Assembly Higher Education Committee, Tuesday, April 7, 2026
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Assembly Higher Education Committee California State Assembly
Ihren Sitzungen folgenRedner 2
A key factor contributing to this underrepresentation is the lack of faculty who reflect the students' backgrounds, which leads many students from these groups to exit STEM educational pathways. The issue is further reflected in faculty demographics where only 4.5% of UC STEM faculty and 9.2% of CSU STEM faculty are Latino, black, or Native American. To address these gaps, the Calvary program creates a structured pathway for students from the California community colleges and California State Universities to pursue STEM PhDs and careers in academia and in the tech industry. Through five sub programs, CalBridge provides mentorship, financial aid, research opportunities, and professional development, supporting them from undergraduate studies through post postdoctoral stages. In addition to that, the Enlacep program operates independently but complements these these efforts by supporting STEM pathways at the high school level for an through the undergraduate education system.
Together, these initiatives would create a pipeline model that would increase participation in STEM PhD programs by historically underrepresented groups. In fact, they've been so successful. They've been fund these programs have been now operating for a few years. And what this bill does is it codifies these programs so they can continue to be in existence as part of the work that our higher education segments do. Unfortunately, our lead witness, doctor Alex Randolph, fell ill and cannot make it today.
But in addition to him, there are some letters of support that have been submitted to the committee, and I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you.
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Thank you so much, Osama Alvarez. Are there witnesses in support in the hearing room?
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Thank you. Kathy Van Austin, representing the American Association of University Women, I'm way too short for this thing, of California in support, if I may, since this lead witness isn't here. You know, we one of our core tenants is making sure that there's equal access to a quality public education for all students. In particular, with young girls, but also boys, we would like to make sure that there are rich programs that they can access in order to achieve those those higher levels of education. And we are greatly pleased to support this bill and and feel it's very important, especially during a time when diversity is being challenged.
And so we do we think that these types of programs are really critically important to move forward, and we certainly request your I vote. Thank you.
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Jaylen Woodard on behalf of the Alameda County Office of Education and Sean's board.
Redner 1
Thank you so much. Are there witnesses in opposition in the hearing room? Are there tweeners in the hearing room? Thank you. Assembly, we'd like to close, please.
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Yeah. Thank you, mister chair. And, again, thank you to those who spoke. We are trying to address an issue of underrepresentation by several of our populations in California in the STEM fields. These pro programs have proven to be successful.
The legislature has supported these programs in the past, and we think it's appropriate that we solidify these programs on an ongoing forward basis. That's why we have this bill before us today, and I appreciate the support when the appropriate time comes. Thank you.
Redner 1
Thank you so much, mister Sommer Alvarez, for bringing this important measure forward. I believe that your bill strengthens California's STEM workforce by creating a coordinated intersegmental pipeline from high school through post postdoctoral training, aligning our community colleges, our CSU, and University of California to a unified pathway, and investing in mentorship, research, and financial support. This bill expands opportunity, increases diversity in STEM fields, and helps ensure that California remains competitive in innovation and technology. And with that, I look forward to supporting this measure at the appropriate time.
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you, Alex. Thank you. Next up, we'd like to welcome a similar Mark Berman presenting item number eight, assembly bill two one two one. Welcome, assembly member Berman.
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Thank you, chair Fong and colleagues. I wanna start by thanking the committee staff for their work on this bill, and I will be accepting the committee's amendments described in the analysis. AB twenty one twenty one responds to the Trump administration's systematic dismantling of federal student success programs by removing barriers that prevent community colleges from backfilling this loss in federal funding. Specifically, this bill would provide local control to community colleges by allowing them to backfill the federal cuts to minority serving institutions and the trio programs. By temporarily excluding those backfill dollars from the 50% law that requires community college districts to spend at least half of their unrestricted funding on classroom instructors, community colleges can preserve these federally defunded student support programs.
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Importantly, a b twenty one twenty one includes transparency requirements and annual district certifications with a sunset after five years or upon restoration of federal funding, whichever occurs first. This bill maintains safeguards for faculty, such as not reducing spending on classroom instructors. Further, this bill does not request new state funding or create any state backflow requirement. Finally,
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prevent the immediate disruption of essential student support services, this bill would take effect immediately. I respectfully ask for your I vote, and I am joined today by chancellor Bradley Davis of the West Valley Mission Community College District and Leilani Huerta Hernandez, president of the Associated Students of West Valley College.
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Thank you, mister chair and committee members. My name is Bradley Davis. I serve as the chancellor of the West Valley Mission Community College District in Silicon Valley, and we are the sponsor of a b twenty one twenty one. Our two colleges are federally designated minority serving institutions with robust trio student support services programs, and they are directly in the crosshairs of what has been a full scale federal attack on student support programs at colleges across this country. These programs are the backbone of how we serve our most vulnerable students.
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TRIO provides the one on one advising, tutoring, and mentoring that keep first generation and low income students enrolled and progressing. A federal evaluation found TRIO participants at two year colleges were 48% more likely to earn a credential or transfer. MSI grants like HSI and Anapese go even further. They fund the institutional infrastructure that benefits every student on campus, learning centers, transfer pipelines, early alert systems, dedicated counselors, STEM tutoring labs. When those grants disappear, the capacity they built starts to erode for all students, not just the students those programs were named for.
In response, our district and several others across California have decided these programs are simply too essential to let go, and we're prepared to find the dollars within our existing budgets to keep them running. But the moment any district replaces those dollars from a lost federal grant into its local budget, they count against it under the 50% law, even though not a single dollar of instructional spending has changed. A well intentioned state law unintentionally prevents community colleges from stepping up to protect their most vulnerable students. This is why the temporary and narrow exclusion in a b twenty one twenty one is needed to respond to this moment. I respectfully ask for your aye vote.
Thank you.
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Thank you, chair and members. My name is Lilani Huerta Hernandez, and I am here today because this bill is not just policy to me. It's personal. West Valley College is a Hispanic serving institution, but it's but that's more than just a designation. It reflects who we are.
The majority of our students are Latino, Asian American, Pacific Islander, and students of color. Many of us come from immigrant families and are first generation, navigating systems that were never built with us in mind. The federal programs at stake exist for students like us. They exist because someone recognized that getting into college is not the same thing as getting through it. I am a proud first generation Latina student.
When I started college, I didn't know how to register for classes or how to apply for financial aid. I was doing it all on my own, and at one point, I almost didn't make it. I came very close to dropping out my first year, and without the support of the programs like these, I would not be here today. I work with students who need support every day, who balance school, work, and families, students who want to succeed but cannot do it alone. When the federal government walked away from us, our district stepped up.
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They committed their own dollars to make sure students like me would not lose the people and the services that help us continue. All we are asking is that the state not stand in the way of that commitment. This bill is not just a number, and it's not just a piece of paper. It's support for students who have been told their whole lives that they cannot make it. Your decision today is an investment in us, in our futures, in our ability to walk across that stage at graduation with pride and say we made it.
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And when we do, it will be because of people like you who believed in us enough to invest in our success. On behalf of the students of West Valley College, I respectfully ask for your support. Thank you.
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Cristal Padilla, on behalf of the chief executive officers of the California Community Colleges in support.
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Thank you. Thank you, chair and members. Mark McDonald on behalf of the San Bernardino, Los Rios, State Center, Kern, Southwestern, Antelope Valley, Victor Valley, and, Lake Tahoe Community College districts in support. Thanks. Thank you.
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Good afternoon. Jordan Reitz, director of government community relations for Mount San Jacinto College, MSJC. Rise in support. Thank you.
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Hi. I'm Bibia Hamidah Hashmad from UC Davis, and I work with the student association, and we support this bill. Thank you.
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Tiffany Mock on behalf of CFT. I just wanted to note that our oppose unless amended position is to the bill in print. We wanna thank the committee and the author for the wonderful amendments that we believe will go far to address, some of our concerns, hopefully, all of them. We wanna thank the student testimony for illustrating really why we're all in this and why we really think it's important. We wanted to make sure that the bill doesn't impact the instruction students receive once they're in the school.
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Right? Because even if they register and they get there, we have to make sure they have classes that are robustly staffed. So thank you so much, and we appreciate your time and consideration and amendments.
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Jason Henderson on behalf of the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges. While we appreciate the author's intent to address federal funding instability, even as amended a b twenty one twenty one allows districts to exclude unrestricted local funds from the calculation required under the 50% law. The 50% law is one of the state's most important safeguards to ensure that community colleges funding is directed toward instruction and students. Although this measure provides a temporary provision creating a carve out set set sets a concerning precedent that risks weakening the standard of the 50% law. Additionally, recent federal budget actions have reduced some of the immediate uncertainty around these programs calling into question the need for this proposal.
