The Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) hosted a four-day national summit and Parkland was in attendance. Representatives of Parkland travelled to Washington D.C. to attend events and take part in discussions to better inform their service and bring local issues to a national stage. After a successful summit concluded on February 9th Parkland’s delegation has made it home safe.
This year, Parkland’s delegation was made up of seven representatives, three were trustees and four were members of the administration. Student Trustee Jayden Sortor along with trustees Maureen Banks and James Ayers represented the board in this delegation. President Tom Ramage, Executive Vice President Pamela Lau, as well as Vice Presidents Stephanie Stuart and Michael Trame represented the administration.
During the stay in Washington D.C. the delegation had an opportunity to bring Parkland’s issues directly to Congress. Together the group attended many events, one important meeting was with Representative Rodney Davis of Illinois’ 13th congressional district. The meeting took place in Davis’s D.C. office and a variety of issues were discussed.
In the eyes of Vice President, Communications and External Affairs, Stephanie Stuart this meeting went well. Stephanie shared that, while the school is actively engaged with our legislators, this event was of a different nature. She explained,
“Being part of the national legislative summit in force with community colleges from all around the country certainly brings value.”
She also said that COVID-19 had restricted access to legislators in some forms. Giving tours of the college and/or its facilities is a common method of interaction that she excited to see come back. However, with somewhat restricted access for this time, a sit-down meeting was beneficial.
Parkland’s delegation also joined together with other Illinois schools to speak with Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth. Despite the trip taken to Washington D.C. the Senators attended this event virtually. While the senators were not physically present Stuart dubbed this discussion as a “major success”. She explained,
“These are opportunities to put out not just the national community college platform in front of key decision makers but to share what is the conversation or what’s happening on campus right now.”
In a state of over ten million people, it can be difficult for top officials to be aware of the day-to-day operations of institutions. Through these meetings the delegation communicated Parkland’s needs which will hopefully inform the decision making of our officials going forward.
Other than these meetings much of the conference was held as large group meeting. In these groups, headline speakers were featured such as First Lady Jill Biden, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, and Secretary of Labor Martin Walsh. In her speech, the First Lady discussed the failure of the Biden administration to achieve the campaign promise of providing all incoming students access to free public community college. A moment of this speech has gained traction in which Biden questioned the “human nature” of those standing in opposition to this measure. While Parkland was already aware that this measure was unlikely to succeed in the near future this statement was still beneficial. Stuart said, “it was good to get some clarity from her directly because we know she’s a strong advocate for community colleges.”
Fit in with the large-scale events were some specialized programs for student trustees. Parkland’s student trustee Jayden Sortor was in attendance for these programs. One of the programs Sortor attended focused on promoting student advocacy. Sortor explained, “We all worked together to find ways to help our students [make sure] their experience at the college is the best experience they’ve ever had.” After attending the conference Sortor strongly supports Parkland’s involvement with ACCT and the National Legislative Summit. Sortor said,
“Parkland being a part of ACCT is one of the best decisions that Parkland could’ve made.”
He added, “This experience was amazing. My advice to future student trustees would be, don’t be afraid to ask questions and speak your mind. That’s what you’re there for.“
