Not Addressed

Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges supports colleges’ individual and collective efforts to define comprehensive degrees and programs of study that promote transfer and gainful career and technical development, provide more viable options for Course Identification Numbering System (C-ID), Transfer Model Curricula (TMC), and associate for transfer degrees, and help offset projected workforce shortfalls, as evidenced in SB 1440 (Padilla, 2010) and the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act;

Whereas, The purpose of the Taxonomy of Programs (TOP) is to collect data and information on but not limited to the following matters: colleges where programs are offered, data on student awards, course enrollment and Full-Time Equivalent Student (FTES) information, spending on instructional programs, and assignable square feet for laboratories;

Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges continues to support Resolution 2.01 F08 opposing the use of student achievement of student learning outcome as a criteria of faculty evaluation;

Whereas, AB 2400 (Anderson, March 2010) seeks to authorize selected districts to offer baccalaureate degrees in specific areas; and

Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges formulates its positions based upon research and careful consideration of the pros and cons of an issue;

Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges study the issues of California community colleges potentially offering baccalaureate degrees and, based upon that analysis, develop a white paper for the body’s consideration no later than Spring 2011.

Whereas a number of organizations and interest groups are presenting themselves as leaders of change in California higher education, and

Whereas the faculty of the California community colleges have the expertise to understand current problems and to develop approaches to the changes that will best respond to the educational needs of California, and

Whereas the faculty are most interested in creating changes that are focused on the broadest range of student, community, and economic needs, and

Whereas, The 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education in California embodies the principle that open access to higher education is fundamental to the interests of the state by providing for an educated populace and a strong, developing workforce;

Whereas, The 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education in California differentiates the roles of the California Community College, State University and the University of California Systems in implementing that plan; and

Whereas, Current Title 5 regulation §55024 allows students to withdraw from a course between the census date and 75% of the way through a course with a grade of "W" that does not affect the student's grade point average and further allows districts to set a local withdrawal deadline any time within that timeframe;

Whereas, Later withdrawal dates may encourage students to attempt courses for which they are not well prepared to succeed, and excessive withdrawals may negatively impact students’ academic progress and may displace other qualified students from courses;

Whereas, The three segments of California public higher education have come to agreement on the competencies needed by students to be successful in college-level mathematics and English, which are expressed in the Intersegmental Committee of Academic Senates (ICAS) documents Academic Literacy: A Statement of Competencies Expected of Students Entering California’s Public Colleges and Universities (Spring 2002) and Statement on Competencies in Mathematics Expected of Entering College Students (April 2010);

Whereas, The 18-semester-unit minimum requirement in a major/area of emphasis for an associate degree was adopted in Title 5 in the early 1980s, and since that time there has been no reexamination by the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges regarding the need for this specific minimum unit total;

Whereas, Many California community colleges delay granting credit for articulated occupational courses that students have taken while in high school until they have completed some minimum number of units at the community college, a practice sometimes referred to as "credit in escrow";

Whereas, National research suggests that the students who do not immediately receive the credit they earned while still in high school never end up taking advantage of the credit, so the intended benefits of this credit are lost; and