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We believe there are more appropriate ways to address federal funding disruptions. For these reasons, FAC must respectfully oppose. Thank you.
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Thank you. Are there tweeners in the hearing room?
Anna Matthews on behalf of the California Community College Independence Union. We are at watch position. We 100% believe in the principle of this bill. We just wanna ensure that there is collaboration between AB twenty one twenty one and the regulations going through the community college system's process at this time, and we really appreciate this latest round of amendments and the author's office's collaboration with us on that. Thank you.
Thank you.
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Tony Chuggara on behalf of the California Teachers Association. We want to align our remarks with this California feder Federation of Teachers. We appreciate the work that's been done and we really want to acknowledge the outreach that the author's office did during the interim before the bill was introduced. So we appreciate that work and hope we can all come together on a bill at some point. Thank you.
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Thank you. Colleagues, any questions or comments? Assuming we'd like to close, please.
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Just appreciate the testimony. Appreciate the engagement from all the different stakeholders. You know, as as the last one mentioned, we have been doing as proactive of outreach as possible to everybody who might be impacted, and we'll absolutely keep those conversations going to see what we can do to to address as many concerns as possible. I expect to ask for aye vote once you have a quorum.
Redner 1
Thank you so much, mister chairman Burnham, for bringing up this timely and very important measure, and I appreciate you accepting the committee's amendments. And I agree with you that this is a measured, confined approach, and is befitting to address the cuts from the federal government while also maintaining the promises that we have made to faculty to maintain salaries and full time positions. When we have quorum, we look forward to supporting measures today. Thank you.
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Thank you, mister Berman. Next up, we'd like to welcome Assembler Mark Gonzales presenting item number six, Assembler Bill one nine two zero. Welcome, Assembler Gonzales.
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Hello. Ready? Thank you, mister chair and members. Thank you for the opportunity to present to you today. I would like to also thank the chair and the committee staff for working with my office on this bill.
AB nineteen twenty addresses a small but significant, issue in the California College Promise program, a bill that mister Fong and I have known well way too well. I've been working on this since 2014 when I was district director for my predecessor, mister Santiago. Under current law, students receiving the promise fee waiver can lose their eligibility if they earn a certificate even when that certificate is part of their pathway to an associate's degree. That means that a student can do everything right, and they can stay on the track, get straight a's, and complete meaningful milestones, and they'll be penalized simply for their success. Many of our community college programs are intentionally designated with stackable credentials, not as the end goal, but as steps along the way.
For example, our future firefighters, veterinarians, EMTs, mechanics, IT workers, early care providers, teachers, and even film students can earn a certificate as they achieve their AA degree. But right now, those steps can knock students out of the program entirely and out of this opportunity. This was not the intent of the initial legislation. This bill is a fix, but one with real consequences for student success. AB nineteen twenty simply clarifies that if a certificate is earned as part of the journey towards an associate degree, it does not make a student ineligible for that community college promise.
The Promise Program for many students is the difference between finishing and dropping out. This bill is fundamentally about equity. The California College Promise primarily serves first time college students, disproportionately Latino, low income, and first generation students. We should not be creating bureaucratic barriers that penalize them for their accomplishments, and AB nineteen twenty is a savior to that. It removes that barrier.
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It supports completion, protects student momentum, and aligns our policies with how community colleges operate today. Here with me this afternoon to testify in support is doctor Stacy Shears, the vice chancellor of student affair student affairs for California Community Colleges, chancellor's office. And just to answer any technical questions is Dustin excuse me, Justin Selnick. I was making sure I didn't mess up your last name. Senior of the state of analyst for the California Community College chancellor's office.
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Thank you, chair Fong and members of the assembly higher ed committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Stacy Shears, and I'm here on behalf of the chancellor's office for the California Community Colleges. We're in strong support of AB nineteen twenty. AB nineteen twenty provides a narrow but important clarification to the California College program Promise program.
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Under current law, students who have previously earned a degree or certificate may be deemed ineligible for a Promise fee waiver. In practice, this has created confusion where students earn certificates during enrollment that are intentionally embedded within a course sequence leading to an associate degree. Across our system, colleges have designed programs around stackable credentials, pathways that allow students to build skills, earn meaningful milestones, and stay on track for degree completion. These certificates are not endpoints. They're the broader they're part of a broader educational journey aligned with workforce needs and student success.
Without clarification, students risk being penalized for making progress. A student who earns a certificate on the way to an associate degree could unintentionally jeopardize their financial aid, and colleges may hesitate to award these credentials despite their value. AB nineteen twenty resolves this issue by making clear that a certificate awarded as part of a course sequence leading to an associate degree does not make a student ineligible for the promise fee waiver. This ensures the program operates as intended, supporting students through completion, not discouraging their their progress. Importantly, the bill does not expand its, eligibility or increase costs.
It simply aligns statutory language with how programs are designed and how students move through them. For these reasons, the chancellor's office respectfully urges your I vote on a b nineteen twenty. Thank you.
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Thank you so much. Welcome. Thank you. Are there witnesses in support in the hearing room?
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Cristal Padilla with the chief executive officers of the California Community Colleges in support.
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Tiffany Mock with CFT, a union of Educators and Classified Professionals. Thank you so much to the author and the testifying witness to illustrate this important measure. I apologize we didn't get a letter in, so it is in process.
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Jason Henderson on behalf of the Faculty Association for California Community Colleges in support. Thank you. Thank you.
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Andrea Wiebig, director for the office of the president, Cerritos College in support.
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Thank you. Are there witnesses in opposition in there? Oh, sorry. What did you are there witnesses in opposition in the hearing room?
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Alicia Lopez, San Joaquin Delta College. We came with a bunch of students here in support. Thank you.
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Oh, thank you. Thank you. Colleagues, any questions or comments? Asst. Gonzalez, we'd like to close, please.
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Thank you, mister chair. As a product of community college myself, at one point even going to three at the same time, when a student hits a milestone, we should not be pulling the rug out from under them. Earning a certificate should open doors, not close them. AB nineteen twenty make sure that progress is recognized and rewarded, not punished. With that, I respectfully ask for your I vote.
Thank you, mister chair.
Redner 1
Thank you so much, mister Sommer Gonzalez, for bringing this measure forward, and thank you for your advocacy with the community colleges for many years when you're a district director to Sommer Santiago and when I was a trustee at the LA Community College. So we partner in many events, including events at TradeTech, East LA College, LACCD. And I believe that this bill makes an important clarification to California's College Promise program by ensuring that students are not penalized for earning certificates along the path to an associate degree As community colleges increasingly use stackable credential models, this bill aligns financial aid policy with student success pathways, helping more students persist and complete their degrees without expanding the program beyond its original intent. And with that, I look forward to supporting the measure today. Thank you.
Thank you, mister chair. Thank you. Next up, we'd like to welcome Asumar Selache presenting item number two, assembly bill one six three six. Welcome, Asumar Selache.
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Thank you, mister chair, to committee members. Happy to be here today. I'm here joined by our awesome president and superintendent, doctor Jose Fierro Mayto Cayo from Cerritos College, and, of course, our student from Cerritos College who happens to be from our my district in South Beach. So very proud to have him here, both me. With that, I'm grateful to the chair and committee staff for to work engagement with my office.
I will gladly accept the committee's committee's amendments, and, again, thank you to the committee for working with my team. AB sixteen thirty six would allow Cerritos Community College District to enter into data sharing agreements with local k 12 education agencies for the purpose of creating a ready to enroll student recreated for the California Community College System. The goal of this program is to remove, off front, and administrative barrier between high school students and community college enrollment. Importantly, this bill does not mandate enrollment. It simply, utilizes data sharing agreements to allow students who consent to their college journey with an active record to easily enroll.
It is also will allow them to enroll at a community college, not just Cerritos College. All data sharing is voluntary, limited, and protected. It will require explicit consent and compliance with the state and federal privacy laws. The amendments will be accepting, will be helped to ensure Cerritos College works collaboratively with the California Community College's chancellor's office on a approved method utilized in this pilot. AB sixteen thirty six builds off a, quote, college bound mini pilot Cerritos College conducted with Bellflower High School in my district and where I was actually born.
At this core, the bill is about provide improving access and outcomes by removing an administrative hurdle that the students can focus on less applications and more on financial aid, advising, and the support service that are current to student success. And one night, give our students that awesome experience to get excited about attending our community college throughout California. With me today to testify in support and to answer questions again is doctor Ferro and Gustavo Sanchez. Doctor Ferro?
