The Potential to Be the Most Historic Higher Education Reform Effort of Our Time: Implementation of AB705 As a result of California Assembly Bill 705(AB705, 2017) and California Assembly Bill 1705 (AB1705, 2021), most 1st-year students will enroll directly into transfer level math and/or English courses (Baca, 2021; Lopez, 2022; Melguizo et al., 2022; Sims, 2020). Students once placed into remedial coursework before enrolling in transfer level coursework may need more student support services to ensure course completion and retention (Atkins & Beggs, 2017; Baca, 2021; Cook, 2016; Lopez, 2022; Melguizo et al., 2022; Sims, 2020). The recent implementation of AB705 allows for community colleges to redesign pedagogical practices and restructure student support to address equity gaps and promote student success (Sims, 2020). Prior to AB705, remedial math and English course sequences were often gatekeepers that prevented students of color from completing their educational goals (Bailey, 2015; Bailey et al., 2013; Bragg et al., 2019; McClenney, 2019). As colleges move toward full compliance of AB705 and AB1705, colleges should have a comprehensive understanding of faculty members’ experiences as they implement reform efforts. Faculty perceptions of how the legislation has impacted student equity and success outcomes can inform continued, reiterative, and intentional improvements to reform initiatives. This qualitative study used semistructured interviews of English faculty members to examine if AB705 served as a catalyst for transformative change across academic and student support structures at community colleges. This study uncovered reform recommendations and best practices colleges can implement as they redesign educational support structures at their colleges.

Le mandat est un contrat torturé. Figé dans une définition imprécise et plongé dans une diversification non maitrisée, il est aujourd’hui malaisé de déterminer ce qu’il est. Le contexte familial est symptomatique de cette crise d’identité. Le mandat est un outil particulièrement sollicité par les membres de la famille, dans le but d’organiser leurs relations ou d’anticiper des événements (la vulnérabilité ou la mort) susceptibles de générer certaines difficultés. En tant que contrat, il est peu contraignant à mettre en œuvre et s’acclimate facilement des particularités de ce contexte. Cependant, s’il est en principe l’œuvre consentie de deux personnes, le mandant et le mandataire, cet environnement a révélé qu’il pouvait aussi être imposé par un membre de la famille ou une autorité extérieure, telle que la loi ou le juge. Alors, le mandat se trouve directement altéré dans certains de ses caractères essentiels : sa source (la volonté) ou son effet (la représentation). Ces manifestations originales mettent la notion à l’épreuve et elles invitent à la repenser.La particularité du contexte familial lui imprime assurément une coloration particulière. L’idée est alors séduisante de créer un mandat familial, singularisé, pour se départir d’une définition légale insaisissable et façonner la notion à partir de ses différentes applications. Une telle démarche nuirait pourtant à ce contrat en nourrissant le phénomène d’hyperspécialisation dont il est l’objet. C’est pour cette raison qu’une autre voie doit être empruntée, celle de la redéfinition. Ce n’est qu’une fois doté d’une définition claire et précise que ce contrat pourra, à l’avenir, s’épanouir dans une pluralité de domaines, sans qu’il n’ait à subir, pour cela, de dénaturation. Reconstruit sur de solides critères, indispensables à sa bonne qualification et à la nécessaire requalification de ses usurpations, le mandat s’affranchira de sa fongibilité actuelle et des nombreuses confusions qui en altèrent la compréhension. / The mandate is a tormented contract. Fixed in a broad definition and shot through an uncontrolled diversification, it is currently hard to determine what a mandate is. The family context is symptomatic of this identity crisis. The mandate is a tool which is particularly used by the members of the family, as it is suitable for organizing the family relationships, as well as for anticipating events, such as vulnerability or death, that may create some difficulties. As a contract, it is not excessively burdensome to implement, and it deals easily with the particular features of the context. If it is normally the result of the will of two persons, the principal and the agent, nevertheless, the family context revealed that the mandate could be imposed by a family member or an external authority, such as the law or the judge. The mandate is thus directly corrupted in its essential characteristics : its source (the will) or its effects (the representation). Those original phenomena test the mandate and prompt to rethink the notion. The particularities of the family context give it a very specific ring. Therefore, it is an appealing idea to create a singled out family mandate, in order to divest from an elusive legal definition, and to shape the notion using its various applications. However, such an approach would be damaging the contract, feeding the hyperspecialization to which it is subjected. That is why another course must be taken : the mandate must be redefined. Once given a clear and precise definition, the mandate will be able to fulfill itself in many areas, without suffering any distorsion. Rebuilt on solid criteria, allowing to sort out good classifications from usurpations, the mandate will be liberated from its current fungibility and from the numerous confusions which are now detrimental to its correct understanding.