Disabled Student Awareness

WHEREAS, according to "College Students with Disabilities Are Too Often Excluded" article, “One study shows students with disabilities participate in fewer extracurricular activities, like clubs or on-campus events, than non-disabled peers. This is due to a lack of social inclusion” [1];

WHEREAS, the California Education Code §76061a language stating “or its equivalent” [2] for unit requirements to serve in student government has allowed some California community colleges to raise the unit and GPA requirements to an inequitable level that has reduced access for students of all backgrounds to participate in student body government positions;

WHEREAS, in the 2018 article “Honoring Student Voice: Ensuring Students’ Effective Participation in Governance” by the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, the then president of the organization said, “critical to the success of any effort to improve student success is ensuring that the student perspective is honored, embraced, and valued” [3], which can only be done by increasing advocacy, awareness, and student representation in leadership positions; and

WHEREAS, the Student Senate for California Community Colleges mission is “to pursue policies that will improve student access, promote student success, engage and empower local student leaders, and enrich the collegiate experience for all California community college students” [4] and ensuring students with disabilities are enfranchised to participate in governance is critical for their involvement in college governance; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, that the Student Senate for California Community Colleges advocate for legislation to amend the current Education Code §76061a requirement to allow disabled students on college campuses to be represented on the student body associations;

RESOLVED, that the Student Senate for California Community Colleges work with the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office to communicate that the Education Code §76061a language “or its equivalent” should not be used to decrease equitable access for students with disabilities to participate in student government; and

RESOLVED, that the Student Senate for California Community Colleges hold an annual town hall titled “Disability Awareness Brought to the Forefront” to increase disability awareness, highlight resources available, and share models of effective practices in this area.

Citation 1: Bialka, Christa. “College Students with Disabilities Are Too Often Excluded”, HigherEdJobs, (November 2018), https://www.higheredjobs.com/Articles/articleDisplay.cfm?ID=1762.

Citation 2: California Education Code: Section 76061, California Legislative Information, https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=EDC&sectionNum=76061.

Citation 3: Bruno, Julie. “Honoring Student Voice: Ensuring Students’ Effective Participation in Governance”, Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, (April 2018), https://www.asccc.org/content/honoring-student-voice-ensuring-students%E2%80%99-effective-participation-governance.

Citation 4: “Who We Are”, Student Senate for California Community Colleges, https://studentsenateccc.org/who-we-are/mission.html.