March

On July 15, Governor Davis issued the following statement: "I strongly support community service and believe that a service ethic should be taught and re-enforced as a lasting value in California . . . I want our students to understand, as generations before them did, the importance of contributing to their communities . . . ." He called on the three public systems of higher education to work toward the development of a community service requirement for undergraduate students.

This year the Academic Senate will initiate a new award: The Regina Stanback Stroud Diversity Award. The Executive Committee named the award after the 1993-95 president of the Senate because of her commitment to Diversity. Regina has originated, advanced, and implemented many programs and policies that have significantly increased the ability of the California community colleges to serve the diverse population of the state, including student equity and affirmative action in faculty hiring.

Efforts to increase the numbers of California community college students who transfer to University of California (UC) campuses may get a boost from recently released findings. A Summary of the Academic Performance of California Community College Students following Their Transfer to the University of California, by Steve Handell, presents a very positive picture of California community college students who transfer to UC in terms of persistence and graduation rates. This report includes the following points:

The Intersegmental Committee of Academic Senates (ICAS), representing the faculty of the University of California, California State University, and the California Community Colleges, has been working over the past year on a very important project on articulation and transfer. Based on faculty-to-faculty dialogues across the state, the project will address issues related to lower division, pretransfer major preparation. Conceived of as an ongoing project that will systematically address clusters of disciplines on a five-year cycle, the project has first begun to address the sciences.