Whereas, The assessment and placement of students into all levels of courses, including basic skills courses is an academic and professional matter that includes not only the use of assessment tests but also multiple measures, including the high school transcript data, non-cognitive considerations, and other factors, that have been evaluated by college faculty and have been selected to meet the needs of the students;
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges holds diversity as a value central to leadership and governance and, to that end, has partnered with the Chancellor’s Office to develop and promote best practices for recruiting, hiring, and retaining diverse faculty to better serve California’s diverse student populations;
Whereas, AB 387 (Thurmond, as of February 9, 2017) would require health care entities (e.g. hospitals) to pay allied health students minimum wage for time spent completing the clinical training hours that are mandated by state laws governing each discipline and that are required in order to obtain California and national licensure and/or certification;
Whereas, The implementation of the Seymour-Campbell Student Success Act in 2012, enshrined in California Education Code §76300, called for a process that revokes a student’s Board of Governors fee waiver in certain instances where the student fails to meet adequate markers of progress toward completion;
Whereas, The Seymour-Campbell Student Success Act of 2012 requires colleges to afford students an appeals process when the fee waiver is revoked but the due process procedures of colleges vary widely across the state;
Whereas, The recommendations of the 2015 Board of Governors Task Force on Workforce, Job Creation, and a Strong Economy demonstrate a recognition of the important role of career technical education (CTE) programs in supporting the overall economic integrity of the State of California;
Whereas, Recent practice has been to direct funding for CTE programs through regional consortia, which has in many cases led to uneven allocation of resources, inability to sufficiently fund some existing CTE programs, and missed opportunities for program development and improvement;
Whereas, Many students will experience a mental health condition at some point in their educational careers, as research indicates the following[1]:
Whereas, The number of undocumented students attending public institutions of higher education in California has risen since the passing of AB540 (Firebaugh, 2001), the California Dream Act of 2011, and the Federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA);
Whereas, California law established the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) as the coordinating and planning agency for statewide postsecondary education, and CPEC performed a variety of useful functions for California Higher Education, including data collection for all public segments and advising the governor regarding budgetary priorities to preserve access for students, but CPEC was defunded by the governor and ceased operations in 2011;
Whereas, President Obama has recognized both the importance of community colleges in higher education and the need to reduce financial barriers to higher education by proposing free tuition for students who attend community college;
Whereas, SB373 (Pan, February 24, 2015) seeks to lock districts into their 2015-2016 Full Time Student Equivalent (FTES) for part-time faculty and the FTES overload taught by full-time faculty unless the college exceeds the 75% full-time to part-time ratio;
Whereas, Districts going through enrollment growth or decline could find themselves unable to offer classes or provide students with critical support services because these limitations greatly restrict their flexibility to expand or contract; and