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Thank you. Good afternoon, mister chair. Good afternoon, members and staff. Thank you, assembly member Solace for working with us in this bill. My name is Jose Fierro, president superintendent of Cerritos College, and I'm in support of this bill.
For too many students, the journey from high school to college is a maze of paperwork and deadlines. While our systems are busy collecting data, students are struggling with completing lengthy and at time confusing applications, especially those that are the first in their families to attend college. This is a barrier that together we can eliminate. In 2024, we led that college bound partnership between Cerritos College and Bellflower High School By embedding the college onboarding process into senior year classes, we saw an increase on admission rates, an increase in financial aid rates completion, and an increase on enrollment rates of over ninety six percent. AB sixteen thirty six, state six success, and authorizes Cerritos College to create a ready to enroll student record for every graduating high school senior in our geographical area.
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By creating a student record in partnership with our k 12 districts, it provides high school seniors the immediate support they need to onboard, including assistance in applying for financial aid. Sixteen thirty six does not only not only create access, but it does not do away with existing data collection system. And it doesn't mandate students to enroll in college or at Cerritos College. They can't they can't enroll at any college. It ensures higher education is within reach should they choose to attend.
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AB sixteen thirty six is a common sense approach. It makes college a natural step, not a complicated one. We have the responsibility to remove barriers to education. And with your help, we will be one step closer to achieving that goal. Thank you for your support.
Gustavo? Thank you. Welcome.
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Thank you. Good afternoon, chair Pong and committee members. My name is Gustavo Sanchez, the student trustee at Cerritos College, and I also serve as the region eight regional affairs director for the student senate for California community colleges. When I applied to Cerritos College through the community college application, the process was long and confusing. As a first generation student, I didn't have anyone at home who could help guide me through the application process or the financial aid process and it made the transition from high school to college extremely overwhelming.
Many students including myself are unaware of or late to join programs that are crucial to our success such as the scholars honor honors program, EOPS, CARE, Umoja, and Puente. AB sixteen thirty six would help by giving high school students a head start with an active college record so they can access counseling, financial aid support, and these vital support programs before they graduate. Connecting students to support early helps them start college on the right foot and increase the chances that they will enroll, persist, and complete their goals. I respectfully ask for your support of a b sixteen thirty six. Thank you.
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Hello. Rachel Shakluon on behalf of the Norwalk La Mirada Unified School District in support.
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Thank you. Are there witnesses in opposition in the hearing room? Are there tweeners in the hearing room? Colleagues, any questions or comments? Seeing none, Hassan, I would like to close, please.
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Thank you, mister chair. And again, thank you to doctor Fidel and our trustee student for being here today with me. And again, thank you to the committee and staff members for your time and consideration. Again, as someone that loves higher education and then wants to and and make sure that access is available to all our students, what better opportunity than to explore this pilot program for our high school students to go to community college. And, again, working with the with the system and, again, the committee amendments, we're gonna look forward to move this forward and get it approved and ultimately get it signed by the governor.
Redner 1
Thank you so much, mister Solace, for your leadership and efforts on this and for accepting the committee's amendments and for working with our committee staff to resolve the concerns as outlined in the analysis. The chancellor's office has made a valiant effort to reduce the number of data points in a community college application, and yet students still find the application arduous. I commend the Cerritos Community College District for being innovative and spearheading a pilot program to find a seamless pathway for students to transition from high school to enrollment at our community colleges. And with the appropriate time, we look forward to supporting the measure today. Thank
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Next up, we'd like to welcome Krell presenting item number four, assembly bill one eight four five. Welcome, Assemblymember Krell.
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I'm excited to tell you about Assembly Bill eighteen forty five today. I have two witnesses, with me today, Megan Escoto with the Survivor Coalition and doctor Leanne Urada from San Diego State University. I wanna say first that I'm so grateful to both of these witnesses for their lifelong commitment to this issue, for their work on this bill, and for their work on this issue. I also really appreciate the committee's work on this bill. Thank you so much.
We accept the amendments and really appreciate, the committee's work, working with us to make sure this bill is as effective as possible. You're probably all familiar with, a title nine, which ensures, that sex discrimination doesn't happen on our college campuses. But there is no law that ensures that students and faculty are trained about human trafficking. So what this bill does is it inserts human trafficking training into the title nine framework. This is something that's really important.
You might be thinking, does human trafficking really happen on college campuses? Are college students really vulnerable to this? The answer is yes. I remember prosecuting a case actually where one of the victims, her financial aid check was stolen by her trafficker, which led to her being trafficked. The reason why college students are sometimes vulnerable to trafficking is because they face financial hardship, financial insecurity, housing insecurity.
They might be in a new and unfamiliar place. They might lack familial support. So all the all the reasons that people are vulnerable to trafficking to trafficking, you know, in in the world exist within the college campus framework. So this bill is really about making students safe, helping students be able to thrive and get their education. Traffickers are manipulative.
They prey on on victims and they look for vulnerabilities, and it's not super hard for them to do that within the context of college campus, online recruitment, college parties, all of it. So just to be clear about what Assembly Bill eighteen forty five does, it strength strengthens the title nine framework by updating sexual harassment training for employees to include human trafficking and require employees to receive this training annually. It ensures that campus officials include human trafficking related crimes when they're compiling records of crimes on campus. It's requires them to construct written agreements with law enforcement that clarifies trafficking investigation responsibilities. And then it adopts policies concerning incidents of human trafficking, a statement that trafficking is a state and federal crime, and then physical signs that may indicate human trafficking, which will help posit people who are in positions to actually identify and intercede and prevent human trafficking to do so.
So with me today to testify is Megan Escoto with the Survivor Coalition and doctor Urada from San Diego State University.
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Okay. Good afternoon. My name is Megan Escoto, and I am a survivor of labor trafficking. In 2008, I left home at 18 years old without much knowledge of the real world in the middle of a recession, and I was in my first semester at American River College. The term human trafficking was not in my vocabulary.
Words like grooming, love bombing, and exploitation were not in my vocabulary. So when my trafficker found me, I was none the wiser. When I started opening up to this man about my past as a former foster youth, how I didn't get along with my parents, and I was living on my own, I did not know that I was really just telling him I was the perfect victim. He was already starting to exploit me and coerce me into unlawful activity, and I was showing up to campus exhausted and sometimes under the influence. After just one semester, he pulled me away from school with false promises, telling me that I would make so much money where I was going, I could just go to school up there.
That never happened. He took me two hours away from Sacramento with no car, no phone, no service, no family, and labor trafficked me for five and a half years on a cannabis farm. I didn't understand what happened to me until I was 28 years old, sitting in a criminal justice course, and finally had language for what I lived through. This legislation would have meant that trained employees could recognize the signs, resources that reach students at the moment they're most vulnerable because they are newly independent, still finding their footing, and hungry for someone to believe them. Our college campuses have no requirement right now to prepare anyone to recognize what this looks like.
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This legislation changes that with education for the employees plus signage on campus for students. Had I entered adulthood and college with knowledge of what trafficking looked like or seen with that sign, this may have never happened. I am asking you to pass this bill not just for survivors like me, but for the students that are sitting in classrooms right now who don't know yet that they're being groomed. Education is what traffickers take away from us, and this bill will make sure that it's also what stops them. Thank you.
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Hi. I'm doctor Liani Rada, a San Diego State and UC San Diego professor testifying in support of a b eighteen forty five. So we completed a study across 12 college campuses in San Diego and Imperial Valley to explore the nature and extent of human trafficking and sexual exploitation occurring at use US colleges. Some students surveyed, also previously attended 35 other universities across California and Arizona. So of 971 students who completed the surveys from seeing flyers posted on their campuses related to sexual exploitation research, nearly one in five or eighteen percent said they were trafficked as a college student, defined as forced coercion or fraud into selling sex.
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Trafficked students were more likely to be BIPOC, LGBTQ, foster youth, fraternity, sorority members, to use substances, transport, and sell drugs, and exchange sex for grades and schoolwork. They were more likely to exchange sex as a college student across The US Mexico border. Exchanges led to forty three percent experiencing psychological harm, thirty percent physical abuse, twenty five percent sexual violence, sixteen percent being told or asked to recruit others to sell sex. Shame, stigma, and fear stops them from seeking campus services, especially academic counseling, but also police, mental health, health, food, and housing services. Yet, they were twice as likely to require a sexually transmitted infection and to wonder how they would afford the their their next meal.
