Education Code 70901 (b)(1)(E) of AB 1725 requires that the board of governors establish “Minimum standards governing procedures established by governing boards of community college districts to ensure faculty, staff, and students the right to participate effectively in district and college governance, and the opportunity to express their opinions at the campus level and to ensure that these opinions are given every reasonable consideration, and the right of the academic senates to assume primary responsibility for making recommendations in the areas of curriculum and academic standards.”
The scope of the academic senate is in the area of academic and professional matters. Students have rights with regard to matters that have or will have a significant effect on students. Staff has rights in areas that have or will have a significant effect on staff. In particular, staff has governance rights in regard to the definitions or categories of positions or groups of positions other than faculty that compose the staff of the district and its college and the participation structures and procedures for the staff positions defined and categorized.
53200(c) Academic and Professional matters mean the following policy development and implementation matters:
Curriculum, including, establish prerequisites and placing courses within disciplines
Degree and certificate requirements
Grading policies
Educational program development
Standards or policies regarding student preparation and success
District and college governance structures, as related to faculty roles
Faculty roles and involvement in accreditation processes, including self-study and annual reports
Policies for faculty professional development activities
Processes for program review
Processes for institutional planning and budget development, and
Other academic and professional matters as mutually agreed upon between governing board and academic senate
51025(b) Students, for the purpose of this section, means the following district and college policies and procedures that have or will have a significant effect on students:
Grading policies
Codes of student conduct
Academic disciplinary policies
Curriculum development
Courses or programs which should be initiated or discontinued
Processes for institutional planning and budget development
Standards and policies regarding student preparation and success
Student affairs planning and development
Student fees within the authority of the district to adopt
Any other district and college policy, procedure, or related matter that the district governing board determines will have a significant effect on students
Matters having a significant effect on staff are not defined in the Regulations except that there is a requirement that a district governing board “reasonably determines, in consultation with staff” that the matter has significant effect on staff [51023.5 (a) (4)].