BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Gloria Romero, Chair
2009-2010 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 2402
AUTHOR: Block
AMENDED: June 17, 2010
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: June 30, 2010
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Kathleen Chavira
SUBJECT : California State University Admissions
KEY POLICY ISSUE
Should the campuses of the California State University be
required to provide notice and transparency around any
change in their local admissions criteria?
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Trustees of the California State
University (CSU) to ensure that any changes in the
admission criteria for campus admission comply with
specified consultation, public meeting, notification and
disclosure requirements, and prohibits any change from
becoming effective until one year has elapsed, or six
months, if the change is based upon the resources of the
local service area of the affected campus.
BACKGROUND
Current law establishes the California State University and
creates a Board of Trustees responsible for its
administration. The Trustees are designated the authority
to adopt rules and regulations for the government of the
CSU. Current law requires specified notice and hearing
procedures prior to the adoption, amendment or repeal of
regulations. (Education Code 89001, 89030, 89030.1)
ANALYSIS
This bill :
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1) Requires, for purposes of ensuring public notice and
transparency that the CSU Trustees ensure that changes
in the criteria for admission to a university campus
comply with specified requirements. Specifically,
prior to adopting a change in criteria for admissions
that affects applicants residing within the local
service area, a campus must:
a) Consult with stakeholders
(including the governing boards of school
districts, community college districts, and
community organizations) located within the local
service area in a public meeting.
b) Hold three public hearings in the
campus' local service area to solicit public
comment on the proposed change.
c) Provide public notice, as
specified, of the proposed change on the campus'
website and in three newspapers of general
circulation in the local service area that
includes a description of the proposed change,
the right of the public to comment, and the date,
time and locations of the meetings.
d) Publish all public comments and
university responses, as well as the university's
final decision on the website of the affected
campus.
e) Submit the proposed change to the
Chancellor of the CSU for approval who is
required to decide and report on the decision to
the Trustees in writing at their next regularly
scheduled meeting.
f) Prohibits a change from becoming
effective before a year has elapsed after the
change is approved, except that a change in the
criteria based on resources that affect
applicants within the local service area may
become effective after 6 months have elapsed
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since approval by the Chancellor.
2) Applies these requirements to all changes in the
admission criteria that affect eligibility of local
service area applicants, including change to transfer
requirements and determinations regarding impaction of
majors.
3) Defines "local service area" for purposes of the bill.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . According to the author, San Diego
State University (SDSU) recently implemented admission
changes without notifying the surrounding community
that would have been affected. Because students had
planned their academic curriculum for the original
admissions criteria, many students found themselves
unqualified for eligibility to enroll at SDSU, a goal
they had already spent years working towards.
This bill outlines the procedurally transparent steps
which must be taken before changes to admissions
criteria that affect applicants in a local service
area are approved.
2) Local admission guarantee . This bill defers the
definition of "local service area" to CSU Coded
Memorandum AA-2005-05 which delineates the geographic
territory assigned to each campus for purposes of
providing local high schools and community college
information about the CSU and its campuses and for
campus impaction purposes.
Local first-time freshmen and upper-division transfer
students are defined as
those students who graduate from a high school district or
community college district, respectively, historically
served by a CSU campus in that
region. Under the guarantee, CSU eligible local first-time
freshman and upper-division transfer students are required
to be admitted to an
impacted campus on the basis of established CSU system
admission policies. According to the CSU, the local
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admission guarantee applies to
impacted campuses, but not to impacted majors and programs.
3) Impaction . An undergraduate major, program, or
campus is designated as impacted (subject to approval
by the Chancellor) when it receives more eligible
applicants during the initial filing period than it
can accommodate given its instructional resources and
physical capacity. Impaction may be defined by
specific program or by the entering class level (i.e.
first -time freshmen or upper division transfers), or
some combination of these. Programs or campuses are
then authorized to include supplemental criteria
(approved by the Chancellor) to screen applicants
within a specific enrollment category.
Campuses that are impacted are authorized to implement
supplemental
admission criteria for applicants who reside outside the
local area of the
campus, but CSU eligible local first-time freshman and
local upper-division
transfer students are required to be admitted to an
impacted campus on the basis of established CSU systemwide
admission policies. However,
admission to a specific program cannot be assured if the
program is impacted.
According the CSU Enrollment and Management Policy and
Practices,
consistent with the enrollment priorities outlined in
statute, California
Community College transfer students who have successfully
concluded a
course of study in an approved transfer agreement program
receive priority over all other applicants to the CSU.
4) Current status . The CSU reports that, of its 23
campuses, 12 are impacted at the upper division
transfer level, 13 are impacted for first time
freshmen, and two, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (SLO) and
San Diego State University (SDSU) are impacted in all
majors. As of 2008, all campuses, except SLO and SDSU
indicate that they accept all first-time freshmen
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applicants that graduate from high schools in the
local service area and meet systemwide eligibility
criteria.
SLO has reportedly been impacted for over twenty
years. SDSU was recently
approved to declare impaction at each major by the CSU. At
SDSU, at the first-time freshmen level 80 percent of
the class is selected on the basis
of an eligibility index higher than that required for
regular CSU admission. The remaining 20 percent are
selected on the basis of local area
entitlement, socioeconomic or education factors,
exceptional talents, or other criteria.
5) Related legislation . AB 2401 (Block) requires the
California State University (CSU) to provide
applicants residing in the local service area (LSA)
priority for admission to the applicant's local CSU
campus over other California residents or out-of-state
applicants entering as first-time freshman or
sophomores. AB 2401 is also on the agenda for the
committee's consideration today.
SUPPORT
American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees (AFL-CIO)
California State University
Community College League of California
Latino Concilio on Higher Education of San Diego County
We Advocate Gender Equity
OPPOSITION
None received.