The people of the State of California
do enact as follows: SECTION 1. The Legislature finds
and declares as follows, with regard to the general
background and intent of this act:
(a) The California Community
Colleges face an unprecedented challenge in the
coming two decades, as California undergoes a
major demographic, social, and economic transformation.
The community colleges are at the center of this
change, and the state's future as a healthy and
free, diverse, and creative society depends in
major part upon the commitments expressed through
and in the community colleges.
(b) The community colleges educate
hundreds of thousands of Californians every year,
are the route to higher education for the majority
of our people, provide access to language and
citizenship for tens of thousands of immigrants
annually, retrain workers in an economy changing
more rapidly than any in history, and are the
last hope for older citizens seeking skills and
involvement in their communities. To do these
things well, to bring excitement and power into
the lives of students so diverse and needing so
much, to serve the economy and society through
its service of these students, requires a deep
commitment from all who teach and learn, from
those who administer and counsel, from those who
fund and regulate.
(c) The community colleges embody
an historic commitment to provide an opportunity
for college instruction for all Californians capable
of benefitting from instruction. The community
colleges have historically found their mission
in the statewide scheme for higher education,
the Master Plan for Higher Education, and in local
commitments to meet the needs of different communities:
urban and rural, middle class and poor. From these
sources have come the conviction, and the fact,
that the community colleges ought to provide high
quality lower division instruction for purposes
of transfer to baccalaureate institutions, and
a wide range of courses and programs to meet vocational
and basic education needs. The community colleges
have been notable because they are local and accessible,
diverse in their responsiveness to local needs,
and yet have maintained standards capable of placing
students in any of the state's universities or
in any of the state's industries.
(d) Since the development of
the original master plan, there has been a significant
change in the populations served by the community
colleges, and in the anticipated needs of the
state as we move into the 21st century. The state's
population will grow by 22 percent between 1986
and 2000, from 27 million to roughly 33 million.
By the turn of the century, California will have
a cultural and ethnic pluralism unknown elsewhere
in the mainland United States. Fifty-one percent
of the school age children in 1989 will be minorities;
the majority of the population will be nonwhite
in the following decade. However, there is no
one "minority community;" rather there will be
recent immigrants from Asia and Central America,
the children of today's urban ghettos, and members
of the "working poor." These communities of Californians
will turn increasingly to the community colleges
for language training, job reskilling, technical
education, or the liberal arts.
(e) By the year 2000, California
will be proportionally older; percent will be
senior citizens. California will have more elderly
citizens than any other state in the nation. These
citizens will turn, as they have already, to the
community colleges for continuing education and
job skills.
(f) By the turn of the century,
increasingly more working men and women will come
to the community colleges to acquire job skills
and retraining. In an economy of rapid change
and intense international competition, there will
be much job displacement, sometimes on a massive
scale. The periodic recessions and the unpredictable
collapse of one or more markets, or industries
will cause new students to matriculate to the
community colleges. But inside the economic center
not just at its margins the workers of the future
will need new literacy skills, and more ability
to communicate and learn on their own. When analysts
predict a labor shortage in California by 2000,
the real issue will not be numbers but quality.
The important questions will be whether working
men and women will have the skills required for
jobs of rapid transformation, and whether California
will be able to compete economically with other
states now making massive investment in their
educational systems.
(g) The convergence of these
tendencies--both demographic and economic--lead
to the possibility of an increasingly stratified
society. This can include what has been called
a ``permanent underclass;'' mostly minority, and
a semipermanent, semi-employable stratum of low-skilled
workers. The consequences of this development
would be dire: the permanent underutilization
of the energies and talents of our people, the
deepening of racial resentments and fears, and
the constant anxiety among more and more of us
that the future has no place for us.
(h) The Legislature is committed
to an alternative vision in which California remains
a place of opportunity and hope where innovation
and creativity mark our economy and our culture,
and where the minds and spirits of all our communities
contribute to our common future. The community
colleges will be at the heart of whatever effort
we make to insure that the future is equitable
and open, that California's economy remains healthy
and growing, and that both rural towns and rapidly
expanding urban centers have educational resources
close at hand. The community colleges are not
the only place in which Californians will make
their investment for an expansive and decent future,
but they will have to be one such essential place.
(i) The community colleges once
envisaged as "junior colleges" devoted primarily
to providing middle-class youth with a local option
to the lower-division years of college will be
called upon for the tasks of retraining workers,
teaching English to those recently among us, providing
skills and opportunities for the elderly, providing
a second chance to those who were failed by our
secondary schools, and still providing lower division
transfer education of quality and integrity for
all who want it.
(j) The majority of people in
California welcome this new epoch as a challenge
of unprecedented opportunity. The Legislature
shares this view, and expresses the intent that
sufficient funding and resources of this state
be provided to forge into a new range of educational
engagements for our people. It is important in
this regard to honor those who teach basic skills
and literacy, as well as those who teach Shakespeare
and Plato, to facilitate effective communication
between "vocational" and "liberal arts" departments
in an epoch where all vocations will require deeper
and more subtle forms of literacy, and to build
a new and diverse curriculum which engages all
our diverse students, and demands the best of
their minds and spirits.
(k) The people of California
should have the opportunity to be proud of a system
of community colleges which instills pride among
its students and faculty, where rigor and standards
are an assumed part of a shared effort to educate,
where the hugely diverse needs of students are
a challenge rather than a threat, where the community
colleges serve as models for the new curricula
and innovative teaching, where learning is what
we care about most.
(l) It is the intent of the
Legislature in enacting this act, to strengthen
the capacity of the community colleges to meet
the emerging needs of our state, and in particular,
to better ensure that all Californians are offered
a chance, challenged and taught with imagination
and inspiration, offered assistance and counseling,
and held to honest standards.
SEC. 2. The
Legislature finds and declares the following with
regard to the problems facing the California Community
Colleges, and their mission and functions in resolving
those problems:
(a) As the Commission for the
Review of the Master Plan for Higher Education
noted in its report, and as others have noted,
the decline in the number of students seeking
to transfer from the California Community Colleges
to four-year educational institutions is attributable
to a variety of factors, including, but not limited
to, a decreased number of high school graduates,
a lack of coordination among postsecondary segments
and between postsecondary and secondary institutions,
and the inadequate provision of student financial
aid. This decline represents a serious threat
to the historical objective of the community college
system to provide access to quality education
regardless of personal circumstance. The Legislature
finds and declares that transfer between the California
Community Colleges and California's four-year
public universities is a matter of statewide concern.
(b) If the community college
system is to fulfill its role in meeting the educational
needs of this state in future years, there is
a need for a reinvigorated transfer program in
that system, involving a closer articulation between
the community colleges and the other segments
of public postsecondary education as to educational
programs, expectations, and responsibilities,
and involving the communication of the respective
educational expectations of those segments to
the high schools. The provision of quality transfer
education is a primary mission of the community
colleges.
(c) There is also a growing
need in this state for quality courses and programs
of baccalaureate program quality in the community
college system for students who either do not
desire to transfer to a four-year educational
institution or who already possess a baccalaureate
degree.
(d) Vocational and technical
education is a primary mission of the California
Community Colleges, and programs of study leading
to employment meet the needs of both students
and society. The dramatic changes in California's
economy will require, however, an ongoing and
thorough review of the relevance and responsiveness
of current vocational education programs, as well
as the relationship between those programs throughout
the state.
(e) It is necessary that the
Board of Governors of the California Community
Colleges initiate, through the chancellor's office,
a detailed examination of the implications of
current economic developments and trends for the
development of vocational education programs.
In the agriculture, manufacturing, and services
sectors, new technologies, the reorganization
of production, and the shifting international
context require that review.
(f) Current vocational programs
in the California Community Colleges appropriately
include both academic certificate or degree programs
and short-term jobs skills and retraining programs.
Both are essential to meet the rapidly shifting
needs within the economy. Within many of those
programs, however, there is a need for greater
continuity between the high schools, the community
colleges, and the four-year colleges or universities.
(g) Vocational "tracks" should
have as much connection as possible with courses
in the liberal arts and general education. This
ensures the greatest variety of career options
for students, and addresses a growing conviction
on the part of industry that vocational training
must include a broad variety of literacy skills
beyond technical expertise. The chancellor's office
should initiate a review of the curricular relationships
between vocational and general education programs.
(h) As indicated by the Commission
for the Review of the Master Plan for Higher Education,
there exist patterns of gender and ethnic underrepresentation
in a number of vocational education programs.
For example, in 15 of the 30 largest community
college vocational education programs, over 80
percent of the students are of the same gender.
(i) There is a massive and growing
demand in this state for remedial education, resulting
from a decline in high school academic standards,
the increasing dropout rate, restrictions on funding
of adult education programs in the public schools,
and the growing number of adults seeking basic
skills, language, and literacy training. This
need exists in all ethnic groups, and affects
students from all socioeconomic backgrounds, whether
or not high school graduates. The provision of
remedial education is an essential and important
mission of the community colleges.
(j) The success of the assessment,
counseling, and placement system in the community
colleges depends upon the ability of community
college districts to provide a full range of courses
of remedial instruction and related support services.
(k) The effectiveness of a program
of remedial instruction in offering educational
opportunity to underprepared students requires
better coordination between adult education programs
and community college programs, based upon locally
negotiated agreements between those institutions
for the provision of remedial instruction.
(l) Courses in English as a
second language are vital to California's transition
to a future as a multicultural society in which
men and women of diverse backgrounds can share
a common language, and to the opportunity for
hundreds of thousands of recent immigrants to
become participants in our society. The provision
of English as a second language is an essential
and important mission of the community colleges.
(m) English as a second language
is needed by students having enormously varied
backgrounds as to place of origin and level of
preexisting educational skills, and is therefore
necessary as a means of applying their abilities
in an English-speaking culture, rather than as
an effort to provide remediation or retraining.
(n) Because the programs in
English as a second language currently offered
in the California Community Colleges and the adult
schools are inadequate to meet the growing need
in this state for those programs, it is essential
that the community colleges seek to coordinate
those programs with local adult education schools,
if any.
