"The Campus Walkway as Classroom: Teaching Belonging Through Care-Centered Public Safety"

Presenter(s): Alan Orozco, Deputy Director of Public Safety | Track I. Belonging: Teaching as a Human-Centered Practice

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Abstract: On many urban public college campuses, Public Safety staff are among the first and most consistent institutional representatives students encounter during moments of transition, uncertainty, or stress. While these interactions are often framed through an operational or enforcement lens, they also function as powerful teaching moments that influence students’ sense of belonging, trust, and agency within the campus community. This session reframes campus safety as a human-centered pedagogical practice by examining how community police practices and presence along the Lehman College campus walkway transform a shared space of movement into a space of connection. As one of the most visible and frequently used areas on campus, the walkway has become a living classroom where daily social interactions—greetings, informal conversations, wellness check-ins, and proactive support—shift perceptions of Public Safety from authority figures to approachable partners in student success.

• Themes: Belonging, trust, transparency, and meaningful relationships transform everyday interactions into opportunities that strengthen both safety and learning

"Stability is Strategy: How Meeting Basic Needs Moves the Needle on Equity"

Presenter(s): Baraka Corley, Director of Basic Needs | Track I. Belonging: Teaching as a Human-Centered Practice

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Abstract: In this session, we will share the evolution of the model for Lehman's Basic Needs Center, lessons learned in building cross-divisional buy-in, and emerging indicators of impact—including increased engagement, student-reported improvements in academic focus, and strengthened sense of belonging. In this sessions, we will discuss how assessment practices, storytelling, and leadership alignment have helped move basic needs from service provision to equity infrastructure. Rather than positioning basic needs support as ancillary to academic success, our approach reframes stability as a strategic condition for learning. Through intentional destigmatization, campus-wide collaboration, and visible executive support, the Center has gained institutional momentum and normalized help-seeking as part of student success.Participants will leave with a replicable framework for embedding holistic student support into institutional strategy—demonstrating how stability functions not as charity, but as a lever for educational excellence.

• Themes: Basic needs and academic success, cross-campus partnerships, service gaps, destigmatizing basic needs, student engagement, access, administrative buy-in.