Whereas,Hiring procedures for new faculty is an academic and professional matter (Education Code §87360[b]), and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) [1] prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of disability, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has determined that individuals with HIV/AIDS meet the definition of people with disabilities [2];
Whereas, California law (AB 620, Block 2011) requests annual transmittal of summary demographic data reporting to the legislature regarding sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression of students, and California Education Code §66271.2 communicates a concern for obstacles faced by our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and other (LGBTQIA+) students;
The hiring of faculty is at the heart of developing and maintaining programs, as well as the success and achievement of students, in all educational systems, and the California Community College System is no exception. While hiring practices may vary in terms of specifics in the 72 community college districts in California, basic principles and tenets of faculty hiring are consistent across the state.
Whereas, Resolution 3.01 S17 directed the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges to “update the paper A Re-examination of Faculty Hiring Processes and Procedures and bring it to the Spring 2018 Plenary Session for discussion and possible adoption”;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges adopt the paper A Re-examination of Faculty Hiring Processes and Procedures2 and disseminate to local senates and curriculum committees upon its adoption.
MSC
Whereas, Resolution F14 20.01 Developing a System Plan for Serving Disenfranchised Students[1] calls for the ASCCC to work with the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and the California Community Colleges Board of Governors to develop a long-range plan that will increase services for disenfranchised students, but the field is unclear to the definition of the term “disenfranchised student;”
Whereas, The Seymour-Campbell Student Success Act (2012) directed the Common Assessment Initiative (CAI) to create a common assessment tool for placement, and the statewide faculty efforts to create that tool within the CAI’s ambitious one-year mandated timeline resulted in the exodus of several producers of competing placement instruments from the placement assessment market, leaving colleges with few quality options to meet the Title 5 requirement[1] that all colleges have an assessment, and thus utterly dependent upon the creation of the common assessment;
Whereas, On September 5, 2017, the United States’ Attorney General announced the intent of the federal government to eliminate the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, effective six months from the day of announcement;
Whereas, More than 222,000 DACA recipients currently reside in California, making California the single largest DACA state, and an estimated 60,000 of those students are currently enrolled in a California community college;[1]
Whereas, The most recent Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) paper on faculty hiring, A Re-examination of Faculty Hiring Processes and Procedures[1], was adopted in Fall 2000, and it is good practice to regularly review and reevaluate professional standards regarding the hiring processes and procedures for all faculty;
Whereas, The California Community College Board of Governors has recognized the fundamental importance of student equity to the future of community colleges and to the society that is the State of California;
Whereas, Although the governor and legislature have made statements of support for student equity, SB 1456 (Lowenthal, 2012) does not provide a long-term commitment to any particular funding level;
Whereas, Studies have indicated that a more diverse faculty workforce can enhance student success and may help to close achievement gaps for underrepresented students by as much as 20% to 50%[1];
