MINIMUM CORE REQUIREMENTS FOR UMOJA AFFILIATED COLLEGES
The following minimum requirements have been set by the Umoja Community Education Foundation for Colleges seeking to establish an Umoja program or affiliate an existing program designed to increase student success and retention of African ancestry and other students. Colleges wishing to affiliate a program with the Umoja Community Education Foundation must minimally satisfy all requirements below.
Upon initial affiliation with the Umoja Community Education Foundation, programs must:
- Maintain a program coordinator with dedicated reassigned time to plan and administer program activities and oversee program budget (see Exhibit F of MOU).
- Maintain a program counselor to provide academic, career, and personal counseling services to program participants. The counselor must be allotted dedicated counseling hours proportionate to the number of students active in the program (see Exhibit F of MOU). Note: The counselor may also serve as the program coordinator as long as reassigned time and dedicated counseling hours do not exceed 1.0 FTE.
- Upon the Colleges initial affiliation with Umoja Community Education Foundation, all program Team Members (i.e. coordinator, instructors, counselors and staff) must attend the Summer Learning Institute (SLI). After initial SLI training, Team Members are required to attend the SLI at least every other year. Changes in College Team Members must be reported to the assigned Umoja Regional Coordinator. New team members will be required to attend the next scheduled SLI.
- Provide a student orientation/welcoming ritual/rite of passage or other event at the onset of the program each year and at year-end.
- Enter names of program participants in the California Community College Chancellor’s Office Special Populations MIS Database (SG08) within 30 days of the end of each term or ensure that other campus personnel complete this task.
By year four, along with the above requirements, Umoja affiliated programs must:
- Provide at minimum one “Umoja supported” class during each regular semester. An Umoja supported class is one in which the participating faculty member has attended the SLI and receives ongoing training and support from the program coordinator and other Umoja faculty/staff to ensure positive student outcomes.
- Maintain a dedicated space for Umoja students which can be a shared space with other support programs.
- Provide program participants with activities or events that expose them and the program to the larger campus environment (e.g., participation on committees, hosting breakfasts for staff and community members, sharing assessment data, presenting to boards, etc.).