The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) is writing this letter to express our opposition to SB 964 (Wiener) unless amended. This bill would require the California Community Colleges and the California State University, and request the University of California, to develop two accelerated programs of study related to degrees in social work. The bill would require one program to offer a concurrent bachelor’s and master’s of social work program that would allow students to combine their last one or two years of undergraduate study in social work with their graduate study in social work in order to complete both programs at an accelerated rate.
On May 6, 2022, the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) voted to support AB 2255 (Fong, 2022), the Affordable Broadband Service Program for California Dreamers. This bill would require the Affordable Broadband Service Program for California Dreamers to be developed and administered by the Student Aid Commission, in consultation with the Public Utilities Commission, to provide affordable broadband service to eligible students.
The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges passed Resolution S22 5.01 at 2022 Spring Plenary Session, and would like to express its position of support for AB 1987 (Salas, 2022, as of March 5, 2022) Postsecondary education: student mental health spending: report and AB 2122 (Choi, 2022, as of March 5, 2022) Public postsecondary education: mental health hotlines: student identification cards.
The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges passed Resolution S22 6.01 at 2022 Spring Plenary Session, and would like to express its position of support for AB 1746 (Medina, 2022) Student Financial Aid: Cal Grant Reform Act (As of April 9, 2022).
On April 9, 2022, ASCCC voted to oppose AB 1705 (Irwin, 2022) as of February 9, 2022 unless amended. This bill would require that students, with few exceptions, are placed and enrolled in transfer-level English and mathematics, even when those courses are not required for the student’s educational programs.
The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) is sending this letter to express our support for SB 1141 (Limón) as of March 29, 2022. This bill, which is sponsored by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, would further remove time-consuming and cost-prohibitive barriers in accessing the nonresident tuition exemption included in AB 540 (Firebaugh et al, 2001). The bill would change the threshold to qualify for in-state tuition from three to two years of full-time attendance and remove the two-year cap on full-time enrollment in credit courses that can be counted towards achieving AB 540 status.
We have come together to share the priorities of the faculty and make recommendations to the Governor’s 2022 - 23 budget proposal in these areas: Part-Time Faculty Support, Funding Formula, Cost-of Living Adjustment, Transfer, and Enrollment and Student Services.
By allowing supervised tutoring for all credit and noncredit courses to be eligible for state apportionment funding, AB 1187 will help to fund tutoring services and therefore will provide stability to tutoring programs and potentially increased access to tutoring for students throughout the state.
AB 1505 would provide a significant step toward correcting issues and inequities involved with the Faculty Obligation Number, making progress toward the 75% goal for full-time faculty instruction stated in Education Code, and ensuring that students throughout the state have access to the highest quality of instruction from dedicated full-time faculty. This action is vital for promoting student success, equity, and excellence within the California Community Colleges system.
SR 45 rightly recognizes that “Freedom of thought and expression are necessary for every higher education institution” and that “Local academic freedom policies required by Title 5 vary greatly, and the state therefore lacks the uniformity necessary to uphold the principles of academic freedom across all of California’s community colleges.” The resolution is thus both timely and important, and the ASCCC appreciates and endorses its accurate explanation of the significance of and issues surrounding academic freedom as well as its strong statement of support for the concept.
