The governing board that oversees the California Community Colleges (CCC) considered March 21 including diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in the employee evaluation and tenure review process amid enrollment decline, and some have expressed concern, calling it a “divisive measure.”
“We can’t get to improve student outcomes, equitable student outcomes, eliminating achievement gaps and or addressing the issues that have come to this board previously in terms of the number of students that we lose every term until we get to really thinking about what happens in the classroom and the critical role that plays in our student retention and enrollment policies,” Alvarado said to the board.
The proposal requires the Chancellor to establish guidance describing DEIA competencies and criteria for all employees for evaluation and use it as “minimum standards” in all districts.
In addition to faculty, the criteria would also require the administrators and staff members to promote DEIA and anti-racist principles and acknowledge the diversity of students of colleagues.
This regulatory action was questioned by multiple parties such as Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, a non-partisan and non-profit organization that seeks equal rights in public education.
Additionally, the foundation said the action also pushes higher education toward ideological indoctrination and thought conformity through creating a “uniform understanding of how to evaluate” for all employees.
They said that imposing the criteria solely identified by the Chancellor will deprive the collective bargaining right, adding that local involvement is essential to the formation of the evaluation criteria.
“Collectively bargaining evaluation criteria is not only required by law; it is also the best way to ensure that evaluations have the desired impact,” the letter reads.
The CCC governing board will further discuss the proposal at a future meeting.
A spokesperson for CCC did not respond to a request for comment by press deadline.
