Whereas contract education has become increasingly important to many community colleges, not only as an alternative means of serving the educational needs of the community, but also as an alternative means of generating funds independent of normal sources, and
Whereas the interest of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges in contract education is to ensure that the academic integrity of individual colleges and of the community college system is upheld while engaging in educational partnerships that are mutually beneficial, and
Whereas it is our belief that academic integrity is best maintained by the involvement of local faculty, and
Whereas this involvement is particularly critical in the areas of course development, faculty hiring, and faculty evaluation, and
Whereas the principle that local faculty are responsible for ensuring that quality courses be taught by qualified instructors is included in Title 5 and in AB 1725, a principle which applies equally to courses offered through contract education, and
Whereas another concern of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges is that colleges while engaging in contract education not lose sight of the mission of the California Community Colleges in the areas of transfer education, vocational education, and basic skills Education, and that any other motive be secondary to fulfilling this mission,
Resolved that the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges reaffirm that local senates:
1. Develop procedures that will use the same approval processes used for contract credit and noncredit education courses as are used for regular credit, noncredit and not-for-credit courses respectively, and
2. Remind their districts to use the minimum qualifications that were developed for credit and noncredit disciplines respectively when hiring faculty to teach contract credit and noncredit education courses, and
3. Determine how faculty are hired to teach contract credit and noncredit education courses in their districts, and
4. Work within their districts to ensure that when hiring faculty to teach contract credit and noncredit education courses, these faculty are hired by following the procedures that have been established for hiring regular credit and noncredit faculty.