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

v. Hiring Committee Training

As discussed in Section 4 below, EEO Plans must include a component that addresses training

for all employees involved in the hiring process. Also in Section 4, we provide essential

substantive information that should be part of any comprehensive hiring committee training.

D. D

IVERSITY

IRING

URSUANT TO

EDERAL

RANTS

We also note that Proposition 209 provides an exemption for community colleges that receive

certain federal grants. Specifically, Prop. 209 provides that it shall not be interpreted “as

prohibiting action which must be taken to establish or maintain eligibility for any federal

program, where ineligibility would result in a loss of federal funds to the State.”

177

“State” is

defined to include community college districts. This exemption addresses districts operating

under federal grants that require diversity planning. In this situation, the district is exempt from

Prop. 209. Whether this exception is triggered is a fact-specific question and the Chancellor’s

Office recommends that districts consult legal counsel regarding whether they are in fact a

federal contractor, whether their current EEO plans are different from federal regulations, and

whether there is a risk of legal challenge prior to relying on this exception.178

Section 9

IVERSITY

LANS IN THE

OMMUNITY

OLLEGE

ONTEXT

: C

REATING YOUR

QUAL

MPLOYMENT

PPORTUNITY

LAN

The Community College System and Legislature have long recognized the nexus between the

community colleges’ ability to serve California’s diverse population, and the diversity of its

workforce. Indeed, they have sent a clear message that, “the vitality and stability of California

will thrive in direct proportion to its ability to foster productive citizenship in this diverse,

multicultural environment [and that] [t]he community colleges play a major role in ensuring

educational opportunity and success for all of California’s people . . . .”

179

As an example of this commitment, since 1999, a minimum qualification for all community

college administrative and academic positions has been “a sensitivity to and understanding of the

diverse academic, socioeconomic, cultural, disability, and ethnic backgrounds of community

college students.”

180

While any individual—regardless of race, ethnicity or gender—can possess

(or lack) such “sensitivity,” the Board of Governor’s implementing regulations have historically

treated this language as requiring hiring procedures designed to address and correct the exclusion

of underrepresented groups and to encourage diversity in hiring. In short, sustaining a diverse

workforce has been both a mandate and a vision for California’s community colleges.

However, as discussed above in our summary of the legal backdrop, the passage of Proposition

209 limited the methods community colleges may use to diversify their student population and

workforce. In the face of this shift, community colleges have essentially been mandated to “stay

the course” and develop Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Plans, and Hiring and