Equity and Diversity

Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has a demonstrated commitment to diversity through its committee actions and initiatives as stated in the Diversity Policy and Executive Committee Code of Ethics;

Whereas, Diversity of faculty in community colleges is not reflective of the student population, and there is a paucity of minority leaders in community colleges; and

Whereas, The Academic Senate has passed several resolutions indicating the need to develop effective Equal Employment Opportunity plans and diversify faculty hires;

Whereas, A survey of honors programs in the California community colleges found that most of the respondents did not keep student equity or transfer data and the data that was submitted suggests that students who participate in honors programs may not reflect the diversity of California community college students as a whole; and

Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has long supported student equity as a part of student success;

Whereas, The Center for Student Success recently published a document entitled "Basic Skills as a Foundation for Student Success in California Community Colleges";

Whereas, This document addresses effective practices for basic skills, assessment tools, and methods to estimate costs and downstream revenue for basic skills programs; and

Whereas, Student success and equity are greatly impacted by the effectiveness of the System's Basic Skills Initiative;

Whereas, All candidates seeking faculty appointments in California community colleges are asked to respond to screening questions about their sensitivity to and experience with others from diverse backgrounds;

Whereas, Screening questions to ascertain this sensitivity to and awareness of different cultures, abilities, and experiences are often generic and difficult to evaluate, partly because of legal requirements and partly because these questions are rarely used as a screening mechanism; and

Whereas, A significantly high percentage of students from historically underrepresented populations are enrolled in the California Community College System;

Whereas, Faculty are seeking to increase their knowledge base regarding diversity curriculum infusion and teaching strategies for our diverse student population;

Whereas, Access to high quality, current, seminal research and resources helps foster greater cultural competency; and

Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has long supported student equity as a part of student success, but many colleges continue to have inequitable student success rates;

Whereas, Research into effective practices in student equity has been conducted since the Academic Senate's last review of such research; and

Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges is a key player in the Basic Skills Initiative, and extensive research has been done on basic skills inequities and effective practices that increase student success;

Whereas, Many colleges focus their equity and diversity efforts at the institutional level;

Whereas, Current institutional research and information technologies provide faculty and staff access to detailed data at the program and course level for use in improving retention and success rates and addressing equity and diversity barriers; and

Whereas, Many faculty may find it difficult to use the data effectively in their equity and diversity decisions at the course, program, and curricular levels if they do not know how to interpret the data properly;

Whereas, Co-curricular programs significantly impact student transfer success and access by enabling students to attain scholarships and transfer acceptance to universities and professional schools (i.e., law school and medical school);

Whereas, Many universities are using `holistic' application processes in response to the June 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled that the University of Michigan's undergraduate admissions process was unconstitutional, and consequently, co-curricular participation directly impacts a student's transfer success;

Whereas, Title 5 54220 required each California community college to submit a student equity plan by January 31, 2005;

Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges adopted the revised Guidelines to Developing a Student Equity Plan, and the Board of Governors adopted the "Equity and Diversity Task Force Report" (Fall 2002); and

Whereas, Local academic senates have a formal commitment to equity and diversity;

Whereas, The California community colleges have had a difficult time attracting a diverse pool of candidates for faculty positions;

Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has a long history of support for principles of equity and the value of diversity; and

Whereas, There is a lack of qualified, diverse graduates applying to our college districts;