SECTIONS 66900-66906 - California Statutes

EDUCATION CODE

SECTION 66900-66906

66900. (a) It is the intent of the Legislature that the California
Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) be responsible for
coordinating public, independent, and private postsecondary education
in California and providing independent policy analyses and
recommendations to the Legislature and the Governor on postsecondary
education issues. In this respect, the Legislature finds as follows:
(1) California, in its adoption of the 1960 Master Plan for Higher
Education, established the Coordinating Council for Higher
Education, the commission's predecessor as the statewide coordinating
and planning board for higher education.
(2) In 1973, the Legislature's Joint Committee on Higher Education
reviewed the 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education and ultimately
advanced a report that included recommendations for strengthening
California's higher education plan. The committee's work resulted in
the disestablishment of the Coordinating Council for Higher Education
and the establishment of the California Postsecondary Education
Commission.
(3) Assembly Bill 770 (Chapter 1187 of the Statutes of 1973)
strengthened the membership of the commission by having a majority of
its members represent the general public. That bill also increased
the commission's responsibilities with respect to advising the
Legislature and the Governor on issues related to governance,
operation, and financing of higher education in California.
(4) Since 1974, the commission has served as the state's
independent planning and coordination agency for postsecondary
education policy, responsible for providing analyses and
recommendations to the Legislature and the Governor related to
long-range planning for public postsecondary education and the state
policy and programs involving independent and private postsecondary
education sectors.
(5) In 1990, Senate Bill 1570 (Chapter 1587 of the Statutes of
1990) codified the commission's mission statement developed by the
1989 Joint Committee for the Review of the Master Plan for Higher
Education.
(6) The commission has administered specifically designated
federal programs and in July 1993, it was named the state's
designated agency to administer the new federal state postsecondary
review entity (SPRE).
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that the commission
maintain the essential role it plays in coordinating all sectors of
postsecondary education, both public and private, given the size,
scope, and complexity of California's higher education system.
(c) It is further the intent of the Legislature, as follows:
(1) That the education policy recommendations of the commission
shall be a primary consideration in developing state policy and
funding for postsecondary education.
(2) That the commission shall develop and maintain a data
collection system capable of documenting the performance of
postsecondary education institutions in meeting the post high school
education and training needs of California's diverse population.
(3) That the commission, as the state's planning and coordinating
agency, shall ensure the effective utilization of public
postsecondary education resources, thereby eliminating waste and
unnecessary duplication, and shall promote diversity, innovation, and
responsiveness to student and societal needs.
(4) That the commission shall encourage the participation of
faculty members, students, administrators, and members of the general
public in carrying out its duties and responsibilities.

