While each of us must help create a more just and compassionate society, the institutions we oversee and serve are duty-bound to lead in this effort. Generations of men and women before us have worked on our campuses and many more will follow in the years to come. We are mere stewards of the institutions we serve and the Moorpark, Oxnard, and Ventura college campuses belong to the people – all of them. What shall we do with our moment in history? As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”
As difficult as this past week has been, there have been remarkable instances of leadership, compassion, and dignity. Countless voices from all backgrounds have joined arm in arm for the rights of fellow Americans who have for too long seen their dreams and lives taken from them by racist attitudes, acts of violence, and systemic injustices. Neighbors have come together to stop vandalism and to clean up their communities. We’ve also seen many law enforcement officers protect and even join with protesters to demand a new way forward. As Senator Robert Kennedy once observed, each of these individual acts sets forth a “tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest wall of oppression and resistance.” We must each resolve to set forth ripples of hope throughout our own community. Fortunately, we are well positioned to do just that.
We often speak of our campuses as serving or working with the community around us, but make no mistake we are the community. From Simi Valley to Ventura and Santa Paula to Oxnard, our students, faculty, and staff represent the families and neighbors who make our community strong. Therefore, we need not search far for spaces and ways to build a more just society. We are on the frontlines of that effort each and every day and it falls to us to create racial justice and to help our students and one another heal. Not the type of healing that gets us back to where we once were, but the type of healing that lifts up our neighborhoods and broadens equitable opportunity for our students. Let us all be the leaders this moment calls for, building pathways to brighter futures for everyone – particularly those for whom racial injustices are all too real.
This past week has brought forth many emotions, including despair, discouragement, anger, sadness, frustration, and more. All understandably rising to the forefront. From myself and our Board of Trustees to each of you, please know that our hearts ache with yours and we stand with you to support racial justice and equality.
Continue to be safe, care for each other, and support our students in need.
Chair Bernardo Perez
Vice Chair
Josh Chancer
Trustee
Larry Kennedy
Trustee
Dianne McKay
Trustee
Gabriela Torres
Greg Gillespie Chancellor
Laura Barroso Director Human Resources
Patti Blair
Administrative Office
Laura Brower
Executive Assistant
Larry Buckley
Vice Chancellor
Institutional Effectiveness
David El Fattal
Vice Chancellor
Business Services
Andrea Ingley
Director Human Resources and Personnel Commission
Dan Watkins
Associate Vice Chancellor Institutional
Effectiveness
Kim Hoffmans
President
Ventura College
Julius Sokenu
President
Moorpark College
Luis Sanchez
President
Oxnard College
