Still More on the Need for a New Master Plan

UC President Clark Kerr
hands the Master Plan to Gov. Pat Brown in 1960

From EdSource: The board of governors overseeing California’s 116 community colleges... is expected to discuss proposed bachelor’s degrees that have been blocked by California State University. The board is scheduled to meet Tuesday in Sacramento. The meeting agenda includes a discussion item on the system’s baccalaureate degree program. State law allows the community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees so long as they fill a local workforce need and don’t duplicate what’s offered by the state’s four-year universities. 

More than 50 bachelor’s degrees are currently offered or will be offered soon at community colleges across the state, but several other proposals have stalled because of objections from CSU campuses, which argue the degrees would duplicate what they offer. In total, 16 proposed degrees are in limbo, including seven initially proposed in 2023. The local community colleges have grown increasingly frustrated, believing their proposed degrees are not duplicative and would serve students who otherwise would not pursue a bachelor’s degree. 

The board is not expected to take action at Tuesday’s meeting, but the discussion could clarify whether some or all of the degrees will be approved soon...

Full story at https://edsource.org/updates/community-colleges-board-to-discuss-bachelors-degrees-amid-csu-objections.

Even during the 1950s, a period of rapid growth in California, there was a sense is that there wasn't enough money for higher ed if everyone did everything. That's why the Master Plan came about. Surely, there are more constraints on resources now than there were back then. (Nobody ever heard of Medi-Cal back in the 1950s, because that state program didn't exist. Nowadays, state and local governments cover a broader field than they did in the 1950s.)