BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair


          SB 960 (Rubio) - California State University (CSU): Mandatory 
          Fees.
          
          Amended: April 17, 2012         Policy Vote: Education 8-0
          Urgency: No                     Mandate: No
          Hearing Date: May 24, 2012      Consultant: Jacqueline 
          Wong-Hernandez
          
          SUSPENSE FILE.


          Bill Summary: SB 960 prohibits campus-based mandatory fees, 
          other than those for instruction-related purposes or that are 
          specifically authorized by statute, at the California State 
          University (CSU), from being established without an affirmative 
          vote of either the student body or a campus fee advisory 
          committee, as specified.

          Fiscal Impact: This bill will likely result in minor costs to 
          individual CSU campuses, and potentially significant cost 
          pressure to the state to backfill CSU to the extent that it was 
          unsuccessful in passing fee increases.
              Requirements to raise fees: To the extent that CSU campuses 
              use the student referendum option to pass new fees, campuses 
              will incur costs of approximately $25,000 to publicize the 
              referendum. Seeking a vote of the majority of a campus's fee 
              advisory committee is likely to result in only minor and 
              absorbable costs.
              Barriers to raising and reallocating student fees: If this 
              bill results in CSU campuses being unable to raise or 
              reallocate student fees to meet campus needs, it will result 
              in additional cost pressure for the state to fund the CSU at 
              a higher level, at a time when budget reductions continue. 

          Background: There is no statutory guiding policy on mandatory 
          system-wide student tuition and fees beyond the current fiscal 
          condition and the stated needs of University of California and 
          CSU, as negotiated in the budget deliberations.

          Campus-based fees are generally used to support on-campus 
          activities such as health facilities and services, student 
          university unions, athletic programs, transit/transportation 








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          systems, and recreational opportunities. The state does not 
          provide funding to support these activities. 

          The Trustees adopted standing orders providing the Chancellor 
          the authority and responsibility to take whatever actions are 
          necessary for the appropriate functioning of the CSU including, 
          but not limited to, establishment, oversight, and adjustment of 
          campus-based mandatory fees

          Proposed Law: This bill establishes a new required process for 
          CSU campus administrations to follow, if they wish to raise or 
          reallocate mandatory fees that are not instruction-related: the 
          administration must either obtain an affirmative vote of the 
          student body or a campus fee advisory committee. In the absence 
          of either, the fee could not be raised or reallocated.

          Staff Comments: This bill will make it more difficult to 
          establish or reallocate student fees than it is currently. The 
          bill attempts to ensure that fees imposed on CSU students are 
          used for their intended purpose, and any changes must be done 
          through a process that requires affirmative student 
          participation.  

          If a campus administration wishes to, for example, establish a 
          new fee, it must either obtain an affirmative vote from the 
          campus's student fees advisory committee or from the student 
          body. The first option is the most expeditious and is unlikely 
          to have measurable costs; a committee vote will likely be the 
          one most often used. In the event that the committee does not 
          approve the fee, the administration would have the ability to 
          either hold a student referendum or to not raise/change the fee.

          According to the CSU, a student referendum costs approximately 
          $25,000 to publicize and hold. This includes advertisement in 
          the campus newspaper, printing a voter guide, and all other 
          marketing costs associated with promoting the referendum. The 
          campus also incurs the cost of printing and counting ballots. 
          The state does not reimburse CSU campuses for referenda or any 
          student election-related activity, but such activities do put 
          additional pressure on campus budgets.

          If a referendum was not attempted, or was unsuccessful, the CSU 
          campus could not impose the fee changes it sought. An inability 
          for a CSU campus to change its fees to meet campus needs creates 








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          pressure for the state to increase funding to CSU because the 
          state will have (in passing this bill) specifically made it more 
          difficult for CSU campuses to raise their own revenue.

          Committee Amendments: The amendments limit the requirements 
          imposed on CSU to instances in which a CSU campus seeks to 
          reallocate to a new purpose the funding collected for a fee 
          which was originally approved by an affirmative vote of the 
          student body.