California State University students will have to pay higher tuition starting next fall.
The CSU’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved a controversial plan on Wednesday, Sept. 13, to increase student tuition by 6% annually for five years — a move the institution says is necessary to stabilize its budget and pay for its high quality academic and student services.
Students, faculty and other groups, though, decried the plan on numerous occasions leading up to the board’s Wednesday decision, most recently with a protest outside the Office of the Chancellor in Long Beach one day ahead of the vote. Opponents cited concerns that the increased cost of education would limit access to what has historically been the state’s most affordable higher education system.
But despite the pushback, CSU officials have repeatedly defended the five-year tuition increase proposal as an unfortunate, but necessary, action to pay for a nearly $1.5 billion funding gap.
“We face a difficult decision today,” Trustee Jack McGory said. “Its tough to do this and we don’t like it, especially when we’re so proud our affordability — but we’ve got to make these numbers work and do something long-term that continues the quality of education we have.”
The university system currently only has funding to pay for about 85% of the actual costs of education, institutional and academic support, and student services for its more than 460,000 students across 23 campuses, according to a CSU workgroup report released in May.
That’s largely because its own budget only has two sources of revenue: Tuition and funding allocations from the state budget.
About 60% of the CSU’s operating budget is funded by the state, while the remaining 40% comes from tuition revenue — the latter of which hasn’t been increased since the 2011-12 academic year, when the Board of Trustees approved a 5% tuition hike.
State funding has also failed to adequately align with the high costs of…
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