happen as “negligence in doing so will result in the emergence of new disparities and the

amplification of racial inequities that COVID-19 has already produced” (Harper, 2020, p. 160).

COVID-19 changes need attention to continue supporting students financially, emotionally, and

mentally as loss and grieve occurs constantly which often causes an end to their education.

Recommendations for Adjustment and Evaluation

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As we move forward with this equity plan, there are some recommendations I’d like to

offer. As a starting profession, acknowledging my knowledge and awareness of diversity, equity,

and inclusion, there are specific areas where I can offer suggestions that could benefit Moraine

Valley’s equity plan.

First off, it is important to continue looking at the disaggregated data and offer room for

critical thinking. Administration, faculty, and staff need to be committed to making equity

change and be equity-minded when looking at this data so that they can be inspired “to pose

critical questions, dig deeper, and, after learning more, take action to close those gaps” (McNair

et al., 2020, p. 57). Within the professional development opportunities that are already part of the

strategies for Moraine Valley’s equity plan, the incorporation of educational programming that

can showcase critical thinking can be beneficial to achieve equity (Stewart, 2018, p. 7-8). Critical

thinking can occur from having the correct guest speakers. From Strategy 3D: Faculty and Staff

Professional Development, there is a resource need for funds for speakers (PCC, 2020, p. 20).

Nonetheless, choosing speakers needs to be evaluated with mindfulness. Stewart (2018) offers

that those who are approving speakers should include criteria that evaluates the impact their

speech can and will have on individuals (p. 8). Speakers should be able to speak on diversity,

equity, and inclusion and cause the audience to think critically and ask the necessary questions.

Besides the importance of faculty and staff acting on equity, it is essential to provide

spaces for students to feel safe and use their voices. Apart from the mentoring, advising, and

counseling improvements and more opportunities to engage students on campus activities and

prevention programs, there isn’t a start to the creation of counterspaces. It is significant to

understand that most students will not feel comfortable if safe spaces aren’t built to openly share

ideas, issues, and inequities without fear of repercussions. Yosso & Lopez (2010) talk about
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culture centers that bring this sense of safety for students with racially marginalized identities.

Moraine Valley’s focus on Latino/a/x and African-American student populations should

determine the need for these spaces that do not need to be culture center but do need to achieve a

sense of belonging. These physical, social, academic, or epistemological counterspaces can then

lead to the gathering of more students of color voices (Yosso & Lopez, 2010, p. 97-99). Keep in

mind that we are asking students to re-live their experiences and issues in higher education by

sharing these, that is why professionals need to use the learning for equity change. Professionals

should create safe spaces and offer support, listen to students, and commit to acting on these

issues.

Conclusion

As we see, Moraine Valley has many strategies and opportunities that can lead them to

having an effective equity plan that will show complete results in approximately 2028. With the

strengths that this equity plan portrays, which are more than those discussed above, I believe the

objectives will be achieved successfully. However, there is always room for improvement and

Moraine Valley needs to be committed to making these changes and looking deeper into the

opportunities they have. Alongside, looking into the threats that could prevent the success of this

equity plan and being able to close the gaps for degree attainment for Latino/a/x, African-

American, and low-income students at Moraine Valley. To continue moving forward with this

equity plan, I hope you take into consideration the few implementations I have offered above in

hopes to achieve success in a few years.

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References

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and decolonization.

Dancy, T., Edwards, K., & Earl Davis, J. (2018). Historically White Universities and Plantation

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Education (Beverly Hills, Calif.), 53(2), 176–195.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085918754328

Espino, M. M. (2018). Positionality as prologue: encountering the self on journey to

transforming latino/o/x educational inequities. Teachers College Record, vol. 120,

pp. 1-16.

Harper, S. R. (2020). Covid-19 and the Racial Equity Implications of Reopening College and

University Campuses. American Journal of Education, 127(1), 153-162.

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McNair, T., Bensimon, E., & Malcolm-Piqueux, L. (2020). From equity talk to equity walk:

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