Public postsecondary education: refunds of student campus fees.

(1) Existing law establishes the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, and the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, as the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. This bill would require the trustees and the board of governors, and request the regents, to: (1) identify the students in their respective systems who, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were obliged to stay away from the campuses at which they were enrolled during the 2019–20 and 2020–21 academic years; (2) ascertain the amounts of campus fees collected from each of the students identified under subdivision (a) , and calculate from those amounts of campus fees, the amounts from which the students received no value because of their enforced absence from campus and which should therefore be refunded to the students; and (3) submit the total amounts ascertained and calculated to the Department of Finance and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. To the extent that the bill would impose new duties on community college districts with respect to identification of students and calculation of amounts to be refunded, it would constitute a state-mandated local program. The bill would appropriate an unspecified amount from the General Fund to the Controller for allocation for payment of refunds to students of the California State University, the California Community Colleges, and the University of California for campus fees overpaid due to campus closures in the 2019–20 and 2020–21 academic years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.