A college student was lured into an online dating service, seeking.com, falsely hearing that she could make money without having sex just by meeting older men who would act like mentors for career advice. She only saw positive things about it on social media. A man coerced her into his house, gave her alcohol and drugs, stalked her at her dorm, and she never told anyone. I support this bill because training campus personnel could stop these Epstein like cases from happening in the first place. Thank you, Higher Education Committee, Assembly Member Crowell, and others sponsoring this bill.
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Kathy Van Austin on behalf of the American Association of University Women, cosponsor in strong support. Thank you.
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Vanessa Russell, founder and executive director of Love Never Fails in strong support.
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Atoria Foley, proud cosponsor with Three Trans Global and Community Against Sexual Harm in strong support.
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Emerald Bay Ruby with California Survivors Coalition and Set Free Measure and Family Therapy in strong support.
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Heidi Gurkir with Love Never Fails in strong support and then also with the Survival Coalition.
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Brianna Price with Three Strands Global, the coauthor of the bill in strong support, also on behalf of the California Survivors Coalition in
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Sienna Hornback, community member and mother of two community college graduates in strong support.
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Thank you. Are there witnesses in opposition in the hearing room? Are there tweeners in the hearing room? Colleagues, any questions or comments? Summer Carrell, we'd like to close, please.
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Thanks so much. Just wanna thank the coalition, for showing up today and expressing their support. Also, thank Megan for sharing her personal story. Really appreciate all the collaboration that went into this bill. Clearly, this is an issue.
You heard a little bit about its prevalence, and hopefully, you have a a handout about that. But this bill is an opportunity to prevent that to prevent human trafficking on college campuses, and I respectfully ask for your I vote.
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Thank you so much, mister Crowell, for accepting the committee's amendments and for continuing to be a staunch advocate and for your leadership in preventing incidents of human trafficking. And thank you to all our testimony here as well from the witnesses. This measure is a reasonable approach to fill some of the reporting gaps, resisting law that may preventing institutions from reporting incidents of human trafficking to law enforcement. Thank you again to Summer Crow for your working with our committee staff, and I look forward to supporting this measure today when we have quorum.
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Next up, we'd like to welcome assembly member Palorent presenting two items.
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First item we'll be presenting is item number three, assembly bill one seven eight four.
Redner 28
Alright. Thank you, mister chair members. I would first like to accept the committee's amendments and thank committee staff for her hard work. Higher education is one of the most powerful factors for upward economic and social mobility, and California has long been a leader in ensuring educational equity for our students. Both Title IX and the California Sex Equity and Education Act provide procedures for how a campus is to provide academic and structural accommodations for pregnant or pregnancy impacted students in order to preserve their right to equal access to their chosen educational program.
Although California's existing sex equity and education act extends numerous protections to pregnancy impacted graduate students and their partners, it does not extend those protections to undergraduate students. In 2021, the US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights found that a California Community College had likely violated title nine by not allowing a student to make up a quiz she missed while she was giving birth. This is not the only instance in recent years where Californian institutions have fallen short of the expectations of Title Nine as evidenced by numerous OCR complaints. For a state that has done so much for reproductive care, this is just not acceptable. AB seventeen eighty four prohibits any post secondary educational institution from discriminating against the student or applicant based on the student's current, potential, or past pregnancy or pregnancy related conditions.
Furthermore, in order to ensure that pregnancy impacted students maintain access to their educational program, AB seventeen eighty four prohibits an institution of higher education from requiring a student to take a leave of absence or withdraw due to pregnancy. According to federal data, there are 300,000 undergraduates who are student parents in California. Under California law, a birth parent is only guaranteed a leave of absence and a return in good academic standing because of the birth of their child if they are a graduate student. So partners who are not the birth parent are also not guaranteed these protections if they are not a graduate student. So state law currently does not require that undergraduates be provided with these protections and AB seventeen eighty four closes this loophole and extends these protections to all students.
These additional protections come at a crucial time for pregnant and parenting students given the Supreme Court's decision to strike down the constitutional right to abortion and ongoing attacks to the constitutional right to birth control. This is a straightforward bill with support from reproductive justice and religious groups alike. And with me to testify in support are Kathy Van Austin on behalf of the American Association of University Women and Martin Radosevic. Is that close? On behalf of Reproductive Freedom for All, California.
Redner 3
Thank you. Kathy Van Austin, American AAUW of California. Let's just keep it easy. Definitely appreciate assembly member Pelerin's leadership on this as you also had a bill last year that we supported that extended some of these some of these privileges. California has done a pretty good job about addressing the needs of graduate students experiencing pregnancy or pregnancy related conditions.
Redner 20
Undergraduates, we've got a little catching up to do here. It's it is time to course correct and ensure that their a student's pregnancy, their family building does not come at the cost of their education or their economic security in the future. I do wanna note that with the Biden administration, they had updated their rules which would have provided more more security and more benefits for pregnant students. However, the current administration did roll back those benefits, and so we're back to the twenty twenty rules that were in place. Instructors and professors do have some latitude in terms of negotiating what they consider reasonable accommodations for their for their students in their classrooms, but that guidance is not consistent.
Redner 3
What counts as reasonable? What is required, for pregnant and parenting students? If we have that in statute, it will offer that consistency throughout the state. There's no second guessing. There's no, going from professor to professor and having different roles even at the same school.
So, we do think that this bill will provide that consistency, and we must ensure that these students do not face bias whether they're pregnant or have a partner who is pregnant, whether they're married or unmarried. This bill seeks to protect the needs of the pregnant or parenting student and, most importantly, their infant. So we appreciate the bill. We're very happy to support it and encourage your I vote. Thank you.
Redner 4
Good afternoon, chair and members. Martin Rodosovich with Lighthouse Public Affairs representing Reproductive Freedom for All California, formerly NARAL Pro Choice America. We are one of the nation's leading reproductive rights advocacy organizations, and we're proud to express our strong support for this bill. Reproductive freedom extends to the classroom, the campus, and every space where people are building their futures. When a student is forced to choose between their education and their pregnancy, right, we don't consider that a free choice.
We consider it a failure of failure of our system to support them. This bill is especially important right now as as the assembly member brought up that at the federal level with title nine protections for pregnant students are under attack. California must play a leadership role, and this bill does that. Under a b seventeen eighty four, no student can be pushed out of the class, forced to withdraw, or penalized academically simply because they are pregnant. Institutions will be required to designate a coordinate coordinator, inform students of their rights, and provide accommodations tailored to individual needs.
We consider this a common sense approach, for these reasons, we support this bill. Thank you.
Redner 26
Molly Sheehan with the California Catholic Conference in strong support. Thank you.
Redner 21
Keller Herrera, senior attorney with Equal Rights Advocates, also in support.
Redner 1
Thank you so much. Are there witnesses in opposition in the hearing room? Are there tweeners in the hearing room? Colleagues, any questions or comments? Mister Gonzales.
Redner 7
Thank you to the author for it's common sense. Right? Someone trips, falls, goes to the hospital. Let's, you know, let's figure that that out and so they can get it, you know, a pass on their test and Mhmm. Do it some other time.
When it comes to pregnancy, common sense. Like, come on. We we should be doing that and affording that. So that's I'm not sure why we have to present a bill like this sometimes, but, unfortunately, it's needed because we see these gaps. And I appreciate the author doing that Mhmm.
To try and figure out this gap. I do have a question on a statement that was just made, and I just want some clarity. Reproductive Freedom Organization?
Redner 7
You stated that title nine is being attacked by the federal government with respect to pregnancies. Can you can you elaborate on that? Because I don't know where that that's at, and I'd like to get your thoughts.
Redner 3
the title line federal regs, there there were some regs put in place in 2020. In 2024, the Biden administration had broadened those regs to provide guidelines that provided some of afforded some of these steps for pregnant and parenting students. Under the current administration, those guidelines were pulled back. And now that all that stands are those 2020 regs, which do not afford these pregnant students some of the flexibility that we're trying to encourage here statewide. So that that's what happened.
It was kind of a stutter step. We had the regs in place. There was flexibility put in, and then ultimately, they were those those guidelines were pulled back.
Redner 28
Yeah. And I've got some specific specifics on that. On 01/09/2025, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky issued a decision that vacated the entirety of the 2024 title nine regulations nationwide. So as a result, California's undergraduate students have fewer pregnancy related protections than the graduate students do.
