The California State University Board of Trustees adopted an updated legislative report containing 35 legislative bills of interest to the CSU.

Included in the package is SB218, which would place nonprofit corporations that receive public funds or perform a governmental function on behalf of the CSU under the regulations of the California Public Records Act. At Sacramento State, this would require University Enterprises, Inc., to higher public records standards.

The board will be reviewing the bills within the next several weeks.

Eric Fallis, spokesperson for the Chancellor’s Office, said the adoption of the legislative report only introduces the bills to the board and does not represent an official position. The board has yet to issue an opinion on SB218.

He said that the board does support two bills in the report: AB-867, which would allow the CSU system to offer a Doctorate of Nursing Practice degree and AB-1222 which affects services alumni programs at the CSU and University of California can offer their members.

There was no word on when the board will review SB218.

State Sen. Leland Yee introduced the bill because of an incident that occurred at Sacramento State. A student tried to get information on textbook markups from the bookstore, but his public records request was denied.

Because the bookstore is a nonprofit corporation and is separate from the university, currently it does not have to release documents to the public.

The California Public Records Act is designed to make public institutions more transparent by requiring state and local agencies to release public records when requested to do so by anyone. The records include all communications related to public business.

Michael Mette can be reached at [email protected].