BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  AB 670
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 11, 2011

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                    AB 670 (Block) - As Amended:  April 28, 2011 

          Policy Committee:                              Higher 
          EducationVote:9-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program: 
          No     Reimbursable:               

           SUMMARY  

          This bill requires that an appeals process for all California 
          State University (CSU) campuses for denial of admission include:

          1)The basis for appeal.

          2)A timeframe of 15 business days from the date of denial of 
            admissions notification with which to appeal.

          3)A limit of one appeal per academic term.

          4)The contact information for the campus office to which an 
            appeal is submitted.

          5)A time estimate for when the campus expects to issue a 
            response to an appeal request.

          6)Inclusion of the above appeal procedures in a denial of 
            admission notification to a student.

          7)Posting of the above information on the campus website.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Each CSU campus will, on average, incur ongoing costs of around 
          $30,000 for one-half position to administer the appeals process, 
          thus statewide costs would be $690,000.  Campuses will also 
          incur one-time programming costs to modify their student 
          database systems to record the "reason for the denial," to be 
          communicated in each denial letter. Each campus will also need 
          to create and to publish its admission appeal procedure. 








                                                                  AB 670
                                                                  Page  2

          Assuming $5,000 per campus plus $10,000 for Chancellor's Office 
          coordination to ensure uniformity, one-time costs would total 
          $125,000. (About 60% of CSU's budget is General Fund, with most 
          of the remainder from student tuition revenues.) 

           COMMENTS  

           Purpose  . The CSU's Enrollment Management Policy and Practices 
          requires each campus to maintain a process by which students can 
          receive information about the status of their application for 
          admission, reasons for denial of admission, and a process to 
          appeal admissions decisions.  The specifics of the appeals 
          process, including timeframe for appeal, criteria, and method of 
          communication, is left to the discretion of each campus. The 
          author argues that, while each campus has an appeals process, it 
          is not uniform nor is it always easy to obtain.

          According to the Assembly Higher Education Committee analysis, 
          appeal procedures were readily available on the websites of 
          seven of the 23 CSU campuses. Information about the appeal 
          process varied significantly, however. Several campuses mention 
          the appeal process but provide very little information to guide 
          a student pursuing an appeal, such as criteria or timeframes or 
          where to submit the appeal. When timeframes were listed, they 
          ranged from two weeks to 90 days for students to appeal.

           Analysis Prepared by :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081