The distinguished “You Matter” campaign, promptly introduced by Riverside City College to acknowledge diversity, fails to recognize and support student-parents according to Jessica Zenteno.
Zenteno, a student-parent, curated a draft resolution to enhance support for parents and caregivers at Riverside Community College District.
The resolution lists several disparities, ranging from financial hardships to emotional well-being.
“Since my journey starting in 2022, I’ve noticed a lot of gaps and disparities, not only for parents but students in general,” said Zenteno. “But my main concern is parents, one in five students are parents.”
Zenteno’s goal was to propose an idea for an engagement center for student-parents, but mainly to include children.
The dream layout of the center would be to have a daycare included. As well as areas that parents can come in and focus on school work.
“We have on campus, a student psychological and health center, but they don’t tailor to services of maternal care,” she said. “We need to give more.”
The idea for the center first sparked in Zenteno’s mind after coming on campus after being an online student. Zenteno felt judged and wasn’t welcomed after bringing her son on campus.
A daycare resides on campus but staff and faculty have priority, including a six-month waitlist for students. In spite of that, the hours for the daycare are limited, making it difficult for parents who take night classes.
“I never got a call,” she said. “Faculty and staff get paid good salaries so they can afford care outside of campus.”
Zenteno revealed that she pays $1,200 weekly for one child at a daycare outside of campus.
“If we are an all inclusive college, then we should allow for our student parents to feel that way,” Zenteno said.
Other institutions have offered help to their students and RCCD needs to catch up.
Kalisha Gomez, the president of the student-parent club shared that they took a field trip to see family engagement centers on other campuses.
“It was awesome, it was amazing… It was a shock to realize how behind we are. Los Angeles Valley College has had their center for 20 years now,” Gomez said.
During Zenteno’s time on campus she was able to run for student government and learned information on the funding of the campus. She discovered that an engagement center was getting $30,000 in funds yearly in which compared to other centers were receiving minimal care.
In 2023 the student parent club initiated the idea of a center, but the district made no comment when asked.
“I’m always going to reference the “You Matter Campaign” because we do not feel that way,” Zenteno said.
