The voice of De Anza since 1967.

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The voice of De Anza since 1967.

La Voz News

The voice of De Anza since 1967.

La Voz News

Students testify in Sacramento

Students, faculty and college representatives filled the state Capitol on Jan. 31 to testify to a joint assembly and senate education committee that was hearing the Student Success Task Force recommendations.

Former DASB senator and current De Anza College student Ali Masood skipped class to attend the hearing at the state legislature. He said he opposes most of the recommendations as well as the proposed statewide budget cuts to community colleges. 

“It went better than I expected,” Masood said of the hearing. “The legislature asked a lot of critical questions from the task force.”

The task force, created by the California community college board of governors, submitted its full report to the state last week. Many recommendations are designed to move students through college faster.

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“The governing board of community colleges endorsed these measures despite overwhelming opposition from faculty and student groups,” Jeffery Michaels, a faculty member at Contra Costa College, told the senate and assembly members after the task force made its presentation.

State assembly chair Marty Block (D-San Diego) applauded the recommendation to mandate education plans for students, but criticized the task force for being biased against low-income students.

Block said taking away BOG fee waivers as a punishment to students not able to meet the new conditions and requirements would be like a “death penalty.”

 De Anza student trustee Emily Kinner has criticized the recommendations as a process to limit access to colleges. She said she felt positive about the hearing because the legislature raised questions that students have been asking for months.

Kinner is also president of the California Community College Association of Student Trustees, which rejected the recommendation on Jan. 28. The Foothill-De Anza board of trustees has not taken a position for or against the recommendations. 

The San Francisco City College board of trustees has formally opposed the recommendations. CCSF student trustee Jeffrey Fang told the legislature, “A mandate without funding is not right, and to blame the community colleges for it, it’s also not fair.”

Student trustee of Ohlone College, Kevin Feliciano, was the only student on the task force and testified at the hearing as well. He is supportive of most of the recommendations but does not support was 110 semester unit cap restriction on the BOG fee waiver.

“We’re wondering where that number comes from, they said a study (said) over 100 units students become less successful, but they don’t ever cite the study,” Feliciano said.

He is also concerned about the possibility of the recommendations not receiving the funds necessary to implement them.

“When you think about the recommendation that would require all students to attend orientation, complete a diagnostic assessment, those are usually done by counselors,” he said.

“Without the resources to do that, those recommendations cannot be implemented, and if they were implemented without the funding, it would be unfair to districts to take resources from other places to be able fulfill that mandate.”

According to the task force’s document, 66 percent of African-American and 69 percent of Latino students fail to transfer to a 4-year institution. San Jose City College associated student body president Mike Casas is concerned that this demographic of students will be most impacted by state budget cuts.

“SJCC faces more than $4 billion in cuts now,” Casas told La Voz. “We are now seeking out a lot of private businesses for funding.”

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