BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                AB 2736
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        CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
        AB 2736 (Higher Education Committee)
        As Amended  June 26, 2014
        Majority vote
         
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        |ASSEMBLY: |78-0 |(April 28,      |SENATE: |36-0 |(August 18, 2014)    |
        |          |     |2014)           |        |     |                     |
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         ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
        |COMMITTEE VOTE:  |11-0 |(August 25, 2014)   |RECOMMENDATION: |concur    |
        |(Higher Ed.)     |     |                    |                |          |
        |                 |     |                    |                |          |
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        Original Committee Reference:    HIGHER ED.  

         SUMMARY  :  Authorizes the California State University (CSU) Board of  
        Trustees (Trustees) to establish a voluntary fee to fund the  
        statewide student organization and would provide for  
        noncontroversial changes to existing CSU reporting requirements.  
         
        The Senate amendments  authorize the CSU Trustees to establish a fee  
        for voluntary membership in the statewide student organization and  
        require the CSU Trustees to provide students the ability to  
        affirmatively elect to pay the fee, or a clear and unambiguous  
        means to decline payment of the fee, each time the fee is assessed.  
          

        EXISTING LAW  establishes the CSU and confers upon the CSU Trustees  
        the powers, duties, and functions with respect to the management,  
        administration, and control of the CSU system.  

         FISCAL EFFECT  :  According to the Senate Appropriations Committee,  
        pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.

         COMMENTS  :  This bill provides for four changes to statutes  
        governing CSU.

        Student organization fee.  Currently, the California State Student  
        Association (CSSA) is dependent on a voluntary portion of  
        membership fees collected by the 23 local student associations,  
        which has been augmented in recent years by an annual allocation of  
        the Chancellor's Office.  In March 2014, CSSA requested the  








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        establishment of a system-wide voluntary fee to fund their programs  
        and activities.  A voluntary student fee would create a long-term,  
        stable revenue stream to fully implement student participation,  
        enable the CSSA to establish a higher degree of financial  
        independence from the CSU system and allow students the individual  
        choice to contribute financially to statewide student  
        representation.  Current law grants the CSU Trustees the authority  
        to establish a voluntary membership at a state university, but  
        there is a need to clarify the Trustees' authority to establish a  
        voluntary fee at the system-wide level, before they can act on the  
        CSSA request.  The new fee authorized in this bill would operate  
        differently from the current fee for campus organizations. For the  
        statewide student organization the Trustees would be authorized to  
        fix a voluntary membership fee for the statewide student  
        organization and a student would have the ability to affirmatively  
        elect to pay the fee, or a clear and unambiguous means to decline  
        payment of the fee, each time the fee is assessed. 

        Early Start Program.  To address concerns regarding the large  
 
        number of incoming freshmen at the CSU requiring remediation,  
 
        Executive Order 1048 was issued in 2010, creating the Early Start  
 
        Program.  Entering freshmen not proficient in math or "at risk" in  
 
        English are required to start the remediation process before their  
 
        first term at CSU.  Students are given a menu of options to  
 
        determine the best approach to start their remedial instruction,  
 
        including senior year high school courses, courses offered in the  
 
        summer at any one of their local California Community College (CCC)  
 
        or CSU campuses and online courses, to name a few.  Legislation  
 
        enacted in 2012 (AB 2497 (Solorio), Chapter 430), required the CSU  
 
        to work with the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) on an ongoing  
 
        series of reports showing the impact of CSU's Early Start Program  
 
        on students needing remediation.  Currently, the law requires a  








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        report be submitted on January 1, 2014, and then subsequently every  
 
        two years after that.  This bill will move the reporting deadline  
 
        to July 1, beginning in 2016, to ensure LAO can include information  
 
        on the most recent program data in the report.  It should be noted  
 
        that in January 2014, the LAO recommended eliminating the remaining  
 
        Early Start reporting requirements.  



        Doctor of Nursing Practice.  CSU was provided authority to  
 
        establish a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree pilot program  
 
        at three campuses in 2010 (AB 867 (Nava), Chapter 416).  A report  
 
        is required in collaboration with LAO and the Department Of  
 
        Finance, due January 1, 2017.  Compromise on the bill came together  
 
        in the final hours of session and the reporting language was  
 
        essentially taken from prior legislation dealing with the Doctor of  
 
        Education degree.  As a result, some of the language in the DNP  
 
        report is unrelated to the pilot program.  This bill modifies the  
 
        reporting language to look at the appropriate policy issues for the  
 
        DNP and establishes a sunset date for the reporting requirements of  
 
        January 1, 2021.


        Trustee Gift Reporting.  Currently CSU Trustees are required to  
 
        report to the Legislature and the Department of Finance annually on  
 
        January 5.  The CSU has been consistently late in reporting this  








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        information due to the Trustees approval being required prior to  
 
        the release of the report. The Trustees meeting schedule does not  
 
        permit the report to be released by the January 5th deadline.  This  
 
        bill would move the due date for this report to the end of January  
 
        (25-day difference) to ensure the CSU submits the report on time. 


         
        Analysis Prepared by  :    Laura Metune / HIGHER ED. / (916) 319-3960  



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