Calif. higher ed officials pledge to cooperate

By Larry Gordon, Los Angeles Times

SAN FRANCISCO — The leaders of California’s three public higher education systems Wednesday pledged more cooperation, particularly in transferring students, while Gov. Jerry Brown urged them to develop more innovative collaborations.

In a rare gathering, University of California President Janet Napolitano, California State University Chancellor Timothy P. White and California Community Colleges Chancellor Brice W. Harris said they want to break through some of the walls set up by the state’s 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education, which established different roles and student enrollment criteria for each sector. Yet they also said they want to maintain the plan’s basic tenets.

Napolitano said she hoped the systems would create a “student-centered” website that could track the academic progress of community college students and keep them on course to transfer to UC or Cal State.

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