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Header- California Community Colleges, Chancellor's Office Image- CCCCO logo, Two women wearing mortorboards


BRIEFING BOOK ON THE CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGES


BRIEFING BOOK
ON THE CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGES
FOR GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER'S ADMINISTRATION

Table of Contents:

 
I) California Community Colleges (CCCs)
 A) Map of 108 colleges in local communities across California
  i) Attachment, Tab 1: Map of California Community Colleges (link)
 

 
 B) Mission
  i) Transfer: Community college transfer programs make the baccalaureate degree accessible to a broad range of Californians. The transfer function includes two main activities: 1) Transfer support, which includes outreach, academic advising, and the support services necessary for a student to prepare for and enroll in the four-year university of their choice; and 2) Articulation, which provides the necessary intersegmental academic framework to ensure students will be well educated and able to move efficiently to a four-year university. More than 60 percent of CSU graduates and more than 30 percent of UC graduates each year are community college transfer students.
   (a) Attachment, Tab 2:
Report to the Legislature on Transfer Capacity and Readiness in the California Community Colleges (link)
  ii) Vocational: The California Community Colleges are the comprehensive career and technical training system in the state, producing a skilled workforce, from nurses to information technology workers.
   (a) Attachments, Tab 3:
(i) California Community Colleges: California's Largest Workforce Provider (link)
(ii) Find Your Star: California Community Colleges Occupational Program Guide (This fold-out poster is available by contacting our Public Information Officer (link).
  iii) Economic Development: A primary mission of the California Community Colleges, added in 1996, is to advance California's economic growth and global competitiveness through education, training, and services that contribute to continuous work force improvement. (See section 1e, below).
  iv) Basic skills:
Basic skills instruction in the community colleges is the primary means by which California balances the goal of educational quality with the goal of increasing access to postsecondary education for under prepared students, many of whom are from groups that are underrepresented in the state's colleges and universities. It is also the second chance gateway for students who failed to thrive in the K-12 system and who are motivated to accomplish as adults what they were unable to achieve in their youth.
   (a) Attachments, Tab 4:
(i) Board of Governors' Agenda Item 13: Study Session on Basic Skills, July 8-9, 2002 (link)
(ii) Study Session on Basic Skills: Background Data, July 9, 2002 (link)
(iii) Board of Governors' Agenda Item 6.2: Basic Skills: A Report, September 9-10, 2002 (link)
(iv) Basic Skills: Additional Research, September 3, 2002 (link)
  v) Noncredit: Noncredit education provides persons with skills that are critical to their ability to become and/or remain independent and to contribute to the economy of California. It provides adults the opportunity to earn a high school diploma or a general equivalency diploma (GED), increase literacy skills, learn English, learn to read and write, gain American citizenship, become an effective parent, and learn a specific job skill.
   (a) Attachment, Tab 5:
Adult Education and Community College Non Credit Information Hearing, July 29, 2003 (link)
 
 
 C) Who Are Our Students? Students are served by Community Colleges for a wide variety of purposes. The California Community College system is the largest postsecondary educational system in the world. The CCC's serve a huge and tremendously diverse array of students. (Not captured in the data below are those incumbent workers, businesses and others, trained through the use of specialized grants and fee-based education.)
  i) Demographic Profile of CCC Students
  

(a) Total Volume (Count) of Students: The CCC system enjoyed 15 consecutive terms of enrollment growth, but has dropped over 5% of its students in the last two terms.
(b) Student Gender: The CCC system serves a significantly greater percentage of women.
(c) Student Ethnicity: The CCC system is about 60% non-white; Hispanic students are the fastest growing student population.
(d) Student Age: While there has been an increasing percentage of younger students, over half of the CCC students are over the age of 25.
(e) Student Citizenship: Nearly 1 in 5 students is not a U.S. citizen.
(f) Student Goal: After a long decline in the percentage of degree/certificate/transfer-seeking students, this trend began reversing itself in 2002-03.
(g) Student Annual Units Attempted: Only 12½ percent of CCC students take an annual full-time credit-load; 7 of 8 students have a part-time annual credit-load.
(h) Students Receiving BOG Waivers/Pell Grants: Nearly 1 in 5 students take advantage of the Board of Governors (BOG) Fee Waiver program.
(i) Student Academic Preparedness: The average CCC student scores at a less than the 50th percentile level on the high school SAT-9 exam.

