Whereas, Representatives of the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office have recently claimed publicly that Legal Opinion L 03-28 [1], which deems single-course equivalency illegal, could be reversed as a means to meet the Strong Workforce Program goal to increase the numbers of industry experts serving as Career and Technical Education (CTE) instructors, a reversal which is contrary to the established Academic Senate for California Community Colleges position in opposition to single-course equivalency as established by its adoption of Resolution 10.09 S02;
Whereas, Single-course equivalency or single-course qualification would result in colleges hiring faculty who are not familiar with the full range of curriculum offered within the discipline, and who would not be able to convey to their students the connections between the single courses they are qualified to teach and the other courses that are part of the broader program of study, which would undermine existing standards for faculty minimum qualifications and the quality of instruction;
Whereas, To be a faculty member in the California Community Colleges is to be a member of a profession that has professional standards, such as minimum qualifications for academic and/or professional experience preparation, which deserve to be respected; and
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges adopted Resolution 10.02 S16 which supports working with discipline faculty to identify more narrowly defined disciplines within existing CTE disciplines while ensuring that existing standards for faculty minimum qualifications remain high and the integrity and quality of instruction is not undermined;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges strongly object to efforts by representatives of the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office to permit single-course equivalency as established in California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office Legal Opinion L 03-28; and
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges strongly urge the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office to support Academic Senate for California Community Colleges’ efforts as the representative of all faculty on academic and professional matters to work with CTE discipline faculty to develop solutions that enable more industry experts to teach CTE courses without weakening faculty professional standards and instructional quality.
MSC
1. Legal Opinion L 03-28: http://extranet.cccco.edu/Portals/1/Legal/Ops/OpsArchive/03-28.pdf