Top Takeaways
- Community colleges in San Diego and Ventura counties recently received approval to offer bachelor’s degrees in fields such as cyberdefense and physical therapy.
- The programs faced opposition from California State University, but community college officials took the rare step of approving them anyway.
- With some proposed degrees delayed for years, community college supporters are considering a 2028 ballot measure to make it easier to get degrees approved.
Moorpark College in Ventura County will offer a program in cyberdefense. At San Diego Mesa College, students will be able to get a degree as a physical therapy assistant. And at Southwestern College in San Diego County, students can study urban planning in the CaliBaja region and earn a degree in transborder environmental design.
Those are among the newly approved bachelor’s degree programs at California community colleges — despite objections from California State University to all three degrees.
It’s the latest development in an ongoing clash between the state’s two largest higher education systems over what kinds of bachelor’s degrees should be offered across the 116 community colleges.
State law allows community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees in fields with a labor market need as long as they don’t duplicate what’s offered at CSU and other four-year universities. About 60 degrees have been approved, most of them without much debate. But disagreement over what counts as duplication has left more than a dozen proposed degrees stuck in limbo, in some cases for years.
The community colleges have argued that they are often best positioned to offer students bachelor’s degrees that will train them for in-demand jobs in their local communities. They contend that CSU campuses located in different regions don’t have a genuine claim of duplication, since many community college students are place bound.
CSU, however, has regularly argued that location is not a relevant factor. Its campuses, including some struggling with enrollment and wary of losing potential students to community colleges, have objected to degrees across the state.
Until now, top California community college officials, who have final decision-making power, have typically not approved degrees that face active objections from CSU campuses.
By approving the programs at Mesa, Moorpark and Southwestern, they essentially overruled CSU, believing they had enough information and evidence to move forward. That includes years of deliberations with CSU campuses and a recent report from the research nonprofit WestEd. The report, commissioned by the community college system, examined CSU’s objections to 16 proposed degrees and suggested duplication would be minimal for several of them. The programs at Moorpark and San Diego Mesa had been in limbo since 2023, and the Southwestern program since early 2025.
Blocked by CSU, community college bachelor’s degrees closer to approval following new analysis
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“It is worth noting that an objection is not a finding of duplication,” James Todd, the community college system’s vice chancellor of academic affairs, said in an email, adding that the chancellor’s office uses a “multi-stage, evidence-based, and deliberately rigorous approval process.”
In an email, CSU spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith said the 22-campus system was not aware of the latest approvals but clarified that CSU is still objecting to those three degrees.
Frustrated by CSU’s opposition, some lawmakers and advocacy groups in Sacramento are moving to make it easier for community colleges to create the degrees.
The Legislature this year could consider Senate Bill 960, which would restrict four-year universities from bringing duplication objections unless they are located near the community college.
And the Community College League of California, an advocacy group, is floating the idea of a future ballot measure to do the same.
A poll commissioned by the League found that 80% of likely 2028 voters in California favor more community college bachelor’s degrees. The results of the poll, conducted by the firm FM3 Research, were shared at last week’s Community College Baccalaureate Association conference held in Long Beach.
Larry Galizio, CEO of the League, said the plan is to present the polling results to state lawmakers and candidates in the upcoming gubernatorial election, with the preference being to “go through the legislative process” and change state law.
“But if it comes to it, we will look to see, can we put something on the ballot?” he added.
WestEd report ‘critical’
The final approvals for the Moorpark, San Diego Mesa and Southwestern degrees were preceded by the WestEd analysis, which was shared with colleges in fall 2025.
The analysis indicated that a number of the 16 blocked degrees would serve students not now reached by CSU. Importantly, it suggested that the locations of a proposed degree and the objecting campuses are relevant factors.
CSU, however, has taken issue with WestEd’s analysis. The report “included criteria outside existing state law and disregarded duplication criteria that had been developed and agreed to by faculty from all three segments,” Bentley-Smith said.
Still, the report was “critical” to the final approval of San Diego Mesa’s physical therapy assistant degree, said Greg Smith, chancellor of the San Diego Community College District.
The degree faced an objection from CSU San Bernardino, which offers a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology. The WestEd report noted that very few students transfer from Mesa to San Bernardino and that the campuses are separated by 95 miles, suggesting that they aren’t competing for the same students.
The report identified some curriculum overlaps but also showed different career outcomes: San Bernardino’s degree prepares students for careers related to athletic performance and fitness, while the Mesa degree is “much broader,” Smith said.
“I think that gave the Board of Governors the confidence to say that whatever course duplication there might be, these are not duplicative programs,” Smith said.
The WestEd analysis was also key to Southwestern and Moorpark receiving their final approvals.
Separately, CSU recently removed its objections to three degrees that had been blocked: applied advocacy and organizing at Oxnard College, field ironworker supervision at Cerritos College and digital infrastructure and location science at Santiago Canyon College. The community college system’s chancellor’s office has since given final go-ahead to the Cerritos program. It also gave conditional approval to the Santiago Canyon degree, which still needs approval from an accrediting body.
The remaining 10 degrees hang in the balance, but more approvals could be given in the coming weeks.
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