Los Angeles Valley College Library: Chicano Studies ZTC Award Program: Home

Background

In July 2022, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) announced its latest Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) Program, which utilizes $115 million in one-time funding for the the California Community Colleges to establish ZTC Degrees. Under this program, in September 2023, Los Angeles Valley College applied for a ZTC Acceleration Grant to establish a Chicano Studies AA-T ZTC degree. We were awarded the grant in conjunction with Pierce College. LAVC and LAPC will be working collaboratively to establish a ZTC degree in Chicano Studies by Fall 2026.

We invite Chicano Studies faculty to apply for our Chicano Studies ZTC Award Program. Faculty will be compensated for the professional development and curriculum development required to adopt or adapt existing Open Educational Resources (OER) and/or adopt LACCD library resources to meet course learning objectives.

Award amounts of up to $4500 per course are available to all classroom faculty (adjuncts and full-time) at Los Angeles Valley College. Awards will be dispersed through goal completion milestones. Faculty are encouraged to work ahead of the stated deadlines. Awards may be split among faculty who wish to work in teams and divide the workload.

Please use the tabs on left side of this page to review award requirements, apply, and explore resources.

ZTC & Equity

Zero Textbook Cost courses help advance equity for our disproportionately impacted students, including Black and African American, Latinx/e, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Native American, and LGBTQIA+ students. Converting a course to ZTC can help promote equity at LAVC in two main ways:

DI students report that the cost of school fees and expenses are a barrier to reaching their academic goals. Adopting zero cost course materials such as OER is a powerful way to reduce college costs and increase educational access for our disproportionately impacted students.
Another important part of equity-minded education is to ensure our curriculum and course materials are culturally responsive. In designing our own OER course materials, we have a unique opportunity to infuse equity and anti-racism throughout our lessons and readings. Therefore, workshops and training materials will be offered to support faculty who work on projects funded by the ZTC Award Program to approach their work with an equity lens.