The California Community Colleges Honor Assemblymember Paul Fong as Legislator of the Year
Senator Alan Lowenthal given Distinguished Service Award
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott and members of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges honored Assemblymember Paul Fong (D-Cupertino) and Senator Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) for their support of the California Community Colleges and higher education.
Assemblymember Fong was selected as the California Community Colleges Legislator of the Year and Senator Lowenthal was given a Distinguished Service award.
Fong is a member of the Assembly’s Select Committee on Community Colleges as well as a member of the Community College Caucus. Before serving in the Assembly, Fong was a member of the Foothill-DeAnza Community College District Board of Trustees and served consecutive terms as board president. He taught political science at Evergreen Valley College.
“Assemblymember Paul Fong has been a tireless supporter of higher education and the California Community Colleges in particular, and I congratulate him on being named our legislator of the year,” said California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott. “As a former community college district board president, Paul Fong knows how budgets work and exactly what will happen to the state’s community colleges if an all-cuts budget is passed. He continues to fight for the nearly 3 million students that attend our 112 community colleges and it is because of his hard work, his knowledge and his dedication to higher education that we honor him today.”
Through Fong’s legislative efforts, foster youth who age out of the system are now given residency status and do not have to pay out-of-state tuition if their birth parents were not Californians (AB 669). He also authored a bill that was signed into law in September 2010 that will ease community college transfers to the University of California (AB 2302) and one that if passed will provide a more efficient electronic transcript system (AB 1056).
Senator Lowenthal, the chair of the Senate Education Committee, will be honored for legislation that helped the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office fill top positions by allowing access to the Career Executive Assignment pool (SB 629) and for authoring a bill which establishes an accountability framework for the state’s higher education system (SB 721). Lowenthal is a retired professor of community psychology from California State University, Long Beach.
“Senator Alan Lowenthal is a former professor who understands community colleges,” said Chancellor Scott. “He has been a great spokesperson for education, both as the chair of the Senate Education Committee and as a legislator. I am pleased that we can recognize his distinguished service to the California Community Colleges.”
The California Community Colleges is the largest system of higher education in the nation. It is composed of 72 districts and 112 colleges serving 2.76 million students per year. Community colleges supply workforce training, a basic skills education and prepare students for transfer to four-year colleges and universities. The Chancellor’s Office provides leadership, advocacy and support under the direction of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges.