2011

Whereas, The distinction between credit and noncredit basic skills courses is locally determined and inconsistent across the state;

Whereas, California Education Code §78300(c) states,

Governing boards shall not expend General Fund moneys to establish and maintain community service classes. Governing boards may charge students enrolled in community service classes a fee not to exceed the cost of maintaining community service classes… and shall maintain uniform accounting procedures to ensure that General Fund moneys are not used for community services classes;

Whereas, Attacks on public higher education from numerous external organizations and agencies are increasing, and in some cases internal groups push agendas to achieve goals inconsistent with the goals of faculty;

Whereas, Responses to attacks on and challenges to California community colleges must be strategic and timely, as well as provide guidance for local academic senates so that they can inform faculty and develop local action, such as writing letters to the editor, visiting or writing legislators, dividing work among colleges, and attending hearings;

Whereas, The California Community Colleges are facing an unprecedented demand for courses and are being forced to prioritize course offerings;

Whereas, Education Code and Title 5 Regulations clearly define the local academic senate’s purview relative to academic and professional matters, and the evaluation of faculty, including counselors and librarians, is a professional matter negotiated by local unions after consultation with local academic senates (Education Code §87610.1);

Whereas, Faculty continue to hear from the Chancellor’s Office, the Legislature, industry, and others that California community colleges cannot respond to industry’s curricular needs in a timely manner;

Whereas, Community college interest in and ability to respond to the needs of business and industry vary, as do local curricular processes;

Whereas, California’s community colleges demonstrated their ability to expedite curricular processes as they sought to develop degrees to comply with the implementation of Senate Bill 1440 (Padilla, 2010); and

Whereas, Intercollegiate athletic programs adhere to the same academic standards for student learning required of all instructional programs (i.e., student learning outcomes, assessment of outcomes, course outlines, class syllabi, program review, and instructor evaluation);

Whereas, Article 1, Section 1, subsection I of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges’ Bylaws states, “General Session: A single scheduled meeting held during the plenary session. There are five general sessions during the plenary session”; and

Whereas, Requiring five general sessions for all plenaries in the Academic Senate Bylaws unnecessarily restricts the ability to structure the plenary activities around what the Executive Committee sees as in the best interests of the attendees and the Academic Senate;

Whereas, Intersegmental faculty, working through the Academic Senates for California Community Colleges and California State University (CSU), and the C-ID System have begun to develop Transfer Model Curriculum (TMCs) for many of the most frequent transfer majors so that colleges will comply with the mandates in Senate Bill 1440 (Padilla, 2010; now California Education Code §66745-66749);

Whereas, Implementation of a rigorous content review process is necessary for application of communication or computation prerequisites on courses in other disciplines; and

Whereas, Faculty have requested assistance on expanding content review processes for interdisciplinary prerequisites, along with examples of processes, data, and suggested conversation starters to begin a comprehensive review of course outlines of record;