ARLI Overview

The Aspiring Radical Leaders Institute (ARLI) is a statewide, two year-long professional development opportunity that contributes to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office Vision for Success Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) goal to increase faculty and staff diversity in our system. Institute participants are selected for demonstrating a passion for disrupting status quo structures that view structural racism as the central threat to the well-being of BIPOC faculty, staff, and students in the community college system.  

To be accepted into THE COALITION’s Aspiring Radical Leaders Institute (ARLI) you must agree to participate in all mandatory activities including: 3 ARLI training sessions, meet & greet orientation and graduation, the Social Ecological Immersion Experience, and COALITION Capstone Workshop.

Goals of THE COALITION’s Aspiring Radical Leaders Institute (ARLI)

Structural racism permeates and informs all aspects of the community college system, is the root cause of the persistent and pervasive gaps of achievement of students of color, accounts for the underrepresentation of faculty of color, and creates the lack of adequate representation of people of color in all areas of prominence across stakeholder groups that influence policies and practices. Towards this end, it is the aim of THE COALITION’s Aspiring Radical Leaders Institute (ARLI) to create radical educators who promote issues of equity and race to deconstruct and dismantle structural racism. The leadership program will create an alternative space where leaders are loved, supported, affirmed, and rewarded for leading with authenticity.

The Aspiring Radical Leaders Institute (ARLI), facilitated by members of African American Male Education Network and Development (A2MEND), Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education (APAHE), and California Community Colleges Organización de Latinx Empowerment, Guidance, Advocacy for Success (COLEGAS), will develop a diverse group of leaders who are adept at understanding higher education systems and how to move organizations (people, stakeholders, etc...).

This includes but is not limited to a thorough interrogation of existing practices in the areas of:

• Service-related to Participatory Governance and Civic Engagement

• Resource allocation

• Human resource and hiring

• Procedure, policy, and legislation

• Cultural fluency development of educators across the institution

• Research and evaluation

• Political Power (agency mapping)