State and Legislative Issues

Whereas, The current political climate has directed attacks on public education and the California community colleges in such forms as cuts in funding and unsubstantiated reform efforts;

Whereas, The academic and professional work of the California community colleges is directly and significantly impacted by legislative actions and efforts; and

Whereas, California community college faculty, students and staff need the capacity, direction, and skills to counter attacks and advocate for California community colleges;

Whereas, Rising college costs threaten to put higher education out of reach for many students, including California community college students, and each legislative budget cycle seems to include discussion of a proposed increase in fees;

Whereas, Section 84362 of the California Education Code, commonly known as the “50% law,” is an artifact of the K-12 educational system of which community colleges were originally a part, designed to reduce district expenditures on administrative salaries with the goal of reducing class size to improve instructional outcomes;

Whereas, The ongoing California budget crisis may prompt attempts to increase various student fees, thus having the potential to further jeopardize student access and to force a choice between declining quality or reliance on increased fees to maintain quality of instruction; and

Whereas, The Academic Senate has long-standing positions in support of student access and in opposition to student fees;

Whereas, Currently proposed Title 5 Regulation changes in 55007 (Simultaneous Enrollment and Overlapping Courses) seek to prohibit credit and noncredit students from simultaneous enrollment in multiple sections of the same course and enrolling in overlapping courses;

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.