BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
2302 (Fong)
Hearing Date: 08/02/2010 Amended: 07/01/2010
Consultant: Dan Troy Policy Vote: ED 7-0
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 2302 is intended to complement the transfer
pathway program that would be established through SB 1440
(Padilla). The bill would guarantee admission to the California
State University (CSU) system with junior status to students
earning the new transfer degree and grant the student priority
consideration for admission to the CSU campus that serves the
pupil's local service area. The bill would request that the
University of California (UC) would also grant admission with
junior status for these students and grant a student priority
for admission to a program or major that is comparable to his or
her area of emphasis. The bill would require each campus of the
CSU system to make available on its website a list of majors
considered to be similar to majors at the California Community
Colleges (CCCs) required to obtain a transfer degree. The bill
would require CCCs to ensure that students are informed of the
transfer pathway and transfer degree. In the development of a
transfer degree, this bill would require CCC districts to
consider local articulation and other work between the affected
CCC and CSU faculties. Finally, the bill would sunset existing
law related to UC and CSU articulation of major preparation
courses, transfer agreements, and transfer pathways
This bill would become operative contingent upon the enactment
of SB 1440 (Padilla).
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
UC administration $2,000
General
Enrollment cost pressure Unknown cost exposure,
potentially General
offset by system efficiencies
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Current law states the intent of the Legislature that the
University of California and CSU seek to maintain an
undergraduate student population composed of a ratio of lower
division to upper division students of 40 percent to 60 percent,
and that this ratio be maintained primarily by admitting upper
division transfer students. Current law requires the Chancellor
of CSU, in consultation with the Academic Senate of the CSU, to
establish specified components necessary for a clear degree path
for transfer students, including specification of a systemwide
lower division transfer curriculum for each high-demand
baccalaureate major. Current law also requires the governing
board of each public postsecondary education segment to be
accountable for the development and implementation of formal
systemwide articulation agreements and transfer agreement
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AB 2302 (Fong)
programs, including those for general education or a transfer
core curriculum, and other appropriate procedures to support and
enhance the transfer function.
SB 1440 (Padilla), passed by this committee earlier this year
and currently awaiting a hearing in the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, would establish the Student Transfer Achievement
Reform Act and would require a CCC district to grant an
associate degree that deems the student eligible for transfer
into the CSU subject to specified requirements, require the CSU
to guarantee admission with junior status to CCC students
meeting those requirements, and impose specified restrictions on
CSU course requirements for these transfer students.
The bill's intent, in conjunction with SB 1440, is to streamline
the transfer process between CCC and CSU/UC. Recent reports and
data available from CCC and the CSU suggest that students
typically take many more units than necessary to transfer from
the CCC to the CSU and to achieve their baccalaureate degree
through the course of their academic journey. Further, local
requirements imposed by CCC districts or CSU programs or
campuses can also serve to delay a student from transferring or
require the completion of courses at CSU that effectively
duplicate work completed at CCC. By mandating a new transfer
degree process on the CCCs and limiting required course taking
at CSU it is hoped that SB 1440 will ease a student's path to
transfer and, ultimately, to a baccalaureate degree.
This bill would expand on SB 1440 by requesting that UC also
grant admission to CCC students earning the transfer degree, and
would establish priority for admission at CSU and UC, as
specified.
Requiring CSU, and requesting UC, to guarantee admission with
junior status to pupils earning the specified transfer degree
could result in costs or pressures in the tens of millions. It
is possible that the streamlined CCC transfer degree and
specified course requirement caps at CSU will serve to offset
any of these costs. Staff notes, however, that neither this
bill nor SB 1440 cap course requirements needed for graduation
at UC. Given that, it is not clear that this bill will result in
offsetting savings for students admitted to UC through the new
transfer program.
UC also estimates approximately $2 million in costs for
UC-system and intersegmental curriculum alignment and other
administrative activities.