The Peralta Community College District (PCCD) held this semester’s first meeting of the Board of Trustees on Jan. 23. The meeting included a proposal for a new data science curriculum at Laney College and reports of increased enrollment at the four colleges.

The meeting also marked the first meeting with PCCD’s new chancellor, Tammeil Gilkerson, in attendance.

All four Peralta college presidents stated in their respective President’s Reports that enrollment was up at their college, compared to Spring 2023.

“We are nearly back to our pre-pandemic enrollment levels,” Merritt College President David Johnson said.

The board ratified agreements regarding a collaborative project between Laney College, the University of California, Merced and the University of California, Berkeley.

Under the project, Laney College will help design a new, “inclusive” data science curriculum that seeks to intersect computer programming and mathematics with social and behavioral sciences.

The data science agreements were on the consent calendar, a list of agenda items that the board approves in one motion, unless a trustee pulls a specific item for further discussion.

During the meeting’s District Academic Senate (DAS) Report, DAS President Matthew Goldstein brought up his concern that DAS was still awaiting a formal response to a resolution passed on Nov. 17, which asked the district to add more course sections for the Spring 2024 semester.

In a later interview with The Citizen, Goldstein said that the board responded within 24 hours of his comments at the meeting, but was unable to fulfill the request because the semester had already started. Still, he said that the response gave him hope for future interactions between the DAS and the board.

In his report, Goldstein also voiced his wishes to greater involve students in the process of shared governance. After meeting with Student Trustees Natasha Masand and Naomi Vasquez, he said that he is looking forward to working with them and their peers in the following months.

The next regular meeting of the Board of Trustees is set for Feb. 13. Open session meetings can be attended by the public at the District Office on 333 E 8th St in Oakland, and are also streamed live on YouTube.