(o) Adult literacy training
and basic skills education are among the most
difficult challenges facing California education
in the next 15 years, based upon 1980 census figures
showing that over four million adults in this
state, and perhaps up to 25 percent of California's
adult population, may be illiterate.
(p) Illiteracy prevents those
Californians from reading newspapers, work manuals,
and labels on cans of poison, and results in incalculable
costs to this state in terms of lost economic
productivity, higher welfare and public assistance
expenditures, unemployment, crime, social isolation,
and personal exclusion.
(q) Whereas democracy depends
upon an informed and engaged population, the percentage
of our citizens voting in elections is among the
lowest of any democracy in the entire world, a
fact that may be related to our rate of literacy,
which is lower than that of any other industrial
democracy.
(r) Programs in noncredit adult
education, including adult literacy and citizenship
programs conducted in the California Community
Colleges are important and essential functions
of that system. The relationship between those
programs and similar programs offered by other
institutions, governed by a variety of authorities,
requires clarification.
(s) The Legislature should require
that local agreements be entered into between
various educational entities for the provision
of adult literacy training and basic skills education.
SEC. 3. It is
the intent of the Legislature that the California
Community Colleges be governed under an efficient
and flexible system, providing adequate fiscal
oversight and development of educational standards
at the state level, and incentive to design programs
meeting the particular needs of each district
at the local level. The Legislature recognizes
that the California Community Colleges is a statewide
system with common standards and practices governing
local initiative and control. The Legislature
therefore finds and declares that clarifying and
strengthening the respective roles of the Board
of Governors and the Chancellor of the California
Community Colleges will enhance the efficiency
and flexibility of the system.
SEC. 4. The
Legislature finds and declares the following with
regard to faculty, administrators, and staff of
the California Community Colleges:
(a) The California Community
Colleges will face a severe hiring crisis in the
next 15 years. It is estimated that fully 55 percent
of the current full-time faculty will retire in
that period. In this regard there are three major
interlocking issues which must be considered:
(1) There must be guarantees
that the full-time positions which become open
because of the retirement of these faculty members
not be divided into part-time positions that are
less expensive to fill than the full-time positions.
The division of full-time positions that become
vacant into part-time positions is currently occurring
all too frequently. The maintenance of a fully
staffed, full-time faculty is an essential element
of a coherent program.
(2) Competition for qualified
persons is intense, from both other sectors of
education and private business.
(3) Given the emerging turnover
in faculty vacancies, the next 15 years represent
the last major "window of opportunity" to significantly
change the ethnic mix of the faculty during the
next 30 years. It will be imperative for the faculty
to be sympathetic and sensitive to cultural diversity
in the colleges especially when the student body
is continually changing. One means of ensuring
this is for the faculty to be culturally balanced
and more representative of the state's diversity.
(b) If the community colleges
are to respond creatively to the challenges of
the coming decades, they must have a strong and
stable core of full-time faculty with long-term
commitments to their colleges. There is proper
concern about the effect of an over-reliance upon
part-time faculty, particularly in the core transfer
curricula. Under current conditions, part-time
faculty, no matter how talented as teachers, rarely
participate in college programs, design departmental
curricula, or advise and counsel students. Even
if they were invited to do so by their colleagues,
it may be impossible if they are simultaneously
teaching at other colleges in order to make a
decent living.
(c) However, in many areas the
employment of part-time temporary faculty is both
appropriate and necessary, especially in vocational
programs where part-time faculty members may be
practicing professionals in the field.
(d) Decisions regarding the
appropriateness of part-time faculty should be
made on the basis of academic and program needs,
however, and not for financial savings. The Legislature's
concern about abuses in this regard led to the
establishment of the current statutory cap on
part-time employment.
(e) There is widespread concern
about the current tendency to fill "retiring"
full-time positions with multiple part-time positions,
and that there is a financial incentive to do
so. Under current formulae, part-time faculty
receive less money than do full-time faculty,
and do not receive benefits. Thus, proposals concerning
the status and conditions of part-time faculty
will depend upon changes in the pay structure
as well as the overall financing of the colleges.
(f) Changes in the governance
of the California Community Colleges will affect,
and be affected by, current collective bargaining
agreements and the statutes governing those agreements,
and that with regard to jurisdictional matters
and questions of process, there can be considerable
confusion regarding the relationship between collective
bargaining agents, academic units organized through
the colleges including departments and schools,
and the academic senates.
(g) Community college instructors,
recruited directly from graduate school or from
some form of employment other than teaching, may
not be prepared to deal effectively with the wide
range of student abilities and attitudes found
in community college classrooms. As larger numbers
of students from many different cultural backgrounds
and with significant English language and other
deficiencies are enrolled, the problem will become
more serious for both administrators and faculty.
The proposed establishment of a student assessment,
counseling, and placement program on each campus
will also require additional training and assistance
for both faculty and administrators.
(h) Professional development
for faculty, support staff, student services staff,
and administrators is vital. Further, the success
of the assessment, counseling, and placement programs
will depend upon the effectiveness of this training.
