State and Legislative Issues

Whereas, Education Code 70901(b)(1)(E) directs the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges to include in its minimum standards..standards governing procedures established by governing boards of community college districts to ensure.the right of academic senates to assume primary responsibility for making recommendations in the areas of curriculum and academic standards and Education Code 70902 (b)(7) directs community college governing boards to establish procedures that ensure "the right of local academic senates to assume primary responsibility for making recommendations i

Whereas, The Legislature has shown an increasing interest in local curriculum issues in such venues as the recent Master Plan hearings and Assembly Higher Education Committee hearings and in public declarations of its intention to fund its own defined state educational priorities;

Whereas, The 2003-04 Budget Act contains language requiring the Board of Governors to accord the highest budgetary priorities to certain specified curriculum areas; and

Whereas, The California Legislature has directed the California Community Colleges Board of Governors to recognize the Academic Senate as the primary academic authority on most of the professional and academic matters addressed in SB 1335;

Whereas, The California Community College system is organized on the basis of local district control over the matters addressed in SB 1335; and

Whereas, The Academic Bill of Rights is not only redundant but, ironically, also infringes on academic freedom in the very act of purporting to protect it;

Whereas, A fundamental premise of academic freedom is that decisions concerning the quality and content of scholarship and teaching are to be made by reference to the standards of the academic profession, as interpreted and applied by the community of scholars qualified by expertise and training to establish such standards, and not by political standards;

Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has a long-standing position opposing fees for community college students;

Whereas, There are those who advocate raising community college fees to $26 per unit because that would allow a few students to gain eligibility to fully-funded Pell Grants; and

Whereas, The vast majority of community college students would not be eligible for Pell Grants and would be severely hampered in gaining a community college education by an increased expense that would restrict access;

Whereas, California Community College fees have increased 64%, from $11 to $18 per unit, and there is a proposal to raise them another 44% to $26 per unit, percentage increases far in excess of those proposed for the California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) systems;

Whereas, The 1960 Donahoe Act of Higher Education promises access to public higher education for California Community College transfer students;

Whereas, The current budget crisis is changing the landscape of the transfer process for California community college transfer students by limiting and denying their access to upper division education as a result of declining Transfer Admission Agreements and Transfer Admission Guarantees (TAA/TAG) and of admissions requirements and procedures changed during the filing period or after it has closed; and

Whereas boards that regulate occupations and professions in California were established to protect the public against unscrupulous, unregulated, and untrained practice, and

Whereas the legislature has enacted a process to either sunset boards, eliminate boards or radically alter boards, and

Whereas this process can change requirements for practice, curriculum, entry-level qualifications, teacher qualifications, and professional standards, and

Whereas student equity as a concept embraces all students and calls attention primarily to institutional effectiveness with regard to student access and success, and

Whereas as open door institutions, community colleges do not and cannot make admittance decisions based on race, ethnicity, and other factors, and

Whereas the political climate of the state suggests the possibility that all things identified with affirmative action will be forcibly removed from community colleges,

Whereas the administration at Pasadena City College has officially maintained that the term "shall" in Title 5 is to be interpreted as "should" when applied to the duties of their Board of Trustees including "to consult collegially" on "academic and professional matters" such as the budget process, and

Whereas the Superior Court of the State of California (Pasadena), apparently relying on the administration's mischaracterizations, agreed that the "shall" really means "should," resulting in the matter being now before the California Appellate Court, and