     
  ii) How Do Our Students Do?
   (a) Transfer to Four Year Institutions
    (i) Transfers from CCC to the California State University (CSU) and the University of California (UC): Transfers to UC and CSU have shown significant growth in the past four years.
(ii) Transfer-Prepared. The number of students becoming prepared to transfer has also shown growth.
   (b) Degrees and Certificates Conferred
The total number of AA/AS degrees has risen; the number of certificates has not.
   (c) Successful Course Completion
    (i) There was a significant increase in the success rates of all courses in 2001-02.
(ii) The CCC system has increased the volume of successful vocational coursework.
   (d) Basic Skills: The system has been successful in moving students from lower basic skills courses into higher-level ones.
     
  iii) Attachments, Tab 6
   (a) Demographic Profile of California Community College Students
(b) How Do Our Students Do? (link)
 
 
 D) Programs provided for student support: Student Services, including financial aid, counseling, transfer centers, assistance for students with disabilities, tutoring, child care services, and active support for disadvantaged student populations are essential to enable many community college students to succeed. As the numbers grow of students who are the first in their families to attend college, support services are increasingly essential to student success.
  i) Attachments, Tab 7
  

(a) Program Fact Sheets (link)
(b) Preliminary Report to the Legislature: Information on the Impact of the Fall 2003 Fee Increase and Financial Aid Administration Augmentation (link) (exhibit 1) (exhibit 2) (exhibit 3)
(c) EOPS and CARE Annual Report to the Legislature for 2001-02
(d) Credentials Count: How California's Community Colleges Help Parents Move from Welfare to Self-Sufficiency
(e) 2001 Matriculation Program Report to the Legislature

 
 
 E) Community Colleges as key to jobs and rebuilding of the economic engine
  i) The Economic and Workforce Development Program (ED>Net) is a responsive, proven delivery system, targeting ten strategic sectors, which enhance the State's business development priorities, emerging workforce needs and technology deployment challenges.
  ii) The clear economic impact of a community college district on the local economy as evidenced by a recent sample from the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District
  iii) Attachments, Tab 8:
   (a) Community Colleges: The Key to Economic Recovery-The Way California Works
(b) Innovation, Income and Opportunity: Ten Statewide Initiatives that are Getting the Job Done (link)
(c) Fact Sheet: Economic Impact of Chabot College
    
 
 
 F) The State of the System
  i) Attachment, Tab 9: Chancellor Nussbaum's State of the System address, October 1, 2003 (link)
 
 
 G) The access challenge
  i) Summary: The colleges are increasingly unable to meet strong enrollment demand for their programs and services. Budget cuts imposed on the community colleges in 2002-03 and 2003-04 have forced the colleges to reduce course offerings and turn away tens of thousands of students. The grim funding prospects for 2004-05 only promise to make the situation worse.
  ii) Attachments, Tab 10:
   (a) California Community Colleges: Fall 2003 Preliminary Enrollment Report, November 2003 (link)
(b) California's Investment in Public Education: A Look at the Past Three Decades, September 2003 (link)
(c) Access Lost: An Examination of Supply Constriction and Rationing in the California Community College System, September 2003 (link)
 
 
 H) System funding needs
  i) Summary: The Board of Governors' system budget proposal for 2004-05 calls for an increase in spending on community colleges of about 10 percent and an increase in the community college share of Proposition 98 to as much as 10.36 percent. Although this falls short of the statutory promise of 10.93 percent, it still could require as much as 22 percent of the $3.3 billion of additional Proposition 98 funds projected by the LAO in its Fiscal Outlook last November. Given the state's fiscal circumstances, a return to the statutory level probably needs to be staged over several years. The recommended increase in the system budget for 2004-05 totals $512.5 million above current system funding of $4.967 billion.
  ii) Attachments, Tab 11:
   (a) Board of Governors' Proposal for 2004-05 System Budget (link)
(b) The Real Cost Project: Preliminary Report, September 2003 (link)
 
