The 2005-2006 CLFIC will request that this resolution be removed from its purview. Educational Policies and Legislative have primary responsibility for legislative policies.
Whereas, The Academic Bill of Rights is not only redundant but, ironically, also infringes on academic freedom in the very act of purporting to protect it;
Whereas, A fundamental premise of academic freedom is that decisions concerning the quality and content of scholarship and teaching are to be made by reference to the standards of the academic profession, as interpreted and applied by the community of scholars qualified by expertise and training to establish such standards, and not by political standards;
Whereas, The result of the statutory enactment of the Academic Bill of Rights would be to transfer responsibility for the evaluation of student competence from faculty to administrators, the courts, or some other governmental entity; and
Whereas, such transfer will inevitably increase the cost to the state of maintaining public higher education in California;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges find the Academic Bill of Rights - SB 1335 (Morrow) as amended on April 12, 2004 - to be flawed precisely because it is unnecessary, unwarranted and costly to the state; and
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges urge legislators to oppose this proposed legislation.