Whereas, There are over 6,000 approved certificate and degree programs in the California Community College System (System) inventory of programs and courses and approximately 51% of these need to be reviewed at least every six years while the other 49% (Career Technical Education programs) need to be reviewed every two years, resulting in the need to review 2,000 programs every year system-wide;
Whereas, Legal Opinion 08-02 (2008 October 1) established new strictures by which districts can claim apportionment for “TBA” (To Be Arranged) hours, strictures that many community college labs, including foreign language labs, did not or simply cannot meet;
Whereas, The foreign languages discipline universally recognizes labs as necessary, successful delivery modes for improving student learning outcomes;
Whereas, Transfer Model Curricula (TMCs) provide a faculty-developed structure to the major component of Associate Degrees for Transfer (ADTs);
Whereas, The California Community College Chancellor’s Office develops templates for degree submission derived from the TMC; and
Whereas, Degree templates and their implementation should align with the intent of the faculty who developed the TMC;
Whereas, In September 2013, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office adopted the 5th edition of the Program and Course Approval Handbook and modified the courses that could be used in the major component of Associate Degrees for Transfer (ADTs) by inserting the following sentence: "A 'P' (Pass) grade is not an acceptable grade for courses in the major” (p. 89);
Whereas, Colleges and districts that enroll students living in other states in distance education courses may be required by those states to enter into state authorization agreements in order to enroll those students, which can be burdensome to institutions and can result in thousands of dollars in fees to a state, even for a single student;
Whereas, The proposed 34 CFR §600.9(c) states:
Whereas, Lifelong learners from our communities often provide the necessary talent and personnel required to allow core courses in the performing arts (e.g., dance and theater productions, orchestras, bands, and ensembles) to remain viable and allow community college students to transfer into four-year performing arts degree programs;
Whereas, There are no current guidelines facilitating colleges’ development of processes that allow credit and not-for-credit students to be concurrently enrolled in the same section of a course; and
Whereas, Hiring criteria, policies, and procedures for new faculty members are within the purview of the academic senate, as denoted in California Education Code §87360;
Whereas, The application of locally agreed to policies and procedures requires accurate and verifiable data;
Whereas, Faculty obligation number (FON) calculation worksheets for each district detailing compliance with Title 5 §51025 were posted on the Chancellor’s Office website from 2006 - 2011, but were not posted in 2012; and
Whereas, The 2013-2014 Budget Act enacted the Governor’s Online Education initiative to expand access to online education in the California Community College System and allocated $16.9 million for that purpose and furthermore the Chancellor’s Office established the California Community College Online Education Initiative program to realize this legislation through the creation of the Online Course Exchange (“Exchange”) operated through the California Virtual Campus, with the development contract for the Exchange awarded to a district or consortium of colleges and/or districts through a comp
Whereas, California’s community colleges are heavily regulated;
Whereas, Some Title 5 regulations may be problematic for all constituency groups; and
Whereas, A review of and changes in some select regulations could be of benefit to our colleges without altering long-instituted practices intended to ensure the quality of our educational offerings;
Whereas, The recently signed SB 1440 (Padilla, 2010) intends to improve the ability of students to transfer from California community colleges to California State Universities (CSU);
Whereas, The impact of this law will potentially affect enrollment patterns and other existing patterns of service and instruction provided to students by California community colleges;
Whereas, While the bill requires research on student transfer and success rates, nothing in SB 1440 (Padilla, 2010) requires research into possible unintended or undesirable consequences; and