As many of you know from news reports in the SF Chronicle and elsewhere, Senator Darrell Steinberg has proposed a law (SB 520)that would mandate that students in the UC, CSU, and community college systems who cannot gain access to specific courses be permitted to take the courses elsewhere (including online from for-profit organizations) provided there is minimal oversight by the system in which they are pursuing degrees (and we mean minimal). Senator Steinberg is a progressive legislator who has been a forceful advocate for the educational system (and many other causes). However, although the legislation is well-meaning, it undermines the independence of faculty even while it offers only a stopgap to the real problem: inadequate financial support for the public higher educational system in California. While we work to ensure that the system can provide the kind of access for which it was designed by Clark Kerr, which means funding by broad-based progressive taxation rather than rationing of classes and higher tuition, we must preserve the public mission of the public higher educational system, that is, to provide coursework and degrees which serve no one but the public’s purpose.
Our colleagues at UC, Berkeley have started a petition to voice opposition to Senator Steinberg’s legislation. We urge all faculty at UCSF to sign the petition.
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Dear Colleagues,
The Berkeley Faculty Association is deeply concerned by Senator Darrell Steinberg’s attempt to force the UCs, CSUs, and Community Colleges to accept credit for online courses from any source. Please help us convince him to pull or amend his bill by signing the petition at the link below.
http://signon.org/sign/uc-faculty-opposition?source=c.em.cp&r_by=985930
Thanks
on behalf of the Berkeley Faculty Association
— Shannon Steen Associate Professor Department of Theater, Dance, Performance Studies Program in American Studies UC Berkeley
For more information on this impending legislation, see the various links at:
http://utotherescue.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-academic-senate-and-others-respond.html