Whereas, Resolution 3.01 SP14 Infusing Cultural Competence directed “the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges [to] engage in cultural competency and equity training at its annual Executive Committee orientation, and use the information from that training to develop its cultural competency plan as a model for local senates”;
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) has established the creation of formal liaison positions, including Resolution 03.02 SP21 Inclusion Diversity Equity and Anti-racism Liaison, Resolution 17.02 FA18 Open Educational Resources Liaison,
Whereas, Previous Academic Senate for California Community Colleges presentations have recognized that course enrollment maximums are maximum student enrollment limits specified for each course, and course enrollment maximum determinations have sometimes been made inconsistently on the basis of classroom size and other arbitrary factors;
Whereas, Part-time faculty comprise the majority of the faculty on every community college campus [1] and are vital to the success and retention of students throughout the California Community Colleges system, and the representation of part-time faculty is crucial for the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) and California Community College Chancellor's Office to fulfill their respective missions;
Whereas, The COVID-19 pandemic forced a quick pivot, within weeks after California Governor Newsom’s March 19, 2020 Stay At Home Order, of most of California’s community colleges’ course offerings from in-person to online teaching and learning;
Whereas, Most of this online teaching and learning necessitated faculty and students quickly learning how to use and navigate learning management systems (LMS) and other online educational tools and services for course delivery and engagement;
Whereas, California Code of Regulations Title 5 §55063 establishes requirements for students to earn an associate degree, including demonstrated competence in reading, written expression, and mathematics;
Whereas, Current regulations define the standards to meet these requirements by associating those requirements with specific courses or disciplines and outlining methods for establishing equivalencies to courses in those specific disciplines rather than defining reading, written expression, and mathematics competency statements; and
Note: The Resolutions Committee has made edits to this resolution, in consultation with the contact, to increase clarity and to include supporting Title 5 language without changing the original intent.
Whereas, The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the desire for greater distance education course offerings using online and hybrid modalities of instruction, including the “HyFlex” modality that attempts to create a classroom environment that includes fully online and traditional face-to-face options for students within the same section;
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI) was formally launched in early 2019 with funds allocated to the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) in Assembly Bill 1809 (Higher Education Trailer Bill, 2017-2018) “to support the development of, and the expansion of the use of, open educational resources for the California Community Colleges” and has established a faculty-led infrastructure to support local open educational resources (OER) implementation efforts, but the funding for the OERI was scheduled to en
Whereas, During the last decade, there has been significant support from the California Legislature for online and distance education to improve access to California community colleges, and during the COVID-19 pandemic online course offerings at California community colleges have increased dramatically, and enrollment trends indicate a continued increased interest in online learning;