The Board of Trustees’ two sponsored bills dealing with the nursing doctorate and continuation of our alumni affinity programs have been moving on a steady course through the legislative process this session.

Nursing Doctorate
AB 867 by Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara and Juan Arambula, D-Fresno, authorizes the CSU to award independently the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree to prepare faculty to teach in postsecondary nursing education programs and train nurses for advanced nursing practice.

AB 867 has had two policy hearings in the Assembly Higher Education and the Business and Professions Committees. There has been no opposition and no recorded “no” votes! A special thank you to eight legislators on the Assembly Higher Education Committee that voted “aye”: Marty Block, D-San Diego; (Vice Chair) Connie Conway, R-Visalia; Paul Cook, R-Yucaipa; Paul Fong, D-Mountain View; Cathleen Galgiani, D-Tracy; Alyson Huber, D-Lodi; Fiona Ma, D- San Francisco and Ira Ruskin, D-Redwood City.

And, also the eight “aye” votes in the Assembly Committee on Business and Professions: Connie Conway, R-Visalia; Mike Eng, D-Monterey Park; (Chair) Mary Hayashi, D-Hayward; Ed Hernandez, D-Baldwin Park; John Perez, D-Los Angeles; Ira Ruskin, D-Redwood City and Cameron Smyth, R-Santa Clarita [note: Pedro Nava is a member of the committee]. At this time, the CSU has 46 co-authors and 76 letters of sponsor from groups, organizations and individuals. AB 867 will be heard next in Assembly Committee on Appropriations on Wednesday, May 13th. It will likely pause on the suspense file but because the bill stipulates that the DNP program would be funded by enrollment growth money we are hopeful that working with our supporters and health care partners we can get it to the Assembly floor by June.

Alumni Affinity Program
The CSU, working with the University of California (UC), are co-sponsors of AB 1222 by Assembly member Bonnie Lowenthal, D-Long Beach. The bill would ensure that both public institutions are able to continue their efforts to increase non-state resources for programs and student scholarships through services to recent graduates and alumni association members known as affinity programs.

Public universities throughout the country, private institutions and nonprofit organizations, commonly use affinity programs to help generate non-state funded monies through partnerships that offer benefits and services to alumni as a way to stay connected with their university. AB 1222 would simply allow the CSU and UC to continue their affinity programs by deleting the January 1, 2011 sunset established by SB 569, authored by Senator Tom Torlakson in 2005.

Like our nursing doctorate bill, AB 1222 has had no recorded “no” votes! It has been heard in two policy committees also, Assembly Higher Education and Judiciary Committees. AB 1222 was amended by the Judiciary committee after the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse requested a five year sunset extension to ensure there is sufficient information available to make sure CSU and UC comply with the current law's provisions and protect alumni's personal information and privacy. With these amendments the bill was approved on consent and is pending action in Appropriations later this month.

We anticipate that our two sponsored bills will be voted on the Assembly Floor and moved to the Senate by June 5th deadline to be out of house of origin by that date.