Statehouse Report 7
February 16, 2010
LEGISLATIVE DEVELOPMENTS
Bills move to respective chambers
After a short break at the mid-way point of the legislative session, the General Assembly returned to Indianapolis to begin work on bills that passed the chamber in which the bill was introduced. As mentioned in last week's report, the Senate is now addressing bills introduced and passed by the House and vice versa for the House.
Because it takes a few days for bills to be assigned to respective committees and for the bills to be reviewed by Committee Chairs, there were not a significant number of bills heard this week.
However, one bill (HB 1135) that we reported on in prior Statehouse Reports, was heard in the Senate Education Committee. The bill would require universities to accept credit for advanced placement coursework completed by high school students when they achieve a score of three or higher on the College Board advanced placement exam. IU and other sister institutions testified on the bill, which is being supported by the K-12 education community. We are working with the House author and Senate sponsor on revising the bill in a manner that is acceptable to both the higher education institutions and K-12 community.
We expect that next week will be a very busy week for committee hearings. Of course, as more bills are reported out of committees, more bills will be on the House and Senate calendars for second and third reading. We also learned this week that the General Assembly is now working toward a goal of ending the legislative session a week early, if at all possible.
The Indiana Commission for Higher Education met on Thursday evening and Friday morning. Thursday's meeting involved discussions of the higher education funding formulae and an updated Commission policy on regional campuses. We were present at both these discussions and provided input.
During Friday's meeting, projects to renovate the Tulip Tree Apartments and Briscoe Quad on the Bloomington campus were approved. Vice President Tom Morrison was afforded time to discuss the campus' strategic plan to upgrade student residential facilities. The following degrees were also approved by the Commission:
M. S. in Criminal Justice and Public Safety at IUPUI
B.S. in Health Sciences at IUPUI
B.A. of Arts in Philanthropic Studies at IUPUI
CONTACT:
Jeff Linder
Associate VP for Public Affairs and Government Relations
jmlinder@indiana.edu
317-681-1776
