Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- California Postsecondary Education Commission Coordinating Council for Higher Education
- Abstract:
- The records of the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) consist of 68.5 cubic feet of textual records, 291 audiotapes, 8 videotapes, 1 DVD, and 2 audio reels reflecting the Commission's work as the State's advisory body on higher education. The records date from 1961-2011. Those files that predate 1974 contain materials from the Commission's predecessor, the Coordinating Council for Higher Education (CCHE).
- Extent:
- 68.5 cubic feet of textual records, 291 audiotapes, 8 videotapes, 1 DVD, and 2 audio reels
- Language:
- Languages represented in the collection: English
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The records of the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) consist of 68.5 cubic feet of textual records, 291 audiotapes, 8 videotapes, 1 DVD, and 2 audio reels reflecting the Commission's work as the State's advisory body on higher education. The records date from 1961-2011. Those files that predate 1974 contain materials from the Commission's predecessor, the Coordinating Council for Higher Education (CCHE).
The records are organized into twenty-seven record series: Association Files, Administrative Files, Commission Proceedings, Legislative Files, Resolutions, Reports, Agendas, Subject Files, Community College Files, Faculty and Teacher Files, Student Affirmative Action Files, Student Financial Aid Files, Private Postsecondary Education Files, Roundtable on Educational Opportunity, Federal Program Files, Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education Files, Equal Educational Opportunity Advisory Committee Files, Expanding Educational Opportunities Workshop Files, Academic Program Review Files, Annual Program Review Activity Files, Intersegmental Program Review Council Files, Staff Reports, Agenda Packets, Minutes, Meeting Tapes, Program Review Files, and Chronological Correspondence.
Most of the collection contains materials from the Commission's research on various higher education issues, policies, and programs. CPEC is the State's advisory body on higher education and they provide information and recommendations to the Legislature, Governor, and appropriate governmental offices and higher educational institutions. The Agendas, Minutes, and Meeting Tapes series covers a wide variety of topics which the Commission dealt with at their various meetings. The Community College Files, Faculty and Teacher Files, Student Affirmative Action Files, Staff Reports, and Student Financial Aid Files are research files. The Commission did extensive research in the areas relating to community college function, teacher quality and salary, minority participation in higher education and funding and kept a separate series of file on each topic. The Reports series is the second largest in the collection. As the State's designated clearinghouse for postsecondary education information, CPEC published numerous reports on a wide variety of topics related to California higher education.
Most of the other files relate to the Commission's other duties. The Federal Program Files contain materials related to the Commission's oversight of Title I federally funded programs in California. The Private Postsecondary Education Files contain materials related to the Commission's responsibility to authorize and oversee the awarding of degrees by private education institutions in California, while the Program Review Files as well as all of the series under the Education Policy and Programs Committee relate to Commission's duty to review and make recommendations on proposed, ongoing, and discontinued academic programs at the State's public institutions of higher education.
- Biographical / historical:
-
The California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) was established in 1974 to coordinate public, independent, and private postsecondary education in California as well as provide independent policy analyses and recommendations to the Legislature and the Governor on postsecondary education issues (Chapter 1187, Statues of 1973). It replaced its predecessor as the State's planning and coordinating body for higher education. Its predecessor, the Coordinating Council for Higher Education, was established as part of the 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education (Chapter 49, Statutes of the 1st Extraordinary Session 1960).
In the 1973 "five-year review" of the Master Plan for Higher Education, the Legislature's Joint Committee on Higher Education made sweeping changes to the state's education plan that included replacing the Coordinating Council for Higher Education with a larger organization with more responsibility and purview. The membership of the Commission was increased and strengthened to allow for the majority of its members to be representatives of the people rather than representatives of the segments or the state of California. The Commission's primary responsibilities included ensuring quality of education and cooperation among the segments of California's public postsecondary education system and eliminating duplication and waste of resources.
Additional duties included the creation and maintenance of collection databases capable of documenting performance of postsecondary education institutions, administration of federally funded education programs, acting as the state's clearinghouse on postsecondary education information and as the primary advisor on postsecondary education issues to the Legislature, Governor, and other governmental offices and institutions.
The Commission operates under a board of trustees with 16 members (Chapter 1058, Statutes of 1978), appointed as follows: 9 general public (3 appointments each by the Governor, Senate Rules Committee and Speaker of the Assembly); and 7 institutional (1 appointment each by the State Board of Education, California Advisory Council on Vocational Education and Technical Training, Council for Private Postsecondary Educational Institutions, Private Colleges and Universities, University of California Regents, California State University Trustees, and the California Community College Board of Governors).
The Commission closed its doors on November 18, 2011 following the line item veto of its 2011-2012 fiscal year funding by Governor Brown.
- Acquisition information:
- The California State Archives acquired the California Postsecondary Education Commission Records according to state law.
- Accruals:
-
No further accruals are expected.
- Physical location:
- California State Archives
- Rules or conventions:
- Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard
Access and use
- Location of this collection:
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1020 "O" StreetSacramento, CA 95814, US
- Contact:
- (916) 653-2246