66901. There is hereby created the California Postsecondary
Education Commission, which shall be advisory to the Governor, the
Legislature, other appropriate governmental officials, and
institutions of postsecondary education. The commission shall be
composed of the following members:
(a) One representative of the Regents of the University of
California designated by the regents, one representative of the
Trustees of the California State University designated by the
trustees, and one representative of the Board of Governors of the
California Community Colleges designated by the board.
Representatives of the regents, the trustees, and the board of
governors shall be chosen from among the appointed members of their
respective boards, but in no instance shall an ex officio member of a
governing board serve on the commission.
(b) One representative of the independent California colleges and
universities that are formed and operated as nonprofit corporations
in this state and are accredited by a regional association that is
recognized by the United States Department of Education. This member
shall be appointed by the Governor from a list or lists submitted by
an association or associations of those institutions.
(c) The chair or the designee of the chair of the Council for
Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education.
(d) The President of the State Board of Education or his or her
designee from among the other members of the board.
(e) Nine representatives of the general public appointed as
follows: three by the Governor, three by the Senate Rules Committee,
and three by the Speaker of the Assembly. It is the intent of the
Legislature that the commission be broadly and equitably
representative of the general public in the appointment of its public
members and that the appointing authorities, therefore, shall confer
to assure that their combined appointments include adequate
representation on the basis of sex and on the basis of the
significant racial, ethnic, and economic groups in the state.
(f) Two student representatives, each of whom shall be enrolled at
a California postsecondary education institution at the time of
appointment and during the term of service, except that a student
member who graduates from an institution with no more than six months
of his or her term remaining shall be permitted to serve for the
remainder of the term. The Governor shall appoint the student members
from persons nominated by the appropriate student organizations of
each of the postsecondary education segments. For each student member
of the commission, the appropriate student organization may submit a
list of nominees. The list shall specify not less than three and not
more than five nominees. The appropriate student organization for
each segment shall be a composite group of at least five
representative student government associations, as determined by the
commission.
(g) The student member appointed to the commission shall not be
enrolled in the same segment as the outgoing student member or in the
same segment of the other sitting student member.
(h) No person who is employed by any institution of public or
private postsecondary education shall be appointed to or serve on the
commission, except that a person who is not a permanent, full-time
employee and who has part-time teaching duties that do not exceed six
hours per week may be appointed to and serve on the commission.
The commission members designated in subdivisions (a), (c), and
(d) shall serve at the pleasure of their respective appointing
authorities. The member designated in subdivision (b) shall serve a
three-year term. The members designated in subdivision (e) shall each
serve a six-year term. The members designated in subdivision (f)
shall each serve a two-year term. The respective appointing authority
may appoint an alternate for each member who may, during the member'
s absence, serve on the commission and vote on matters before the
commission. When vacancies occur prior to expiration of terms, the
respective appointing authority may appoint a member for the
remainder of the term.
Any person appointed pursuant to this section may be reappointed
to serve additional terms.
All terms subsequent to the initial appointments, which became
effective on January 10, 1974, shall begin on January 1 of the year
in which the respective terms are to start.
Any person appointed pursuant to this section who no longer has
the position that made him or her eligible for appointment may
nonetheless complete his or her term of office on the commission.
No person appointed pursuant to this section shall, with respect
to any matter before the commission, vote for or on behalf of, or in
any way exercise the vote of, any other member of the commission.
The commission shall meet as often as it deems necessary to carry
out its duties and responsibilities.
Any member of the commission who in any calendar year misses more
than one-third of the meetings of the full commission forfeits his or
her office, thereby creating a vacancy.
The commission shall select a chair from among the members
representing the general public. The chair shall hold office for a
term of one year and may be selected to successive terms.
There is established an advisory committee to the commission and
the director, consisting of the chief executive officers of each of
the public segments, or their designees, the Superintendent of Public
Instruction or his or her designee, and an executive officer from
each of the groups of institutions designated in subdivisions (b) and
(c) to be designated by the respective commission representative
from these groups. Commission meeting agenda items and associated
documents shall be provided to the committee in a timely manner for
its consideration and comments.
The commission may appoint any subcommittees or advisory
committees it deems necessary to advise the commission on matters of
educational policy. The advisory committees may consist of commission
members or nonmembers, or both, including students, faculty members,
segmental representatives, governmental representatives, and
representatives of the public.
The commission shall appoint and may remove a director in the
manner hereafter specified. The director shall appoint persons to any
staff positions the commission may authorize.
The commission shall prescribe rules for the transaction of its
own affairs, subject, however, to all the following requirements and
limitations:
(1) The votes of all representatives shall be recorded.
(2) Effective action shall require the affirmative vote of a
majority of all the duly appointed members of the commission, not
including vacant commission seats.
(3) The affirmative votes of two-thirds of all the duly appointed
members of the commission, not including vacant commission seats,
shall be necessary to the appointment of the director.

66902. The commission shall have power to require the governing
boards and the institutions of public postsecondary education to
submit data on plans and programs, costs, selection and retention of
students, enrollments, plant capacities and other matters pertinent
to effective planning, policy development, articulation and
coordination, and shall furnish information concerning such matters
to the Governor and to the Legislature as requested by them.

