Our Government In Action

November
2005
Chair

Well, the votes are in and the winner is...Wait a minute! there were no candidates on the state ballot, so there were no winners--or were there? We will leave that to the political pundits and such.

Much of the political and legislative energy this last year has been focused on the November special election.

But, as discussed in the legislative breakout at the academic senate fall 2005 Plenary session, things did happen in the first year of the two-year legislative session. We saw passage of bills on concurrent enrollment (AB 967), student health fees (AB 982), baccalaureate partnership programs (AB 1280) and career technical education (SB 70). A bill regarding trustee representation on the board of governors (SB 930) was vetoed and bills on several other issues, including accountability (AB 196), student fees (AB 473), a student bill of rights (SB 5), agendas of local boards of trustees (SB 55), a community college funding formula (SB 361) and transfer (SB 652) will continue to be discussed and will be deliberated upon in this coming year. For more information on these bills and other legislation of interest to faculty, please check out the legislative tracking Page on the senate's website: http://www.academicsenate.cc.ca.us/Legislative/LegTracking/legTracking…

Several resolutions passed at the fall Plenary session will also impact the actions of the senate's legislative and governmental Relations committee this year:

Resolution 4.02 deals with concerns that a piece of federal legislation for hurricane katrina and Rita relief includes a provision about the transfer policies of colleges and universities. The resolution calls for the academic senate to "vehemently oppose the transfer provision of H.R. 3975 (as of October 6, 2005)" and that the academic senate "urge local senates to discuss the impact of this proposed federal mandate and to take appropriate action." Resolution 6.03 calls for the academic senate to "advocate and reaffirm with the legislature that the faculty has the primary role and expertise on issues of curriculum and validation of prerequisites for student success." The committee will begin to discuss how best to respond to these resolutions in the upcoming year.