Salt Lake Community College’s office for Student Engagement, Experience and Achievement (SEEA) isn’t a new resource for students, just a rebranded one.
Through SEEA, students can receive personalized support and improve their involvement on campus. According to the SLCC website, the office helps students grow “by ensuring that they have the necessary tools to achieve goals, graduate with confidence, help navigate their educational journey at SLCC, and support engagement.”
Dr. Kamal Bawar, a SEEA student success coordinator, has been supporting SLCC students in various roles for a decade. He explained how SEEA assists with student success.
“We help students in many different ways: it could be financial aid, it could be course registration, it could be completing their application [or] applying for scholarships,” Bawar said. “We have 150 students [who are] first-gen serving as a caseload and following up with those students.”
H.B. 261
Before the last semester, SEEA was known as the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs (ODMA). The name change stemmed from Utah House Bill 261, which the state legislature passed in January 2024 and went into effect in on July 1.
Sponsored by Rep. Katy Hall, R-South Ogden, the “Equal Opportunity Initiatives” bill “prohibits an institution of higher education, the public education system, and a government employer from taking certain actions in engaging in discriminatory practices.”
As a result of HB 261, institutions of higher education cannot establish or maintain an office that engages in selective services. According to the bill, institutions shall ensure that all students have access to programs provisioning support.
“We cannot serve an identified group, in particular,” Bawar explained. “As a result, we rebranded and recategorized ourselves. We serve first-gen students and everyone else.”
The name and wording on the SEEA page needed to be adjusted to not conflict with the bill.
“It took a long time,” Bawar said. “It’s been a little bit of a challenging transition, but at the same time it’s beneficial for a lot of students, even though before we never told any students we could not give them any support.”
“As the bill indicated, you cannot call it multicultural, you cannot call it diversity. All these wordings are being eliminated from our core services,” Bawar continued.
The role of SEEA has changed during their rebranding. While their support for students stays the same, they are limited in what they can promote.
“I was a student success coordinator, helping students like refugee immigrants and multi-racial students,” Bawar said of his previous role. “We used to have student success coordinators serving African American, Latinx; but now, we cannot identify in saying we serve only this particular group, […] basically the wording has changed.”
ODMA used to oversee and host many programs and events on campus. Now, those responsibilities have been assigned to the Thayne Center.
“I used to [oversee] Muslim heritage month. I used to do diversity [events for] Ramadan, but I cannot do that [anymore]. A club has to do that from now on, not [as] a part of my position or job,” Bawar said. “We used to have a dedicated budget for these kinds of events.”
“[Our office] used to do programming a lot; all the programs went to the Thayne Center,” continued Bawar. “The gender and sexuality center used to be under us, but it went to the Thayne Center, too.”
Get to know SEEA
On Feb. 6, SEEA held a meet-and-greet so students could become familiar with the center’s resources. Kimberly Querales, another student success coordinator, started at SLCC when SEEA was known as ODMA. While first-generation students are the target demographic, any student can receive help.
“We want students to be aware of the space itself. This whole space is our student involvement center. We wanted to make it visible to students that these resources exist for them on campus,” Querales said. “The main thing is helping students through their academic journey, whether that’s getting them connected to resources or helping them with specific goals that they may have.”
“Anything that an academic advisor can’t take care of, we will help with: scholarship applications, resume help, if they are needing to be connected to different resources on campus,” Querales continued.
Bawar encourages students to come to the center to get assistance for anything they need.
“Students can walk in and we are available; we can meet with them, whatever their needs are,” Bawar said. “I encourage students to make an appointment through MySuccess, similar to advisors, or just walk in and use the facilities, use the space. Really, a lot of students come here not only for support, they come here to hang out, they come here to create that sense of belonging, creating friendships, getting involved with clubs we have.”
SEEA is located on the first floor of the Taylorsville Redwood Campus Student Center, RM 101. Contact the center for more information on how to get involved or seek support.
