BILL ANALYSIS
AB 37
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 37 (Furutani)
As Amended July 8, 2009
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |80-0 |(May 4, 2009) |SENATE: |35-0 |(August 17, |
| | | | | |2009) |
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Original Committee Reference: HIGHER ED .
SUMMARY : Requires the California State University (CSU) and the
California Community Colleges (CCC), and requests the University
of California (UC), to work with their respective colleges and
universities to confer an honorary degree upon each person,
living or deceased, who was forced to discontinue his or her
postsecondary studies as a result of federal Executive Order
9066, which caused the incarceration of individuals of Japanese
ancestry during World War II.
The Senate amendments require that this bill be implemented in a
cost-effective manner by incorporating, to the extent possible,
any ceremony for the purposes of conferring an honorary degree
with a previously scheduled commencement or graduation activity.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill was substantially similar
to the current version.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
Probably minor absorbable costs (less than $25,000 per segment)
for UC, CSU, and CCC and their respective colleges and
universities to identify and locate those eligible, or their
next of kin, and to arrange and confer the honorary degrees as
part of regularly scheduled convocations or other ceremonies.
COMMENTS : In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued
Executive Order 9066, incarcerati ng approximately 120,000
Americans of Japanese descent in detention centers during World
War II. The federal government issued an official apology in
1988 and provided reparations to thousands of Japanese Americans
who were unconstitutionally in terned during the war. A study
originally published in 1949 (Robert O'Brien, The College Nisei )
determined that 2,567 Japanese American students were enrolled
AB 37
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in higher education institutions in California, including 729 at
UC, 221 at CSU, and 1,245 at CCC.
Several institutions in California and other western states have
recognized former students who were unable to complete their
studies as a result of Executive Order 9066 by awarding honorary
degrees, diplomas, or honorary alumni status. In 1992, UC
Berkeley presented diplomas to surviving students who graduated
in spring 1942 but were not allowed to return to campus to
receive their diplomas. In 2008, the University of Southern
California extended honorary alumni status to its former
students who were unable to complete their studies. San
Francisco State University and Sierra College have granted
honorary degrees to their interned former students, as have
public universities in Oregon and Washington. Most recently, UC
established a task force to consider how best to recognize its
interned former students.
Analysis Prepared by : Sandra Fried / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960
FN: 0001931