The State of California, as it seeks to revise the Master Plan for Higher Education, is grappling with circumstances similar to those underpinning the revision of the United States' original Articles of Confederation. The delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention had to identify the task before them; determine how the country would be governed; how it would be financed; and how the government would be evaluated. In determining the task of the community colleges, the members of the Committee for the Review of the Master Plan have decided to restrict the community colleges' mission, indicating that access to all shall be maintained; access "shall" be to transfer, vocational, assessment, counseling, and placement programs; access "should" be to remedial, transitional, and English literacy programs; and access "may" include community service. In dealing with the issue of governance, the Philadelphia delegates constructed a compromise based on federalism, which could provide an appropriate model for the determination of state and local governance responsibilities for the colleges. The colleges can also learn from the delegates' combination of elective and appointive approaches to evaluation and apply similar mechanisms to modify the use of accreditation and minimum standards as evaluation criteria. A summary of the report of the Joint Committee of the Legislature for Review of the Master Plan for Higher Education is appended. (EJV)