The Presidential Summit is a voluntary association of public community colleges and universities in the Los Angeles Region including 23 community colleges, eight California State Universities and three campuses of the University of California located in Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties. It was formed at the initiative of the chief administrative officers of these public institutions. The Summit has as its primary goals fostering the collaboration and cooperation among these public institutions and the improving the transition of community college students into four-year universities.

Since its inception, much of the Summit’s effort has been directed at identifying the common lower division core of courses necessary for transfer into an academic major program at senior institutions, particularly California State Universities, in order to make community college student transfer into the academic program major as seamless and as efficient as possible. The Summit has also addressed issues surrounding the dual admission of students to community colleges and senior institutions, the transfer associate degree, and applications of technology to transfer. It also serves as a forum for discussion of issues impacting public colleges and universities in the region such as the current reductions in State funding.

Most recently, the Summit has sought to determine ways in which it may assist in meeting the need for a well-trained mathematics, science and engineering workforce as called for in the California Council on Science and Technology Critical Path Analysis. The Summit has recently inventoried its member institutions to identify those campus-based and separately funded student outreach and retention programs that address SEM pipeline needs, especially among historically underrepresented persons. Next steps will include identification of best practices and determination of ways in which to better link programs among campuses. The reduction in funding of outreach programs makes this effort all the more important. The Summit is also concerned with the recruitment and credentialing of mathematics and science teachers among its member campuses.