(i) The recruitment of faculty
into the community colleges, and the maintaining
of morale and enthusiasm among the faculty depends
in large part upon the intellectual and personal
environment within which faculty work. Much of
that environment is created by their own authority
over the substantive direction of the programs
and courses in which they work, through the quality
of their relationship with the college administration,
and in the quality of their interactions with
the communities of students they teach. At the
same time, it is apparent that faculty morale
comes from their engagement in the development
of new and innovative programs, from their engagement
in professional and discipline-based associations,
and from an active, intellectual life as scholars
and teachers.
(j) Community colleges have
less resources available for faculty professional
and intellectual development than do other segments
of the system of higher education, and this disparity
may become a substantial barrier to the future
recruitment of quality faculty. Yet, faculty in
the community colleges should be no less intellectually
engaged than their colleagues in the other segments.
Their primary commitment to teaching makes it
imperative that they have a vibrant and rich intellectual
life.
(k) The success of the assessment,
counseling, and placement system in the California
Community Colleges will depend upon the commitment
and dedication of trained student services staff.
The importance of their role stretches across
all aspects of community college life including:
counseling, reading and computational assessment
and evaluation, financial aid assistance, providing
and directing tutorial services, providing outreach
into the local community, providing information
to continuing students, and assisting the faculty
in designing and providing courses of study which
meet the particular needs of very different students.
It is essential that the college have adequate
service staff, and that they be superbly trained,
especially in view of the current diversity of
student educational needs in the community colleges.
(l) The tenure system is an
important prerequisite for the maintenance of
academic freedom, continuity in academic and vocational
programs, and development of a faculty committed
to the long-term health of the community colleges.
At the same time, the tenure system is a central
part of the governance of the colleges. Thus,
the determination of standards for tenure, procedures
governing tenure, and the actual granting of tenure
determine in large part the substantive direction
of the colleges.
(m) The current tenure system
lacks adequate participation by the faculty, provides
an inadequate probationary period for the evaluation
of permanent faculty, and does not provide uniform
systemwide procedures for due process and grievance.
(n) It is a general purpose
of this act to improve academic quality, and to
that end the Legislature specifically intends
to authorize more responsibility for faculty members
in duties that are incidental to their primary
professional duties. It is the intent of the Legislature
that, in exercising these increased responsibilities,
faculty members are not deprived of their status
as employees under Chapter 10.7 (commencing with
Section 3540) of Division 4 of Title 1 of the
Government Code. It is also the intent of the
Legislature that the exercise of this increased
responsibility shall not make these faculty members
managerial or supervisory employees, as those
terms are defined in that chapter. There has been
a great deal of uncertainty as a result of the
decision of the United States Supreme Court in
National Labor Relations Board v. Yeshiva University,
444 U.S. 672, 63 L. Ed. 2d 115, regarding whether
increased faculty involvement in institutional
governance and decision making might subject the
faculty members to legal challenges in connection
with their rights of collective bargaining. This
act is intended to enable faculty members who
perform the duties described in subdivision (e)
of Section 87610.1 of the Education Code to avoid
having to choose between collective bargaining
and greater participation in these functions by
ensuring that increased participation in the tenure
system, which occurs as an outgrowth of this act,
shall not subject faculty members to losing their
status as employees under Chapter 10.7 (commencing
with Section 3540) of Division 4 of Title 1 of
the Government Code.
(o) Any set of laws, regulations,
directives, or guidelines regarding community
college faculty and administrator qualifications,
evaluation, hiring, or retention should promote
the efforts of local community colleges to ensure
that their faculty and administration consists
of:
(1) Teachers who can teach and
who are experts in the subject matter of their
curriculum.
(2) Counselors, librarians,
and other instructional and student service faculty
who can foster college effectiveness and who are
experts in the subject matter of their specialty.
(3) Administrators who can lead,
organize, plan, and supervise; who understand
the needs of faculty and the learning process;
and who value institutional governance based upon
a genuine sharing of responsibility with faculty
colleagues.
(p) (1) The laws, regulations,
directives, or guidelines should help the community
colleges ensure that the faculty and administrators
they hire and retain are people who are sympathetic
and sensitive to the racial and cultural diversity
in the colleges, are themselves representative
of that diversity, and are well prepared by training
and temperament to respond effectively to the
educational needs of all the special populations
served by community colleges.
(2) All state and local policies,
rules, and regulations regarding community college
faculty and administrator qualifications, evaluation,
hiring, or retention should strengthen faculty,
administration, and board cooperation in matters
related to those topics. They should also strengthen
the role of the faculty as an authoritative, professional
collegiate body.
(q) (1) In general, the appropriate
focus of minimum qualifications is in helping
the colleges to ensure that they will select faculty
who are competent in subject matter and possess
the basic academic preparation needed to work
effectively at the college level. The minimum
qualifications for all faculty should be the same
except where the application of qualifications
without differentiation would be clearly unreasonable
or impractical.
