The Board of Trustees’ two sponsored bills dealing with the nursing doctorate and alumni affinity programs have been moving on a steady course through the legislative process this session. Both bills are now only a few short steps from the Governor’s desk.

Nursing Doctorate:
AB 867 by Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara and Juan Arambula, D-Fresno, grants the CSU the authority to offer the Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree given our experience in this field by graduating 65 percent of the state’s undergraduate nurses annually. To this date, the bill has seen no opposition.

AB 867 was last heard in the Senate Appropriations committee where it has been placed in the suspense file for further consideration later this week. We are continuing to work Senate Leadership and with our supporters and health care partners so we can get it to the Senate floor in the next week. Once considered and if passed on the Senate floor it will head to the Governor’s desk for consideration of his signature.

Alumni Affinity Program:
The CSU is also sponsoring AB 1222 by Assembly member Bonnie Lowenthal, D-Long Beach. The bill allows the CSU, the University of California (UC) and as amended Hastings College of Law to operate affinity programs for graduates and alumni through 2016 by extending the sunset established by SB 569, authored by Senator Tom Torlakson, in 2005.

Public universities throughout the country, private institutions and nonprofit organizations, commonly use affinity programs to not only help generate non-state funded monies for the campus community but to also keep alumni connected to their university.

Like our nursing doctorate bill, AB 1222 has had no recorded “no” votes. AB 1222 was approved on the Senate consent calendar on August 26th. The bill moves to the Governor’s desk for consideration in the next couple of weeks.

We are hopeful that both the CSU sponsored bills will be approved by the Governor and be instituted into law.