Redner 7
Okay. I I just I think I need more clarity on what that I I'm not expecting you to know that
Redner 7
but I know 2020, 2024, and then some other things happen, so I think there's some missing pieces to this puzzle. And I'm just I'm in support of your bill, but that statement, I I'd like to know more about because if if it's impacting this common sense piece,
Redner 7
Obviously, there's something I have to say about that. Mhmm. But I I need more information. So if we can
Redner 7
Work with, LD to LD, just so I can understand it more. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Redner 1
Thank you so much, mister Sommer Paloran, for accepting the committee's amendments and for bringing this important piece of legislation forward. Ensuring equal access to higher education programs and activities is a more and more imperative that each higher education segment shouldn't ever to uphold. I'm grateful to the segments who have worked with our committee staff to address the concerns from last year, and I look forward to supporting the measure today. Miss Selman Pellerin, with your permission, I would like to be added as a coauthor.
Redner 1
Thank you. And when we have quorum, I look forward to supporting the measure. Thank you so much. Okay. Next up, we'll have a Selman Pellerin presenting item number 10, a summer of bill two two two nine.
Welcome.
Redner 28
Thank you so much, mister chair and members. California is home to 6,600,000 adults who have earned some college credit but no degree. Many of these students who represent almost 25% of our working age Californians stop out of school with the intention to return at a later date. Compared to the typical undergraduate student, those returning after stopping out are more likely to be older, to be employed, to have exhausted their financial financial aid and our future workforce goals, the state has a vested interest in ensuring that these stopped out students graduate with a degree. AB two two two nine answers the challenges that these students face in returning to our California State University system through the establishment of the CSU Enrollment, Access, and Retention of Non Continuous Students or EARNS program.
For students who have stopped out of the CSU, it can be difficult to navigate the reentry process and access supports once they have reenrolled. While some CSU campuses have taken proactive steps to support their returning students, there is currently no requirement the students be offered specialized advising during the reenrollment process and once they have actually reenrolled. AB two thousand two twenty nine addresses this gap by requiring that each campus designate at least one non continuous student advisor to provide support and to the extent possible a course map to graduation. Another barrier returning students can face is that there is currently no standardized system wide policy for transcript evaluation. In practice, this can mean that students are required to repeat coursework because the class they took ten years ago is no longer offered and the campus won't count it toward their degree requirements or believing that they need to repeat the coursework because they are not advised otherwise and or cannot find a cohesive policy to reference.
AB twenty two twenty nine would require the trustees of the CSU in collaboration with the Academic Senate approve a transcript adoption policy for students who wish to return to the CSU. In addition to clarifying conditions for the campuses, a standardized transcript evaluation policy will make it easier for stopped out students to determine their time to earn their degree should they re enroll. In recognition of the fact that many non continuous students are older, may have family employment obligations, and more constraints on their time, AB two thousand two twenty nine requires that these returning students be offered access to priority course registration. This ensures that a student who stopped out due to becoming a parent or needing to work can register for night classes without the added stress of the class being full. In order to ensure that the EARNS program is working as intended, AB twenty two twenty nine requires the CSU to maintain an online data dashboard reporting, among other things, the number of non continuous students have reenrolled at the campus, the demographics of reenrolling students, the financial aid statuses of reenrolling students, and the time to degree and completion rates for returning students.
So my office has been in conversation with the c's CSU office of the chancellor since before we introduced this bill, and I'm grateful for their engagement and hopeful that we can find a path forward that centers the students. So and I don't have a witness. I have my expert here, Rhiannon.
Redner 5
Good. We have okay. Come on up. Hey. Hi.
Good afternoon. Jesse Hernandez on behalf of the Campaign for College Opportunity and Support.
Redner 1
Thank you. Are there witnesses in opposition in the hearing room? Are there tweeners in the hearing room? Colleagues, any quest I'll
Redner 29
Alright. Yes. Thank you, mister chair members. Chris Morales with the CSU office of the chancellor. We do not have a position on the bill at this time.
We have shared with the author's office our concerns with the current language. However, we are committed to working closely with our office on an approach that is implementable and will provide the best support for this population. Providing support and resources for these students is absolutely a priority of the CSU and a key focus of our strategic enrollment framework. Thank you.
Redner 7
If I understand this correctly, it's so it took me fifteen years to get my associate's out of high school. I went to the Marine Corps, so on and so forth. Eventually, got got my degrees. So what your bill aims to do is I took a bill at, you know, year I took a bill. I took a class at year one.
Right? You know, whatever that class is. Fifteen years later, I go to, you know, continue on in my degree field, but that class, I have to take over because they've changed it or some some way, shape, or form. They're not giving me credit. Is that correct on that piece?
Redner 7
So in but it happened to me. Yeah. Many times over. And then what this does, it says it gives you credit for that class. You don't have to take this over again.
So that way, it can continue going forward.
Redner 28
That that's what will be for most of the courses, I believe. You know? So they're gonna evaluate I mean, if it's a a math course that you took and math hasn't changed that much in fifteen years
Redner 28
Then, yes, it should transfer over and be held to toward your degree. That's what we're trying to say. But if it's some, you know, major specific that's in computer science and that's changed a lot since then, then you might need to have a new course. So that's where the adviser comes in handy because they will be assigned to you to set up your your map toward a degree and what courses you need to take to get there. And if I'm wrong, let me know.
Okay.
Redner 7
And and in that, the, the school is are are you saying that they're required to reach out to, let's say, this list of whatever number, just for the sake of numbers. Right? These 10 students who are who never graduated and reach out to them and say, hey. Come back and take your classes and these count. Is that also part of this?
Redner 28
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That I mean, that's not the requirements. It's more the case that you coming back from serving your country want to go back and earn your degree, so you reenroll.
And in that process of reenrolling, you're gonna be assigned a specific adviser who knows how to tell you and to to direct you what courses you need to take to get to the end goal of getting that degree.
Redner 28
you also get priority enrollment. So if you are this person who's working during the day and you've got kids and, you're also gonna get priority enrollment so you can get those courses taken care of quickly.
Redner 7
I had to I had to double my college courses. Yeah. So what do you need? A 100 and something to graduate? A 120 for Yeah.
Had 250.
Redner 28
Yeah. Exactly. We have a an example of somebody with a 160 credits and no degree.
Redner 7
Yep. So I I I appreciate I appreciate this, and this is actually speaks directly to me. So with that, I I I kindly request to be a coauthor on this bill.
Redner 1
Thank you so much, Paulo Renayas. Two of a similar situation with us, Omar Gonzalez. I was doing grad school at University of Los Angeles in 2000, 2001, 2002, and and then many and then with different opportunities down the road, I subsequently reenrolled in graduate school in 2015 and or 2013. And in that time frame, that's when I learned that my classes that I've taken had finished more than half of the program were no longer available. And so I had to pretty much start all over.
I got it done, but it was just more taking those classes all over again. And so I think this is a very compelling case, and I think this is something that's critical to help with retention and completion for programs. I know this is a focus on undergrad level, but I wanna put out there if this is something that could be for graduate programs as well. Yeah. But I really appreciate your leadership and efforts on this, and, yeah.
So we'd love to be out as coauthor as well.
Redner 1
Thank you so much, Colin, for bringing this measure forward again. I strongly believe we must do everything possible to support our students who seek to reenroll in the California State University, and you our bill goes a long way to help support our students in a very thoughtful and comprehensive way. I think this is a excellent foundation. And with that, I look so I look forward supporting the measure today.
Redner 1
you so much. Next up, we'd to welcome Asimar Baines, presenting item number five, Assembly Bill one eight five two. Welcome, doctor Baines.
Redner 23
is the second time I banged it today. That same me. We're getting old, guys. Awesome. Thank you to the chair and committee for engagement on a b 1852.
I do not propose revising the higher education master plan lightly. So let me explain why I'm proposing to do so this year. I'll start with a date, which is 03/05/1978. That is the day that the federal government first officially declared a severe doctor shortage in Kern County, and it has never been solved. We have been waiting for a solution since the Carter administration, and over the last fifty years, this problem has become an escalating crisis.
Former governor Jerry Brown once said that if he that if the federal government wouldn't act, California would launch our own damn satellite. After half a century of asking for the University of California's help and being ignored, that is the spirit that we have in Kern County today. If the UC won't build the medical school that we desperately need, we'll build it ourselves. The Central Valley is one of California's fastest growing and most impoverished regions where half of all residents are on Medi Cal. In my district in the South Valley, that number is closer to a staggering 70% of people that rely on Medicaid.
In the Bay Area, there are 411 medical doctors per 100,000 people. In the Valley, just a 157. The state average for primary care physicians is a 156 per 100,000 people. In the Valley, it's fewer than 45. That's one of the reasons I became a family doctor myself.
