BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 1711
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Author: |McCarty |
|-----------+-----------------------------------------------------|
|Version: |June 22, 2016 Hearing |
| |Date: June 29, 2016 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Consultant:|Kathleen Chavira |
| | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: University of California: nonresident student
enrollment
SUMMARY
This bill, as a condition of receipt of annual Budget Act
funding, requires the University of California (UC) to establish
a policy regarding admission of nonresident undergraduate
students to require that the academic qualifications of these
students stand in the upper one-half of resident undergraduate
students admitted to that campus, as specified, and requires the
UC to report to the Legislature annually regarding actions to
ensure compliance with the policy, as specified.
BACKGROUND
The California Constitution establishes the UC, a public trust
to be administered by the Regents of the UC and grants the
Regents full powers of organization and government, subject only
to such legislative control as may be necessary to insure
security of its funds, compliance with the terms of its
endowments, statutory requirements around competitive bidding
and contracts, sales of property and the purchase of materials,
goods and services. (Article IX, Section (9)(a) of the
California Constitution)
ANALYSIS
This bill, as a condition of receipt of annual Budget Act
AB 1711 (McCarty) Page 2
of ?
funding:
1) Requires the UC to establish a policy regarding admission
of nonresident undergraduate students by July 1, 2017. It:
a) Requires that the policy require each
campus of the UC admit only nonresident undergraduate
students who exceed the academic qualifications of
resident undergraduate students admitted to that
campus.
b) Requires that a nonresident
undergraduate student admitted to a campus stand in
the upper one-half of resident undergraduate students
admitted to that campus.
2) Requires the UC to report to the Legislature annually
regarding actions to ensure compliance with the policy.
Specifically, it requires the report to include but not be
limited to:
a) The academic indicators used in the
admission process.
b) The median score of admitted resident
undergraduate students for each indicator at each
campus.
c) The number of admitted nonresident
undergraduate students who scored below the resident
median on each indicator at each campus.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill. According to the author, there has been
a growing trend in the University of California (UC) to
enroll more out-of-state and international students at the
expense of California students. Systemwide nonresident
enrollment at the UC was 5 percent in 2007 and is currently
at its highest level of 15.5 percent while resident
enrollment has remained stagnant. On March 2016, a report
by the State Auditor found that UC's admissions policies
have disadvantaged and undermined their commitment to
California students in favor of nonresidents. This bill
AB 1711 (McCarty) Page 3
of ?
implements recommendations from the report by requesting
that the UC adopt a policy that ensures that nonresidents
meet the same academic standards as the top 50 percent of
California residents who are admitted at each campus.
2) Current status of out-of-state admissions. The UC reports
that for the 2015-16 academic year, 15.5 percent of its
undergraduates systemwide were non-residents. According to
the UC, nonresident enrollment for 2015-16 was capped at
those campuses that had seen the largest growth, Berkeley
(25 percent), Los Angeles (19 percent). San Diego (17
percent) was directed to cap their enrollment of
nonresidents at 20 percent.
3) Related budget activity. The 2015 Budget Act provided $25
million to the UC contingent on increasing California
resident enrollment by 5,000 students, holding resident
tuition flat in 2015-16 and 2016-17, and redirecting
nonresident institutional aid to support resident students.
The 2016 Budget Act provided an additional $18.5 million to the
UC contingent upon enrolling 2,500 more California residents by
the 2017-18 school year and upon the UC regent's adoption of a
university-wide policy capping the enrollment of nonresidents.
4) BSA Audit. On March 29, 2016, the California State Auditor
released a report, The University of California, Its
Admissions and Financial Decisions have Disadvantaged
California Resident Students. The report lists as its key
findings that the university has undermined its commitment
to residents in an effort to increase its revenue by
recruiting and enrolling nonresidents. The report
specifically cites that:
a) Despite a 52 percent increase in resident
applicants, resident enrollment increased by only 10
percent over the last 10 years while nonresident
enrollment increased by 432 percent.
b) The University lowered the admission standard
for non-residents and admitted nearly 16,000
nonresidents over the past three years with academic
scores that fell below the median of admitted
AB 1711 (McCarty) Page 4
of ?
residents.
c) Admitted residents were increasingly denied
their campus of choice, yet admitted nonresidents were
always admitted to one of their campuses of choice.
d) Mandatory fees doubled for residents while
they increased for nonresidents at a much lower rate.
Among other things the Bureau of State Audits recommended
that the University of California (UC) revise its admission
standard for nonresidents to require campuses to admit only
nonresidents with admissions credentials that place them in
the upper half of the residents it admits.
In response, the UC asserts that its admissions policies
overwhelmingly favor Californians, and that state funding
determines how many California residents the UC enrolls.
