BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
SB 960 (Rubio) - California State University (CSU): Mandatory
Fees.
Amended: April 17, 2012 Policy Vote: Education 8-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: May 24, 2012 Consultant: Jacqueline
Wong-Hernandez
SUSPENSE FILE.
Bill Summary: SB 960 prohibits campus-based mandatory fees,
other than those for instruction-related purposes or that are
specifically authorized by statute, at the California State
University (CSU), from being established without an affirmative
vote of either the student body or a campus fee advisory
committee, as specified.
Fiscal Impact: This bill will likely result in minor costs to
individual CSU campuses, and potentially significant cost
pressure to the state to backfill CSU to the extent that it was
unsuccessful in passing fee increases.
Requirements to raise fees: To the extent that CSU campuses
use the student referendum option to pass new fees, campuses
will incur costs of approximately $25,000 to publicize the
referendum. Seeking a vote of the majority of a campus's fee
advisory committee is likely to result in only minor and
absorbable costs.
Barriers to raising and reallocating student fees: If this
bill results in CSU campuses being unable to raise or
reallocate student fees to meet campus needs, it will result
in additional cost pressure for the state to fund the CSU at
a higher level, at a time when budget reductions continue.
Background: There is no statutory guiding policy on mandatory
system-wide student tuition and fees beyond the current fiscal
condition and the stated needs of University of California and
CSU, as negotiated in the budget deliberations.
Campus-based fees are generally used to support on-campus
activities such as health facilities and services, student
university unions, athletic programs, transit/transportation
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systems, and recreational opportunities. The state does not
provide funding to support these activities.
The Trustees adopted standing orders providing the Chancellor
the authority and responsibility to take whatever actions are
necessary for the appropriate functioning of the CSU including,
but not limited to, establishment, oversight, and adjustment of
campus-based mandatory fees
Proposed Law: This bill establishes a new required process for
CSU campus administrations to follow, if they wish to raise or
reallocate mandatory fees that are not instruction-related: the
administration must either obtain an affirmative vote of the
student body or a campus fee advisory committee. In the absence
of either, the fee could not be raised or reallocated.
Staff Comments: This bill will make it more difficult to
establish or reallocate student fees than it is currently. The
bill attempts to ensure that fees imposed on CSU students are
used for their intended purpose, and any changes must be done
through a process that requires affirmative student
participation.
If a campus administration wishes to, for example, establish a
new fee, it must either obtain an affirmative vote from the
campus's student fees advisory committee or from the student
body. The first option is the most expeditious and is unlikely
to have measurable costs; a committee vote will likely be the
one most often used. In the event that the committee does not
approve the fee, the administration would have the ability to
either hold a student referendum or to not raise/change the fee.
According to the CSU, a student referendum costs approximately
$25,000 to publicize and hold. This includes advertisement in
the campus newspaper, printing a voter guide, and all other
marketing costs associated with promoting the referendum. The
campus also incurs the cost of printing and counting ballots.
The state does not reimburse CSU campuses for referenda or any
student election-related activity, but such activities do put
additional pressure on campus budgets.
If a referendum was not attempted, or was unsuccessful, the CSU
campus could not impose the fee changes it sought. An inability
for a CSU campus to change its fees to meet campus needs creates
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pressure for the state to increase funding to CSU because the
state will have (in passing this bill) specifically made it more
difficult for CSU campuses to raise their own revenue.
Committee Amendments: The amendments limit the requirements
imposed on CSU to instances in which a CSU campus seeks to
reallocate to a new purpose the funding collected for a fee
which was originally approved by an affirmative vote of the
student body.