There Is No Painless Course : Fee hikes at Cal State are the worst option--except all the other options

A legislative revolt has broken out against a 40% increase in annual fees at California State University --from $1,078 to $1,450. Proposed by Gov. Pete Wilson and approved by the system’s board of trustees, the increase is highly unpopular with the students and their families, and they have been putting heat on their representatives.

Assemblyman Robert J. Campbell (D-Richmond) says “It’s not going to happen,” and a resigned Cal State Chancellor Barry Munitz has drawn the same conclusion.

If the fee hike is off, what then? Essentially, the other alternatives are raise taxes or cut enrollment.

Chancellor Munitz is trying to work out a compromise combining new money from the state, a smaller fee hike (24% instead of 40%) than announced and no cut in enrollment. The trouble with that compromise is that in a year when the state is running a deficit, even the modest amount sought ($40 million to $50 million) isn’t there.

If the state comes up with no new money, if fees go up by only 24% and if enrollment is not reduced, then what? Then class size goes up, some courses are eliminated, fewer sections are scheduled, students face severe-to-insuperable obstacles to completing their degrees on schedule and the quality of the CSU degree itself erodes.

Why not reduce enrollment? A good question; but if the legislators do that, then instead of facing phone calls from constituents angry about CSU fees, they will face calls from constituents angry that they can’t attend CSU at all.

There remains, of course, the ineffable option of raising taxes. The legislator who proposes that will get calls from everybody who is not in college or paying for somebody in college and who cares little whether California has a university in the first place.

California is fighting against merely managing a decline. But better a decline than an outright wreck. Educational quality has got to come first, or everybody loses.

If bailout money can be found in the budget, let’s find it. If not, let’s keep the fee increase as planned and, if necessary, reduce enrollment as well.