Despite a bumpy start and an abrupt change in its leadership, California’s new online college is on track and moving in the right direction, the chancellor of California’s community college system told state senators Thursday.
“While at times the road has been rocky, I believe Calbright is well on its way to achieving the objectives the Legislature established and that my office expects of them,” Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley told senators at a joint oversight hearing at the State Capitol Thursday.
Calbright College, which began admitting students last fall, is intended to provide online courses to older workers who are already in the workplace, but need additional skills to advance in their careers, and has been in a startup mode since it was approved by the Legislature in 2018. It has also been the target of fierce criticism from several unions representing faculty and other workers at the community colleges.
Four senators — led by Sen. Richard D. Roth, chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 1 on Education, and Sen. Connie M. Leyva, chair of the Senate Education Committee — questioned Oakley and Tom Epstein, who serves as president of both the Calbright board of trustees and the board of California Community Colleges.