We acknowledge the land which we occupy at American River College as the traditional home of the Nisenan, Maidu, and Miwok tribal nations. These sovereign people have been the caretakers of this land since time immemorial. Despite centuries of genocide and occupation, the Nisenan, Maidu, and Miwok continue as vibrant and resilient tribes and bands, both Federally recognized and unrecognized. We take this opportunity to acknowledge the generations that have gone before as well as the present-day Nisenan, Maidu, and Miwok people.

Background/context
Charter modification: Addressed updating the council framework to a tri-chair governance model over the past two sessions.
Selection process: Received and processed multiple leadership nominations from the campus community.
Proposal/Updates
Official appointment: Confirmed Dr. Diana Lopez as the newly appointed Classified Tri-Chair.
Executive approval: Secured formal authorization from the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) to enact the new model.
Discussion/Questions
Professional background: Introduced Dr. Lopez's three-year tenure as an institutional Research Analyst at ARC.
Academic credentials: Highlighted her PhD in Higher Education and Organizational Change from UCLA.
Institutional service: Noted her active participation on the District Research Council and the midterm accreditation writing team.
Leadership integration: Welcomed Dr. Lopez to immediate co-leadership alongside Dr. David Miramontes Quiñones and Dr. Connie Ayala.
Future agenda items
None recorded.

Background/context
Council briefing: Delivered project group updates via Dean Hannah Blodgett.
Charter timeline: Initiated the group's secondary operational session under a fixed one-year mandate.
Proposal/Updates
Schedule mapping: Outlined autumn meeting themes to maintain steady progress.
Term targets: Focused energy on completing the first three critical project deliverables before winter:
A clear HomeBases purpose statement and service expectations.
Create an outline of critical touchpoints/supports/programming to support student journeys, including undecided student support.
Recommendations to evaluate and strengthen referrals, workshops, and programming to improve early connection and belonging.
Discussion/Questions
Purpose formulation: Standardizing a clear HomeBases mission statement reflective of current college operations.
Student tracking: Designing structured touchpoints and programming to guide student journeys, specifically targeting undecided majors.
Connection strategies: Outlining recommendations to evaluate workshops and referrals to boost early student belonging.
Unit planning: Debated whether the system requires a singular overarching Annual Unit Plan (AUP) or distinct divisional variants.
Next steps/Decisions
Strategic alignment: Ensuring upcoming project decisions sync cleanly with active divisional goals to prevent operational overlap.
Future agenda items
Ongoing updates: Scheduled recurrent project progress reports for upcoming council agendas.

Background/context
Working baseline: Conducted two preliminary planning meetings to date.
Leadership proxy: Presented by Pamela Bimbi due to the absence of Dean Dr. Mikenna Modesto.
Proposal/Updates
Feedback synthesis: Gathering direct input from constituency representatives spanning students, faculty, classified staff, and managers.
Plan deadline: Targeted December 11th for the finalization of the preliminary master draft.
Discussion/Questions
Strategic analysis: Conducted an internal SWOT exercise mapping institutional strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and barriers.
Core deliverables: Outlining a master landscape report, updated online course guidelines, and three separate stakeholder support frameworks.
Data incorporation: Factoring in positive preliminary trends from the unreleased faculty Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI) survey.
Expertise shortfalls: Flagged missing technical knowledge on the team regarding AI developments and Universal Design.
Instructional restrictions: Confirmed that the campus 0.5 FTE Universal Design Assistant (UDA) is restricted solely to faculty instructional time.
Next steps/Decisions
Framework structuring: Utilizing immediate breakout sessions to determine if the three support frameworks will share a unified structure.
Expert consultation: Reaching out to former full-time UDA Lori Hokerson and requesting active DSPS representation.
Future agenda items
None recorded.

Background/context
Institutional advocacy: Convened over the past year to build targeted campus frameworks for Black student success.
National designation: Awaiting impending November results for the college's Black Success Institution (BSI) application.
Equity indicators: Driven by local data showing disproportionate academic impacts affecting Black student success metrics.
Proposal/Updates
Structural formalization: Proposing a formalized tri-chair governance model.
Permanency pillars: Establishing six core institutional focuses including staffing, space, curriculum, and resource development.
Center operations: Financed a full-time Support Specialist and secured dedicated infrastructure for a Black Student Success Center.
Discussion/Questions
Governance placement: Analyzing where the body fits, debating an advisory group designation versus direct council reporting.
Structural comparisons: Evaluating the standalone Native American advisory group model which accesses the President directly.
Strategic influence: Demanding an official role in the governance structure to ensure a direct channel to the ELT.
Operational latitude: Recognizing that emergent state BSI guidelines are non-prescriptive, allowing wide local implementation flexibility.
Next steps/Decisions
Document validation: Presenting the charter draft to community stakeholders tomorrow to preserve transparency.
Approval timeline: Planning to route the final charter through the council before the conclusion of the semester.
Future agenda items
Shared governance: Determining the final, permanent reporting placement of the parliament to optimize institutional impact.

Background/context
Compliance briefing: Introduced critical upcoming regulatory changes to the council.
Proposal/Updates
Legal deadline: Facing a strict federal compliance cutoff date of April 2027.
Mandate spectrum: Applying rules to all student-facing materials, employee portals, software, and public web infrastructure.
Website penalties: Requiring the immediate removal of any digital materials failing to meet accessibility standards by the deadline.
Discussion/Questions
Liability allocation: Clarified that despite broad district-wide liability, individual personnel must take immediate personal responsibility for their documents.
Maintenance divisions: Confirming that public web environments will continue to be monitored by the PIO team.
Next steps/Decisions
Professional development: Deploying training links via the Monday newsletter and public PIO webpages.
Material preparation: Distributing self-paced accessibility training models alongside standardized digital templates.
Future agenda items
None recorded.

Background/context
Program philosophy: Operating intentional outreach models to reinforce the narrative that STEM fields belong to all minoritized populations.
Proposal/Updates
Eligibility standards: Serving calculus-based STEM majors who are explicitly low-income and first-generation college students.
Program categories: Differentiating between fully funded MESA students and grant-eligible ASEM students.
State ranking: Reached an enrollment of 284 students to capture first place for total MESA headcount in California.
Funding permanence: Transitioning the core grant into a permanent Title V institutional allocation.
Enrollment forecast: Projecting total growth to hit 290 to 295 active students by the close of the fall term.
Discussion/Questions
Comprehensive services: Providing drop-in tutoring, math bootcamps, transfer workshops, and fully funded national conference travel.
Embedded counseling: Maintaining high-demand student planning through a dedicated 0.4 FTE counselor.
Facility utilization: Logging 826 check-ins during the first month, driven by studying, tutoring, and student snacks.
Engineering projects: Sponsoring high-impact clubs, the Baja SAE racing car fabrication, and championship-winning BattleBots teams.
Institutional aid: Urging faculty to cross-promote events and refer advanced student tutors for organic chemistry and physics.
Next steps/Decisions
Presentation compliance: Finalizing formatting modifications to make the master MESA presentation fully ADA compliant.
Future agenda items
None recorded.