(2) The minimum qualifications
for administrators should help the colleges to
ensure that they will select individuals who are
competent to perform the kind of administrative
responsibilities that administrators are normally
required to assume, such as supervision, organizational
planning, and budget development and administration,
and who understand the needs of faculty and the
learning process.
(r) (1) The pool of underrepresented
individuals interested in faculty and administrative
positions in the community colleges should be
increased. Furthermore, practical and effective
ways of finding and recruiting those individuals
should be developed and maintained. The state's
leadership in this effort is appropriate and urgently
needed.
(2) The hiring process for administrators
and faculty
(both temporary and permanent)
should be designed so that both faculty and administrators
take real responsibility for meeting affirmative
action goals and ensuring that affirmative action
considerations effectively influence hiring decisions.
(s) (1) No single approach to
hiring faculty can guarantee attainment of the
colleges' affirmative action goals and consistent
selection of qualified individuals. Nevertheless,
any hiring process adopted by a college should
require the joint and cooperative exercise of
responsibility by the faculty, administration,
and board and should reflect the differing source
of each participant's authority and the kind of
responsibility that authority conveys.
(2) The governing board of a
community college district derives its authority
from statute and from its status as the entity
holding the institution in trust for the benefit
of the public. As a result, the governing board
and the administrators it appoints have the principal
legal and public responsibility for ensuring an
effective hiring process.
(3) Faculty members derive their
authority from their expertise as teachers and
subject matter specialists and from their status
as professionals. As a result, the faculty has
an inherent professional responsibility in the
development and implementation of policies and
procedures governing the hiring process.
(4) Beyond requiring a joint
and cooperative exercise of responsibility, the
hiring process should be focused on ensuring that
the community colleges will select teachers who
can teach and who are experts in the subject matter
of their curriculum; and counselors, librarians,
and other instructional and student services faculty
who can foster community college effectiveness
and who are experts in the subject matter of their
specialty. This means that the colleges may establish
criteria for hiring that go well beyond the minimum
qualifications set by regulation. The establishment
of additional criteria of this sort should be
expected and encouraged.
(5) The focus of the hiring
process for administrators is slightly different
from the focus in hiring teachers. In hiring teachers,
the goal is to find people who can teach, but
in hiring administrators the goal is to ensure
that the community colleges will select administrators
who are competent to perform the kind of administrative
responsibilities that administrators are normally
required to assume in the context of the operation
and programs of the community colleges.
(t) The state should provide
the community colleges with enough resources and
a sufficiently stable funding environment to enable
them to predict their staffing needs and to establish
highly effective hiring processes. While the precise
nature of the hiring process for faculty should
be subject to local definition and control, each
community college should, in a way that is appropriate
to its circumstances, establish a hiring process
that ensures that:
(1) Emphasis is placed on the
responsibility of the faculty to ensure the quality
of their faculty peers.
(2) Both faculty members and
administrators participate effectively in all
appropriate phases of the process.
(3) Positions to be filled are
normally identified through a well defined, thoughtful,
planning process.
(4) The time between the announcement
of each position and the selection of a candidate
for hire is long enough to allow a thorough, complete,
and thoughtful search.
(5) Clear and complete job descriptions,
including all job-related skills requirements
and any additional qualifications recommended
by the faculty when appropriate, are prepared
for each position, and these job descriptions
are reviewed before each position is announced,
to ensure conformity with the community college's
affirmative action and nondiscrimination commitments.
(6) All participants in the
process are given appropriate training in affirmative
action procedures and the affirmative action goals
and timetables of the community college so that
success in reaching those goals is better assured.
(7) Individuals, preferably
minorities or women, who are knowledgeable about
and responsible to the community college's affirmative
action goals are included on all selection committees
or similar groups.
(8) Final hiring decisions are,
whenever reasonably possible, made during the
regular academic year and promptly communicated
to the faculty; the expectation that faculty recommendations
regarding the hiring of faculty will normally
be accepted is reinforced; and only in exceptional
circumstances, and for compelling reasons communicated
to the selection committee and to the president
of the academic senate of the college, will someone
be hired as a faculty member who has not been
found to be among the best qualified by the faculty.
(u) The state should provide
the community colleges with enough resources and
a sufficiently stable funding environment to enable
them to predict their staffing needs and to establish
highly effective hiring processes. While the precise
nature of the hiring process for administrators
should be subject to local definition and control,
each community college should, in a way that is
appropriate to its circumstances, establish a
hiring process which ensures that:
(1) Representatives of the faculty
and other employees whose circumstances at work
will be directly affected by the employment of
the administrator participate effectively in all
appropriate phases of the process.
(2) Positions to be filled are
normally identified through a well defined, thoughtful,
planning process.
(3) The time between the announcement
of each position and the selection of a candidate
for hire is long enough to allow a thorough, complete,
and thoughtful search.
(4) Clear and complete job descriptions
that include all job-related skills requirements
are prepared for each position and these job descriptions
are reviewed before each position is announced,
to ensure conformity with the community college's
affirmative action and nondiscrimination commitments.
(5) All participants in the
process are given appropriate training in affirmative
action procedures and goals and timetables of
the community college, so that success in reaching
those goals is better assured.
