BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2736
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 2736 (Higher Education Committee)
As Amended June 26, 2014
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |78-0 |(April 28, |SENATE: |36-0 |(August 18, |
| | |2014) | | |2014) |
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Original Committee Reference: HIGHER ED.
SUMMARY : Authorizes the California State University (CSU) Board
of Trustees (Trustees) to establish a voluntary fee to fund the
statewide student organization and would provide for
noncontroversial changes to existing CSU reporting requirements.
The Senate amendments authorize 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.
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 Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
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
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
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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),
Chapter 430), required the CSU to work with the Legislative
Analyst's Office (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
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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 Doctor of Nursing Practice (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 Doctor of Education 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.
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
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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.
Analysis Prepared by : Laura Metune / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960
FN: 0005228