The California Community College system recently entered into partnerships with Google, Microsoft, and Instructure, the parent company of Canvas. These partnerships have led to a suite of artificial intelligence (AI) tools being directly integrated into the Canvas Learning Management System. While these tools have the potential to enhance teaching and learning, their implementation also raises important questions about faculty workload, intellectual property rights, data privacy, and academic freedom. It’s imperative that faculty are aware of these issues and actively engage in discussions about them, including at the bargaining table.

Academic senates must address aspects of these AI tools through 10+1, particularly as they relate to student success, retention, and professional development. At the same time, it is essential not to overlook that these tools carry significant implications for faculty working conditions.

AB 1705 is bad policy and will cause a significant set-back to both equity and education for California’s most-underserved students.

Imagine yourself in a restaurant. You know what you want to eat and you know what condiments you want to add.  But the menu says you can only do that after you’ve consumed ten servings of ketchup.  That was the basic skills scenario ten years ago when students were often required to take a long sequence of remedial courses that resulted in poor success rates and low transition into college transfer courses.

The rapid and extreme pendulum swing from the Basic Skills Initiative (BSI) that began in 2006 and culminated with the full implementation of Assembly Bill 705 in the fall of 2019 swept away advantages for a vast number of students, even as it has helped others. The unintended negative consequences of AB 705 could have been eliminated by blending the best of AB 705 and BSI together with common sense.

BSI created foundational classes that prepared students for higher math or qualifying tests like the ASVAB military test or TEAS nursing test, as well as satisfying other goals such as self-improvement and job advancement. Yet AB 705 focuses almost exclusively on increasing the number of transfer students.