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        
           
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          |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;








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             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  








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          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


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