Professional Standards

Whereas, Education Code §87360 Hiring Criteria, Subdivision (a), states that applicants for faculty and administrator positions must demonstrate, as a criterion for hiring beyond the state minimum qualifications, “a sensitivity to and understanding of the diverse academic, socioeconomic, cultural, disability, and ethnic backgrounds of community college students”, that is included in all job announcements and assessed during the applicant screening process, per the requirements of Title 5.

Whereas, In Spring 2002 the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges adopted the paper Part-Time Faculty: A Principled Perspective, and in Spring 2013 Resolution 19.07 asked that the 2002 paper be updated;

INTRODUCTION

Academic Freedom Defined

Whereas, Resolution 01.03 F18 directed the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges “to provide guidance to local academic senates and faculty on safeguarding academic freedom rights and responsibilities in the current political environment, update the 1998 paper Academic Freedom and Tenure: A Faculty Perspective by spring of 2020”;

Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges adopt and broadly disseminate the paper Protecting the Future of Academic Freedom in a Time of Great Change. [1]

MSC

Whereas, Use of equivalency to minimum qualifications for employment is allowed by California Education Code §87359, and the “agreed upon process shall include reasonable procedures to ensure that the governing board relies primarily upon the advice and judgment of the academic senate to determine that each individual faculty member employed under the authority granted by the regulations possesses qualifications that are at least equivalent to the applicable minimum qualifications”;

Whereas, Use of equivalency is required by California Education Code §87359, and the “agreed upon process shall include reasonable procedures to ensure that the governing board relies primarily upon the advice and judgment of the academic senate to determine that each individual faculty member employed under the authority granted by the regulations possesses qualifications that are at least equivalent to the applicable minimum qualifications”;

Whereas, Representatives of the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office have recently claimed publicly that Legal Opinion L 03-28 [1], which deems single-course equivalency illegal, could be reversed as a means to meet the Strong Workforce Program goal to increase the numbers of industry experts serving as Career and Technical Education (CTE) instructors, a reversal which is contrary to the established Academic Senate for California Community Colleges position in opposition to single-course equivalency as established by its adoption of Resolution 10.09 S02;

Whereas, Concern that lack of collegiality has negatively impacted the morale and health of faculty leading to collective bargaining agreement provisions allowing for investigation and mediation to resolve non-collegiality issues;

Whereas, Education Code §70902 (b)(7) ensures the right of academic senates to assume primary responsibility for making recommendations in the areas of curriculum and academic standards;

Whereas, Title 5 §53200 includes grading policies and standards or policies regarding student preparation and success as areas in which a college district must rely primarily or reach mutual agreement with the local academic senate based on local policy;

Whereas, the Chancellor’s Office’s Student Equity Fact Sheet acknowledges that achievement gaps for disproportionately impacted groups are deeply influenced by systemic institutional practices in higher education, including “college and/or district accreditation, educational master planning, program review, and basic skills planning processes,” as well as “planning, budgeting, and the delivery of instruction and services”[1],[2],[3];