A California bill that would streamline the process for some community college students to transfer to a University of California (UC) campus is one step away from becoming law.
Assembly Bill 1291, introduced in February by Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), would establish a pilot program that prioritizes community college students who complete associate degrees in certain majors for admission to UC campuses.
The bill unanimously passed the Assembly in May and was unanimously passed again by the Senate in September. It was sent Sept. 21 to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has until Oct. 14 to sign it into law.
The pilot would begin at the University of California–Los Angeles, requiring officials to select eight majors eligible for the program by the 2026–27 school year.
Then, it would expand to UC’s other campuses by 2028–29, requiring those campuses to have 12 majors eligible for the program and requiring four to be in the science, technology, engineering, or mathematics fields.
Mr. McCarty argued that the bill would streamline the state’s community college transfer system to UC schools. The system already has a similar agreement with the California State University system.
However, the UC students’ association, along with the California community colleges’ student group, oppose the bill.
Instead, the groups said students preferred a transfer program that would streamline the transfer process for all majors—not just a selected number of majors as proposed in the bill.
The student associations’ letter urged Mr. Newsom to veto the bill, which they called a “hastily drafted and last-minute legislation with no student input,” and “allow for a true conversation to take place” this fall between legislators, state officials, UC officials, and student associations with the goal of proposing new transfer legislation in 2024.