BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2736
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Date of Hearing: August 25, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Das Williams, Chair
AB 2736 (Committee on Higher Education) - As Amended: June 26,
2014
SUBJECT : Postsecondary education: California State University
SUMMARY : Provides for various changes to statutes governing
the California State University (CSU). Specifically, this bill :
1)Authorizes the CSU Trustees to establish a fee for voluntary
membership in the statewide student organization and require
the CSU Trustees to provide students the ability to
affirmatively elect to pay the fee, or a clear and unambiguous
means to decline payment of the fee, each time the fee is
assessed.
2)Requires the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) to report to
the Legislature regarding the CSU Early Start Program by July
1, rather than January 1, of each even-numbered year.
3)Provides for technical changes to the CSU Doctor of Nursing
Practice (DNP) degree pilot program reporting, and provides
for repeal of the reporting requirements on January 1, 2021.
4)Extends the date by which CSU Trustees are required to report
gifts to the Legislature and the Department of Finance from
January 5 to January 31 of each year.
EXISTING LAW establishes the CSU and confers upon the CSU
Trustees the powers, duties, and functions with respect to the
management, administration, and control of the CSU system.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to rule 28.8, this bill has a negligible
fiscal impact.
COMMENTS : This bill provides for four changes to statutes
governing CSU:
Student organization fee . Currently, the California State
Student Association (CSSA) is dependent on a voluntary portion
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of membership fees collected by the 23 local student
associations, which has been augmented in recent years by an
annual allocation of the Chancellor's Office. In March 2014,
CSSA requested the establishment of a system-wide voluntary fee
to fund their programs and activities. A voluntary student fee
would create a long-term, stable revenue stream to fully
implement student participation, enable the CSSA to establish a
higher degree of financial independence from the CSU system and
allow students the individual choice to contribute financially
to statewide student representation.
Current law grants the CSU Trustees the authority to establish a
voluntary membership at a state university, but there is a need
to clarify the Trustees' authority to establish a voluntary fee
at the system-wide level, before they can act on the CSSA
request. The new fee authorized in this bill would operate
differently from the current fee for campus organizations. For
the statewide student organization the Trustees would be
authorized to fix a voluntary membership fee for the statewide
student organization and a student would have the ability to
affirmatively elect to pay the fee, or a clear and unambiguous
means to decline payment of the fee, each time the fee is
assessed.
Early Start Program . To address concerns regarding the large
number of incoming freshmen at the CSU requiring remediation,
Executive Order 1048 was issued in 2010, creating the Early
Start Program. Entering freshmen not proficient in math or "at
risk" in English are required to start the remediation process
before their first term at CSU. Students are given a menu of
options to determine the best approach to start their remedial
instruction, including senior year high school courses, courses
offered in the summer at any one of their local California
Community College (CCC) or CSU campuses and online courses, to
name a few. Legislation enacted in 2012 (AB 2497, Solorio),
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required the CSU to work with the LAO on an ongoing series of
reports showing the impact of CSU's Early Start Program on
students needing remediation. Currently, the law requires a
report be submitted on January 1, 2014, and then subsequently
every two years after that. This bill will move the reporting
deadline to July 1, beginning in 2016, to ensure LAO can include
information on the most recent program data in the report. It
should be noted that in January 2014, the LAO recommended
eliminating the remaining Early Start reporting requirements.
Doctor of Nursing Practice . CSU was provided authority to
establish a DNP degree pilot program at three campuses in 2010
(AB 867 (Nava), Chapter 416). A report is required in
collaboration with LAO and the Department Of Finance, due
January 1, 2017. Compromise on the bill came together in the
final hours of session and the reporting language was
essentially taken from prior legislation dealing with the EdD
degree. As a result, some of the language in the DNP report is
unrelated to the pilot program. This bill modifies the
reporting language to look at the appropriate policy issues for
the DNP and establishes a sunset date for the reporting
requirements of January 1, 2021.
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Trustee Gift Reporting . Currently CSU Trustees are required to
report to the Legislature and the Department of Finance annually
on January 5. The CSU has been consistently late in reporting
this information due to the Trustees approval being required
prior to the release of the report. The Trustees meeting
schedule does not permit the report to be released by the
January 5th deadline. This bill would move the due date for
this report to the end of January (25-day difference) to ensure
the CSU submits the report on time.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California State Student Association
California State University
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Laura Metune / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960