66902.5. Unless otherwise specified, reports submitted to the
Legislature by the California Postsecondary Education Commission
shall be delivered to the Senate and Assembly budget subcommittees on
education, the Senate education and Assembly higher education policy
committees, the Legislative Analyst's Office, the office of the
Secretary for Education, and the Department of Finance. Unless
otherwise specified, these reports may be submitted in PDF format or
comparable electronic format.

66903. The commission has the following functions and
responsibilities in its capacity as the statewide postsecondary
education planning and coordinating agency and adviser to the
Legislature and the Governor:
(a) It shall require the governing boards of the segments of
public postsecondary education to develop and submit to the
commission institutional and systemwide long-range plans in a form
determined by the commission after consultation with the segments.
(b) It shall prepare a state plan for postsecondary education that
shall integrate the planning efforts of the public segments with
other pertinent plans. The commission shall seek to resolve conflicts
or inconsistencies among segmental plans in consultation with the
segments. If these consultations are unsuccessful, the commission
shall report the unresolved issues to the Legislature with
recommendations for resolution. In developing the plan, the
commission shall consider at least the following factors:
(1) The need for, and location of, new facilities.
(2) The range and kinds of programs appropriate to each
institution or system.
(3) The budgetary priorities of the institutions and systems of
postsecondary education.
(4) The impact of various types and levels of student charges on
students and on postsecondary education programs and institutions.
(5) The appropriate levels of state-funded student financial aid.
(6) The access and admission of students to postsecondary
education.
(7) The educational programs and resources of independent and
private postsecondary institutions.
(8) The provisions of this division differentiating the functions
of the public systems of higher education.
(c) It shall update the plan periodically, as appropriate.
(d) It shall participate in appropriate stages of the executive
and the legislative budget processes as requested by the executive
and the legislative branches, and shall advise the executive and the
legislative branches as to whether segmental programmatic budgetary
requests are compatible with the state plan. It is not intended that
the commission hold independent budget hearings.
(e) It shall advise the Legislature and the Governor regarding the
need for, and location of, new institutions and campuses of public
higher education.
(f) It shall review proposals by the public segments for new
programs, the priorities that guide them, and the degree of
coordination with nearby public, independent, and private
postsecondary educational institutions, and shall make
recommendations regarding those proposals to the Legislature and the
Governor.
(g) In consultation with the public segments, it shall establish a
schedule for segmental review of selected educational programs,
evaluate the program approval, review, and disestablishment processes
of the segments, and report its findings and recommendations to the
Legislature and the Governor.
(h) It shall serve as a stimulus to the segments and institutions
of postsecondary education by projecting and identifying societal and
educational needs and encouraging adaptability to change.
(i) It shall periodically collect or conduct, or both collect and
conduct, studies of projected manpower supply and demand, in
cooperation with appropriate state agencies, and disseminate the
results of those studies to institutions of postsecondary education
and to the public in order to improve the information base upon which
student choices are made.
(j) It shall periodically review and make recommendations
concerning the need for, and availability of, postsecondary programs
for adult and continuing education.
(k) It shall develop criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of
all aspects of postsecondary education.
(l) It shall maintain and update annually an inventory of all
off-campus programs and facilities for education, research, and
community services operated by public and independent institutions of
postsecondary education.
(m) (1) It shall act as a clearinghouse for postsecondary
education information and as a primary source of information for the
Legislature, the Governor, and other agencies. It shall develop and
maintain a comprehensive data base that does all of the following:
