Math tutor hired to bridge Black, Latino equity gaps laid off by SMC
“It was nice knowing you,” said the Adelante Program and Black Collegians math instructional tutor, Daniel Rocha, jokingly, to his colleagues in Nov. 2025, after receiving an email from Superintendent and President Kathryn Jeffery alluding to possible layoffs.
On Jan. 29, “I got another email from, I want to say, (Vice President of Academic Affairs) Jason Beardsley, that really confirmed it, like, ‘Hey, your name is on the list of people who we’re planning on letting go,” Rocha said.
The Santa Monica College Board of Trustees adopted a resolution to eliminate 57 classified and four management positions to address its budget crisis on Feb. 3. Now, Rocha’s job is being considered for release, according to Rocha.
Layoffs will start on July 1, following an “exhaustive review of positions,” states an email sent by Beardsley to multiple workers being considered for release and obtained by the Corsair.
Seven instructional tutors in total will be eliminated, along with custodians, administrative assistants, grounds workers and other jobs. At the meeting, union leaders and the trustees cited years of administrative expansions, raises, and low revenue as reasons for the cuts.
After learning that Rocha could lose his job, multiple students spoke to the trustees during public comment on Feb. 3, asking them to find a way to save his position. Others sent letters.
In a letter sent to the board and shared with the Corsair, Camille Scott, an asynchronous sociology major, stated, “To remove him (Rocha) is not merely to cut a position; it is to dismantle a critical pillar of student support. It is deeply unfair — and frankly alarming — that at the same time institutions speak about equity, access, and student success, decisions are being made that actively undermine those stated values.
“It feels as though students like us are being set up to fail — treading through mud, taking one step forward and three steps back. This is not what opportunity is supposed to look like.”
Rocha is a UCLA alumnus who earned a degree in applied mathematics with a specialization in computing and a minor in data science engineering in 2021. He always wanted to be an educator — starting his career as a student tutor at Los Angeles Southwest College — and chose to work at SMC in 2024 because a job specifically dedicated to helping Black and Latino students seemed like a “perfect role” for him.
“I was like, dude, that has my name written all over it,” Rocha said, with a smile growing across his face and miming typing on an imaginary computer.
SMC created the math instructional tutor position for Black Collegians and Adelante in 2015 to address grade disparities in Black and Latino test scores. The college filled the role again in 2024, after losing its tutor, because the college’s 2023 Student Equity Plan recognized these two populations needed extra support, said Black Collegians Program Leader Sherri Bradford.
“They (college administrators) were supposed to do everything that we (SMC) can to provide and create opportunities that will lead to successful outcomes for Black and brown students, and so that was why this position was created and funded through Student Equity,” Bradford said.
According to the 2023 Student Equity Plan, Black and Latino students in math classes required for transfer to four-year institutions face an outdated curriculum, a course outline that doesn’t “meet the needs of Black and Latinx students lives” and a math culture that “does not align with what should be valued” for someone learning math.
Several initiatives at SMC — such as Student Equity, Outreach and Special Programs — have advanced outcomes for historically underrepresented students, but equity is not yet fully embedded as a “core responsibility across all levels of the campus,” resulting in uneven accountability and slow progress toward systemic change, according to the 2025-28 Student Equity Plan. The trustees approved the plan on Dec. 2, 2025.
“We must acknowledge that years of institutional racism have shaped our policies, practices and campus climate. From curricular choices to resource allocation, historical patterns of exclusion have limited the sense of belonging and support for our Black and Latine students. These legacies manifest in subtle but powerful ways — such as the limited culturally affirming pedagogy, limited representation among faculty and leadership, and inconsistent responses to student concerns about equity and inclusion,” the 2025 Student Equity Plan states.
Associate Dean of Student Support Wendi DeMorst, one of four managers who received layoff notices, said she advocated for Black Collegians and the Adelante to retain the math instructional tutor position after it was vacated because of the positive impact it has on students.
“It has literally improved their grade, and they’ve been able to pass their classes,” DeMorst said. “I was speaking with a few (former students) the other day, and I was saying the position was in danger of not being there, and they were like, ‘What? That position helped me pass my math. I didn’t even understand math until I had that person help and tutor me.’ So it literally gives students confidence.”
SMC struggled to find the right candidate for the math instructional tutor position, Bradford said. But after outscoring dozens on a test and acing an interview, Rocha earned the job.
“His understanding of the needs of Black and brown students — because that was part of the interview process — his overall demeanor, his own personal trajectory. We knew immediately that he was the perfect fit for us in our area,” she said.
“He combines his knowledge base of math with his personality, with his personableness, his ability to invite people into the space and create a comfortable space for our students to break down math concepts that seem quite scary and hard to do,” Bradford added. “He’s the perfect person for us in our area.”
