BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 340 (Weber) - Postsecondary education: campus climate:
report.
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|Version: July 8, 2015 |Policy Vote: ED. 8 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
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|Hearing Date: August 17, 2015 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: This bill requires, starting in 2017-18, the
California Community Colleges Board of Governors (CCC BOG) and
the California State University (CSU) Trustees, and encourages
the University of California (UC) Regents, to generate a report
every biennium that includes specified information relating to
campus climate and post the report on each segment's website.
This bill also requires the CSU Trustees and community college
district governing boards, and requests the UC Regents, to adopt
and publish policies on harassment, intimidation, and bullying,
as specified.
Fiscal
Impact:
The requirement to adopt policies on harassment, intimidation,
and bullying could potentially be determined to be a
reimbursable state mandate for community college districts
which could drive state costs of about $144,000.
AB 340 (Weber) Page 1 of
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Additionally, it could create pressure to increase the CCC
mandate block grant to reflect the increase costs of the new
mandate. (Proposition 98)
The UC and CSU indicate that this bill is largely consistent
with current practices and therefore would absorb any
associated costs. Neither UC nor CSU is eligible to claim
reimbursement of the costs they incur to comply with state
mandates.
Background: Existing law provides that it is the state's policy to afford
all persons, regardless of disability, gender, gender identity,
gender expression, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion,
sexual orientation, or any other basis that is contained in the
prohibition of hate crimes, as specified, equal rights and
opportunities in the postsecondary institutions of the state.
(Education Code § 66251)
Existing law also declares that, consistent with specified
federal law provisions, all students have the right to
participate fully in the educational process, free from
discrimination and harassment. In addition, it declares that
the state's postsecondary educational institutions have an
affirmative obligation to combat racism, sexism, and other forms
of bias, and a responsibility to provide equal educational
opportunity. It also declares the Legislature's intent that
each postsecondary educational institution undertakes
educational activities to counter discriminatory incidents on
school grounds and, within constitutional bounds, to minimize
and eliminate a hostile environment on school grounds that
impair access to equal educational opportunities. (EC § 66252)
Existing law requests the UC Regents, CSU Trustees, and the
governing board of each community college district to adopt and
publish policies on harassment, intimidation, and bullying to be
included within the rules and regulations governing student
behavior within their respective segments of public
postsecondary education. (EC § 66302)
This bill is reflective of the efforts of the Assembly Select
Committee on Campus Climate. The committee issued a report with
its recommendations in October 2014 which included that the UC,
CSU, and CCC provide an annual report to the Legislature on
recent challenges and developments related to campus climate.
AB 340 (Weber) Page 2 of
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Proposed Law:
This bill requires, starting in 2017-18, the CCC BOG and the
CSU Trustees, and encourages the UC Regents, to generate a
report every biennium that includes specified information
relating to campus climate and post the report on each segment's
website. The segments are also required to submit the report to
the Governor, Attorney General, and the Legislature. The bill
specifies that the BOG must request, not require, information
from community college districts and use information from
participating districts for the report.
Information required for the report includes: new and recent
administrative efforts intended to affect campus climate; recent
campus program developments that impact campus climate related
to gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual
orientation, disability, gender identity, and data, including
student demographics and crime data, as specified.
Finally this bill requires that if the CSU Trustees and the
governing board of each community college district expend funds
to support activities related to campus climate, they adopt and
publish policies on harassment, intimidation, and bullying.
This bill requests the UC Regents to adopt and publish such
policies.
Staff
Comments: This bill requires each segment to generate a
biennium report on campus climate. It specifically requires the
BOG to only request information from community college
districts, thereby relieving it from costs that would be
incurred if information was required to be obtained from each
district.
This bill also requires that if community college districts and
the CSU expend funds on "campus climate" activities, they must
adopt and publish policies on harassment, intimidation, and
bullying. Campus climate is defined in the bill as a measure of
an individual's experience within a learning environment,
specifically focusing on the current attitudes, practices,
policies, and behaviors of campus life that impact the success
AB 340 (Weber) Page 3 of
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and retention of all members of a campus community. This broad
definition could capture a wide range of activities for which
community college districts expend funds which would trigger the
requirement to adopt and publish required policies.
If a community college district submits a claim for
reimbursement, the Commission on State Mandates could determine
activities related this requirement to be a reimbursable based
on practical compulsion - that there is no reasonable
alternative but to comply with adopting required policies or
that the failure to comply with this activity will result in
certain and severe penalties. For example, current law requires
that as a condition of receiving state funds for student
financial assistance, the state's postsecondary institutions
adopt and implement policies to ensure reports of a violent
crime, sexual assault, or hate crime are forwarded to the
appropriate law enforcement agency as soon as possible. At an
estimated cost of $2,000 per district to develop required
policies, reimbursable state mandated costs could be about
$144,000 statewide.
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