It seems as though there’s been nothing but bad news for California community colleges recently, and students and faculty alike are being greatly impacted.

Changes need to be made, and the California Community College Chancellor’s Office assembled the California Community Colleges Student Success Task Force to brainstorm solutions to our many problems. The recommendations they came up with affect almost every aspect of the community college system, from registration priority to educational planning to course offerings. These recommendations could help solve many issues facing the community college system, such as the obvious budget problems and the significant drop-out rate. However, these solutions require considerable effort on the part of both the students and the teachers, and some changes may not be desirable for everyone.

The second chapter of the 76-page report the task force published addresses the lack of progress from many community college students. They blame this on lack of guidance throughout the college process. Many of the recommendations in the report are focused on increasing student success, for example by helping them graduate and perhaps transfer to a four-year school. One of the task force’s main concerns is getting students on a structured path to meet their goals.

One recommendation the task force made is to require students who performed poorly on diagnostic tests (similar to the placement tests many of us take now) and “show a lack of readiness for college” to find a support source, such as a course in student success, which must be provided by the school for new students.

Another suggestion in the same chapter is for schools to highly encourage incoming students to declare a program of study upon admission and to require a declaration after two semesters. If a student does not declare a program of study, the student should be provided counseling and educational planning to help them get on track.

The task force also sees a problem with the community colleges’ priority enrollment

requirements. Currently, priority registration is awarded solely based on accumulation of units. The task force suggests a new set of criteria that will reinforce its mission of creating successful college students.

The task force recommends that continuing students who are “in good standing who are making progress toward a certificate, degree, transfer or career advancement objective” be given priority registration. This would include students who are working on pursuing basic skill building.

The task force also believes continuing students should lose their enrollment priority if they either do not follow their educational plan, are placed on academic probation, fail to declare a program of study by their third semester, or earn more than 100 units.

Financial aid could also be impacted by the suggestions of the task force. They recommend

requiring students who receive Board of Governors fee waivers to adhere to certain conditions: The student must identify a goal for their education and meet “progress standards” (to be determined at a later date), and the number of units covered by fee waivers would be limited to 110.

Course offerings could be directly affected as well. One paragraph in the report details how courses should be funded based on how much they’re included in students’ educational plans. They suggest the state not subsidize any class that is not included in a program of study. They believe this will incentivize schools to push students to come up with a solid path for their educational goals.

These recommendations could be positive or negative, depending on who you ask. On one

hand, the implementation of these policies could increase graduation rates and better prepare students for the workforce. On the other hand, these suggestions mostly require the use of a lot of resources on the part of the school (for instance, creating success courses for new students or having enough counselors for every single student).

These measures will have to be voted on before they can be implemented. There is no definitive date by which the task force thinks these policies will be carried out, but one thing is certain: Our schools are in trouble, which endangers the future and prosperity of our entire state.