Articulation and Transfer

Whereas, At the September meeting, the California Community Colleges Board of Governors adopted the system-wide goals outlined in the California Community Colleges (CCC) Vision for Success, including a goal which states “Increase by 35 percent the number of CCC students systemwide transferring annually to a UC or CSU;”

Whereas, The Associate Degrees for Transfer have created significant opportunities for California community college students to transfer into the California State University (CSU) system;

The 2010 document has been revised to include the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Mathematics that were adopted by the California Legislature shortly after publication and release of the original version. A section on Mathematical practices has been added (see Part 3 on page 6), and Appendix B was rewritten to map the CCSS to the expectations of ICAS.

Whereas, Assembly Bill 440 (Beall), in an attempt to remove perceived barriers to transfer for community college students, recently proposed legislation that would remove local autonomy for degrees by placing degree requirements into statute and could effectively lead to legislative curriculum dictates;

Whereas, Placing any degree requirements in statute is in direct contradiction to Education Code §70902(b)(7), which clearly puts responsibility for curriculum and academic standards under the joint responsibility of the local board and the academic senates of a district;

Amend second resolve:

Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges support the establishment of degrees that do guarantee transfer admission to a four-year institution and consist solely of courses that are transferable;

MSR Disposition: Referred to the Executive Committee to address redundancy and conflicts with other resolutions and return in Fall 2010.

Whereas, There is great interest in establishing transfer associate degrees in the California community colleges, and the components and value-added of such degrees have not been defined;

Replace the second whereas:


Whereas, Transfer students who complete a minimum of 60 baccalaureate units, including general education and major preparation coursework, are experiencing a delay in reaching their educational goals due to the competitiveness for university admission as well as the disproportionate and excessive fee increases, making a bachelor’s degree out of reach for many California community college students;

Whereas, The California community colleges have multiple missions, one of which is to prepare students for transfer, and do an exemplary job of providing transfer students with their lower-division baccalaureate education;

Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges continues to work with the Chancellor’s Office and with our intersegmental partners through the Intersegmental Committee of Academic Senates (ICAS) to implement the Course Identification Numbering System (C-ID) that would accomplish these major objectives: (1) Respond to legislative mandates to create a course numbering system for individual courses, course sequences, and patterns of courses to serve intersegmental needs; (2) Rely upon intersegmental, disciplinary faculty from University of California (UC), California State Univ

Whereas, California State Senator Alex Padilla has authored a bill, SB1440 (2009), which has appropriately raised an issue of public concern regarding the gap between the increasing percentage of jobs in California calling for a minimum of an associate's degree and the number of those degrees awarded by California community colleges;


Whereas, The bill also raises a legitimate concern for those students entering community colleges with the intent to transfer to a baccalaureate awarding university who end up with neither a baccalaureate nor an associate's degree; and

Whereas, Issues regarding transfer and degrees are an important area of faculty responsibility and concern;


Whereas, Numerous external organizations have created legislation, initiatives, and policy suggestions about California community college transfer;


Whereas, Proposals to increase transfer are often lacking in adequate understanding of the issues and are occasionally even harmful or misdirect students; and