1) UC Admissions policy. The Board of Admissions and
Relations with Schools (BOARS), oversees all matters
relating to the admissions of undergraduate students. BOARS
regulates the policies and practices used in the admissions
process and recommends and directs efforts to improve the
admissions process. According to the UC, its Comprehensive
Review Policy governs the admission and selection of
undergraduates at its nine campuses. Freshmen applications
are assessed using multiple measures of achievement (high
school course completion, grade point average, and
standardized test scores) and promise while considering
applicants' educational context. Comprehensive review
involves consideration of 14 factors, utilized by all
campuses, but the specific evaluation process and weight
given to each factor differ from campus to campus, and year
to year, based on campus-specific goals and needs.
According to the UC this same comprehensive review is
applied to nonresident applicants.
2) UC Admission Guarantee. UC's admission guarantee policy,
applicable to all California resident high school
graduates, includes Statewide Eligibility (SE), Eligibility
in the Local Context (ELC), and Entitled to Review (ETR).
The UC guarantees admission to the system (though not
AB 1711 (McCarty) Page 5
of ?
necessarily to the first-choice campus) to all California
applicants who are in the top 9 percent of California high
school graduates (SE), or in the top 9 percent of their
respective high school class (ELC). The top 9 percent is
determined by a formula based on grade point average (GPA)
and standardized test scores.
In 2012, the University of California (UC) implemented a
new freshman admissions policy, Entitled to Review (ETR).
Under this policy, students are not guaranteed admission,
but are guaranteed a comprehensive review of their
application if they have completed 11 of 15 required a-g
courses with a weighted GPA of at least 3.0 by the end of
their junior year. The intent was to confer the right to a
full application review to a broader pool of college-going
California students while ending the practice of excluding
many high-achieving students solely on the basis of UC's
extensive standardized testing requirements.
According to the UC, it does not provide a similar
guarantee of admission to nonresident students.
3) BOARS policy change on admission of nonresidents. In 2011,
BOARS approved new guidelines regarding the admission of
non-resident and international students that eliminated
wording that nonresidents "should demonstrate stronger
admission criteria than CA residents by generally being in
the upper half of those ordinarily eligible" for admission.
BOARS revised its principles to state that admitted
nonresidents should "compare favorably to California
residents admitted." In addition, a December 2011
resolution by BOARS resolves that to the fullest extent
possible campuses should evaluate and select residents and
nonresidents according to the same criteria and scores,
enrollment targets for nonresidents should be set such that
admitted nonresidents compare favorably to at each campus,
campus Senate admissions committees should work with local
campus administration, and if needed BOARS and systemwide
administration to ensure these principles are being met.
At the end of each admission cycle BOARS resolved that each
campus provide an assessment of the extent to which the
compare favorable rule is being met to include a
description of, the evaluation/selection criteria,
measures, and supporting data.
AB 1711 (McCarty) Page 6
of ?
4) Compromise? According to the UC, inconsistent with the
central tenet of their admissions policy of comprehensive
review, this bill would frame UC's approach to admissions
in a manner overly reliant on test scores and GPAs to
compare the relative merits of students. The UC reports
that the current policy on nonresidents includes the
following provisions:
a) Nonresident applicants must have a higher GPA
than resident applicants.
b) There is no guarantee of admission for
nonresidents, while there is for California residents.
c) Nonresident students must be at least as
qualified, on average, as admitted students across the
system.
In addition the UC indicates that the President of the
University will ask the Academic Senate to review its current
policy regarding nonresident admission and the University is
committed to full transparency on their compliance with the
policy by reporting annually on the relative qualifications of
admitted residents and non-residents.
If it is the desire of the committee to advance this bill, staff
recommends the bill be amended beginning on page 3, line 10 to
strike the current language and insert the following:
a) The University of California (UC), in
collaboration with the Academic Senate, shall ensure
that implementation of any admissions policy it adopts
regarding admission of nonresident undergraduate
students shall include guidance that ensures that the
academic qualifications for admitted nonresident
undergraduate students generally exceeds, on average,
the academic qualifications of resident undergraduate
students admitted at each campus.
b) The UC shall annually report to the
Legislature regarding the implementation of this
policy, including the mean and median scores on
academic indicators of admitted nonresident and
AB 1711 (McCarty) Page 7
of ?
resident undergraduate students at each campus.
1) Similar legislation. SCA 12 (Runner and Huff) proposed to
modify Article IX of the State Constitution to require the
UC Regents to ensure that priority in admissions is given
to applicants who are California residents. SCA 12 was
heard and passed by this Committee on April 20, 2016, but
was subsequently held in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
SUPPORT
None received on this version.
OPPOSITION
University of California
-- END --