At 19 years of age, Mike Muñoz became a father and found himself at a crossroads. “I didn’t know where my life was headed,” he says. Searching for financial security for himself and his new family, he re-enrolled in community college. There, he met a male Latino counselor who took an interest in him and with whom he could identify. The counselor introduced Muñoz to resources and a suite of services he needed to succeed as a student. With a Hispanic mentor and a new direction, Muñoz was back on the education track. But then life threw him a curve. 

Just as he was finishing up his final community college semester and was poised to transfer to the University of California, Irvine, where he planned to pursue his four-year degree, he was thrust into single parenthood. His daughter’s mother showed up at his door, dropped off their daughter, and never returned. “I was an every-other-weekend dad, and now I’m with a daughter still in diapers and responsible for this baby twenty-four/seven,” says Muñoz.

As a first-generation Hispanic college student, Muñoz experienced both food and housing insecurity. These hardships, however, didn’t prevent him from persevering and earning an EdD with a concentration in community college leadership from California State University, Long Beach. This past December, Dr. Muñoz was named Long Beach Community College’s superintendent-president. In that role, he says, all his life experiences, both positive and negative, will inform every decision he makes. “The first question I ask myself when I make a decision is, ‘How will this decision impact students?’ The second question I ask is, ‘How will this impact our most vulnerable students?’” says Dr. Muñoz. 

Fifty-three percent of LBCC’s 34,464 enrolled students are Hispanic/Latinx, coming from a variety of backgrounds. Some have been incarcerated, some are experiencing homelessness and food insecurity, and some have served in the armed forces. No matter their situations, Dr. Muñoz has empathy for each and every one. It may sound trite, but all leaders must express empathy and possess self-awareness, says Dr. Muñoz. “These are the two cornerstones of my leadership,” he says.

Equity Mindedness

For his entire career in education leadership, Dr. Muñoz has closed racial equity gaps for students of color and created inclusive campus cultures for LGBTQIA+ students by applying equity mindedness. Equity mindedness is a mode of thinking in which educators recognize that students encounter educational barriers to their success, specifically those students who are marginalized. “LBCC has experienced equity gaps between our Latinx students and our white students. For us, it’s that recognition of being equity minded in our approaches,” says Dr. Muñoz.

Since starting at LBCC in 2018, he’s been practicing equity mindedness by supporting students in a color-blind, culturally affirming, and inclusive way. LBCC is the only community college in California to receive the distinction of Excelencia by Excelencia in Education in 2020 because of its work closing racial equity gaps for Latinx students. 

Implementing Fairness and Justice

To close those gaps, LBCC has implemented several key strategies focusing on its minority students. For example, LBCC has restructured its matriculation process by reaching out to those high schools with significant Hispanic populations, free and reduced lunch students, and those with the lowest college participation rates. “I met with these principals and we came up with this idea of compulsory applications,” says Dr. Muñoz. Every senior in economics and government now applies to LBCC. To ensure they persist, LBCC offers its support system to the schools. Implementation of this one strategy, Dr. Muñoz says, has eliminated the college participation rate gap, particularly for Latinx students.  

While effective, this strategy has its share of critics. Some suggest that LBCC is favoring one segment of students over another. But Dr. Muñoz reminds the critics that equity is not about treating everyone the same. “Equity is about fairness and justice. So if we know there is an institutional barrier that is preventing students from succeeding, especially when you look at the data by race and ethnicity, and you can do something in your practice that will eliminate that barrier, why would you not do that?” says Dr. Muñoz.   

Some institutions, like four-year schools and private schools, serve the students they are most comfortable serving. LBCC does not have that luxury. Because it’s an open access institution and accepts 100 percent of its applicants, LBCC must meet its students where they are and educate a wider range of students than the selective schools, says Dr. Muñoz. His goal is to build an institutional culture at LBCC that is responsive to all students. A culture of care.   

Supplying the Basic Needs 

As a single-parent student who himself experienced home and food insecurity, Dr. Muñoz is sensitive to students’ basic needs. In 2018, as LBCC’s vice president, he created an office of basic needs with a dedicated staff. Soon that office established a food pantry called the Viking Vault, a clothes closet, and began providing needed supplies  to LBCC’s student parents, like diapers, formula, and wipes. 

Then COVID 19 hit and the world’s marginalized communities disproportionately bore the brunt of the pandemic’s hardships. “We’ve all seen the images of young children sitting in Taco Bell parking lots trying to access WIFI to continue their education,” says Dr. Muñoz. 

Hoping to expand LBCC’s services during this unprecedented period, Dr. Muñoz collected some data on LBCC students. It revealed that 70 LBCC students were forced to sleep in their cars because they had nowhere else to take shelter. “We took the bold step of opening up our parking structures to provide safe parking,” says Dr. Muñoz. The Safe Parking program is a stopgap measure that will eventually transition students to more permanent on-campus housing. “The idea is to create a safe space for them. And it’s not just a safe place to park but it’s also connecting them with the whole suite of services that we offer, like mental health, technology support through hotspots, and Chromebooks,” says Dr. Muñoz. 

In the years he’s been at LBCC, Dr. Muñoz is proudest of his work closing the equity gap for Hispanic and African American students. “We’re really making progress, and I think we learned a lot during the pandemic. We don’t talk enough about the lessons we’ve learned. The pandemic created a proof of concept that we can adapt and make large structural changes quickly,” he says. The pandemic taught educators how to better serve students and meet their needs. As the country transitions to a post-pandemic period, he intends to continue the practices and strategies LBCC implemented during this time. •