Los Medanos College’s Classified Senate, Academic Senate and student government held a joint meeting on March 20 in the Pittsburg library, room L-109 and Brentwood campus, room 135 from 2-4 p.m. The meeting was also broadcasted on Zoom and open to everyone, with those in person served Mountain Mike’s pizza. 

Mark Lewis, president of the Academic Senate, described the theme of the meeting as “reconnection,” while the community college tries to build back after the pandemic.

The meeting was designed for students and faculty to express their thoughts, concerns and grievances on life and learning since more people have started to come back in person.

The first portion of the meeting was dedicated to the students as members of the Los Medanos College Associated Students (LMCAS), who expressed shared problems. Jacob Boyle, Commissioner of Marketing and Outreach for LMCAS, said food on campus could be a lot better than its current state as it “is the biggest thing that sets us apart from other colleges.”

Since LMC partially opened up in the 2021-22 school year, the cafeteria hasn’t confirmed a vendor, leaving students without access to meals on campus. To fill the void that is left by the cafeteria, LMC has had food trucks come to the campus and provide food to those that want something to eat while at school.

Boyle said while he likes the idea of the food trucks, “it’s just a little pricey.”

Another major issue addressed on the student front was the feeling that the campus isn’t very welcoming. Beth Ann Stone, president of the Classified Senate, said how the results of the LMC Fall Equity 2022 Survey showed that students aren’t feeling welcome on campus.

Mary Grigsby, Treasurer of LMCAS, spoke to this idea, as she noticed there’s “a lot of cliqueness on campus.” She added a possible solution relies on the older people on campus to step in and make sure things are going well for students.

Students in the crowd expressed similar sentiments, sharing their own stories of interactions with other students that made them feel like they weren’t being taken seriously.

Following the theme of feeling disjointed, Morgan Lynn, Curriculum Committee Chair of the Teaching & Learning Committee, said pre-pandemic, the Classified and Academic Senates were “a lot more engaged with each other.” 

A divide was caused when the Classified Senate was required to work in person again while the Academic Senate could still be at home.

Lynn said that there are no emails that go out to recognize new faculty senate members and, if there are, it goes all the way to the bottom. An idea she said could solve this is, having management in the departments of new faculty send out emails so they are acknowledged.

During the Classified and Academic Senates portion of the meeting, only this issue was discussed in depth, as most of the meeting time inadvertently went to the students.

While not able to go into every problem, both students and faculty got the chance to express how they felt about LMC and possible solutions that could help improve work and school life.