(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(1) The future economic vitality of California will depend on the state’s ability to educate its citizens and to help them develop the work and social skills needed to compete with workers of other nations and states in our global economy.

(2) Ensuring that California’s colleges and universities can accommodate a tidal wave of new students, as well as enable those from diverse backgrounds to achieve success in their college careers, will require a variety of strategies.

(3) The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) has reported that most campuses of the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges will soon exceed their current capacities.

(4) The LAO has identified year-round operation as a cost-efficient strategy to address future enrollment growth, by avoiding capital expenditure for instructional space, such as classrooms, class laboratories, study space in libraries, and other selected student support service facilities.

(5) Year-round operation also increases student access to high demand campuses, and allows students to accelerate their progress to degrees.

(6) (A) It is the intent of the Legislature that the University of California and the California State University accommodate enrollment growth by maximizing the utilization of existing instructional facilities during the summer term before building new classrooms and teaching laboratories. It is further the intent of the Legislature that the University of California and the California State University make requests for capital outlay funding for space for classrooms and class laboratories justified using legislatively approved utilization standards and a reasonable assumption of summer-term enrollment.

(B) Accordingly, the University of California is requested to base its annual five-year capital outlay plan on the utilization of instructional facilities during the summer, assuming summer-term enrollment of at least 40 percent of the average fall, winter, and spring enrollment.

(C) The California State University is requested to base its annual five-year capital outlay plan on utilization of instructional facilities during the summer, assuming summer-term enrollment of at least 25 percent and 40 percent of the fall, winter, spring enrollment at rural and urban campuses, respectively.

(b) Summer session fees at all campuses of the University of California and the California State University shall not exceed the fees charged per credit unit for any other academic term, if the state provides funding to offset any revenue losses that may occur due to the difference between the state university fee and fees charged for self-supporting academic programs.

(c) In recognition of the differing circumstances on the various campuses throughout the state, the University of California and the California State University shall retain the flexibility to implement year-round operation differently on individual campuses.

(d) On or before January 10 of each year, the University of California is requested to, and the California State University shall, submit to the Legislature a report describing summer enrollment for their respective systems. The report shall include all of the following information separately for each campus in the system:

(1) The number of state-funded headcount students enrolled during the summer term of the preceding calendar year and, for comparison purposes, the year-average number of state-funded headcount students enrolled during the preceding fall, winter, and spring terms.

(2) The number of state-funded full-time equivalent students enrolled during the summer term of the preceding calendar year and, for comparison purposes, the number of year-average state-funded full-time equivalent students enrolled during the preceding fall, winter, and spring terms.

(3) Efforts undertaken to increase summer enrollment.

(Amended by Stats. 2009, Ch. 386, Sec. 7. (AB 1182) Effective January 1, 2010.)