republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20092010/ab-37.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Public postsecondary education: honorary degrees."
description: "Under existing law, the segments of the public postsecondary education system in the state include the University of California, which is administered by the Regents of the University of California, the California State University, which is administered by the Trustees of the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, which are administered by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. Existing law authorizes these educational institutions to award various types of degrees."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20092010"
identifier: "AB 37"
citation: "California AB 37 (20092010)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Public postsecondary education: honorary degrees."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Furutani"]
version_count: 8
action_count: 30
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2008-12-01"
last_action: "2009-10-11"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/5a16810c-14f0-42bf-8777-b2a218ec0486"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB37"
source_hash: "abff8b429140e46a073b0be65094a9672e82c21513c9af35b26112e05b561e89"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 37 (20092010) — Public postsecondary education: honorary degrees.

Under existing law, the segments of the public postsecondary education system in the state include the University of California, which is administered by the Regents of the University of California, the California State University, which is administered by the Trustees of the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, which are administered by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. Existing law authorizes these educational institutions to award various types of degrees.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **12/01/08 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB37&version=20090AB3799INT)
2. **03/10/09 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB37&version=20090AB3798AMD)
3. **03/25/09 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB37&version=20090AB3797AMD)
4. **04/15/09 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB37&version=20090AB3796AMD)
5. **07/08/09 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB37&version=20090AB3795AMD)
6. **10/11/09 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB37&version=20090AB3793CHP)
7. **AB37** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB37)
8. **08/25/09 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB37&version=20090AB3794ENR)

## Votes

- Special Consent #14 AB37 Furutani — **pass** (pass) · upper
- AB 37 FURUTANI Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **pass** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, to Consent Calendar. — **pass** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations. — **pass** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but re-refer to the Committee on Appropriations. — **pass** (pass) · upper
- AB 37 FURUTANI Assembly Third Reading — **pass** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Furutani — primary (person)
- Alquist — coauthor (person)
- Blumenfield — coauthor (person)
- Brownley — coauthor (person)
- Chesbro — coauthor (person)
- De Leon — coauthor (person)
- DeSaulnier — coauthor (person)
- Eng — coauthor (person)
- Hancock — coauthor (person)
- Hayashi — coauthor (person)
- John A. Perez — coauthor (person)
- Jones — coauthor (person)
- Lieu — coauthor (person)
- Liu — coauthor (person)
- Lowenthal — coauthor (person)
- Ma — coauthor (person)
- Monning — coauthor (person)
- Portantino — coauthor (person)
- Romero — coauthor (person)
- Salas — coauthor (person)
- Torrico — coauthor (person)
- Yamada — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2008-12-01** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2008-12-02** From printer. May be heard in committee January 1.
- **2009-02-05** Referred to Com. on HIGHER ED. `referral-committee`
- **2009-03-03** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2009-03-10** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on HIGHER ED. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, reading-2, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2009-03-10** (Corrected March 12.)
- **2009-03-11** Re-referred to Com. on HIGHER ED. `referral-committee`
- **2009-03-24** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended, and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (March 17). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage`
- **2009-03-25** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2009-03-26** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2009-04-15** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on APPR. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, reading-2, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2009-04-16** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2009-04-23** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (April 22). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2009-04-27** Read second time. To Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2009-04-30** From Consent Calendar. To third reading.
- **2009-05-04** Read third time, passed, and to Senate. (Ayes 80. Noes 0. Page 1234.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2009-05-04** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2009-05-14** Referred to Com. on ED. `referral-committee`
- **2009-06-10** From committee: Do pass, and re-refer to Com. on APPR. Re-referred. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (June 10). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2009-06-29** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2009-07-08** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on APPR. `amendment-introduction, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee, reading-1`
- **2009-07-14** From committee: Be placed on second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8. `committee-passage`
- **2009-07-15** Read second time. To third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2009-07-15** Ordered to Special Consent Calendar.
- **2009-08-17** Read third time, passed, and to Assembly. (Ayes 35. Noes 0. Page 1843.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2009-08-17** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after August 19 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2009-08-20** Senate amendments concurred in. To enrollment. (Ayes 77. Noes 0. Page 2656.) `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2009-08-31** Enrolled and to the Governor at 5:15 p.m.
- **2009-10-11** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2009-10-11** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 213, Statutes of 2009.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/5a16810c-14f0-42bf-8777-b2a218ec0486`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).