Budget Cuts Forced CSU to Increase Student Fees

Despite student protests, the California State University’s Board of Trustees approved a $72 fee increase Monday that will take effect with the winter term. Raising fees is never an easy decision, but in tough times like these, it was the right thing for the CSU system to do.

Here’s why: The 400,000-student university system began this academic year with $43 million in cuts and $22.8 million in unfunded cost increases for health benefit premiums and salaries. Gov. Gray Davis has proposed $59.6 million in permanent reductions for CSU. Altogether, the system faces a staggering $125 million in reductions in its general fund budget for the current year.

The state university system, and other institutions that rely on Sacramento for funding, has done its best to prepare for these difficult budget times. The University of California also voted Monday to increase fees.

But an enrollment boom has brought an additional 87,000 new students into the CSU system over the last eight years and 100,000 more are expected before the end of the decade. In this academic year, it is serving 8,000 more full-time equivalent students than were funded.

According to the College Board, four-year public institutions across the country are charging an average of $4,081 in tuition and fees for the current academic year, an increase of 9.6% over last year.

That follows a 7.7% increase for the year before.

In California, however, rather than allowing fees to rise gradually to meet the increasing costs of providing quality higher education, the state has subsidized the cost of student fees and exacerbated the situation.

CSU fees have not increased since 1994. In fact, they are 10% lower than five years ago. Even with the $72-per-semester increase, the annual state university fee would be only $1,572, which is less than half the national average.

For many, maintaining low student fees has been synonymous with a commitment to providing access to higher education. Yet low fees can also reduce access if the total available revenue supports a decreasing number of classes. At a time when California’s economy needs well-educated graduates more than ever, the state should be focused on increasing higher educational opportunities, not limiting them.

A fee increase, though never desirable, represents the best chance CSU has to continue providing a full range of opportunities for its 406,000 students this year.

Some may argue that CSU has acted precipitously by raising fees before the Legislature has finalized the budget. But given current budget realities, it represents the most responsible course of action. To wait would be to guarantee that the university would have to take even more painful steps in the future.