President's Update | April 2022

April 5, 2022

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

It is hard to believe that the Spring 2022 ASCCC Plenary Session is only days away.  Like the Fall 2021 session, this event will be a hybrid, with more than half of the attendees meeting in-person in Burbank and the remaining attendees online.  This upcoming plenary will be exciting for a number of reasons.

This event will be the first time since the Spring 2019 Plenary that the spring plenary session will have an in-person component: the Spring 2020 Plenary was canceled due to Covid-19, and last year’s spring plenary was entirely virtual.  The theme for this year is “Strengthening Teaching, Leading, and Learning Through Racial Justice and Academic Freedom.” The last few years have seen an erosion of faculty rights in the classroom, both in the K-12 and higher education systems across the country, as well as recognition of a need for reform to address the issues around systemic racism in public education.  This plenary session is themed around those specific topics and what faculty leaders need in order to continue to teach, lead, and learn.

This plenary also marks a return to in-person elections and live election speeches.  Beginning with the 2020 Executive Committee elections, candidates pre-recorded speeches and voting occurred electronically, including the use of immediate runoff voting, which was approved by the delegates at the Fall 2019 session. This year we will be using two platforms to conduct voting: RankedVote for the elections to the Executive Committee and PollEverywhere for resolution voting. PollEverwhere is the same platform that we have used in resolution voting since the fall 2020 plenary. Because of the need for two different softwares, elections will be conducted on Saturday morning and will be followed by resolution voting. If special elections are needed, they will occur immediately after lunch on Saturday. This session will therefore be jam-packed, but it will also take everyone yet another step closer to a return to the pre-pandemic world.  Delegates who are not able to join the plenary in-person will be able to vote using both platforms as well.

The spring plenary will also mark the first major ASCCC event since the adoption of the organization’s official IDEAA acronym to address the many issues that we are working on around the state. Inclusion, diversity, equity, anti-racism, and accessibility have driven our work for many years, but the adoption of this official acronym by the Executive Committee at its March 2022 meeting further solidifies that commitment. Some of these efforts have focused around hiring practices, including the ASCCC’s participation in and support of Title 5 changes regarding evaluations and Equal Employment Opportunity regulations. We are also working with the Chancellor’s Office on an updated version of the best hiring practices manual that was initially released in 2016, and we hope to be doing a roadshow in the fall to discuss changes that can be made to local hiring practices; more information will be forthcoming in the next few months. In addition, the ASCCC and the Chancellor’s Office have been working together on a diversity, equity, and inclusion model principles and practices tool that colleges can use to begin conversations on how to redesign practices with an equity-minded framework.

Considerable progress has occurred in the work around the creation of transfer model curricula in the four major fields within ethnic studies (African American/Black studies, Asian American studies, Latino/a/x studies, and Native American studies). In addition to this work, delegates at plenary will have the opportunity to approve the creation of minimum qualifications for two new disciplines, Asian American studies and in Native American studies. The Transfer Alignment Project workgroup continues to meet to reexamine UC transfer pathways that may align with transfer model curriculaum (TMC). Currently, the workgroup is consulting with the Intersegmental Curriculum Workgroup to determine whether more than one TMC can be created per discipline. Work is also taking place with C-ID to pull together documentation of the process and policies that shape the work of C-ID and the creation of descriptors and TMCs. The ASCCC thanks all of the faculty working to bring these changes to realization. 

One of the major topics at the forefront of discussions about academic freedom and racial justice is the proliferation of legislation directed at the California community colleges. This weekend, attendees at the plenary will hear about many of these pieces of legislation, and on Saturday delegates will have the opportunity to provide direction to the Executive Committee about a number of bills that impact curriculum, academic freedom, and the courses offered at community college campuses. One can follow the various pieces of legislation in the ASCCC’s monthly legislative report and reach out to the ASCCC at info@asccc.org with any questions or concerns. Work continues to move forward around AB928 (Berman, 2021), which called for several changes to the way colleges operate, including the automatic placement of students on an ADT pathway and a single general education pattern for students transferring to the UC and CSU systems.  Because this discussion impacts all three segments of public higher education, implementation is being initially worked on by a subcommittee of the Intersegmental Committee of Academic Senates along with the respective administrations and student governments of the three segments. The expectation is to have a recommendation regarding the single general education pattern for students intending to transfer to the UC and CSU by the end of this academic year.

Many faculty are likely aware of AB 1705 (Irwin, 2022), a piece of legislation going through the legislative process now. The ASCCC has been working with Assemblymember Irwin’s Office to make amendments to the bill language. In particular, the ASCCC has conveyed to the Assemblymember’s Office the following:

• Students should have agency to choose the courses that best meet their academic needs and educational program goals;
• Placement and enrollment are two distinct actions done either by the college (placement) or the student (enrollment) and should not be conflated;
• Students enrolled in CTE programs and other programs that do not require transfer-level English or math should be exempt from this bill; and
• Colleges should not eliminate pre-transfer level courses as a whole to address any issues regarding placement.

The resolutions packet up for discussion and debate at the spring plenary session contains multiple resolutions on this legislation. We encourage your college to come to plenary session and be prepared to discuss and vote on the action that our the ASCCC should take related to this legislation.

As always, the ASCCC is grateful to all of the practitioners in the community college system who continue to do good work serving students and helping them reach their educational goals. We look forward to seeing many of you this weekend at the plenary, whether virtually or in person.  

Happy Spring,

Dolores

Dolores M. Davison
President, Academic Senate for California Community Colleges

List of Upcoming Events

• April 6, 2022
  Executive Committee Meeting - Burbank
• April 7-9, 2022
  Spring Plenary Session - Hybrid Event/Burbank
• May 6, 2022
  Executive Committee Meeting - Sacramento
• May 12-14, 2022
  Career and Noncredit Education Institute - Hybrid Event/Costa Mesa
• June 3, 2022
  Executive Committee Meeting - TBD
• June 16-18, 2022
  Faculty Leadership Institute - Hybrid Event/Sacramento

Upcoming Webinars

• April 15, 2022
  10:30am - 11:30am
  Licensing Level 2
• April 22, 2022
  10:30am - 11:30am
  Creating Accessible OER
• April 22, 2022
  9:30am - 10:45am
  ASCCC and Rising Scholars Mellon Grant Project: Webinar 2 – Preparing for a Fall Return
• April 25, 2022
  2:00pm - 3:00pm
  Equity and Anti-Racism in Academic Freedom
• April 27, 2022
  9:00am - 10:00am
  CTE Coffee Hour - Double Duty Gateway Courses