Whereas, The physical condition of our college facilities has a direct impact on the ability to execute our educational master plans as they apply to items 4, 5, 7 and 10 of the academic and professional matters as defined by Title 5 regulations, and is an area of review within Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges Standard III.B-Physical Resources;
Whereas, All colleges will soon publish their Student Progress and Achievement Rates (SPAR)1 on their “Scorecard” websites as part of the California Community College System response to the Student Success Task Force recommendations, and the biggest predictor of a college’s SPAR rate is the zip code of students attending that college, with zip code acting as a proxy for socioeconomic status2;
Whereas, SPAR rates will also be disaggregated by ethnicity and published in an effort to encourage colleges to appropriately focus their efforts on reducing existing achievement gaps;
Whereas, California community colleges face the most severe fiscal challenges in their history in the current recession;
Whereas, Many colleges are struggling as a result of problematic leadership at the level of the governing board, while colleges in multi-college districts suffer bureaucracies which provide no direct service to students but consume millions of dollars while class sections are slashed; and
Whereas, Students drop or withdraw from courses for a variety of reasons, both academic and non-academic;
Whereas, Low retention rates are often looked upon negatively without sufficient data to indicate that the reasons students drop classes are beyond the control of the faculty or college;
Whereas, Concerns have been raised about excessive withdrawals and multiple attempts to succeed in a course or program and the potential this creates to preclude the enrollment of other students, not to mention the concomitant fiscal impacts; and
Whereas, Physical education, kinesiology, and athletics courses have come under increasing scrutiny by the Legislative Analyst’s Office;
Whereas, Pilot research indicates that student athletes have higher GPAs, better persistence, greater course success rates, and greater unit completion rates and carry heavier unit loads than the general student body population; and
Whereas, Athletics programs cannot exist without physical education and kinesiology courses that support student athletes;
Whereas, The counseling discipline requires professional education and training at the master’s level leading to appropriate counseling knowledge, competencies, and skills and is a faculty discipline included in the state approved Minimum Qualifications for Faculty and Administrators in California Community Colleges (Disciplines List);
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges adopted in Fall 1994 The Role of Counseling Faculty in California Community Colleges, which affirms the professional role of counseling faculty;
Whereas, The recently signed SB 1440 (Padilla, 2010) intends to improve the ability of students to transfer from California community colleges to California State Universities (CSU);
Whereas, The impact of this law will potentially affect enrollment patterns and other existing patterns of service and instruction provided to students by California community colleges;
Whereas, While the bill requires research on student transfer and success rates, nothing in SB 1440 (Padilla, 2010) requires research into possible unintended or undesirable consequences; and
Whereas, The ever-rising cost of textbooks has become a serious, ongoing problem for the students in the California Community College System;
Whereas, Implementation of H.R. 4127 (2010) will require colleges and faculty to provide detailed information on textbooks on their Internet and printed class schedules and in their bookstores so that students will be able to secure less expensive textbooks for their classes or rent them;
Whereas, Deep state budget cuts in education have necessitated many community colleges to cut their budgets in waves of 2%, 4%, and even 6%, which has often resulted in a comparable reduction in course sections offered;
Whereas, Both the University of California and the California State University systems have also had reductions in their budgets, causing them to raise entrance requirements and reduce enrollment, which has displaced many of their traditional students, who have since sought enrollment in the community colleges; and
Whereas, SB 1440 (Padilla) established transfer model curriculum degrees (AA-T and AS-T) with a limit of 60 units, and established a limit of 120 units for bachelor’s degrees earned at a CSU for students who transfer with an AA-T or AS-T degree;