When there are not enough doctors, wait times become impossible and families simply don't get preventative care. That means treatable conditions become chronic lifelong illnesses and most of that care happens in the emergency room when it's too late. Combined with the region's geographic isolation, lack of transportation, under equipped, understaffed facilities, the result is that the valley is the sickest region in the state. To fix this shortage we must look at the physician pipeline. The current medical education system systematically excludes students from rural communities.
Students from rural backgrounds now represent less than 5% of an all incoming medical students. Black and brown students from rural backgrounds make up less than half of 1% of all new medical students. If we wanted rural student representation to match the general population, those numbers have to quadruple. Research proves that doctors who grew up in rural areas and who get trained in rural areas are significantly more likely to practice medicine in those same communities and I sit in front of you as an example of that. California already retains over seventy seven percent of physicians who complete their training here.
That's the best retention rate in the country. But right now, our teaching hospitals, residencies, lots, and medical education infrastructure are overwhelmingly concentrated in herbal and coastal communities. For example, the average medical school in California is less than 25 miles from the beach. That's not a coincidence. It's a direct result of the UC's monopoly on medical degrees.
Degrees. The UC's prioritization of high margin specialty care and biomedical research does not encourage operating a community based primary care preventative focused medical school in a Medi Cal dependent region. That is why they have publicly opposed efforts to expand medical education into the valley while simultaneously making multi billion dollar investments in their existing facilities. The master plan was created in 1960. The doctor shortage in Kern County was declared in 1978 and still to this day the UC will not address the problem.
AB eighteen fifty two does not repeal the master plan. It creates a conditional exemption with a hard deadline. If the UC continues to default on its mandate to serve Kern County, this bill empowers a coalition of local institutions to confer medical degrees. These institutions already have highly successful pipelines for nursing and pre med. By empowering them, we can create a seamless localized pathway from community college to an MD.
Specifically designed to capture the talented low income and rural students who are currently slipping through the cracks. I myself almost slipped through. AB eighteen fifty two avoids cannibalizing the limited resources available to the UC, CSU, and community college. Instead, it authorizes the creation of a medical education authority which can independently finance, construct, and operate the school using revenue bonds and public private partnerships. Much like how UC Merced successfully completed its campus when state funding dried up during the great recession.
My constituents should not have to travel hours or wait months just to see their doctor. We have amazing students in the Valley. We have amazing talent in the Valley. We have lack of access to higher educational opportunities in the Valley. And we have the local educational partnerships that are capable of doing this work.
All we need is the legal authority to act in our own best interest. Please help me save the valley. Thank you, and I respectfully request an I vote.
Redner 29
Thank you, mister chair and and members. Very briefly, Chris Morales with the CSU office of the chancellor in respectful opposition. This bill, along with several others that will be heard by this committee in the days to come, will significantly expand or change the authority of our higher education institutions. We absolutely recognize the need for additional medical professionals in Kern County. It is why just recently in November, we launched a partnership in Kern County with Bakersfield College and others to address this critical shortage.
Redner 6
And I'm not here to defend the master plan. Our concern is that this bill, all of these bills, does not fully account for the operational, financial, and administrative implications it may impose across all our institutions and on the state as a whole. We fully believe that changes in intersegmental responsibilities of this scale warrant a comprehensive evaluation involving all parties, and we would welcome that conversation to ensure we are moving in the direction that is student centered and preserves the values and sustainability of California's higher education system. Thank you.
Redner 1
Thank you so much. Are there tweeners in the hearing room? Colleagues, any questions or comments? Lester Martin Burner.
Redner 7
Thank you to the author, specifically highlighting rural California. You know, I the the the system in itself. Right? I I get that we we we initially had to put a higher education in a big city because that's where everyone can go to, so on and so forth, a long time ago. But we really need to rethink the way in which we do higher education access across California.
Redner 8
There there are communities in Kern County, in Imperial County, in Riverside County, San Bernardino County, and we're we're lucky if we have something. Sometimes we we get the support, and in some places, there there is very little. There's a shortage of health care providers. We know that. But the the point that I I I I really wanna hone in on is the need and and to the chancellor's office is the need that we have to really rethink the way in which we're doing things because people are not everyone has that, you know, laptop in their in in their room where they can go online.
Redner 7
Right? Not everyone has that type of access. So I I I would take this message back to to the halls of the chancellor and to to everyone is that we need to relook at California and how we do higher education, and that might mean thrown thrown some things out. That might mean being innovative. That might mean putting flags where we never thought we'd put flags.
But that's that's something that we we really have to look at because I know on this committee, we're always looking at at things from a whole bunch of different lenses. But, ultimately, what I believe we all want is, for everyone to have access to good quality education from wherever they live across California. Thank you.
Redner 5
I too just wanna thank the author. I think what a lot of people fail to realize is, you know, the biggest differences in California is not necessarily red versus blue. It's often urban versus rural. And I always like to quantify it in numbers. You know, you look at Fresno County as a county and a population of 1,100,000 people.
Redner 31
You add in a county like Kern County, which is just about 1,000,000 people. And if you think about it, the state of Alaska has less people than the county of Kern. North Dakota, Wyoming, and South Dakota have less people in those states than the county of Kern. Would you ever tell those areas that they shouldn't have a medical facility and an authority? I think it would be very weird if you were to tell the state of Alaska, no.
We don't think that there should be an authority there so you could have a medical school for doctors. You wouldn't say that to North Dakota, South Dakota, or Wyoming. The county of Kern has just as many people in those areas. Fresno County has just as many people in those areas. And I think when we quantify it in numbers like that, people really do get start to see, you know, one, just how different California is.
Two, obviously, you know, the members that represent these rural portions, like, we understand that part. So, you know, one, thank the author. I wanted to make sure that I made it back.
Redner 1
Support the bill. Thank you. Thank you so much. Any further questions or comments? Seeing none, Summer Baines, we'd to close, please.
Redner 23
I want to thank all of my colleagues for all the support on this bill. Thank you. Kern County definitely thanks you. This is a very, very critical time period. And and let me make this clear.
This bill offers an option, not a requirement. So the opposition's argument does not work here. This is not mandating that all CSUs will create medical institutions with community colleges. This is creating the option. And, yes, there are things that we have to do to be trailblazers, especially in an area that needs access to higher educational opportunities and to access to health care.
And I thank my colleagues' support on voicing those needs when it comes to higher educational opportunities in rural areas. People look down on rural areas and say, you're not smart enough. You guys have some of the highest illiteracy rates in the entire state. Doctor Baines, how are you gonna make your kids into doctors? Somebody said that to me one time, guys.
I almost fell through the cracks. I didn't get acts. I grew up in rural Delano, California. I didn't grow up seeing women physicians. I didn't see women politicians that looked like me, but I made it.
I'm sitting here in front of you elected by my community because I'm that doctor that stayed, that was trained in the area. I know how important it is to train our kids. I believe in my kids. I believe in the talent of the Valley children. They are smart.
They are so amazing. Please help me give my children the opportunity to bring the gift of health care to community that desperately needs it. And I'll end with this story. This past October, I ran outside to my neighbor's son being shot and killed on my front lawn, And I ran out to resuscitate him, and I could not save him. It was a gang related homicide.
My children are falling through the cracks when it comes to not having access to higher educational opportunities, and they're falling to gain talents and drugs. Please, I again plead with you. Help me save my community. Help this doctor bring the gift of health care to her community, especially in a community that desperately needs it. Please do not oppose these efforts.
We will find a way, but please do not oppose giving the gift of health care to the Valley. Thank you very much. Respectfully ask for your aye vote.
Redner 1
Thank you so much, doctor Baines. And Kern County is designated as a medically underserved area, research shows that physicians are more likely to practice in regions where they train. Establishing a local medical school can improve physician retention and address long standing access disparities. However, I'm also very concerned that this process could usurp the authority of the University of California, which has jurisdiction over graduate medical education as noted in the analysis and continues to increase its medical education and partnerships in the San Joaquin Valley and encourage you to continue working with the University of California. Thank you.
Redner 1
Hi. Good afternoon, mister chair and members. This is for, Assembly Bill one nine two eight. Thank you so much. I would first like to accept the committee's amendments.
Assembly Bill one nine two eight clarifies existing law to ensure that students involved in campus sexual misconduct proceedings can be fully supported both procedurally and emotionally throughout the process. Specifically, Assembly Bill one nine two eight requires higher education institutions to allow each party to a sexual misconduct complaint to be accompanied by both an adviser and a separate support person at all stages of the campus grievance process. This is a simple common sense clarification. Under current law, students are entitled to have an adviser or a support person throughout these proceedings. In practice, some institutional policies require students to choose between legal guidance and emotional support during an already difficult and high stakes process.