(A) Ensures comparability of data from diverse sources.
(B) Supports longitudinal studies of individual students as they
progress through the state's postsecondary educational institutions,
based upon the commission's existing student data base through the
use of a unique student identifier.
(C) Is compatible with the California School Information System
and the student information systems developed and maintained by the
public segments of higher education, as appropriate.
(D) Provides Internet access to data, as appropriate, to the
sectors of higher education.
(E) Provides each of the educational segments access to the data
made available to the commission for the purposes of the data base,
in order to support, most efficiently and effectively, statewide,
segmental, and individual campus educational research information
needs.
(2) The commission, in implementing paragraph (1), shall comply
with the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974
(20 U.S.C. Sec. 1232g) relating to the disclosure of personally
identifiable information concerning students.
(3) The commission may not make available any personally
identifiable information received from a postsecondary educational
institution concerning students for any regulatory purpose unless the
institution has authorized the commission to provide that
information on behalf of the institution.
(4) The commission shall provide 30-day notification to the
chairpersons of the appropriate legislative policy and budget
committees of the Legislature, to the Director of Finance, and to the
Governor prior to making any significant changes to the student
information contained in the data base.
(n) It shall establish criteria for state support of new and
existing programs, in consultation with the public segments, the
Department of Finance, and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.
(o) It shall comply with the appropriate provisions of the federal
Education Amendments of 1972 (P.L. 92-318), as specified in Section
67000.
(p) It shall consider the relationship among academic education
and vocational education and job training programs, and shall
actively consult with representatives of public and private
education.
(q) It shall review all proposals for changes in eligibility pools
for admission to public institutions and segments of postsecondary
education and shall make recommendations to the Legislature, the
Governor, and institutions of postsecondary education. In carrying
out this subdivision, the commission periodically shall conduct a
study of the percentages of California public high school graduates
estimated to be eligible for admission to the University of
California and the California State University. The changes made to
this subdivision during the 2001-02 Regular Session of the
Legislature shall be implemented only during those fiscal years for
which funding is provided for the purposes of those provisions in the
annual Budget Act or in another measure.
(r) It shall report periodically to the Legislature and the
Governor regarding the financial conditions of independent
institutions, their enrollment and application figures, the number of
student spaces available, and the respective cost of utilizing those
spaces as compared to providing additional public spaces. The
reports shall include recommendations concerning state policies and
programs having a significant impact on independent institutions.
(s) Upon request of the Legislature or the Governor, it shall
submit to the Legislature and the Governor a report on all matters so
requested that are compatible with its role as the statewide
postsecondary education planning and coordinating agency. Upon
request of individual Members of the Legislature or personnel in the
executive branch, the commission shall submit information or a report
on any matter to the extent that sufficient resources are available.
From time to time, it also may submit to the Legislature and the
Governor a report that contains recommendations as to necessary or
desirable changes, if any, in the functions, policies, and programs
of the several segments of public, independent, and private
postsecondary education.
(t) In consultation with the public segments, it shall consider
the development of facilities to be used by more than one segment of
public higher education, commonly called "joint-use facilities." It
shall recommend to the Legislature criteria and processes for
different segments to utilize bond funds for these intersegmental,
joint-use facilities.
(u) It may undertake other functions and responsibilities that are
compatible with its role as the statewide postsecondary education
planning and coordinating agency.

