BILL ANALYSIS SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION Gloria Romero, Chair 2009-2010 Regular Session BILL NO: AB 2402 AUTHOR: Block AMENDED: June 17, 2010 FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: June 30, 2010 URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Kathleen Chavira SUBJECT : California State University Admissions KEY POLICY ISSUE Should the campuses of the California State University be required to provide notice and transparency around any change in their local admissions criteria? SUMMARY This bill requires the Trustees of the California State University (CSU) to ensure that any changes in the admission criteria for campus admission comply with specified consultation, public meeting, notification and disclosure requirements, and prohibits any change from becoming effective until one year has elapsed, or six months, if the change is based upon the resources of the local service area of the affected campus. BACKGROUND Current law establishes the California State University and creates a Board of Trustees responsible for its administration. The Trustees are designated the authority to adopt rules and regulations for the government of the CSU. Current law requires specified notice and hearing procedures prior to the adoption, amendment or repeal of regulations. (Education Code 89001, 89030, 89030.1) ANALYSIS This bill : AB 2402 Page 2 1) Requires, for purposes of ensuring public notice and transparency that the CSU Trustees ensure that changes in the criteria for admission to a university campus comply with specified requirements. Specifically, prior to adopting a change in criteria for admissions that affects applicants residing within the local service area, a campus must: a) Consult with stakeholders (including the governing boards of school districts, community college districts, and community organizations) located within the local service area in a public meeting. b) Hold three public hearings in the campus' local service area to solicit public comment on the proposed change. c) Provide public notice, as specified, of the proposed change on the campus' website and in three newspapers of general circulation in the local service area that includes a description of the proposed change, the right of the public to comment, and the date, time and locations of the meetings. d) Publish all public comments and university responses, as well as the university's final decision on the website of the affected campus. e) Submit the proposed change to the Chancellor of the CSU for approval who is required to decide and report on the decision to the Trustees in writing at their next regularly scheduled meeting. f) Prohibits a change from becoming effective before a year has elapsed after the change is approved, except that a change in the criteria based on resources that affect applicants within the local service area may become effective after 6 months have elapsed AB 2402 Page 3 since approval by the Chancellor. 2) Applies these requirements to all changes in the admission criteria that affect eligibility of local service area applicants, including change to transfer requirements and determinations regarding impaction of majors. 3) Defines "local service area" for purposes of the bill. STAFF COMMENTS 1) Need for the bill . According to the author, San Diego State University (SDSU) recently implemented admission changes without notifying the surrounding community that would have been affected. Because students had planned their academic curriculum for the original admissions criteria, many students found themselves unqualified for eligibility to enroll at SDSU, a goal they had already spent years working towards. This bill outlines the procedurally transparent steps which must be taken before changes to admissions criteria that affect applicants in a local service area are approved. 2) Local admission guarantee . This bill defers the definition of "local service area" to CSU Coded Memorandum AA-2005-05 which delineates the geographic territory assigned to each campus for purposes of providing local high schools and community college information about the CSU and its campuses and for campus impaction purposes. Local first-time freshmen and upper-division transfer students are defined as those students who graduate from a high school district or community college district, respectively, historically served by a CSU campus in that region. Under the guarantee, CSU eligible local first-time freshman and upper-division transfer students are required to be admitted to an impacted campus on the basis of established CSU system admission policies. According to the CSU, the local AB 2402 Page 4 admission guarantee applies to impacted campuses, but not to impacted majors and programs. 3) Impaction . An undergraduate major, program, or campus is designated as impacted (subject to approval by the Chancellor) when it receives more eligible applicants during the initial filing period than it can accommodate given its instructional resources and physical capacity. Impaction may be defined by specific program or by the entering class level (i.e. first -time freshmen or upper division transfers), or some combination of these. Programs or campuses are then authorized to include supplemental criteria (approved by the Chancellor) to screen applicants within a specific enrollment category. Campuses that are impacted are authorized to implement supplemental admission criteria for applicants who reside outside the local area of the campus, but CSU eligible local first-time freshman and local upper-division transfer students are required to be admitted to an impacted campus on the basis of established CSU systemwide admission policies. However, admission to a specific program cannot be assured if the program is impacted. According the CSU Enrollment and Management Policy and Practices, consistent with the enrollment priorities outlined in statute, California Community College transfer students who have successfully concluded a course of study in an approved transfer agreement program receive priority over all other applicants to the CSU. 4) Current status . The CSU reports that, of its 23 campuses, 12 are impacted at the upper division transfer level, 13 are impacted for first time freshmen, and two, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (SLO) and San Diego State University (SDSU) are impacted in all majors. As of 2008, all campuses, except SLO and SDSU indicate that they accept all first-time freshmen AB 2402 Page 5 applicants that graduate from high schools in the local service area and meet systemwide eligibility criteria. SLO has reportedly been impacted for over twenty years. SDSU was recently approved to declare impaction at each major by the CSU. At SDSU, at the first-time freshmen level 80 percent of the class is selected on the basis of an eligibility index higher than that required for regular CSU admission. The remaining 20 percent are selected on the basis of local area entitlement, socioeconomic or education factors, exceptional talents, or other criteria. 5) Related legislation . AB 2401 (Block) requires the California State University (CSU) to provide applicants residing in the local service area (LSA) priority for admission to the applicant's local CSU campus over other California residents or out-of-state applicants entering as first-time freshman or sophomores. AB 2401 is also on the agenda for the committee's consideration today. SUPPORT American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFL-CIO) California State University Community College League of California Latino Concilio on Higher Education of San Diego County We Advocate Gender Equity OPPOSITION None received.