BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2402
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 2402 (Block)
As Amended May 28, 2010
Majority vote
HIGHER EDUCATION 6-1 APPROPRIATIONS 12-5
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|Ayes:|Block, Chesbro, Fong, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Ammiano, |
| |Galgiani, Portantino, | |Bradford, |
| |Ruskin | |Charles Calderon, Coto, |
| | | |Davis, Monning, Ruskin, |
| | | |Skinner, Solorio, |
| | | |Torlakson, Torrico |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Adams |Nays:|Conway, Harkey, Miller, |
| | | |Nielsen, Norby |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires the California State University (CSU) to
follow specified public notice criteria prior to adopting a
change in the admissions criteria that affects students in the
CSU campus local service area (LSA), as defined, and requires a
change in admissions criteria that affects the eligibility of
applicants residing within the LSA of the affected campus to
become effective only after a period of at least one year has
elapsed after approval of that change by the CSU Board of
Trustees (BOT). Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires a CSU campus to do all of the following prior to
adopting a change in the criteria for admission that affects
applicants in the LSA of a CSU campus, including changes to
transfer requirements and determinations regarding impaction
of majors:
a) Consult, in a public meeting, with the governing boards
of school districts and community college districts and
with community organizations located within the LSA of the
affected campus;
b) Hold three public hearings in the LSA of the affected
campus to solicit public comments relative to the proposed
changes in admissions criteria;
AB 2402
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c) Provide public notice of the proposed change in
admissions criteria, as specified, and at least 10 days
before the first public meeting or public hearing; and,
d) Submit the proposed change to the CSU Trustees for
approval after first meeting all of the above requirements.
2)Stipulates that a change in admissions criteria shall become
effective only after a period of at least one year following
approval by the Trustees.
3)Defines the LSA for a campus as the area set forth in the CSU
Coded Memorandum AA-2005-05, dated February 23, 2005,
including any subsequent amendments.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, campuses would incur additional costs to conduct
public meetings. Assuming $10,000 per campus for each change,
if 10 campuses were affected in any year, costs systemwide would
be $100,000.
COMMENTS : General Fund support for CSU has declined by about
$620 million (20%) between 2007-08 and the current year. As a
result, CSU intends to admit no new students in spring 2010 and
has set a goal to reduce overall enrollment by about 40,000
students over a two-year period. To accomplish this reduction,
CSU has employed various strategies. According to CSU, campuses
are still required to admit all local CSU-eligible first-time
freshmen and local upper-division transfer students per the
usual established admissions policy, unless the campus declares
itself impacted.
Campus impaction means that a campus has exhausted existing
enrollment capacity in terms of the instructional resources and
physical capacity of the campus, and because the campus receives
more eligible applicants during the Fall admission application
filing period than can be accommodated, the campus must
therefore restrict enrollment to the campus for a specific
enrollment category (i.e. first-time freshmen). As of November
2009, Fullerton, Long Beach, Cal Poly Pomona, San Diego, and
Sonoma are designated as impacted CSU campuses. Students
interested in an impacted major or campus must apply for
admission during the Fall filing period for admission the
AB 2402
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following Fall.
Of the five impacted CSU campuses, only SDSU has ended its
policy of admitting every qualified applicant in its LSA. SDSU
is continuing to give special preference to high school seniors
from this area by guaranteeing they constitute at least 37% of
incoming freshmen. This is the average representation over the
last 11 years, but it is considerably lower than the 54% in the
past two years. While SDSU has acknowledged that dropping the
admission guarantee for seniors in SDSU's LSA would disrupt the
plans of many students-the number of local freshmen admitted to
SDSU could go down by as many as 1,000 next fall-the campus has
noted that the seniors who will be denied admission under this
policy still will provided a guarantee of subsequent admission
to SDSU if the student completes general education course work
and earns a GPA of at least 2.4, or the GPA required for their
intended major, within three years.
Analysis Prepared by : Sandra Fried / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960
FN: 0004682