BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2736
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 2736 (Higher Education Committee)
As Amended June 26, 2014
Majority vote
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|ASSEMBLY: |78-0 |(April 28, |SENATE: |36-0 |(August 18, 2014) |
| | |2014) | | | |
----------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|COMMITTEE VOTE: |11-0 |(August 25, 2014) |RECOMMENDATION: |concur |
|(Higher Ed.) | | | | |
| | | | | |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
AB 2736
Page 2
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), 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
AB 2736
Page 3
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 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
AB 2736
Page 4
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.
Analysis Prepared by : Laura Metune / HIGHER ED. / (916) 319-3960
FN: 0005482