 
II) Board of Governors and the Chancellor's Office: not an ordinary State agency
 A) Role of the Board of Governors: The Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges sets policy and provides guidance for the 72 districts and 108 colleges that constitute the system. The 17-member Board, appointed by the state's Governor, formally interacts with state and federal officials and other state organizations. The Board of Governors selects a Chancellor for the system. The Chancellor, through a formal process of consultation, brings recommendations to the Board, which has the legislatively granted authority to develop and implement policy for the colleges. Additionally, each of the 72 community college districts in the state has a locally elected Board of Trustees, responsive to local community needs and charged with the operations of the local colleges. The governance system of the California Community Colleges is one that uses processes of "shared governance." In March 1988, the Board of Governors adopted a process known as "consultation," through which a council composed of representatives of selected community college institutional and organizational groups assists in development and recommendation of policy to the Chancellor and Board of Governors.
   
  i) Board of Governors' Legislative Program
   (a) Protect and enhance the fiscal integrity of the California Community College system in a difficult economic environment.
(b) Enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the California Community College system by working in partnership with the Legislature, the Administration and the appropriate stakeholders.
(c) Enhance student access and success.
   ii) Collaborative relationship with the local district trustees:
   a Memorandum of Understanding has been forged between the Board and the trustees and it is reviewed annually.
  iii) Attachments, Tab 12:
   (a) Board of Governors Legislative Program (link)
(b) Community College Governance: A Joint Statement of the Board of Governors and the California Community College Trustees (link)
    
 B) Role of the Chancellor's Office: The Chancellor's Office is the administrative branch of the California Community College system. Located in Sacramento, this unique state agency provides leadership and technical assistance to the 108 community colleges and 72 community college districts in California. It is also responsible for allocating state funding to the colleges and districts. The Chancellor's Office operates under the guidance of the Board of Governors, which sets policy and provides long-range planning and guidance to the Chancellor and his staff. The Chancellor's Office includes seven major divisions conducting the business of the system: Executive, College Finance and Facilities Planning; Educational Services; Governmental Relations; Human Resources; Legal Affairs; Student Services and Special Programs; Technology, Research and Information Systems.
  i) Unique role of the system-wide Chancellor's Office
  

(a) Linchpin providing key functions that strengthen and support the whole community college system
(b) Devastating impact of disproportionate budget cuts to this small, unique agency
(c) Comparison with UC and CSU system-wide offices
(d) Simple short-term solution: treat the Chancellor's Office like the system-wide offices of UC and CSU
(e) Attachments, Tab 13:

    (i) Chancellor's Office Funding and Governance Solutions (link)
(ii) Memo, Chancellor's Office Intention to Seek Improved Funding, from Victoria P. Morrow, Executive Vice Chancellor, to Jeannie Oropeza, Program Budget Manager, Department of Finance, December, 2003 (link)
     
 
 
III) Key contact names for additional information
 Mark Drummond, Chancellor
  mdrummond@cccco.edu916-322-4005
   
 Victoria P. Morrow, Executive Vice Chancellor
  vmorrow@cccco.edu916-445-1804
   
 Robert Turnage, Vice Chancellor for Fiscal Policy
  rturnage@cccco.edu916-323-7007
   
 Mary Gill, Interim Vice Chancellor for State Governmental Relations
  mgill@cccco.edu916-323-5951
   
 Dona Boatright, Interim Vice Chancellor for Educational Services
  dboatrig@cccco.edu916-322-6886
   
 Linda Michalowski, Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Services and Special Programs
  lmichalo@cccco.edu916-327-5361
   
 Fusako Yokotobi, Vice Chancellor for Human Resources
  fyokotob@cccco.edu916-445-1605
   
 Patrick Perry, Vice Chancellor for Technology, Research, and Information Systems:
  pperry@cccco.edu916-327-5912
   
 
   
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