The California Community College Student Success Task Force has proposed changes that “have the potential to fundamentally change our campus culture,” according to Academic Senate President Karen Chow.
Politicians, and political motivation for the task force, want community colleges to punch out students, having them come in, spend two years and be transferred onto higher institutions.
The task force want to sacrifice the educational value many colleges are geared towards currently, and put in place a system that would simply add people to the workforce through transfer.
Colleges should reach out to different types of students, of all ages and ethnicities. If the task force recommendations are written into legislation early next year, it will in effect close the door for upwards of 200,000 students.
The report recommends dismantling local college boards and increasing the power of the Chancellor’s office, which would allow the removal of presidents and deans and disenfranchisement of the poorest of the community college students. The task force also proposes implementing a redundant matriculation system that will replace the currently underfunded system. Is this productive? No.
Pre-1970 community colleges were known as junior colleges, institutions that were geared more towards getting people in and out, serving only a small portion of the people. If the task force recommendations go into effect, we will be reverting back to this model, one that leaves many students out of the loop.
Some items in the report have already been removed and redressed because of public reaction and comment. Other parts still need to be addressed, and that change must begin with phone calls, emails to local politicians and the Chancellor himself, letting him know what you think about the recommendations and their possible impact to current and future community college students.
We stand against the Student Success Task Force recommendations, along with other community colleges from around the state. We will make our voices be heard. Will you?
