Equity and Diversity
Support for Students with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Status
Whereas, Faculty throughout the country are concerned about the reported potential ending of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which has allowed undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States before their 16th birthday prior to June 2007 to remain in the United States under specific conditions and to apply for renewal of this program every two years;
Support for Marginalized Students
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) embraces equity principles for all in its Values Statement[1] which states that the ASCCC “works to empower faculty from diverse backgrounds and experiences in order to promote inclusiveness and equity in all of their forms” and supports this same principle as applied to all students and staff;
Demographic Data Collection of Multiple Identities
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has recognized the benefits to students, faculty, and the California Community College System gained from the variety of personal experiences, values, and views of a diverse group of individuals with different backgrounds in its Inclusivity statement of June 1, 2012;
Whereas, Oftentimes colleges collect demographic data through tools that limit choices and therefore provide an incomplete and distorted understanding of their campus culture(s);
Support for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transsexual/Transgender (GLBT) Students and Staff
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges is consistent in its unflagging efforts for student success for all students and has a long-standing tradition of support for underrepresented minority students in the State of California;
Whereas, Each community college's support of the psychological health of every student in the California community colleges is important;
Student Progression and Achievement Rates (SPAR) and Socioeconomic Status
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;
Creation of Diverse Hiring Committees
Whereas, Diversity, for the purposes of hiring committees, should not be limited to ethnicity and culture, but should also consider, but without establishing quotas or compromising the professional expertise of the committee, the factors of age, gender, and sexual identification and orientation, as well as disability status;
Support for the Efforts of the Umoja Community
Whereas, Umoja (a Kiswahili word meaning "unity") is a community and critical resource that serves as an umbrella for several efforts and groups dedicated to enhancing the cultural and educational experiences of African-American and other students as well as to increasing student retention, persistence, and success;
Adopt the “Practices that Promote Equity in Basic Skills in California Community Colleges” Paper
Whereas, Credit and noncredit basic skills and English as a Second Language (ESL) serve the most diverse student population in higher education in the world;
Whereas, Equity should include not merely equitable access but also equitable support and equitable outcomes;
Whereas, As cited in the paper Practices that Promote Equity in Basic Skills in California Community Colleges, current research shows that basic skills and ESL work in California community colleges does not typically have equitable outcomes; and
Adopt the “Student Equity: From Dialog and Access to Action” Paper
Whereas, Student equity remains an important goal for California community colleges as students become more diverse, and the state needs more educated citizens to assure economic growth and social well being for everyone; and
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges was directed in resolutions 3.01 F05 and 3.02 S07 to update the 2002 paper Student Equity: Guidelines for Developing a Plan and integrate student equity data into program review;