BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
2402 (Block)
Hearing Date: 08/12/2010 Amended: 06/17/2010
Consultant: Dan Troy Policy Vote: ED 8-0
_________________________________________________________________
____
BILL SUMMARY: AB 2402 would require the Trustees of the
California State University to comply with specified
requirements when implementing a change in campus admission
criteria.
_________________________________________________________________
____
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
CSU admissions $100
$100 General
_________________________________________________________________
____
STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE.
Prior to adopting a change in the criteria for admission to, a
CSU campus would be required to do the following:
Consult with stakeholders, including the governing
boards of area K-12 and community college districts.
Hold three public hearings in the local service to
solicit public comments.
Provide public notice if the change in criteria on the
campus website, as specified.
Publish on the campus website all of the public comments
received, as well as the responses to those comments.
Publish on the campus website the final decision on the
proposed change and distribute the decision to community
officials and local high schools.
Require the president of the affected campus to notify
the Chancellor of CSU about the approval decision,
including the reasoning behind the decision.
Require a change in the criteria to take effect only
after a period at least one year has elapsed, unless the
change is based on resources, in which case it may take
effect after six months.
Consistent with current law, regulations adopted by the CSU
Board of Trustees requires CSU campuses to admit all local
CSU-eligible freshman applications and upper divisions transfer
students. An exception to this rule is allowed when a campus is
deemed to be impacted, as approved by the Chancellor. A campus
is considered impacted when it does not have the financial
resources or physical capacity to accept all eligible students.
Under these circumstances, the campus may institute new criteria
to limit enrollment for a specific category, such as first-time
freshmen applicants, or for specific majors.
Page 2
AB 2402 (Block)
While several CSU campuses are deemed to be impacted, changes
made to admission criteria at San Diego State University (SDSU).
According to the author, recently implemented admission
criteria changes were made at CSU without adequate notice to the
community. This disadvantaged students that had tailored their
academic coursework toward SDSU's admission criteria. This bill
would seek to address the issue by requiring more notice when a
campus changes its admission criteria.
The state's recent budget deficits have resulted in major
reductions in CSU funding (over $600 million since the 2007-08
fiscal year). In response, CSU has is attempting to reduce
enrollment by 40,000 over two years and did not offer spring
admission in 2010.
According to CSU, this bill would result in annual costs of
approximately $100,000. Staff notes that by limiting changes
from taking effect before six months, it is possible that CSU
could be limited in its ability to realize savings due to budget
reductions. In all likelihood, CSU will manage the issue by
broadly noticing potential changes in case they are necessary to
implement.