Name that Section - Frequently Used Education Code and Title 5 Sections for Community College Districts

Name that Section: Frequently Used Education Code and Title 5 Sections for Community College Districts



Education Code section 87360 subdivision (b) (regarding faculty

consultation on hiring procedures);



The detailed Title 5 regulations for EEO Plan development

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and recruiting

and hiring procedures,

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for both academic and classified hiring;



Your district’s EEO plan and programs, and your district’s hiring

procedures, developed in conformance with the Title 5 regulations; and



Your district’s participatory governance policies, procedures and past

practices.

Read together, these constitutional, statutory, regulatory and policy mandates create two

competing legal obligations: the mandated commitment to diversity on the one hand, and the

prohibition against discrimination on the other. The challenge for community colleges is

navigating the narrow and sometimes elusive path that satisfies both these mandates.

This challenge is well illustrated by the State Legislature’s response to Prop. 209, which

exemplifies how difficult it is to carve out lawful hiring practices that will, nonetheless, assist

colleges and other public employers achieve workforce diversity.

B. T

ROHIBITION

GAINST

ISCRIMINATION

1. T

“P

-P

ROPOSITION

209”

ANDSCAPE

Both federal and state law have long prohibited discrimination in hiring. Compliance with these

statutes remains essential in any hiring process and the Title 5 regulations and

Model Equal

Employment Opportunity Plan

and Guidelines

published by the California Community Colleges

Chancellor’s Office require that screening and selection committee participants be familiar with

this area of law.

a. Federal Law

Federal law—constitutional and statutory—prohibit discrimination in hiring. In particular,

community college personnel involved in the hiring process (including those sitting on screening

and selection committees) should be familiar with Title VII, the Americans With Disabilities Act

(“ADA”) and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”).

Hiring personnel and screening committees should also be aware that the gender equity

requirements of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 apply in the employment arena,

as well as the student arena.

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b. State Statutory Law

California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA),

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like Title VII, prohibits

discrimination in hiring. However, the two statutes are not identical. Government Code section

12940 subdivision (a) states, in part, that it is unlawful: