BILL ANALYSIS AB 2402 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AB 2402 (Block) As Amended May 28, 2010 Majority vote HIGHER EDUCATION 6-1 APPROPRIATIONS 12-5 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Block, Chesbro, Fong, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Ammiano, | | |Galgiani, Portantino, | |Bradford, | | |Ruskin | |Charles Calderon, Coto, | | | | |Davis, Monning, Ruskin, | | | | |Skinner, Solorio, | | | | |Torlakson, Torrico | | | | | | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| |Nays:|Adams |Nays:|Conway, Harkey, Miller, | | | | |Nielsen, Norby | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY : Requires the California State University (CSU) to follow specified public notice criteria prior to adopting a change in the admissions criteria that affects students in the CSU campus local service area (LSA), as defined, and requires a change in admissions criteria that affects the eligibility of applicants residing within the LSA of the affected campus to become effective only after a period of at least one year has elapsed after approval of that change by the CSU Board of Trustees (BOT). Specifically, this bill : 1)Requires a CSU campus to do all of the following prior to adopting a change in the criteria for admission that affects applicants in the LSA of a CSU campus, including changes to transfer requirements and determinations regarding impaction of majors: a) Consult, in a public meeting, with the governing boards of school districts and community college districts and with community organizations located within the LSA of the affected campus; b) Hold three public hearings in the LSA of the affected campus to solicit public comments relative to the proposed changes in admissions criteria; AB 2402 Page 2 c) Provide public notice of the proposed change in admissions criteria, as specified, and at least 10 days before the first public meeting or public hearing; and, d) Submit the proposed change to the CSU Trustees for approval after first meeting all of the above requirements. 2)Stipulates that a change in admissions criteria shall become effective only after a period of at least one year following approval by the Trustees. 3)Defines the LSA for a campus as the area set forth in the CSU Coded Memorandum AA-2005-05, dated February 23, 2005, including any subsequent amendments. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, campuses would incur additional costs to conduct public meetings. Assuming $10,000 per campus for each change, if 10 campuses were affected in any year, costs systemwide would be $100,000. COMMENTS : General Fund support for CSU has declined by about $620 million (20%) between 2007-08 and the current year. As a result, CSU intends to admit no new students in spring 2010 and has set a goal to reduce overall enrollment by about 40,000 students over a two-year period. To accomplish this reduction, CSU has employed various strategies. According to CSU, campuses are still required to admit all local CSU-eligible first-time freshmen and local upper-division transfer students per the usual established admissions policy, unless the campus declares itself impacted. Campus impaction means that a campus has exhausted existing enrollment capacity in terms of the instructional resources and physical capacity of the campus, and because the campus receives more eligible applicants during the Fall admission application filing period than can be accommodated, the campus must therefore restrict enrollment to the campus for a specific enrollment category (i.e. first-time freshmen). As of November 2009, Fullerton, Long Beach, Cal Poly Pomona, San Diego, and Sonoma are designated as impacted CSU campuses. Students interested in an impacted major or campus must apply for admission during the Fall filing period for admission the AB 2402 Page 3 following Fall. Of the five impacted CSU campuses, only SDSU has ended its policy of admitting every qualified applicant in its LSA. SDSU is continuing to give special preference to high school seniors from this area by guaranteeing they constitute at least 37% of incoming freshmen. This is the average representation over the last 11 years, but it is considerably lower than the 54% in the past two years. While SDSU has acknowledged that dropping the admission guarantee for seniors in SDSU's LSA would disrupt the plans of many students-the number of local freshmen admitted to SDSU could go down by as many as 1,000 next fall-the campus has noted that the seniors who will be denied admission under this policy still will provided a guarantee of subsequent admission to SDSU if the student completes general education course work and earns a GPA of at least 2.4, or the GPA required for their intended major, within three years. Analysis Prepared by : Sandra Fried / HIGHER ED. / (916) 319-3960 FN: 0004682