WHEREAS, California Community Colleges currently lack dedicated disability studies courses that count toward the ethnic studies graduation requirement, denying students the opportunity to engage with and understand the critical issues surrounding disability rights, accessibility, and inclusion as part of their academic curriculum;

WHEREAS, California’s legal profession, despite progress, still does not reflect the diversity of the state, with particularly severe underrepresentation for Women, AAPI, Black, Latino/a, Native American and other communities of color, underscoring the need to strengthen and widen the pathway into legal education and legal careers; while White attorneys are overrepresented in California’s attorney population (64 %) compared to their representation in the state’s adult population (37%) and people of color are notably underrepresented in the attorney population (36%) compared to the state’s a

WHEREAS, A significant number of California community college students seek transfer to University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) campuses, and alliances such as UCLA’s Transfer Alliance Program (TAP) have been shown to improve transfer admission outcomes by enhancing students’ “ability to transfer to UCLA at the junior level from a participating California community college” [1] through honors program certification; and research further indicates that “those students who participate in community college honors programs experience minimal transfer shock” [2], demon

WHEREAS, The baccalaureate degree that Moorpark College applied for was deemed to be a duplicate so it was rejected based upon having the same classes that are at the California State Universities [1];

WHEREAS, The California Code, Education Code §78042 has a one sentence clause to allow a California State University or a University of California school to claim duplication and reject any Community College baccalaureate degree program [2];

WHEREAS, California Education Code § 78042 restricts the number of bachelor’s programs to 30 per academic year and prohibits California Community Colleges from offering bachelor’s degrees that duplicate programs already offered by the California State University or University of California systems [1], leading to the Cal State University system campuses consistently interjecting into the bachelor's degree applications, even when the bachelor's degree would not be a duplicate, citing duplicate upper divisional courses, specifically in the case of San Diego Mesa, they had been opposed by CSU

WHEREAS, The 9+1 Student Rights, which encompass grading policies, codes of student conduct, academic disciplinary policies, curriculum development, institutional planning, student success standards, student services, student fees, and other significant policies, currently lack formalized enforcement mechanisms, leaving students without clear pathways to address violations [1];

WHEREAS, Campus safety policies, procedures, and practices including emergency response, law enforcement practices, crime prevention, threat assessment, and safety communications have a significant effect on students and directly shape the learning environment at California Community Colleges; 

WHEREAS, Institutions of higher education are committed to maintaining an inclusive and safe environment for all members of the campus community, including individuals who are dDeaf, Hard of Hearing (HoH), or dDeaf+, who may be unable to hear traditional auditory emergency alerts;  

WHEREAS, Accessible emergency communication is essential to the safety and well-being of all students, faculty, staff, and visitors, particularly individuals who rely on visual cues during emergency situations;  

WHEREAS, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 10 men have experienced domestic violence and 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men will experience physical violence by their romantic partner at some point in their lifetime; [1] furthermore, students of color are statistically more likely to experience sexual violence than their white counterparts[2] with 77% of the students in the California Community College system people of color [3];

WHEREAS, Pursuant to California Education Code § 76140 (d)[1] “The nonresident tuition fee shall be set by the governing board of each community college district not later than March 1 of each year for the succeeding fiscal year… Nonresident tuition fee increases shall be gradual, moderate, and predictable” for California Community College Districts and a non-resident is defined as “any person who has not been a bona fide resident of the state of California for more than one year immediately preceding enrollment”[2], which includes, but is not limited to, out-of-state residents, internation