California Community Colleges held a student media conference with student journalists on Oct. 6 at 2 p.m. via Zoom.

The speaker and the California Community College (CCC) Interim Chancellor, Daisy Gonzales, talked about Undocumented Student Action Week and the expansion of Bachelor’s degree programs.

Gonzales talked about the DACA federal court ruling and the importance of renewing an extension if you’re a DACA student.

“It [the decision] essentially said DACA recipients will not be immediately disrupted, meaning they can continue to have their DACA status,” Gonzales said, “However, whether it’s illegal will be determined at a future date.”

The CCC Interim Chancellor said that in the meantime, there will be no new applications that will be accepted and only those that existed.

“We are during every single DACA student to please seek an extension as soon as possible while we all work to seek a long-term permanent solution,” she emphasized.

The CCC alumni said, “The next two weeks are for advocacy for undocumented students are going to be critical.”

In the more positive direction, Gonzales said that the Governor signed SP. 1141, which eliminates a 2-year cap on credit courses that would be counting towards AB 540 students.

“Many of our AB 540 students were finishing their education in two years and because the old law required a third year,” she said, “many of them were taking non-credit courses, that wasn’t really helping them.”

The Interim Chancellor also noted the signing of AB 1766 where the bill allowed undocumented people here in California to access a driver’s license and ID cards.

Gonzales also announces that CCC will be celebrating Undocumented Student Action Week on Oct. 17 through Oct. 21 and the resource, findyourally.com.

As for the final update on DOCA, she said that the Governor expanded Medical for all undocumented immigrants from ages 24 and 69.

The CCC alumni also announced a bill was passed that allowed the Board of Governors to open as many programs as long as it didn’t exceed 30 new bachelor’s degree programs.

“The Board approved a Bachelor’s degree in respiratory care at El Camino College, the automotive technology management Bachelor’s degree at Deanza College and approved the research laboratory technology at Bakersfield,” Gonzales said.

This was the result of bill AB 927, which makes that expansion possible and requires aligning back to workforce demand so that students with that degree can get high-paying jobs.

Georgina Munoz, who’s 22 years old, works as a Freelancer for La Voz News and attends De Anza community college talked about the teleconference.

The journalism major said, “It was really helpful because I didn’t even know there was an Undocumented Student Action week and I thought that was interesting.”

“I would’ve liked for them to talk about the mask situation because I’m not sure if that’s been resolved from the last teleconference,” Munoz added.

“I think it’s [the teleconference] is important to connect with the student community but I also wish that it’s open to anyone like anybody can join,” the 22-year-old said, “because then it feels like a PR conference.”

The next media teleconference will take place in Nov. where new information and topics will be brought up.