Black Student Success Center officially unveiled at El Camino
Nayeli Oliva (left), Keiana Daniel, former Vice President of Student Services Ross Miyashiro, Trustee Nilo Michelin and President Brenda Thames stand together during the ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the grand opening of the Black Student Success Center on April 26. (Khoury Williams | The Union)
El Camino College officially opened the Black Student Success Center located in Communications Room 110 on Wednesday, April 26.
El Camino College President Brenda Thames thanked the Black Student Success Center (BSCC) coordinator and co-advisor of the Black Student Union Keiana Daniel for her leadership in creating the center.
“This has been a labor of love. Having birthed a few children, I know it’s not easy and they don’t come out looking perfect,” Thames said to Daniel. “You have cared for and nurtured this center and brought it to fruition in a way that no one else could.”
Thames reflected on the structural inequities and discrimination Black students face at El Camino and in higher education throughout the U.S.
“Although it is amazing to have this space where Black students can… study and build community and share their dreams and struggles, I also look forward to the day when… [all of] El Camino College is a Black student success center,” Thames said.
El Camino student and BSCC Director of Student Affairs and Engagement Roshumba Mason said the space offers students access to workshops, events and mentorship.
“When students don’t feel welcome on their campus it causes them to be isolated and they don’t know about the programs to support them,” Mason said.
The Campaign for College Opportunity’s 2019 report on the State of Higher Education for Black Californians reported that “63% of Black community college students do not earn a degree or certificate, or transfer within six years.”
The most recent dataavailable from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office shows completion rates for Black students at 21% compared to 33% for White students and 40% for Asian American students.
“We can’t do it alone,” Mason said. “A lot of students are commuters. We’re also parents, so we have life experience before and after school. Financial struggles can also be a reason why we don’t finish, and the lack of support.”
Black students pushed several different administrations over the years to create the center.
Psychology major, BSCC student worker and Black Student Union President Mars Nored said Black students need a place of their own on campus.
“Before this [center] was open I really had nowhere to go, nowhere to see people like me. I had to tone myself down for the collective,” Nored said. “But here you can really just be yourself. You can make friends. This campus has a small percentage of Black students. But you come here and that’s all you see.”
The creation of the Black Student Success Center builds on centuries of Black-led movements to expand educational rights and opportunities including the establishment of midnight schools, historically Black colleges and universities and more.
Former El Camino student and adjunct counselor with Umoja Project Success and the BSCC Cameron Delahoussaye said the center addresses the lack of safe spaces where Black students feel seen, heard and validated.
“Here, they don’t have to explain themselves or why they feel the way they do,” Delahoussaye said.
More than 75 people attended the event and toured the center. Student art, inspiring quotes and college pennants decorate the space.
“For people of color, El Camino was not where you could feel comfortable to speak your mind or reach certain things,” Facilities Painter Jimmy Macareno said. “It was good seeing students [at the BSCC] happy, feeling at home, all these things that were not here before.”
