Again - The State Needs a New Master Plan

UC President Clark Kerr hand the
Master Plan to Gov. Pat Brown

Just about a year ago, we returned to a periodic theme on this blog: the need for a new Master Plan.* Back in the 1950s, California had UC, the state colleges (now CSU), and the community colleges (often under the same local authorities that ran the K-12 system). The 1960 Master Plan created a division of labor between the three systems. In its original form, it expired in 1975, although folks kept referring to it.

Basically, since that time, CSU has wanted to be more like UC and the community colleges have wanted to be more like CSU. But for a long time, those tendencies were held in check by the Master Plan - or at least the memories of it. But the erosion has accelerated.

From EdSource: A new analysis appears likely to bolster the attempts of some California community colleges to start offering bachelor’s degrees, despite protests from state universities that claim their own programs would be harmed.  For more than two years, proposed degrees from seven community colleges have been effectively blocked by California State University campuses, citing a state law that allows them to object to programs they believe duplicate their own degrees. The degrees would add to more than 50 others that are already offered at community colleges across the state. While officials emphasize that no final decisions have been made to approve the blocked degrees, a recently issued state-commissioned report sides with the community colleges on a pivotal point. The report by the nonprofit organization WestEd suggests that the location of a community college is a relevant factor and that bachelor’s degrees should not necessarily be considered duplicative if the objecting CSU campus is not geographically close to the community college. 

The WestEd report emphasizes that part of the legislative intent of Assembly Bill 927, the 2021 law allowing community colleges to create bachelor’s degrees, was to serve students who are place-bound and can’t leave their hometowns to attend college...

Dozens of new bachelor’s degrees have been approved around California without incident over the past few years. But for the blocked degrees, WestEd was contracted last year to conduct a neutral third-party report. That main report is an overarching analysis of the bachelor’s degrees and the approval process for them. Separately, WestEd also produced college-specific reports for each of the proposed degrees in question. WestEd declined comment for this story. The reports are informational and do not render final decisions. A community college system chancellor’s office spokesperson said discussions with CSU’s chancellor’s office are ongoing, and both systems declined to comment on the nature of those conversations. 

But officials from at least two community colleges say they have been told to expect favorable news as soon as mid-January, when the board of governors for the community college system next meets...

Full story at https://edsource.org/2025/blocked-by-csu-community-college-bachelors-degrees-closer-to-approval-following-new-analysis/747647.

In a way, we are back to the 1950s with no effective plan and lots of ad hoc decisions. But funding for higher ed is constrained. So, some form of a revised Master Plan is needed. For that to happen, however, Gov. Newsom would have to do what Gov. Pat Brown did back in the day and set the process in motion.

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2024/12/a-plan-to-undo-plan.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/01/groping-for-new-master-plan.html.