Report 2019-114 Recommendation Responses

Report 2019-114: California State University: The Mandatory Fees Its Campuses Charge Receive Little Oversight Yet They Represent an Increasing Financial Burden to Students (Release Date: May 2020)

Recommendation for Legislative Action

To ensure that all funding that students and the Legislature provide to the CSU system to pay for its core functions receives the same oversight, the Legislature should do the following:

- Direct the Chancellor's Office to review mandatory fee expenditures across all 23 campuses and, by December 2020, report to the Legislature how much campuses spent of those fees on faculty and academic support staff, classroom and laboratory improvements, educational equipment and software, student trips and events, instruction-related facility improvements, and athletics in fiscal year 2018-19. The Chancellor's Office should also report the proportions and dollar amounts of these fee expenditures that directly support the CSU's core functions—namely, instructing and graduating students who are prepared to succeed.

- Using this information, determine and implement the most effective centralized way to fund the core functions for which mandatory fees currently pay.

- Upon implementing the new funding approach, prohibit CSU campuses from charging and using revenue from mandatory fees—including student success fees; instructionally related activities fees; and materials, services, and facilitates fees—to pay for any of the identified core functions. This prohibition should also apply to any mandatory fees campuses create in the future.

Description of Legislative Action

As of June 23, 2022, the Legislature has not taken action to address this specific recommendation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: No Action Taken

As of June 23, 2022, the Legislature has not taken action to address this specific recommendation.


Description of Legislative Action

As of May 14, 2021, the Legislature has not taken action to address this specific recommendation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: No Action Taken


Description of Legislative Action

As of November 14, 2020, the Legislature has not taken action to address this specific recommendation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: No Action Taken


Description of Legislative Action

As of July 14, 2020, the Legislature has not taken action to address this specific recommendation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: No Action Taken


All Recommendations in 2019-114