BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1969
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Date of Hearing: April 29, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Das Williams, Chair
AB 1969 (Levine) - As Amended: April 1, 2014
SUBJECT : Postsecondary education: intersegmental coordination
in governance.
SUMMARY : Requires the Chancellor of the California State
University (CSU) and the Chancellor of the California Community
Colleges (CCC), and requests the President of the University of
California (UC) to coordinate the efforts of their respective
segments when procuring technology and software for student
support services; tasks the segments with developing
coordination benchmarks in order to measure their level of
coordination; specifies the segments should develop procedures
to coordinate the collection of, and to share, student
performance data, as specified; and expresses the intent of the
Legislature that, among other things, the segments of public
higher education coordinate their efforts to invest state
resources in technologies that are useful to multiple segments
or campuses. Specifically, this bill :
1)Declares that the Legislature intends that all of the
following occur:
a) That the segments of public higher education coordinate
their efforts to invest state resources in technologies
that are useful to multiple segments or campuses;
b) That, as these segments invest in new technologies, the
public segments jointly leverage their combined purchasing
power;
c) That investments in new technology made by these
segments prioritize the ability to coordinate with other
segments of higher education; and,
d) That these segments ease the student transfer process
between systems through increased coordination in the
purchasing of new technology platforms.
2)Requires the CSU Chancellor and the CCC Chancellor, and
requests the UC President to, coordinate their efforts when
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procuring technology and software for student support
services; and, tasks them with developing coordination
benchmarks for measuring the level of coordination in
governance undertaken as outlined.
3)Specifies that coordination benchmarks include, but are not
necessarily limited to, both of the following:
a) To the extent practicable, the public postsecondary
segments, when investing in resources that are useful to
multiple segments or campuses, shall coordinate their
efforts with the other public postsecondary segments.
Coordination efforts may include, but are not necessarily
limited to, all of the following:
i) Investment in new technologies for campus
administration and management;
ii) Investment in technology to assist in the delivery
of academic resources, including, but not necessarily
limited to, online library resources, online academic
journal subscriptions, and software designed to deliver
online course materials and content; and,
iii) Investment in technology to assist with delivery of
student services.
b) In the purchase or upgrade of campus or systemwide
technology platforms for administrative and student
services, the campus or segment shall give consideration to
a platform that offers greater capacity for coordination
among all of the segments of public postsecondary education
in California.
4)Stipulates that as the segments of public postsecondary
education invest in, and upgrade, infrastructure and software
for data storage and analysis, these segments shall develop
procedures to coordinate the collection of, and to share,
student performance data in a manner that is consistent with
state and federal privacy law.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Purpose of this bill . According to the author, this
measure seeks to require that the three segments of higher
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education (CCC, CSU, and UC) coordinate when purchasing new
technologies. The author states, "In the past, services and
resources across and within the three segments have developed in
silos. That has resulted in both duplicative work and posed
challenges for information to be shared." The author contends
that this bill would allow for "cross communication doors
between the segments to remain open or even be opened in the
future."
Current collaboration of segments . During the March 26, 2014,
CSU Board of Trustees meeting, CSU Chancellor Timothy P. White,
UC President Janet Napolitano, and CCC Chancellor Brice W.
Harris gave a joint presentation about collaboration among the
three systems. The three leaders highlighted a number of
efforts that are leading to extended collaboration among the
systems including, but not limited to, streamlining student
transfer pathways, shared administrative services, and
contracts.
Additionally, the three segments co-fund and co-manage
ASSIST.org, an online tool that helps students find community
college courses that are transferable to a UC or CSU campus
and how those transferable courses might be used to satisfy
subject matter requirements for specific majors or general
education requirements. ASSIST also provides information
about majors offered at UC and CSU campuses.
Lastly, the three segments all participate in the Corporation
for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC), in
order to obtain cost-effective, high-bandwidth networking to
support their missions and respond to the needs of their
faculty, staff, and students.
Committee consideration . There may be elements of this
measure that are not quantifiable and/or implementable for the
segments. Moving forward, staff recommends that the author
continue to work with the three segments in order to address
potential concerns of implementation of the measure.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
AB 1969
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Support
None on file.
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Jeanice Warden / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960