These roles are distinct and equally important. Advisors help students navigate complex procedures and, in some cases, conduct cross examinations. Support persons provide emotional stability during what can be a lengthy and traumatizing retraumatizing experience. Ensuring access to both helps create a more trauma informed, fair, and accessible process for everyone involved, both complainants and respondents. With the committee's amendments, these protections will be expanded to include all campus community members who are involved in a sexual misconduct complaint, not just students.
And here to speak in support of a b one nine two eight are Raya Rajan and David Whit Millman on behalf of survivors pro bono. Thank you.
Redner 23
Thank you, chair Fong, for your support, and good afternoon, members of the committee. Thank you for your time today. My name is Ria Ranjan, and I'm a senior at Stanford University here in California. Alongside David Millman, who's here with me today, I help lead the Survivors Pro Bono, a nonprofit legal organization that provides representation for students in campus sexual violence proceedings across California. I'm here to explain a bit about why this bill is so important for student survivors across this state.
Redner 32
So I helped start the survivors pro bono three years ago when I was a freshman at Stanford. And at the same time that I discovered, while reading an article in my dorm room that was published at my very own university, that over twenty five percent of women at universities across The US face sexual assault while in college, but most don't actually report what's happened to them. Survey data from 27 universities from 2019 tells us that reporting rates to university title nine offices can be as low as five percent. And at my university, forty percent of the students who did not report stated that they felt embarrassed, ashamed, or that it would be too emotionally difficult for them to come forward. And now in our experience at the pro bono, many of our clients have come to us questioning whether or not they should report to their Title Nine office for the very same reasons, worried about dealing with one of the most painful and experiences of their lives through a cold formal institutional process that Title Nine gives them without anyone in their corner who understands it or them.
After her assault at Stanford University, Chanel Miller wrote, my damage is internal. I carry it with me. Student survivors across California are dealing with this same reality, carrying a deeply personal, internalized pain as they navigate a complicated title nine process. By ensuring that students can be accompanied by both a support person and an adviser, this bill helps ensure that students have the emotional and legal support system that they need to come forward and seek resolution through the Title Nine process. Thank you.
Redner 17
Good afternoon, chair Fong and and members of the committee. Thank you for your time today. My name is David Millman, and I am a second year law student at Stanford as well as the co director of the survivors pro bono. Alongside Ria, I help lead our work providing free representation for students across the state going through the TAL nine process. For over six years, I have worked in the anti sexual violence space, starting as an undergraduate advocate and peer counselor and now as a law student.
Working with campus survivors, I have seen firsthand just how resilient, strong, and inspiring students are and have to be to get justice through the Tau nine process. But I've also seen how draining and emotionally isolating these proceedings can be, sometimes taking a year or more to resolve. That is why we believe this straightforward change, allowing students to have access to both an adviser and support person during all proceedings, can have such an impact. It makes sense why the University of California system already has these measures in place. They are common sense.
Redner 9
The uneven distribution of the of this policy means that students across the state lack these protections. This change would apply to all students, those making complaints, and those responding to them. As such, a b nineteen twenty eight benefits all students, even those facing accusations of misconduct. I got involved in antisexual violence work during college because I saw friends who had to suffer in silence, unsupported by the systems meant to keep them safe. Today, through our pro bono work, I see just how much of a difference it makes when survivors have a team behind them.
Redner 17
Partial support just isn't enough. Student survivors deserve the right to an adviser who can fight for them and a support person to stand behind them. That is why we respectfully ask for your I vote on this bill. Thank you for your time.
Redner 21
Kell O'Hara with cosponsor Equal Rights Advocates in support. Jessica Duong with the University of California in support.
Redner 7
Seeing no others any, witnesses in opposition? Seeing no witnesses in opposition, any tweeners in the room?
Redner 1
Good afternoon, mister chair and members. Last August, our committee partnered with the Committee on Privacy and Consumer Affairs to review the CSU's AI empowered initiative. Expansion of AI's capabilities are felt being felt broadly throughout all sectors of higher education and workforce. And it was important for us to better understand how CSU had taken a leadership role in AI use in AI use in higher education was proceeding with their work. A key finding from a joint oversight hearing, and truly something that we heard again and again from our students, faculty, and staff, was that AI tools like chat, GPT, edu were being deployed without any training being conducted.
AB two nine three two is quite simple. It requires our public segments of higher education to conduct training before AI products are provided to students, faculty, and staff. This bill also requires that the training include relevant institutional policies concerning the use of AI and a disclosure of privacy policies for the product. I understand that the current language might unintentionally capture AI tools used in common products such as grammar, checkers, and word processing. I am open to amendments and especially look forward to leveraging the expertise of our partners in a committee on privacy and consumer protection who can help us refine this language in a way that meets our intent without being overly broad in scope.
This bill currently has no opposition, and with me today to testify is in support is Bryant Miramontes from the California Teachers Association. Thank you.
Redner 20
Good afternoon, vice chair, committee members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Bryant Miramontes, legislative advocate with California Teachers Association representing community college faculty throughout California. I proudly support a b twenty three ninety two. As public education employers eagerly deploy AI on their campuses, faculty are navigating this AI moment in real time, often without a consistent policy framework and without guaranteed disclosure of what happens to their data or their students' data once those tools are deployed.
This bill strikes a better balance. It requires that before an AI tool is placed in the hands of students, faculty, or staff, institutions ensure people understand how to use it, what policies apply, and what the privacy implications are, which we believe to be moderate modest and reasonable asks. This especially matters in the community college context. The chancellor's office reports that sixty two percent of our students are economically disadvantaged, and thirty five percent are the first in their families to attend college. These are students who can least afford to have their data mishandled, or they're trust broken by an institution that deployed a tool before anyone ever explained what it does or who it shares their information with.
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Proper training is a predicate to inform used. We cannot expect reasonable AI integration without it. For these reasons, we respectfully urge your Ivo and appreciate the author's leadership on this issue. Thank you.
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Anna Matthews on behalf of the California Community College Independence Union in strong support. Thank you.
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Any witnesses in opposition? Seeing none, any tweeners? Committee members? This bill is it's a it's a good bill. And for me, I I love the fact that you're tackling AI and innovation.
I'd love to sit down with you. There's a couple things that I'm I'm looking at. And with respect to the training side of things, I'm a fan of AI. So I I wanna make sure that some of these things are maybe you're thinking about them or we could help shore them up. The other piece is I wanna make sure that we don't chill innovation across this, and I know that's not your intent, but just to have a open dialogue as you've always had with respect to these with that, I'll be in support of this bill.
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Alright. Thank you so much, colleagues. At this time, we're gonna have, mister secretary, establish, if you could call the roll, please, mister secretary.
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Boehner? Here. Jeff Gonzalez? Here. Corey Jackson?
Patel? Irwin? Bennett? Sharp Collins? Tengepah?
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Here. Thank you so much, colleagues. We'll do the consent calendar at this time. We have before that, we we have three bills on consent. They are as follows.
File item number one, assembly bill one five nine one by Assemblyman Rodriguez. File item number nine, Assembly Bill two two zero three by Assemblyman Tonkipa, and file item 13, Bill two five seven two by Assemblyman Fong. We have a motion and a second. Moved. Moved by Assemblyman Burner, and we have a second by Assemblyman Tonkipa.
Any questions or comments? Seeing none, roll call, please.
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Boehner? Jeff Gonzalez? Aye. Jeff Gonzalez? Aye.
Jackson, Erwin, Patel, Bennett, Sharp Collins? Sharp Collins, aye. Tangipa? Aye. Tangipa, aye.
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Thank you so much. Colleagues, the consent calendar is out, and we'll keep the row open for additional members to add on. Actually, assimilate Erwin, would you like we just did the consent calendar. Would you like to add on to consent calendar?
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Now we do, item number two, assembly bill one six three six by Sommer Solace. Roll call, please, mister secretary. I'm sorry. Motion. Motion and second.
Motion by Berner, and second by Omar Gonzalez.
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File item number two, do pass as amended and re refer to the committee on education. Fong? Aye. Fong, aye. DeMio?
Aye. DeMio, aye. Berner? Aye. Berner, aye.
Jeff Gonzalez? Jeff Gonzalez, aye. Jackson? Erwin?
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Erwin, aye. Patel? Aye. Patel, aye. Bennett?
Sharp Collins? Sharp Collins, aye. Tangipa? Aye. Tangipa, aye.
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Thanks so much, colleagues. That measure is out. We'll keep the rope in for additional members to add on. Next up is item number three, assembly bill one seven eight four by Silmar Pelerman. Mister secretary, roll call.
