1. Las Positas College
  2. Guided Pathways
  3. Syllabi Equity Resources

Faculty Support Resources

Equity, Persistence, & Student Centered Syllabi

Syllabi and Welcome Letter Resources for Faculty

A syllabus and a welcome letter make a powerful impression on students.  They can reduce stress or fear of college which many of our students from marginalized communities experience.   How your students receive your syllabus and are able to engage with it can affect whether or not they are successful in your class.  

Creating a learning-centered, syllabus will assist you and your class with getting off to a great start. The learning-centered syllabus is warm and invites students to interact with the instructor. Using language that is welcoming and positive communicates that the instructor believes the student can successfully complete the course.

Students feel welcome and more connected with their instructors when  they receive an email from their professors prior to the first day of classes.  Your welcome letter can also provide multiple resources that help students successfully begin your course and engage in LPC College resources. Since this will be your first contact with students, please write in a friendly, welcoming manner.

for HyFlex and face-to-face learning courses

for online learning courses

Additional Syllabi Resources

Equity, Persistence, and Caring Campus Resources

Las Positas College Equity Statement

Las Positas College will achieve equity by changing the impacts of structural racism, ableism, homophobia, and systematic poverty on student success and access to higher education, achieved through continuous evaluation and improvement of all services. We believe in a high-quality education focused on learning and an inclusive, culturally-relevant environment that meets the diverse needs of all our students.  ​

LPC Equity Definition: Equity is parity in student educational outcomes. It places student success and belonging for students of color and disproportionately impacted students at the center of focus.

LPC is a “Caring Campus” college!  Our Classified Professionals applied on behalf of  LPC and our college was accepted into the Institute for Evidence-Based Change’s program. The goal of Caring Campus is to increase student persistence and success in community colleges by creating and cultivating caring environments through the intentional inclusion of all staff in student belonging and success efforts.  For more information about the Caring Campus impact on equity and achievement gap by creating creating campuses where all students—including non-majority students—feel connected and cared for, please visit the Institute for Evidence-Based Change website.

Caring Campus & Persistence Project activities Faculty can do 

The Institute for Evidence-Based Change identified top behavioral commitments that faculty can do to increase student belonging and persistence and success in community college.  Not suprisingly, many of these activities are ones we have already embraced in our own faculty-driven Persistence Project!  

Activities faculty can do during office hours or as part of professional responsibility hours to increase student retention and success:

  • Create a Welcoming Profile Page and wear your LPC name tage.  Need one?  Request one from Division Senior Administration Assistant. 
  • Send a welcoming message prior to first day (Persistence Project Activity!)
  • To build a sense of belonging to LPC, display and share the "LPC Events & Important Dates Calendar" often, such as students are coming in and getting settled for class.  Encourage them to attend and plug ones that are especially relevant to your area of interest.  
  • Clear and detailed Syllabi (Persistence Project Activity!)
  • Learn student's names in the first couple of weeks (Persistence Project Activity!)
  • Reach out to struggling students and acknowledge students who are working hard (Persistence Project Activity!)
  • Meet with each student outside of class to get to know them ((Persistence Project Activity!)
  • Provide students early and often, ideally with personalized feedback throughout  (Persistence Project Activity!)
  • Connect students to resources & opportunities to enhance support and a sense of belonging, such as our LPC Events Calendar, Canvas Student Support Hub, etc.  
  • Rebrand "Office Hours" as "Contact Hours" with your students. 
    • Consider holding HyFlex (online and in-person) office hours in support centers, such as the Tutorial Center, Library, or Learning Centers.  Sometimes students schedules prevent them from attending Office Hours and providing them with a way to make an appointment with you (such as through a free Calendly account) is a key to their retention and success.  
  • Be situationally fair - understanding that students' off campus lives are full and complex and how to moderate these with instructional behavior 

For more information, please visit these websites: