Higher Education Committee advances bills on student housing, campus audits, donor registration and student aid

The Assembly Higher Education Committee on Oct. 27 advanced a slate of measures aimed at student housing, campus financial oversight and student supports, including bills to give community colleges clearer authority to build student and staff housing, require more frequent campus-level audits at the California State University system, and expand student outreach for organ and tissue donation registration.

Committee members voted to move bills to follow-up committees, with several taken up on the same day for initial policy hearings. Key measures advanced include AB 648 (community college housing authority), AB 326 (campus-level CSU audits), AB 466 (student organ-donor outreach), AB 402 (restoring Cal Grant levels for private nonprofit colleges), AB 681 (raising Dream Loan caps for undocumented graduate students), AB 556 (clarifying veterans’ fee waivers), AB 243 (easing financial-aid verification for system-involved youth), and AB 363 (changes to the CalWORKs recipient education program). Several measures drew extended debate over local land-use control, transparency, constitutional constraints and implementation costs.

AB 648 — community college housing authority

AB 648, presented as a bid to reduce housing insecurity among community college students, would give community college districts the same explicit statutory authority as the University of California and California State University systems to build student and staff housing on property they own or lease without requiring a local rezoning. The bill’s author cited data the Legislative Analyst’s Office provided that “60 percent of community college students face housing insecurity, and almost 25 percent have experienced homelessness.” Donald Girard of Santa Monica College said his district is prepared to build housing and pointed to a 2022 Santa Monica bond measure that allocated $375,000,000 to the college.

Supporters said the change would remove delays caused by local rezoning processes while preserving compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act. Opponents and some committee members pressed the author on limits, with Vice Chair DeMaio saying the measure “makes it more like classroom reviews, which means local control, in many respects, is eviscerated.” Assemblymember Gonzalez and others asked whether the bill would restrict local review of traffic, coastal height limits and agricultural lands. The author and witnesses repeatedly said CEQA and other building codes still…