(6) Individuals, preferably
minorities or women, who are knowledgeable about
and responsive to the college's affirmative action
goals are included on all selection committees
or similar groups.
(7) Final hiring decisions are,
whenever reasonably possible, made during the
regular academic year and promptly communicated
to the faculty and staff.
(v) (1) The evaluation process
should promote professionalism, enhance performance,
and be closely linked with staff development efforts.
(2) The evaluation process should
be effective in yielding a genuinely useful and
substantive assessment of performance. Among other
things, this requires an articulation of clear,
relevant criteria on which evaluations will be
based.
(3) The evaluation process should
be timely. This requires that evaluations be performed
regularly at reasonable intervals.
(4) The specific purposes for
which evaluations are conducted should be clear
to everyone involved. This requires recognition
that the principal purposes of the evaluation
process are to recognize and acknowledge good
performance, to enhance satisfactory performance
and help employees who are performing satisfactorily
further their own growth, to identify weak performance
and assist employees in achieving needed improvement,
and to document unsatisfactory performance.
(5) A faculty member's students,
administrators, and peers should all contribute
to his or her evaluation, but the faculty should,
in the usual case, play a central role in the
evaluation process and, together with appropriate
administrators, assume principal responsibility
for the effectiveness of the process.
(6) The procedures defined by
negotiations should foster a joint and cooperative
exercise of responsibility by the faculty, administration,
and governing board of the community college and
should reflect faculty and administrator expertise
and authority in evaluating professional work
as well as the governing board's legal and public
responsibility for the process.
(w) Faculty tenure fosters academic
freedom and should be maintained. For administrators,
the need for job security justifies appointments
of reasonable duration, but no one should obtain
tenure or permanent status in an administrative
position. A person should be granted tenure as
a faculty member only after it has been determined
through a process of evaluation that he or she
is, and will likely continue to be, a positive
asset to the community college. In other words,
the award of tenure should be an affirmative act,
rather than the result of default. The faculty's
inherent professional responsibility to ensure
the quality of their faculty peers requires faculty
review to be at the heart of the evaluation process
leading to tenure decisions.
SEC. 4.5.
It is the intent of the Legislature that the Board
of Governors of the California Community Colleges
be broadly and equitably representative of the
general public and that appointments to the board
of governors include adequate representation on
the basis of sex and on the basis of the major
racial, ethnic, and economic groups in the state.
SEC. 5. The
Legislature finds and declares the following with
regard to access to the California Community Colleges,
and the importance and value of success to those
who participate in the system:
(a) It is the responsibility
of this state to provide to every Californian
the opportunity to realize his or her intellectual,
emotional, and vocational potential. To fulfill
this responsibility, and to ensure that California
enjoys a healthy economy and society, open access
to a quality community college system must be
affirmed for a diverse student population, which
includes, but is not limited to, recent high school
graduates, senior citizens, persons who are Caucasian,
Black, Asian, and Hispanic, disabled men and women,
persons at a variety of income levels, businessmen
and businesswomen, single parents, women reentering
the work force, high school dropouts, and persons
with baccalaureate degrees.
(b) It is the joint responsibility
of the student and the community college to realize
the student's goals and aspirations, which often
change during the educational experience and which
include such diverse purposes as literacy training,
English acquisition and development both for persons
whose primary language is English and persons
having other primary languages, vocational training,
job reskilling, skills enhancement, and education
oriented toward transfer to a four-year college
or university.
(c) Open access to community
colleges must be assured for all adults who can
benefit from instruction, which access is meaningful
only if supported by a system of assessment, counseling,
and placement that assists students in identifying
their talents and abilities, directs them to courses
that meet their needs, and maintains standards
designed to ensure their success.
SEC. 6. Section
66701 of the Education Code is amended to read:
66701. (a) Public community
colleges shall offer instruction through but not
beyond the second year of college. These institutions
may grant the associate in arts and the associate
in science degree.
(b) Authorized instruction in
the community colleges shall include standard
collegiate courses for transfer to other institutions,
vocational and technical courses leading to or
upgrading, or leading to and upgrading, employment,
general or liberal arts courses, adult noncredit
courses, and community services programs and courses.
However, priorities in the instructional programs
shall be as follows:
(1) The primary mission of the
community colleges is the provision of rigorous,
high quality degree and certificate curricula
in lower division arts and sciences and in vocational
and occupational fields.
(2) The provision of remedial
instruction, English as a second language instruction,
and support services which help students succeed
at the postsecondary level are essential and important
functions of the community colleges.
(3) The provision of adult noncredit
education curricula in areas defined as being
in the state's interest is an essential and important
function of the community colleges.
(4) The provision of community
services courses and programs is an authorized
function of the community colleges so long as
their provision is compatible with an institution's
ability to meet its obligations in its primary
missions.
SEC. 7. Chapter
9.2 (commencing with Section 66720) is added to
Part of the Education Code, to read:
66720. The Board of Governors
of the California Community Colleges, the Regents
of the University of California, and the Trustees
of the California State University, with appropriate
consultation with the Academic Senates of the
respective segments, shall jointly develop, maintain,
and disseminate a common core curriculum in general
education courses for the purposes of transfer.
