As LA County continues to recover from the January wildfires, Dr. Ryan Cornner, President of Glendale Community College, shared his mindset on how GCC deals with and prepares for emergencies.
Dr. Cornner’s priorities are safety, instruction, acting with empathy and consideration, and cultivating an ethic of care on campus, but when it comes to GCC supporting its community, he has additional ideas that he shared in an interview. Every emergency brings a lesson on which President Cornner hopes to build. The ongoing effects of the wind and wildfire events that GCC community members are dealing with, the displacements, losses, and lingering uncertainty, are foremost in the President’s mind. In balancing the school’s primary purpose, the continued education of its community, with a practical approach to confronting the issues of a changing climate, Dr. Cornner thinks GCC has a role to play. Educating the next generation of first responders to defend and protect their community.
In response to the recent wildfires, GCC students, faculty, and managers experienced a campus-wide shutdown, a brief interruption in instruction during a shift to distance education, and for some there were significant disruptions, hardships, or suffering. The community has rallied together in support of each other, and there are resources available here. In the future, it is imperative to take advantage of the tools and resources GCC provides to help its community stay safe and informed in a crisis; knowing where to access up-to-date information, how the school will communicate, where to go, what to do, and who to reach out to. For more information, visit Emergency Notifications and opt-in to the text message based emergency alert system Nixle today. President Cornner said that Canvas may also be utilized to display emergency alerts or information, noting that in some cases students are more likely to be notified through a familiar system.
GCC has plans in place for all types of conceivable emergencies and partners with city and county agencies, like the Glendale Fire Department (GFD) and Glendale Police Department (GPD), for scenario trainings. In fact, Dr. Cornner had recently proposed further scenario trainings for himself and other managers and faculty; a table-top exercise scheduled for this month to test a streamlined crisis management structure called Incident Command System (ICS). Students on campus during October 2024 may remember a participatory scenario training called the Great California ShakeOut, which Dr. Cornner said is often expanded to encompass more than just earthquake drills. President Cornner considers GCC’s outreach during an emergency a thoughtful approach when thinking about how best to reach students and faculty, and what technologies to utilize.
The decision to implement a campus closure or a shift to remote learning modalities does ultimately go through the President’s office. He takes this responsibility seriously and does not make these decisions lightly. Even during an emergency, the persistent focus is education. “In terms of decision making, it really came down to how many days of instruction would we lose,” he said. Dr. Cornner explained how the pandemic was another lesson to learn from and build on, which led to the school’s capacity to go remote at a moment’s notice. Faculty are trained and distance education certified, and while it takes work to make the shift, for students as well, the President is grateful for GCC’s ability to do so.
President Cornner wanted to highlight Glendale College Foundation’s fundraising efforts during the crisis, which amounted to over $700,000. The Foundation, which has been supporting the campus and students for decades, immediately recognized the broad impacts, to both students and faculty, of the wildfire event. GCC employees know to contact Human Resources to access the Foundation support, but students are encouraged to contact GCC Cares. GCC Cares has case managers who work directly with students, identify their needs, and respond. They are also able to guide students to available city, state, and federal resources while maintaining active case management throughout the process. “The GCC Cares program has been excellent at being able to braid funding together to raise the support for students,” Cornner said. For more information, students can go to GCC Cares or visit the Verdugo Campus offices.
Dr. Cornner spoke at length about GCC’s role in preparing for and meeting the challenges of climate change in LA County, and his vision for GCC becoming a leader in first-responder education, training, and accreditation. “When we look at what we need to do to protect our communities in the future, at least here at Glendale Community College, we like to think about the entire spectrum of our first responders and how do we built that up,” he said. According to Cornner, there is a widening supply and demand gap in the first responder fields.
When asked about the future of these types of programs at GCC, President Cornner presented a problem and a solution. The problem, he said, is that “we know that with climate change these types of events are going to become more frequent, and we have to be prepared,” adding that, “recruitment is not what it used to be.” Dr. Cornner mentioned the fire academy’s past, when applicants would line up days in advance of the entrance exam, and a current bidding war among police agencies, where officers are incentivized by lucrative signing bonuses. His hope is that by expressing a genuine respect for these careers, expanding availability to these educational pathways, and offering innovative continued-education and vocational training opportunities at GCC, the school can inspire its community members.
President Cornner agreed that GCC and other California Community Colleges stand poised to expand first responder education programs, contributing directly to their communities by developing a burgeoning workforce that protects them. “Community colleges are the training grounds for first responders. We always have been. A majority of our nurses come out of community colleges, our police officers, our firefighters.” GCC currently has all of these programs, and more, available. If the need within the community exists, Cornner said, along with a demand for jobs in these fields, the programs can become a more significant part of any community college in California.
Building these programs, along with the community’s support, is important to President Cornner. He sees it as a way for communities to invest in themselves. He sees a path for students through GCC toward providing protection and becoming the first line of defense against a changing global climate. But really, he said, it’s about indicating a respect for the individuals, their chosen profession, and the difficult tasks that lie ahead of them. “The more we can do to say that this is a community that supports our first responders, the better the first responders this community will have,” Cornner summarized. “That’s good for everybody.”
Taylor Wiegand can be reached at [email protected].