The Seymour-Campbell Student Success Act of 2012, or SB1456, will change two major parts and amend 10 sections of California’s education code relating to community colleges, and repeal one.

First, it changes the section regarding matriculation, or all the services that students receive upon entering college like assessments, educational plans, counselor access, and so forth. The idea is to get students to declare majors early and to make a clear path as to where they are going. The second part of the bill has the students who qualify for a BOG fee waiver to meet minimum academic and progress standards or risk losing the fee waiver.

However, students will lose that financial support if they do not keep their grades up, or repeat too many classes. It is too early to know exactly what the standard will be because they have yet to be defined by the Board of Governors.
One proposed solution is to have students enroll in a course that assists them if they fall into trouble in their academic career. But the problem is that the Student Success Task Force’s recommendations have more to do with saving the state money and getting stricter on students than it does with helping them succeed.

The strictness is an incentive for students to pass classes to receive all the counseling, assistance and interventions they need. Of course, how students will get all these services in times of economic shortage is yet to be seen.