Any person who has successfully completed the
transfer core curriculum, shall be deemed to have
thereby completed all lower division general education
requirements for the University of California
and the California State University.
66721. Upon development of the
transfer core curriculum pursuant to Section 66720,
and upon any subsequent joint revision of that
curriculum, the Board of Governors of the California
Community Colleges, the Regents of the University
of California, and the Trustees of the California
State University shall jointly cause the curriculum
to be published and distributed to each public
school in this state that provides instruction
in any of the grades 7 to 12, inclusive, and to
each community college in this state, with an
emphasis on the communication of that information
to each school or college having a high proportion
of students who are members of one or more ethnic
minorities. In addition, the Board of Governors
shall distribute that transfer core curriculum
to the State Board of Education, which shall apply
that information to ensure, through its curriculum
development activities, that public school pupils
enrolled in any of the grades 9 to 12, inclusive,
are aware of the academic requirements for preparation
for higher education and may receive any necessary
academic remediation in a timely manner.
66723. No provision of this
chapter shall apply to the University of California
except to the extent that the Regents of the University
of California, by appropriate resolution, makes
that provision applicable.
SEC. 8. Part
43.5 (commencing with Section 70900) is added
to Division 7 of the Education Code, to read:
PART 43.5. THE CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY
COLLEGES
70900. There is hereby created
the California Community Colleges, a postsecondary
education system consisting of community college
districts heretofore and hereafter established
pursuant to law and the Board of Governors of
the California Community Colleges. The board of
governors shall carry out the functions specified
in Section 70901 and local districts shall carry
out the functions specified in Section 70902.
70901. (a) The Board of Governors
of the California Community Colleges shall provide
leadership and direction in the continuing development
of the California Community Colleges as an integral
and effective element in the structure of public
higher education in the state. The work of the
board of governors shall at all times be directed
to maintaining and continuing, to the maximum
degree permissible, local authority and control
in the administration of the California Community
Colleges.
(b) Subject to, and in furtherance
of, subdivision (a), and in consultation with
community college districts and other interested
parties as specified in subdivision (e), the board
of governors shall provide general supervision
over community college districts, and shall, in
furtherance thereof, perform the following functions:
(1) Establish minimum standards
as required by law, including, but not limited
to, the following:
(A) Minimum standards to govern
student academic standards relating to graduation
requirements and probation, dismissal, and readmission
policies.
(B) Minimum standards for the
employment of academic and administrative staff
in community colleges.
(C) Minimum standards for the
formation of community colleges and districts.
(D) Minimum standards for credit
and noncredit classes.
(E) Minimum standards governing
procedures established by governing boards of
community college districts to ensure faculty,
staff, and students the right to participate effectively
in district and college governance, and the opportunity
to express their opinions at the campus level
and to ensure that these opinions are given every
reasonable consideration, and the right of academic
senates to assume primary responsibility for making
recommendations in the areas of curriculum and
academic standards.
(2) Evaluate and issue annual
reports on the fiscal and educational effectiveness
of community college districts according to outcome
measures cooperatively developed with those districts,
and provide assistance when districts encounter
severe management difficulties.
(3) Conduct necessary systemwide
research on community colleges and provide appropriate
information services, including, but not limited
to, definitions for the purpose of uniform reporting,
collection, compilation, and analysis of data
for effective planning and coordination, and dissemination
of information.
(4) Provide representation,
advocacy, and accountability for the California
Community Colleges before state and national legislative
and executive agencies.
(5) Administer state support
programs, both operational and capital outlay,
and those federally supported programs for which
the board of governors has responsibility pursuant
to state or federal law. In so doing, the board
of governors shall do the following:
(A) Annually prepare and adopt
a proposed budget for the California Community
Colleges. The proposed budget shall, at a minimum,
identify the total revenue needs for serving educational
needs within the mission, the amount to be expended
for the state general apportionment, the amounts
requested for various categorical programs established
by law, the amounts requested for new programs
and budget improvements, and the amount requested
for systemwide administration. The proposed budget
for the California Community Colleges shall be
submitted to the Department of Finance in accordance
with established timelines for development of
the annual Budget Bill.
(B) To the extent authorized
by law, establish the method for determining and
allocating the state general apportionment.
(C) Establish space and utilization
standards for facility planning in order to determine
eligibility for state funds for construction purposes.
(6) Establish minimum conditions
entitling districts to receive state aid for support
of community colleges. In so doing, the board
of governors shall establish and carry out a periodic
review of each community college district to determine
whether it has met the minimum conditions prescribed
by the board of governors.
(7) Coordinate and encourage
inter-district, regional, and statewide development
of community college programs, facilities, and
services.
(8) Facilitate articulation
with other segments of higher education with secondary
education.
(9) Review and approve comprehensive
plans for each community college district. The
plans shall be submitted to the board of governors
by the governing board of each community college
district.
(10) Review and approve all
educational programs offered by community college
districts, and all courses that are not offered
as part of an educational program approved by
the board of governors.
