Introduction
This paper is the third revision of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges’ (ASCCC) paper on equivalency adopted by the delegates to the plenary session in 1989. The original paper was intended to help local academic senates develop policies and procedures in response to Education Code §87359, which requires that each district’s governing board and academic senate jointly develop an equivalency policy. This revision was called for by resolution in Fall 2014 and adds new considerations and content called for by faculty subsequent to the 2006 version. The Fall 2014 Resolution 10.01 states,
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges survey the field to identify local practices for establishing equivalence to minimum qualifications, including the use of eminence; and
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges revise the paper Equivalence to the Minimum Qualifications and bring it to the body for adoption at the Spring 2016 Plenary Session.
Like the 2006 revision, this revision provides a more thorough discussion of equivalency than the original paper and the 1999 revision. It also includes the legal opinion from the General Counsel of the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office distributed December 23, 2003, which upholds the prohibition on single-course equivalencies. In addition, it includes results of the Academic Senate’s 2015 survey on equivalency practices in California community colleges. The concepts discussed in the first three equivalency papers remain substantively unchanged in this paper; however, this update includes practical suggestions and considerations inserted to help local senates in refining their policies and procedures regarding this important academic and professional matter.