Rocha said he focuses on creating a safe, comfortable place for students where there is no such thing as a stupid question. Math can seem elitist at times, or that people have heard they can’t succeed in the field, and it’s a “shame,” he said.
“I’ve been through those experiences,” Rocha said. “I know what it is to feel that way, and as a Hispanic, I don't want to instill that feeling into my people, especially our Black and brown communities. We already are such a minority in these settings that is STEM that I want to see more of us in STEM.”
According to the latest data from the National Science Foundation, Black and Latino people made up 19% and 20%, respectively, of the labor force in science, technology, engineering and math in 2023.
For students interested in the STEM majors or careers, SMC offers an academic support program called Maximizing Achievement in STEM, which offers priority registration, scholarship opportunities and peer mentors, according to its website. On average, 60% of Latino students in MÀS successfully completed their STEM between fall 2012 and winter 2024, compared to a 55% success rate for Latino students not in the program, according to a 2024 SMC infographic.
Students often struggle with some form of calculus while pursuing their degree — some even retaking the class three times — partly because math at SMC is a “different beast,” Rocha said. Calculus is a prerequisite for multiple STEM majors — such as mathematics, engineering and computer science — and a helpful course to appear competitive to certain prestigious University of California schools, said Sara Nieves-Lucas, counseling department chair.
Rocha recommends students with math anxiety visit him a semester before taking a class to build the required skills. “It’s giving that student that confidence, that’s what it’s all about,” he said.
“I want to get them to come back. I want to not just teach them math, but I want to teach them how to reach out for help because that’s a really important thing to me,” Rocha said.
Associated Students President Ailsa Ortiz is a frequent visitor to Rocha’s classroom. Ortiz said she was reluctant to reach out for tutoring, but after seeing a diverse group of students in his classroom, understanding his story and seeing how pivotal he is in supporting students outside the classroom, she felt reassured.
Besides tutoring, Rocha also attends events at SMC to meet students and is a member of the Men of Color Action Network. “He has really embraced the other math instructional tutors, which I love because they’re not in his area, but he’s made a point to go over to the math lab to meet people, to stay in touch,” DeMorst said.
At the Feb. 3 meeting, Black Collegians member Massimo Keyes expressed concern about the effects laying off Rocha could have on “disadvantaged students who, without this free service, would be left behind.”
Keyes, a freshman, worked with Rocha almost every day since the start of winter term 2026 to pass his business calculus class. He said he owes his success in the course to Rocha.
For students who “don’t have that much,” Keyes said, adequate resources such as tutors make the difference between 4.0 students — like himself — and people dropping classes or leaving for different colleges out of fear.
SMC has the second-worst fund balance in the state and to solve its budget crisis, the college has reduced 5% of its classes and counseling schedule, in addition to reducing its faculty size, the 2025-26 Proposed Adopted Budget presentation states.
“If we (SMC) don’t offer the services that they need, there is not a reason why a student would pass up LA Southwest College, West LA College, El Camino College,” Bradford said. “What is the draw for them to make that trek all the way out here, if we don’t hold ourselves to saying that we are going to focus on decreasing the equity gaps for our Black and Latinx students? If we don’t offer the services that they need, what would be the point of coming to this college?”
Inside the Student Services Center, students can find Rocha tutoring more than four students at once on any given day.
“I’m bouncing from one student to the other. It can be a mess, but honestly I love it,” he said. “Something I’ve heard from student(s)... (is) they like to see how much I go from jumping from tutoring statistics, to the next minute tutoring pre-calculus, to the next minute, tutoring actual calculus," he said.
On Feb. 9, students stopped by Rocha’s classroom just to greet him on their way to class. He’d turn to the door, smile and wave, then return to tutoring a student in Calculus 1 while simultaneously helping another with business calculus and a third student with ACT preparation.
“I’m a one-man team,” he said.
It’s hard to collect the data on the impact Rocha has had on Black Collegians and Adelante because their system, WC online, isn’t necessarily designed for one tutor allowing them to “use a hack against the system where Daniel puts his name in several times like Daniel one, Daniel two, Daniel three” DeMorst said.
“I’ve been there when students are just working on their work by themselves, (so it’s) not even that they are getting tutoring, but they just know that’s a safe space for them,” she said. “To take away a space like that really saddens me.”
Few students and faculty said they are concerned about Rocha’s future if he were to be laid off; most saved their worries for the students.
Nothing good comes from firing tutors when professors have limited office hours with multiple students; that’s not helpful to me or them, said Sirabi McIntyre, Black Collegians member and physics major.
“The reason why we hired that tutor for us, clearly, is because the college recognized at some point that there was a disparity happening,” McIntyre said. “In order to have some sort of equity amongst students who have a stronger background in math and students who don’t, we brought Daniel on. There’s no question about that being the reason why they brought Daniel on.”