Oh, do we have a motion by Silmar Burner and a second by Silmar doctor Sharp Collins. Any comments? Seeing none. Roll call, please.
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File item number three, do pass as amended, and we refer to the committee on judiciary. Fong? Aye. Fong, aye. DeMio?
Burner?
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Burner, aye. Jeff Gonzalez? Aye. Jeff Gonzalez, aye. Jackson?
Erwin? Aye. Erwin, aye. Patel? Aye.
Patel, aye. Bennett? Sharp Collins? Sharp Collins, I. Tanguiba?
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That measure is out, and we'll keep the roll open for additional members. Next up is item number four, assembly bill one eight four five by summoner Carrell. Mister Securts, do we have a motion? Second. We have a motion to second, a motion by summoner burner, second by doctor assembler doctor Sharp Collins.
Any questions or comments? Seeing none, roll call, please.
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File item number four, do pass as amended and re refer to the committee on judiciary. Fong? Aye. Fong, I. De Mayo?
De Mayo, I. Burner? Aye. Burner, I. Jeff Gonzales?
Aye. Jeff Gonzales, I. Jackson? Erwin? Aye.
Erwin, aye. Patel? Aye. Patel, aye. Bennett?
Sharp Collins? Aye. Sharp Collins, aye. Tanki paw? Aye.
Tanki paw, aye.
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Thank you so much. That measure is out. Next up is item number five, assembly bill one eight five two by assembler doctor Baines.
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File item number five. The motion is do pass and re refer to the committee on public employment and retirement. Fong? Not voting. Fong, not voting.
DeMio?
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Patel not voting. Bennett? Sharp Collins? Sharp Collins not voting. Tanquipa?
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That measure currently has two ayes and, five not voting. We'll keep the roll open for additional members. Next up is item number six, assembly bill one nine two zero by assembler Mark Gonzales and assembler Arons. Do motion by similar Berner. Do we have a second?
Second. Assembler doctor Sharp Collins has seconded the motion. Mister secretary, roll call, please.
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File on number number six, do pass and re refer to the committee on appropriations. Fong? Aye. Fong, aye. DeMio?
Aye. DeMio, aye. Boehner? Aye. Boehner, aye.
Jeff Gonzalez? Aye. Jeff Gonzalez, aye. Jackson? Erwin?
Aye. Erwin, aye. Patel?
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Patel, aye. Bennett? Sharp Collins? Short Collins, Tanki pa? I.
Tanki pa, I.
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The item is out. We'll keep the roll open for additional members. Next up is item number seven, assembly bill one nine two eight by Summer Fong.
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a motion. Hello. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Thank you.
Mister secretary, roll call, please.
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File item number seven, do pass as amended and re refer to the committee on judiciary. Fong? Aye. Fong, aye. DeMio?
1920. Yes. DeMio, aye. Boehner? Aye.
Boehner, aye. Gonzalez? Jeff Gonzalez, aye. Jackson? Erwin?
Aye. Erwin, aye. Patel? Aye. Patel, aye.
Bennett? Sharp Collins? Sharp Collins, aye. Tangipa? Aye.
Tangipa, aye.
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Thank you, colleagues. That motion is out. We'll keep the roll open for additional members. Next up is item number eight, assembly of bill two one two one.
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Alright. We have a motion by Summer Berner, second by Summer doctor Sharp Collins. Mister secretary, roll call, please.
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File number eight, do pass as amended and re refer to the committee on appropriations. Fong? Aye. Fong, aye. De Mayo?
De Mayo? No. Burner? Aye. Burner?
Jeff Gonzalez? Aye. Jeff Gonzalez, aye. Jackson? Erwin?
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Patel, aye. Bennett? Sharp Collins? I. Sharp Collins, I.
Tangipa? I. Tangipa, I.
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Seven. That measure has seven ayes, one no, and we'll keep the roll open for additional members. That measure is out. Next up is item number 10, Assembly Bill two two two nine by Sommer Helleran. Do we have a motion?
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Motion by Sommer Burner, seconded by doctor Sharp Collins. Mister secretary, roll call, please.
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File item number 10, do pass and re refer to the committee on appropriations. Fong? Aye. Fong, I. De Mayo?
De Mayo? Burner? I. Burner? Jeff Gonzales?
I. Jeff Gonzales? Jackson? Erwin? I.
Erwin? I. Patel? I. Patel?
Bennett? Sharp Collins? Sharp Collins, I. Tangipa? I.
Tangipa?
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Thank you so much. Next up is item number 11, Assembly Bill two three nine two by Summer Fong. Do have a motion?
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We have a motion by Assembly doctor Sharp Collins, seconded by Assembly Burner. Mister secretary, roll call, please.
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File item number 11 do pass and re refer to the Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection. Fong? Aye. Fong, I DeMaio? Aye.
DeMaio, I. Burner? Aye. Burner, I. Jeff Gonzales?
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Jeff Gonzales, I. Jackson? Erwin? I. Erwin, I.
Patel? I. Patel, I. Bennett. Sharp Collins?
Sharp Collins, I. Tangipa?
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We'll keep the rope open for additional members to add on item is out. And our final item is item number 14, assembly bill two six six zero by assembler by assembler Alvarez. Do we have a motion? Second. We have a motion by assembler doctor Sharp Collins, seconded by assembler Burner.
Mister secretary, roll call, please.
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File item number 14, do pass and re refer to the committee on education. Fong? Aye. Fong, I. DeMio?
Aye. DeMio, I. Burner?
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Burner, I. Jeff Gonzales? Aye. Jeff Gonzales, I. Jackson?
Erwin? Aye. Erwin, aye. Patel? Aye.
Patel, aye. Bennett? Sharp Collins? Aye. Sharp Collins, aye.
Tangipa?
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Thank you so much, colleagues. We'll keep the rope open for additional members to add on. Thank you so much, colleagues, for for your participation and then later. Appreciate you. And we'll keep the rope open for a few more minutes, for five more minutes for members to add on.
Oh, yes. We have add ons right now for we can go through an add ons. Thank you so much. Maybe you do. It's Yeah.
On
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For members that would like to add on, we'll keep the rope open for a few more minutes. Thank you so much. Thank you, colleagues. Thank you so much. We're gonna entertain add ons to the various items.
Mister secretary, roll call, please. On the consent
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calendar, Bennett? Aye. Bennett, aye. File item number 2AB1636. Bennett.
Aye. Bennett I. File item number 3AB1784, Pellerin. Bennett. Aye.
Bennett I. File item number 4A B1845 by asylum member Krell. Bennett. Aye. Bennett.
Aye. File item number 5AB1852 Baines. Bennett?
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Bennett not voting. File item number six, a b nineteen twenty by assembly member Mark Gonzales. Bennett? Aye. Bennett, aye.
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File item number seven, do pass oh, a b nineteen twenty eight by assembly member Fong. Bennett? Aye. Bennett, aye. File item number eight, a b twenty one twenty one by assembly member Berman.
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Bennett? Aye. Bennett, aye. File item number 10, a B2229 by assembly member Pelerin. Bennett?
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Bennett, aye. File item number 11, a B2392 by assembly member Fong. Bennett?
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Fong? Okay. Aye. Bennett, aye. File item number 14AB2660 by assembly member Alvarez.
Bennett? I. Bennett, I. Thank you so much.
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File item number 5AB1852 by ascendant member Baines. Jackson? Aye. Jackson, aye. That
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measure has three votes and seven not voting. That measure fails. Thank you.
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File item number six, a b 1920 by assembly member Mark Gonzales. Jackson? Aye. Jackson, aye.
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File item number seven, a b nineteen twenty eight by assembly member Fong. Jackson? Aye. Jackson, aye.
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File item number eight, a b twenty one twenty one by assembly member Bur Berman. Jackson? Aye. Jackson, aye. That measures out.
File item number 10AB2229 by assembly member Pellerin. Jackson?
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File item number 11 a b twenty three ninety two by assembly member Fong. Jackson? Aye. Jackson, aye. That measure is out.
File item number 14AB2660 by assembly member Alvarez. Jackson? Aye. Jackson, aye.
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Thank you so much. Thank you so much, colleagues, for robust hearing, and thank you so much to everyone involved with today's hearing, especially our semi hard education committee staff and everyone involved with today's hearing. Our next hearing is on Tuesday, April 14 at 01:30PM in State Capitol Room 127. Please note that we are gonna be in a different room next week, Room 127. Authors and stakeholders, please make sure that you're engaging early with our committee staff on your measures.
And with that, the Assembly Higher Education Committee meeting is adjourned.
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