[Senate] [Message from Academic Senate Chair Lee] FW: Individual letters opposing AB 1749

[Cherysa P Cortez]

Sent on behalf of Senate Academic Senate Chair Sang-Hee Lee
Dear Senate members,

AB 1749 is a bill to guarantee transfers to students with Associate Degrees for Transfer (ADT), instead of UC Transfer Pathways. UC Senate opposes the bill because Associate Degrees for Transfer do not prepare students adequately for majors at UC. Please consider acting on the following request from the Senate special committee on transfer issues.

Thank you,
Sang-Hee

---
Sang-Hee Lee
Professor of Anthropology
Chair of the Academic Senate
University of California Riverside

=================
Begin forwarded message:

From: Jim Chalfant <000004ce9f397ffc-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UCOP.EDU<mailto:000004ce9f397ffc-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UCOP.EDU>>
Subject: [ACSCOTI] Individual letters opposing AB 1749
Date: June 23, 2023 at 4:07:21 PM PDT
To: ACSCOTI-L at LISTSERV.UCOP.EDU<mailto:ACSCOTI-L at LISTSERV.UCOP.EDU>
Reply-To: Jim Chalfant <jim at PRIMAL.UCDAVIS.EDU<mailto:jim at PRIMAL.UCDAVIS.EDU>>



Dear ACSCOTI Members,

I'm sorry this comes late on a Friday.  Bill, Onuttom, and I have worked on this today to try to add some backing to the Senate and UC statements, from individuals within UC.  This will keep until Monday, if necessary, but hopefully we can all make some progress over the weekend.

As you know, the Academic Senate stands in official opposition to AB 1749, which would force UC to guarantee admission to students earning the Associate Degrees for Transfer designed for CSU, instead of using the UC Transfer Pathways.  The Academic Council has also opposed the legislation in the letter below, and an official UC opposition letter has been submitted to the CA Senate Education Committee that will vote on the bill Wednesday morning. The Academic Senate letter is available at

https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/reports/ab-1749-oppose-20230623.pdf

But we are not done yet, as it is still possible that the Education Committee will pass it, and then almost surely the full California Senate will pass the law and then the Governor will sign it.  So we need your help in organizing an email campaign to go to the seven members of the Education Committee, to ensure they read the official UC position and vote to send the bill back to the Assembly.

Below you will find a short email message that you can send to any faculty or administration colleagues whom you think might wish to help, asking them to join us in sending messages to the seven members of the Ed Committee asking them to oppose.  Please take care of this right away because we want all the emails sent by close of business Monday, if possible so that each legislator's staff can record the message. Instructions are in the message.  Each email will only take a few minutes, since the links are provided and sample messages (which individuals can modify as they choose) can simply be pasted in.

We also ask that you note the following UC policy concerning advocacy letters:

Only the system can take an official position on state legislation.  Letters written by faculty, administrators, or staff may be submitted by them as private, concerned citizens, may not be on university letterhead, and titles may be used for identification purposes only.

Although the system has already taken an official oppose position, your personal position will also be heard, and it is important for members of Senate Education to know how widespread the opposition is.  Instructions for this process are given below, along with a sample email of opposition.  Since you are placing your message on the legislature's portal in a small box, you will not use letterheads, so there is no concern with that, but you can identify who you are so that the legislature knows your expertise.

Thank you so much.  Please invite your colleagues to pass this message on, especially to department undergraduate vice chairs and other administrators.

Sincerely,

Jim
==============
James A. Chalfant, Professor Emeritus and Chair, Academic
Council Special Committee on Transfer Issues


Message to be sent to individuals.

Dear Colleagues,

The California State Assembly has passed AB 1749 (McCarty, Berman) which if passed would impose a guarantee of transfer admission to the University of California using criteria designed a decade ago for transfer to CSU, based on the Associate Degrees for Transfer (ADT) created by legislation (SB 1440, 2010).  Subsequently, UC created the UC Transfer Pathways that provide Community College students a clear list of courses sufficient for admission to all UC campuses and which would provide them a two-year path to graduation from UC.  In many majors, the ADTs are substantially weaker than the UC expectations and in those cases students whose preparation is limited to an ADT will have to take additional lower division courses before enrolling in upper-division major sequences.  The likely result is a three-year post-transfer path to graduation from UC. There are other majors for which the ADT requires courses that UC does not; these requirements would add to time to degree by delaying transfer.  In short, the ADTs were not designed for UC and do not fit us well.

