BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  AB 670
                                                                  Page  1


          ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
          AB 670 (Block)
          As Amended  April 28, 2011
          Majority vote 

           HIGHER EDUCATION    9-0         APPROPRIATIONS      17-0        
           
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
          |Ayes:|Block, Donnelly,          |Ayes:|Fuentes, Harkey,          |
          |     |Achadjian, Brownley,      |     |Blumenfield, Bradford,    |
          |     |Fong, Galgiani, Lara,     |     |Charles Calderon, Campos, |
          |     |Miller, Portantino        |     |Davis, Donnelly, Gatto,   |
          |     |                          |     |Hall, Hill, Lara,         |
          |     |                          |     |Mitchell, Nielsen, Norby, |
          |     |                          |     |Solorio, Wagner           |
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 

           SUMMARY  :   Requires the California State University (CSU) to 
          ensure that its campuses implement uniform appeal procedures for 
          applicants who are denied admission to a campus that includes 
          the following:

          1)Appeal procedures that clearly set forth the following:

             a)   The basis for appeal,

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

             c)   A limit of one appeal per academic term,

             d)   The contact information for the campus office to which 
               an appeal is submitted, and,

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

          2)Inclusion of appeal procedures, as defined above, in a denial 
            of admission notification to a student.

          3)Posting of information on its Internet Web site detailing the 
            appeal procedures, as defined above. 
           
          FISCAL EFFECT  :  According to the Assembly Appropriations 








                                                                  AB 670
                                                                  Page  2


          Committee, 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. 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  :   The California State University Enrollment 
          Management Policy and Practices, published by Office of the 
          Chancellor in 2002, includes a provision requiring 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.

          Appeal procedures were readily available on the Internet Web 
          sites of seven of the 23 CSU campuses:  Dominguez Hills, Pomona, 
          Sacramento, East Bay, Fullerton, San Marcos, and Mission Bay.  
          However, information about the appeal process varied 
          significantly; 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  :    Sandra Fried / HIGHER ED. / (916) 
          319-3960


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