BILL NUMBER: S7858

SPONSOR: GOUNARDES
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

To ease the college application process by requiring all schools and the
New York State Education Department to publish responses to the Common
Data Set (CDS) online

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section one of this bill adds a new section 609-a to the Education Law
to require all colleges recognized and approved by the regents of the
university of the state of New York which provide a course of study
leading to the granting of a post-secondary degree or diploma, as
defined in subdivision two of section 601 of Education Law, to publish
their responses to the Common Data Set survey in a clear and prominent
location on their website.

This section also requires the Education Commissioner to compile Common
Data Set survey responses on the Education Department's website, and
allow users to find such responses via a drop-down menu, search func-
tion, and geographic map of campus locations. The Commissioners shall
              

have the discretion to set civil penalties for institutions of higher
learning which willfully refuse to publish a CDS.

Section two sets the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

In 2002, the College Board, Peterson's, and U.S. News & World Report
convened to create the Common Data Set, an initiative to provide accu-
rate and timely college data to potential students and their families in
a standardized, easy-to-digest format while reducing reporting burdens
on college administrators. The Common Data Set (CDS) is, in essence, a
survey that colleges complete on a voluntary basis that contains infor-
mation on admissions, demographics, financial aid, academics and campus
life.

At 50 pages long, the CDS provides a wealth of information on degrees,
enrollment and persistence rates, number of students admitted vs.
enrolled vs. wait-listed, the relative importance of academic and non-a-
cademic criteria, first-year class statistical profiles, admissions
policies, academic offerings, student life, housing availability, campus
demographics, need-based and non-need-based financial aid, average aid
awarded, types of aid available, scholarships and grants, faculty demo-
graphics, student-to-faculty ratios, class sizes, and more. It can tell
a prospective student how much a particular school values applicant
interest, whether the school meets 100% of demonstrated need, how many
students received merit scholarships, average amounts of the scholar-
ships, and more. It provides standardized definitions of the data that
entities like the College Board need while saving college admissions
offices the stress and hassle of having to spend months responding to
different data requests from college rankers.

In an age of ever-escalating tuition costs, the CDS also, crucially,
provides a window for families into how much and what type of aid they
are likely to receive in an acceptance offer. While virtually all
colleges offer need-based aid to students who qualify and have completed
a FAFSA, for example, not 100% of need is always met - a practice
referred to as "gapping." Enter the Common Data Set, which will tell
applicants exactly how many students in the prior year had their demon-
strated need met as well as the average amount of need-based loans taken
out to fill the gap. Despite the clear benefits of the CDS, however, not
every college completes it - and many more who do do not make their
responses easily accessible on the college's website.

This bill mandates both that all colleges in New York State complete and
post their CDS in a clear and prominent location online and that the New
York State Education Department, which works alongside the Board of
Regents to authorize colleges to confer degrees and to register individ-
ual programs of study, compile CDS surveys in a centralized location on
their website. The State Education Department would need to devise a
system that allows users to search for CDSes on a statewide map as well
as a drop-down menu.

Directing colleges and state educational agencies to collect and publish
the valuable troves of information contained in a CDS will add transpar-
ency to a process that many parents and students find opaque, complex,
and stressful. This bill represents a simple step forward for college
accessibility that will allow families to determine which schools they
can truly afford and help alleviate our state's student loan debt
crisis.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

None

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

TBD

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have
become a law.