(11) Exercise general supervision
over the formation of new community college districts
and the reorganization of existing community college
districts, including the approval or disapproval
of plans therefor.
(12) Notwithstanding any other
provision of law, be solely responsible for establishing,
maintaining, revising, and updating, as necessary,
the uniform budgeting and accounting structures
and procedures for the California Community Colleges.
(13) Establish policies regarding
inter-district attendance of students.
(14) Advise and assist governing
boards of community college districts on the implementation
and interpretation of state and federal laws affecting
community colleges.
(15) Carry out other functions
as expressly provided by law.
(c) Subject to, and in furtherance
of, subdivision (a), the board of governors shall
have full authority to adopt rules and regulations
necessary and proper to execute the functions
specified in this section as well as other functions
that the board of governors is expressly authorized
by statute to regulate.
(d) Wherever in this section
or any other statute a power is vested in the
board of governors, the board of governors, by
a majority vote, may adopt a rule delegating that
power to the chancellor, or any officer, employee,
or committee of the California Community Colleges,
or community college district, as the board of
governors may designate. However, the board of
governors shall not delegate any power that is
expressly made nondelegable by statute. Any rule
delegating authority shall prescribe the limits
of delegation.
(e) In performing the functions
specified in this section, the board of governors
shall establish and carry out a process for consultation
with institutional representatives of community
college districts so as to ensure their participation
in the development and review of policy proposals.
The consultation process shall also afford community
college organizations, as well as interested individuals
and parties, an opportunity to review and comment
on proposed policy before it is adopted by the
board of governors.
70901.5. (a) The board of governors
shall establish procedures for the adoption of
rules and regulations governing the California
Community Colleges. Among other matters, the procedures
shall implement the following requirements:
(1) Written notice of a proposed
action shall be provided to each community college
district and to all other interested parties and
individuals, including the educational policy
and fiscal committees of the Legislature and the
Department of Finance, at least 45 days in advance
of adoption. The regulations shall become effective
no earlier than 30 days after adoption.
(2) The proposed regulations
shall be accompanied by an estimate, prepared
in accordance with instructions adopted by the
Department of Finance, of the effect of the proposed
regulations with regard to the costs or savings
to any state agency, the cost of any state-mandated
local program as governed by Part 7 (commencing
with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of
the Government Code, any other costs or savings
of local agencies, and the costs or savings in
federal funding provided to state agencies.
(3) The board of governors shall
ensure that all proposed regulations of the board
meet the standards of "necessity," "authority,"
"clarity," "consistency," "reference," and "non-duplication,"
as those terms are defined in Section 11349 of
the Government Code. A district governing board
or any other interested party may challenge any
proposed regulatory action regarding the application
of these standards.
(4) Prior to the adoption of
regulations, the board of governors shall consider
and respond to all written and oral comments received
during the comment period.
(5) The effective date for a
regulation shall be suspended if, within 30 days
after adoption by the board of governors, at least
two-thirds of all governing boards vote, in open
session, to disapprove the regulation. With respect
to any regulation so disapproved, the board of
governors shall provide at least additional days
for review, comment, and hearing, including at
least one hearing before the board itself. After
the additional period of review, comment, and
hearing, the board may do any of the following:
(A) Reject or withdraw the regulation.
(B) Substantially amend the
regulation to address the concerns raised during
the additional review period, and then adopt the
revised regulation. The regulation shall be treated
as a newly adopted regulation, and shall go into
effect in accordance with those procedures.
(C) Readopt the regulation as
originally adopted, or with those nonsubstantive,
technical amendments deemed necessary to clarify
the intent of the original regulation. If the
board of governors decides to readopt a regulation,
with or without technical amendments, it shall
also adopt a written declaration and determination
regarding the specific state interests it has
found necessary to protect by means of the specific
language or requirements of the regulation. A
readopted regulation may then be challenged pursuant
to existing law in a court of competent jurisdiction,
and shall not be subject to any further appeal
within the California Community Colleges.
(6) As to any regulation which
the Department of Finance determines would create
a state-mandated local program cost, the board
of governors shall not adopt the regulation until
the Department of Finance has certified to the
board of governors and to the Legislature that
a source of funds is available to reimburse that
cost.
(7) Any district or other interested
party may propose a new regulation or challenge
any existing regulation.
(b) Except as expressly provided
by this section, and except as provided by resolution
of the board of governors, the provisions of Chapter
3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1
of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code
shall not apply to regulations adopted by the
board of governors.
70902. (a) Every community college
district shall be under the control of a board
of trustees, which is referred to herein as the
"governing board." The governing board of each
community college district shall establish, maintain,
operate, and govern one or more community colleges
in accordance with law. In so doing, the governing
board may initiate and carry on any program, activity,
or may otherwise act in any manner that is not
in conflict with or inconsistent with, or preempted
by, any law and that is not in conflict with the
purposes for which community college districts
are established. The governing board of each community
college district shall establish rules and regulations
not inconsistent with the regulations of the board
of governors and the laws of this state for the
govern
