Amended in Assembly May 28, 2015

Amended in Assembly May 6, 2015

Amended in Assembly April 28, 2015

California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 1000

Introduced by Assembly Member Weber

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Cooley, Holden, and Low)

February 26, 2015

An act to repeal and add Section 89712 of the Education Code, relating to the California State University.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 1000, as amended, Weber. California State University: student success fees.

Existing law establishes the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. Existing law authorizes the trustees by rule to require all persons to pay fees, rents, deposits, and charges for services, facilities, or materials provided by the trustees to those persons. Existing law prohibits specified California State University campus-based mandatory fees from being reallocated without an affirmative vote of the majority of the members of either the student body or a specified campus fee advisory committee voting on the fee reallocation, unless the vote that established the fee authorizes an alternative or automatic reallocation mechanism for that fee.

Existing law prohibits a campus or the Chancellor of the California State University from approving a student success fee, as defined, before January 1, 2016. Existing law requires the chancellor to conduct a review of the trustees’ fee policy related to student success fees, submit recommended changes to the fee policy to the trustees, consider specified information in conducting that review and in preparing his or her recommended changes to the policy, and to submit a report regarding those proposed changes to the Department of Finance and the appropriate fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature, on or before February 1, 2015.

This bill would revise and recast the requirements related to student success fees. The bill would prohibit a campus of the California State University, or the Chancellor of the California State University, from imposing a student success fee, as defined, unless certain requirements are met. The bill would establish procedures for campus elections for the adoption or rescission of student success fees. The bill would require the chancellor to report a summary of the fees adopted or rescinded in the prior academic year, and the uses of proposed and currently implemented fees, annually to the Department of Finance and the Legislature.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 89712 of the Education Code is repealed.

SEC. 2.  

Section 89712 is added to the Education Code, to read:

89712.  

(a) (1) A campus of the California State University,
or the Chancellor of the California State University, or both, shall
not approve a new student success fee or an increase to an existing
student success fee, as defined in subdivision begin delete (f), end delete begin insert (g), end insert before all of
the following requirements are satisfied:

(A) The campus undertakes a rigorous consultation process that
informs and educates students on the uses, impact, and cost of any
proposed student success fee or student success fee increase.

(B) The campus informs its students of all of the begin delete following: end delete
begin insert following circumstances, which shall apply to these fees: end insert

(i) That, except as provided in clauses (ii) and (iii), a student
success fee may be rescinded by a majority vote of the students,
as specified in subdivision (c).

(ii) That a student success fee may not be rescinded earlier than
six years following the vote to implement the fee.

(iii) If any portion of the student success fee is committed to
support begin delete ongoing or long-term obligations, end delete begin insert a long-term obligation, end insert
that portion of the fee may not be rescinded until the obligation
has been begin delete satisfied or the campus has identified, pursuant to the
process established in subdivision (e), an alternative funding source
for the ongoing or long-term obligation. end delete begin insert satisfied. end insert

(C) The campus shall hold a binding student election on the
implementation of any proposed student success fees, or any
increase to an existing student success fee, and a majority of the
student body voting on the fee must vote affirmatively.

(2) Implementation of a fee supported by a majority of the
campus student body voting on the fee is contingent upon final
approval of the Chancellor of the California State University.

(3) A student success fee proposal may not be brought before
the student body more frequently than once per academic year.

(b) A student success fee in place on January 1, 2016, may be
rescinded by a binding student vote under the procedures
authorized in subdivision (c) only after at least six years have
elapsed following the implementation of the fee.

(c) (1) Student success fees may be rescinded with a binding
student vote wherein a simple majority of those students voting
vote to rescind the fee. The student vote shall comply with all of
the following:

(A) A campus decision to vote is formally approved by the
recognized student government.

(B) Rescission vote proposals shall not be brought before the
student body more frequently than once per academic year.

(C) In the process of reconsidering a student success fee, and
before the student vote occurs, the students shall be informed, if
a portion of the fee is supporting begin delete ongoing or long-term obligations, end delete
begin insert a long-term obligation, end insert the dollar amount of that portion, and the
date on which the begin delete ongoing or end delete long-term obligation would be
begin delete satisfied or rescinded, as described in clause (ii) of subparagraph
(B) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (a). end delete begin insert satisfied. end insert

(2) No new contractual or other obligation that would be
supported by the rescinded student success fee may be entered into
following a vote to rescind the fee.

begin delete

(3) Upon rescission of a student success fee that funds an
ongoing or long-term obligation, a campus shall review, pursuant
to the process established in subdivision (e), the potential for that
obligation to be funded by other university funding sources.

end delete

(d) The Chancellor of the California State University shall
ensure that all of the following occur on each campus:

(1) There is majority student representation in campus student
success fee allocation oversight groups.

(2) There is an annual report from each campus to the chancellor
on student success fees.

(3) There is uniform, transparent, online accountability in the
decisionmaking process for, and a detailed accounting of, the
allocation of student success fees.

begin delete

(e) The Chancellor of the California State University shall do
all of the following:

(1) Define an ongoing or long-term obligation for purposes of
this section.

(2) Define a process for a campus to review the possible
transition of funding for an ongoing and long-term obligation from
a student success fee that has been rescinded to other university
funding sources.

(3)  Establish

end delete

begin insert (e) end insert begin insert   end insert begin insert The Chancellor of the California State University shall end insert
begin insert establish end insert appropriate reporting procedures to ensure that a campus
is in compliance with the requirements of this section.

(f) The chancellor shall report, by December 1 of each year, to
the Department of Finance, and the Legislature pursuant to Section
9795 of the Government Code, a summary of the fees adopted or
rescinded in the prior academic year, and the uses of proposed and
currently implemented fees.

(g) For purposes of this section, a “student success fee” is a type
of category II campus-based mandatory fee that is required to be
paid by a student before that student may enroll or attend a campus
of the California State University, as determined by that campus
or the Chancellor of the California State University.