66903.1. To the extent that the functions and tasks assigned to the
California Postsecondary Education Commission by state law cannot
all be performed with the funding provided in the annual Budget Act,
it is the intent of the Legislature that the commission prioritize
its workload to ensure, at a minimum, that the following
responsibilities are completed in a timely manner:
(a) All reviews and recommendations of the need for new
institutions for the public higher education segments, inclusive of
community colleges, pursuant to subdivision (e) of Section 66903.
(b) All reviews and recommendations of the need for new programs
for the public higher education segments, inclusive of community
colleges, pursuant to subdivision (f) of Section 66903.
(c) Consistent with the role of the commission pursuant to Section
67002, serve as the designated state educational agency to carry out
federal education programs, pursuant to subdivision (o) of Section
66903.
(d) All data management responsibilities pursuant to subdivision
(m) of Section 66903 and data reporting pursuant to the adoption of
legislation that establishes a higher education accountability
framework.

66903.2. The Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development
shall consult with the commission in the development by the office of
its Health Manpower Plan and recommendations for meeting the needs
in California for health science personnel. This consultation shall
focus on whether health science education enrollment levels are
adequate to meet the state's health manpower needs by category and
specialty within each category.

66903.3. The commission may delegate to the executive director any
power, duty, purpose, function, or jurisdiction that the commission
may lawfully delegate, including the authority to enter into and sign
contracts on behalf of the commission. The executive director may
redelegate any of those powers, duties, purposes, functions, or
jurisdictions to his or her designee, unless by statute, or rule or
regulation, the executive director is expressly required to act
personally.

66903.5. (a) The commission shall conduct, or contract to conduct,
a review and analysis of California community college districts'
admission procedures and attrition rates for their two-year associate
degree nursing programs. The review and analysis shall include, but
not necessarily be limited to, information regarding the admission
procedures and attrition rates for the Los Angeles County College of
Nursing and Allied Health and other relevant nursing programs, to the
extent that information is available. The commission shall submit
findings of the review and analysis, along with relevant
recommendations, to the Governor and the Legislature on or before
January 10, 2003. (b) This section shall remain in effect only until
January 1, 2004, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later
enacted statute that is enacted before January 1, 2004, deletes or
extends that date.

66904. It is the intent of the Legislature that sites for new
institutions or branches of the University of California and the
California State University, and the classes of off-campus centers as
the commission shall determine, shall not be authorized or acquired
unless recommended by the commission.
It is further the intent of the Legislature that California
community colleges shall not receive state funds for acquisition of
sites or construction of new institutions, branches, or off-campus
centers unless recommended by the commission. Acquisition or
construction of nonstate-funded community college institutions,
branches, and off-campus centers, and proposals for acquisition or
construction shall be reported to, and may be reviewed and commented
upon by, the commission.
It is further the intent of the Legislature that existing or new
institutions of public education, other than those described in
subdivision (a) of Section 66010, shall not be authorized to offer
instruction beyond the 14th grade level.
All proposals for new postsecondary educational programs shall be
forwarded to the commission for review together with supporting
materials and documents that the commission may specify. The
commission shall review the proposals within a reasonable length of
time, which time shall not exceed 60 days following submission of the
program and the specified materials and documents. For the purposes
of this section, "new postsecondary educational programs" means all
proposals for new schools or colleges, all series of courses arranged
in a scope or sequence leading to (1) a graduate or undergraduate
degree, or (2) a certificate of a type defined by the commission,
which have not appeared in a segment's or district's academic plan
within the previous two years, and all proposals for new research
institutes or centers which have not appeared in a segment's or
district's academic plan within the previous two years.
It is further the intent of the Legislature that the advice of the
commission be utilized in reaching decisions on requests for funding
new and continuing graduate and professional programs, enrollment
levels, and capital outlay for existing and new campuses, colleges,
and off-campus centers.

66905. It is the intent of the Legislature that the California
Postsecondary Education Commission annually review and fix the salary
of its director according to a methodology established by the
commission. This methodology shall take into consideration the salary
of directors of coordinating boards for higher education in states
with postsecondary education systems comparable to California's in
size, complexity, and level of state expenditures. The comparison
states shall include seven major industrial states, including
Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Texas. The commission shall
notify the Chairperson of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee of
this annual salary amount. Notwithstanding the provisions of Section
19825 of the Government Code, the salary shall become effective no
sooner than 30 days after written notice of the salary is provided to
the chairperson of the committee, or no sooner than a lesser time as
the chairperson, or his or her designee, may determine.

66906. Each member of the commission shall receive a stipend of
fifty dollars ($50) for each day in which he or she attends any
meeting of the commission or any meeting of any committee or
subcommittee of the commission, of which committee or subcommittee he
or she is a member, and which committee or subcommittee meeting is
conducted for the purpose of carrying out the powers and duties of
the commission and, in addition, shall receive his or her actual and
necessary traveling expenses incurred in the course of his or her
duties.