CAL STATE COSTS RISE: Trustees approve 5 percent fee increase
- June 21, 2010
Cal State trustees voted to boost student fees by 5 percent beginning this fall, saying it is the only way to offset deep funding cuts and reduced enrollment.
The increase, approved Friday at a Cal State board meeting in Long Beach, translates into a $204 annual hike for a full-time undergraduate student, bringing the total state university fee to $4,230. Trustees increased fees for doctoral education students by 10 percent, or $870, to $9,546 a year.
It is the seventh fee increase in eight years for the 23-campus university system, which educates 450,000 students a year. It follows a 32 percent, or $978, fee increase in 2009.
The continuously rising fees have disheartened students, said Mohammed Shahid Beig, student-body president at ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥ in Hayward.
College "just isn't the same as it used to be," he said.
"We just had a 32 percent fee increase last year," he said. "We sign up for college at one price and then pay a completely different price by the time we're seniors."
A proposal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to restore more than $300 million in state support assumed there would be a fee increase of 10 percent — twice as high as the increase approved Friday.
"The board's decision to limit the student fee increase to 5 percent is based on the Assembly budget proposal that provides additional state revenues," Cal State Chancellor Charles Reed said. "It will allow us to move forward with adding classes and sections for students this fall."
The board left open the option of revisiting fee levels in November if the state does not fully fund the proposed budget.
If funding is not restored, enrollment could decline by an estimated 9.5 percent. Even the larger 10 percent fee increase would not be enough to balance the budget, according to a report by senior Cal State administrators.
About 433,000 students were enrolled in the Cal State system this year.
University officials, grappling with state budget cuts of more than $625 million in the past two years, said even the increased Cal State fees remain lower than those of 13 of 15 similar institutions in other states.
They said the system offers many financial aid options. In 2009-10, half of all Cal State undergraduates received aid to cover all their fees. On average, factoring in financial aid, families with incomes of $70,000 or less will not pay any undergraduate fees.
The Cal State trustees' vote was 10-2, with one abstention, to adopt the undergraduate fee increase, with Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado and Russel Statham casting dissenting votes, and Margaret Fortune abstaining. Trustees voted 11-2 to increase fees for doctoral education students, with Statham and Maldonado dissenting.
Cal State faced unprecedented cuts in state support during the past two years totaling approximately $625 million, and has implemented a number of measures to address the drastic funding decline, including employee furloughs, layoffs, increased student fees, reduced enrollment.
Staff writer Matt Krupnick and The Associated Press contributed to this story.