California Legislature to consider several bills affecting UC campuses

By Jeong Park

The California Legislature is seeing madness in February.

Leading up to the Feb. 27 deadline to introduce bills, legislators introduced hundreds of bills to the floors of the California Assembly and the California Senate.

Some lawmakers are trying to stop the University of California’s proposal to potentially increase its tuition by up to 5 percent for the next five years unless the University receives sufficient state funding. Dozens of bills related to enrollment and instruction are now on the floor of the state legislature.

Here is a summary of some of the bills that, if passed, may affect the UC:

• Assembly Bill 42: The bill would prohibit a UC tuition hike until the 2018-2019 fiscal year, saying that increased revenue from Proposition 30 makes the hike unnecessary. Proposition 30 temporarily increases tax on incomes more than $250,000 and sales tax to raise money for education and balance the state’s budget.
• Assembly Bill 200: The bill would increase the number of Competitive Cal Grant A and B awards given annually from 22,500 to 100,000 by the 2018-2019 academic year. The competitive awards help fund tuition for nontraditional students.
• Assembly Bill 456: The bill would call for the UC to offer discounted electronic textbook rentals for all textbooks assigned in courses if the electronic and printed versions have the same content.
• Assembly Bill 636: The bill would authorize the UC to identify the alleged assailants of a homicide, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault or hate crime overseen by a campus security authority. The UC would be able to identify the alleged assailant if he or she represents a serious and ongoing threat to the safety of students, even if a victim does not consent to being identified.
• Assembly Bill 1212: The bill would require the UC to prohibit its campuses from discriminating against a student organization for imposing certain requirements on its leaders or voting members. The bill comes after the California State University stripped the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of its official recognition because the fellowship refused to strip its requirement that leaders of the group be Christian. A CSU policy, enacted in 2011, mandates leadership positions in cultural groups to be open to any student.
• Assembly Bill 1366: The bill would call for the UC to create Dream Resource Centers on each campus to provide educational resources about finances and academics for undocumented students.
• Proposed senate constitutional amendment: The amendment, which was announced Monday but has not officially been introduced to the legislature, would prohibit public universities from banning the U.S. flag on school property. The amendment comes after the Associated Students of UC Irvine’s legislative student council passed a resolution Thursday banning displays of all flags in ASUCI’s lobby.

Compiled by Jeong Park, Bruin senior staff.

[Source]: Daily Bruin