Eugene Giovannini
Chancellor, Tarrant County College
The same year which began amidst bright-eyed hopes for a new decade has, instead, become a maze of uncertainty that has most people feeling unsettled.
COVID-19 caused us all to have to re-examine and revise how we live, learn and earn to keep ourselves, our families and our community healthy and safe. Ever-evolving news reports about the pandemic have kept many off balance, and trying to navigate our way back to “normalcy” has meant weighing certain risks against that which is essential for our community to stay strong.
Yet, we cannot be strong when our society is fractured by judicial inequity, racism, discrimination and hatred. When lives are taken, when voices are silenced and when families fear for their children to leave their homes, our community suffers.
Fostering a safe, respectful, inclusive, equitable and non-discriminatory environment for every student and every employee is central to Tarrant County College’s mission, which has never been as important as it is in this moment.
Like the thousands of instructors, advisors, counselors and other professional staff who chose to commit their talents to TCC, I pursued a career in higher education because I believe education can and should be the answer to society’s ills.
Education can and should give people insight, context and tools with which to be agents of positive social change. Education can and should serve as a cultural and social equalizer. Education can and should give people hope for better tomorrows for themselves and for their families.
Education is essential; those who provide it, and those who seek it, should feel they are doing so in a safe environment free of bigotry, discrimination and persecution.
In this moment and forever forward, we cannot let fundamental human values be politicized.
Rather, we must stand together as the community’s college and serve as a beacon of hope by exemplifying – along with our community supporters and partners –what inclusion really means.
Together, we stand and together, we can thrive.
But words alone aren’t enough. Actions matter.
That’s why TCC developed student and community designed resources to support and uplift those in need of help, hope and guidance as they pursue their education or their careers. TCC Resources can be found at the following link:
https://www.tccd.edu/about/administration/chancellor/#resources