California Master Plan for Education, Kindergarten through University

Whereas a past president of the University of California, who was a principal architect of the 1960 California Master Plan for Higher Education, wrote, "When I was guiding the development of the Master Plan for Higher Education in California in 1959 and 1960, I considered the vast expansion of the community colleges to be the first line of defense for the University of California as an institution of academic renown"; and

Whereas this restrictive view sees the California Community Colleges as lesser institutions, and implicitly prescribes for California Community College students diminished futures as compared to their four-year counterparts, and is reflected in the chronic underfunding of the community colleges; and

Whereas the expectations of the people of California are consistent with a view of the California Community Colleges as full partners in higher education and as key contributors to California's educational goals, and these expectations are reflected and confirmed in such things as:
The mission of the community colleges, articulated in the Education Code, which commits the community colleges to providing;
The first two years of undergraduate college education; and
Workforce development, which involves actualizing the potential of California's human capital;
The perception of the California Community Colleges by the public and their legislative representatives as gateways to higher education for the economically and academically disadvantaged;
The perception of the California Community Colleges as centers for retraining and for the upgrading of job skills;
The recognition and acceptance of California Community College courses and programs by their intersegmental partners, the University of California and the California State Universities; and

Whereas the legislative Joint Committee for the Development of a Master Plan for Education, Kindergarten through University, is currently engaged in writing a Master Plan for education in California,

Resolved that the Academic Senate urge the Joint Committee for the Development of a Master Plan for Education, Kindergarten through University to seize the opportunity
To affirm the position that the California community colleges are institutes of higher education, whose students are deserving of the same educational opportunities offered in the four-year institutions;
To acknowledge that the California Community Colleges are full partners in California's higher education enterprise and that California Community College students are worthy of the same level of support in their educational pursuits as their counterparts at four-year colleges and universities; and
To advocate vigorously for funding the California Community Colleges at a level that corresponds to their role as equal partners in California higher education and as key contributors to the efforts of California's citizens to realize their potential--academic, social, and economic--through education.