Whereas, Title 5 55805.5 subsection (a) provides for associate degree applicability for any course accepted for transfer to the California State University or the University of California;
Whereas, System Office Legal Opinion O02-16 has interpreted other parts of 55805.5 as barring this applicability in some cases; and
Whereas, this interpretation unnecessarily complicates evaluation of a student's progress toward a degree;
Whereas, There are many important and educationally sound reasons why course repeatability is critical to noncredit student success;
Whereas, Currently, noncredit has no course repeatability limits; and
Whereas, The Board of Governors has recently discussed making changes to Title 5 that would impose "appropriate" limitations on course repeatability for all noncredit students by June 30, 2009;
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has a long standing position of no student fees whatsoever, but student health service fees are determined locally and are levied on a per student basis;
Whereas, These fees are often applied inconsistently to students with local exceptions being made for various cohorts such as Board of Governor waiver recipients or pre-employment academies such as public safety programs;
Whereas, The Academic Senate paper, Status of Nursing Education in California Community Colleges states that "Tenured full-time faculty are essential to the health and well-being of any nursing program," but AB 1972 (March 8, 2006) recommends hiring non-tenured full-time temporary positions for nursing faculty;
Whereas, In 1988, the California Legislature in AB1725 declared, "The Legislature is committed to an alternative vision in which California remains a place of opportunity and hope--where innovation and creativity mark our economy and our culture, and where the minds and spirits of all our communities contribute to our common future.
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has addressed issues with the 50% law in three previous resolutions of 6.07 F00, 8.03 S01 and 8.04 S01; and
Whereas, The System Office (previously known as the CCCCO) has only made minor attempts to address the 50% law issue, including minor adjustments made to the accounting practices;
Whereas, There are many college districts with faculty contract language that provides for seniority status of those part-time faculty who have taught some set amount of time, which gives them preferential teaching assignments over non-senior part-time faculty;
Whereas, AB 1972 (Daucher) is a bill recently introduced that provides for the Board of Governors to designate any area of study as critical without defining any criteria by which its critical nature is established;
Whereas, Once an area is designated as critical, AB 1972 then calls for the hiring of faculty in a non-tenure track position for up to three years if it is determined that there is an undefined "shortage" of qualified faculty in that area;
Whereas, The Academic Senate supported the delegation of approval of stand-alone courses by the California Community College System Office to the local districts in resolution 9.10 S00;
Whereas, The Academic Senate adopted the position paper Regional Curriculum Colloquia and Delegated Approval Authority (1997) instituting the mechanism for local approval of credit courses not part of approved programs; and
Whereas, AB 1943 (Nava) seeks to delegate approval of stand-alone courses to local districts;
Amend the final resolve:
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges oppose changing the limitation of the teaching load for part-time faculty to 80% until such time as the ASCCC has researched the potential impact this effort may have upon our current positions and reported its findings to the body. MSR Disposition: Executive Committee to research and report at Spring 2006 Plenary Session.
