Faculty Voice Newsletter: November 2016: CCFT Council Members Jeff Bergamini and Beth McKinnon with Campus Reports of the Election Aftermath

by Jeff Bergamini

Students in an evening class opted to spend open-lab time decompressing—talking with each other, instead of working. There was a young man, the son of Latin-American immigrants, who had served in Afghanistan. He took some joy in seeing the Clinton campaign lose, but none in seeing Trump win. There was a young woman from Eastern Europe. Currently dealing with a domestic violence situation, she feared a potential slide toward violence and bigotry, but also understood the lack of enthusiastic support for the Democratic Party. There was an openly gay young man, formerly a supporter of Bernie Sanders, who was shocked that the Republican Party could have won with such a poor candidate.

They spoke to each other with consideration and civility, but also with a sense of disillusionment, and a “damned if you do…” mentality. They all believed that the support for Trump, and the lack of enthusiasm for Clinton, could not be blamed entirely on racism and misogyny.

Perhaps if this election means anything as the measure of a moment, it is a wake-up call: If our political system lacks authentic progressive and inclusive options, someone else will organize the great numbers of people in this country that feel politically disengaged.

by Beth McKinnon

Two DACA students in Allied Health programs came to ASC believing they could not register for the spring semester. They wanted to know if ICE could come to campus and arrest them. It’s difficult to counsel in the face of so much uncertainty. My response was to tell them to register as always and that Cabrillo is committed to student safety and we would face this threat together. The truth is that we don’t know what will happen. The president-elect will have the authority to overturn DACA by executive order but it’s beginning to sound like this may not be a priority to him. Sooner or later the campus needs to reassure students in all risk categories that Cabrillo is a safe space. There is a lot of discussion about sanctuary campuses and we’ll need to discover what this actually means. Meanwhile, every member of the Cabrillo community should be that safe person for students and one another to talk to about our fears and misgivings about the near future.