The Academic Senate and the UC State Government Relations have submitted carefully prepared opposition statements to this legislation that provide data-based reasons why the bill should not pass.  The Academic Senate letter is available at

https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/reports/ab-1749-oppose-20230623.pdf

AB 1749 will be heard in the CA Senate Education Committee this Wednesday and if it passes there it will almost surely pass the Senate and be signed by the Governor. So we are asking you to take five minutes and submit an opposition email to the members of Senate Education as well as the Committee itself. These emails should be submitted by Monday at the latest to be registered by the legislators' staff.

Please note the following UC policy:

Only the system can take an official position on state legislation.  Letters written by faculty, administrators, or staff may be submitted by them as private, concerned citizens, may not be on university letterhead, and titles may be used for identification purposes only.

Since the system has already taken an official oppose position, your personal position will be heard and is important for members of Senate Education to know how widespread the opposition is.  Instructions for this process are given below, along with a sample email of opposition.  Since you are placing your message on the legislature's portal in a small box, you will not use letterheads, so there is no concern with that, but you can identify who you are so that the legislature knows your expertise.   These messages should be short and you can modify the example as you please. The important point is to include that you are OPPOSING AB 1749 (McCarty, Berman).

Basic Information for sending emails of opposition to AB 1749:

To get started go to the CA Senate Education Committee web page
https://sedn.senate.ca.gov/

The members of the Senate Education Committee are:

Josh Newman, Chair, Senate District 29 (Fullerton)
Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh,  Vice Chair, Senate District 23, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties,
Dave Cortese, Senate District 15, Santa Clara County
Steve Glazer, Senate District 7, Contra Costa County
Mike McGuire, Senate District 2 North Bay Area and Northern CA Coast
Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, Senate District 28, West Los Angelas
Scott Wilk, Senate District 21, Lancaster County

To submit letter/comment: From the Education Committee page, except for Senator McGuire click the members name, and when you reach the member's page use the contact go to the upper right corner link.  Then enter your name, email and the select and issue button.  Here there is some variation in choices between the members, but mostly the choice is legislation. Then below that enter your short message to oppose AB 1749.
For Senator McGuire you must use direct email:  senator.mcguire at senate.ca.gov<mailto:senator.mcguire at senate.ca.gov>

Sending an email will at most take a few minutes. Thank you!

Sample Message #1

Dear Senator X,

I am asking you to oppose AB 1749 (McCarty, Berman) when it is heard on Wednesday in the Senate Education Committee.  This bill would impose a guarantee of transfer admission to the University of California using criteria designed over a decade ago for transfer to CSU. As a result Community College students will be misled about UC expectations and for many this will add an unnecessary extra year to their time to graduation from UC.  The Academic Senate of the University of California has prepared a data-based opposition document that spells out the reasons AB 1749 will not help transfers to the UC that I ask you to read and consider carefully. It is posted at

https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/reports/ab-1749-oppose-20230623.pdf

If this bill is returned to the Assembly it can be fixed by using the UC Transfer Pathways that will provide students the correct information.

Thank you very much for your time.

Sincerely,

Sample Message #2

Dear Senator X,

I am asking you to oppose AB 1749 (McCarty, Berman) when it is heard on Wednesday in the Senate Education Committee.  This bill is a replica of SB 1440 (Padilla, 2010) which established an Associate Degrees for Transfer that guarantees transfers admission to CSU over a decade ago.  These degrees do not work for UC as was known at that time and is still true today; yet AB 1749 will force UC to take ADT completers as a priority over other applicants who are demonstrably better prepared for their UC major by completing a UC Transfer Pathway. The result will be substantial additional expense to UC because these transfers will have to take many second year courses, post transfer, and these ADT transfers themselves will be shocked to find their lack of proper preparation places them on a 3-year (not a 2-year) graduation plan, after transfer.  The University of California has prepared a data-based opposition document that spells out the reasons AB 1749 will not help transfers to the UC that I ask you to read and consider carefully, and then oppose the bill. It is posted at

https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/reports/ab-1749-oppose-20230623.pdf



Thank you very much for your time.

Sincerely,

__________________________
Cherysa Cortez (she, her, hers)
Executive Director, Academic Senate
University Office Building 221
951.827.6154<tel:951.827.6154>|   cherysac at ucr.edu<mailto:cherysac at ucr.edu>
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE
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