Report 2022-113 Recommendation 5 Responses

Report 2022-113: California Community Colleges: Increasing Full-Time Faculty and Diversity Remains a Challenge (Release Date: February 2023)

Recommendation #5 To: Community Colleges Chancellor's Office

To ensure that districts appropriately use the funds designated for hiring full-time faculty, the Chancellor's Office should, by August 2023, implement a policy to verify that the districts are using the funds for their designated purpose.

6-Month Agency Response

SB 117 (2023) amended Education Code to add sections 87890 through 87894 which outline additional reporting requirements for the Chancellor's Office and for districts as a condition of receiving full-time faculty hiring funds. Education code section 87893 specifies that the Chancellor's Office adopt a policy requiring districts to submit evidence of expenditures and the Chancellor's Office to provide technical assistance and guidance and follow-up on any discrepancies. The Chancellor's Office is developing a policy and procedures for these monitoring activities and will apply the procedures to information reported by districts in March 2024.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

We will evaluate whether the Chancellor's Office's implementation of the requirements of SB117 also represent implementation of this recommendation when it finalizes the relevant policy and procedures.

60-Day Agency Response

Districts annually report their full-time equivalent faculty attributed to both full-time and part-time faculty and these reports are publicly available on the Chancellor's Office website. In addition, district financial reports, including expenditures for salaries and benefits, are audited annually and publicly available on each district's website.

Through the consultative process required by law, the Chancellor's Office will initiate a systemwide conversation to discuss potential revisions to monitoring, oversight, and annual reporting related to full-time faculty hiring funds. Specifically, this topic is included for discussion on the agenda for the May 11, 2023, meeting of the Chancellor's Office Fiscal Affairs Advisory Workgroup.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: No Action Taken

The Chancellor's Office's response indicates that it has not yet initiated actions to implement this recommendation to implement a policy to verify that the districts are using full-time faculty hiring funds for their designated purpose.

All Recommendations in 2022-113

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.