{"id":1368,"date":"2025-02-28T15:56:18","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T21:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/?p=1368"},"modified":"2025-02-28T16:01:42","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T22:01:42","slug":"jccc-to-close-the-office-of-office-of-inclusion-and-belonging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/2025\/02\/28\/jccc-to-close-the-office-of-office-of-inclusion-and-belonging\/","title":{"rendered":"JCCC to Close the Office of Inclusion and Belonging"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Baptiste Raffin<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Following the federal requirements calling for the for the elimination of DEI and race-based considerations in federally-funded educational institutions, JCCC Interim President Judy Korb announced on Friday Feb. 28, that \u201cJCCC will comply with all federal requirements and ensure our admissions, hiring, resource allocations and scholarships are not out of compliance.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Korb explained that \u201cfailure to comply could risk federal financial aid funding for our students, and that is not an option.\u201d She assured that the decision was not taken lightly and that the college will continue to, \u201cfocus on those actions that create a positive environment rather than on labels or words that could be misconstrued.\u201d The closing of the Office of Inclusion and Belonging is effective immediately. More information will follow.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As highlighted by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/readlion.com\/kansas-college-reportedly-spent-438k-on-dei-office\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Read Lion<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0earlier this month, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jccc.edu\/about\/leadership-governance\/reports\/files\/budget\/annual-budget-2024-2025.pdf\">JCCC\u2019s 2024-25 budget<\/a> for the office is $438,110.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The following is the letter sent out to staff in its entirety:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">JCCC Colleagues \u2014<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You may already be aware of recent federal requirements that call for the elimination of DEI and race-based considerations in federally-funded educational institutions \u2014 a category that includes JCCC.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">While there is lingering uncertainty around the full impact, JCCC will comply with all federal requirements and ensure our admissions, hiring, resource allocations and scholarships are not out of compliance. Failure to comply could risk federal financial aid funding for our students, and that is not an option. To clear up any confusion about the work that we do at JCCC, it is in our best interest to disband the Office of Inclusion and Belonging, effective immediately.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our response was not decided lightly, and it does not change our mission, our vision, or our values. JCCC will comply with the law while maintaining an environment where all students, faculty and staff are welcome, respected and supported. We will focus on those actions that create a positive environment rather than on labels or words that could be misconstrued.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As an open access institution, we must continue to do all we can to be a great choice for each student who comes to JCCC, and we remain committed to investing in our students\u2019 success.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I know you have questions \u2013 we all do. As we shaped our response, we worked with our Board of Trustees and our administration. We will share additional information as it becomes available and will offer appropriate opportunities for dialogue as we work through these changes together.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Judy Korb, PhD<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">JCCC Interim President<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JCCC Interim President Judy Korb explained that \u201cfailure to comply could risk federal financial aid funding for our students, and that is not an option.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1000,"featured_media":1057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[105,26],"ppma_author":[124],"class_list":["post-1368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-interim-president-judy-korb","tag-jccc"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Messenger Staff","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/author\/mhumph18\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/files\/2025\/02\/JCCC-Main-Entrance-300x158.jpg","coauthors":[{"link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/author\/mhumph18\/","display_name":"Messenger Staff"}],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/category\/news\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">News<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">News<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/category\/news\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Interim President Judy Korb<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/category\/news\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">JCCC<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Interim President Judy Korb<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">JCCC<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"1","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 years ago","modified":"Updated 2 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on February 28, 2025","modified":"Updated on February 28, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on February 28, 2025 3:56 pm","modified":"Updated on February 28, 2025 4:01 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":124,"user_id":1000,"is_guest":0,"slug":"mhumph18","display_name":"Messenger Staff","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1d550cfefcbdb3d51b5ca80ce32ea21defada2724e3cd6d8373f27c880e25be9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"Messenger","last_name":"Staff","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/files\/2025\/02\/JCCC-Main-Entrance-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1000"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1368"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1373,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1368\/revisions\/1373"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1368"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=1368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}