Mid-year cuts restored.
Whereas, Governor Davis has proposed cutting the current Fund for Student Success (FSS) by $10 million, thereby seriously reducing this much needed source of grant monies that enable local colleges to establish and institutionalize innovations shown to be of direct benefit to students and which colleges would not otherwise be able to bring to scale;
Whereas, FSS has proven to be a cost effective approach as all grants are subject to annual performance evaluation, require that funded programs or services be institutionalized with local funds within three years, and generally promote the development of regional as well as collegewide approaches and models;
Whereas, FSS funding categories:
have historically included programs or services that address the needs of at-risk students, including first generation college students;
presently provide the main source of funds for the system to promote learning communities, foster student equity, and extend community service-learning;
provide planning and start-up funds for sizable projects that colleges could not otherwise accomplish, such as the establishment of teaching and learning centers and comprehensive mentoring programs which foster ongoing pedagogical innovation and curriculum development; and
currently support projects that would have to be discontinued or abandoned should the funding be so drastically and abruptly cut; and
Whereas, FSS has also served as a primary source of funds for intersegmental collaborative efforts and priorities established by the Intersegmental Committee of Academic Senates, including:
intersegmental joint faculty projects that develop linkages and address key areas of articulation, transfer, and curriculum alignment between the segments of higher education;
graduate student internship programs to support efforts to build a more diverse and representative faculty and to address anticipated discipline shortages; and
"pipeline projects" to enable current community college students, particularly those from historical underrepresented groups, to become community college faculty;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate urge the Governor and the Legislature to reconsider the proposed cuts to the Fund for Student Success-a cost-effective means to address system priorities by institutionalizing and bringing to scale proven local innovations of direct benefit to students; and
Resolved, That the Academic Senate work with the Chancellor's Office and the Board of Governors, as well as with other community college groups and individuals, to mount an educational campaign to educate the Governor and the Legislature regarding the importance of the Fund for Student Success.