Cal State chancellor to ask for 10% student fee increase

California State University Chancellor Charles B. Reed said Tuesday he will ask the university’s Board of Trustees next week to approve a 10% student fee increase for the coming school year.

Speaking in a conference call with reporters, the Cal State leader said the $306 annual hike, which the board is expected to approve, was the only way to maintain the quality of education in the face of what he called California’s “economic meltdown.”

In other cost-cutting moves, Cal State had announced plans earlier this year to shrink its 450,000 enrollment by 10,000 students, but Reed said Tuesday that officials, using earlier deadlines and some changes in admission standards, had managed to bring the number down by only 3,000 to 4,000.

Reed also warned of possible layoffs and further cuts to the 23-campus system if state budget measures 1A through 1E on the May 19 ballot should fail.

Even before that, Cal State will take a $116-million cut in its $2.8-billion budget, or 6.2 % of its total general purpose funds, officials have said.

If approved, the fee increase would bring annual systemwide fees for full-time undergraduate students to $3,354, from $3,048, for an average yearly cost of $4,155. That figure includes additional fees set by each campus, but not books, transportation or room and board.

Reed said Cal State’s fees would remain the cheapest of any comparable public university in the country. And he predicted that financial aid, including increased federal grants for poor students promised by the Obama administration, would fully cover the increase for many students.

But several students said the extra aid would not blunt the impact.

“Not everybody has financial aid,” said Sonya Tuuao, 21, a business administration major at Cal State Dominguez Hills. “Students are going to have less money for books, less money for housing.”

Cal State Northridge student Nicole Umali said many students’ aid packages consisted largely of loans.

“At some point, they’re going to have to decide whether they want to enter into that debt,” said Umali, 23, a double major in political science and religious studies. “It’s going to be a choice between quality education and accessible education.”

In a statement Tuesday, the California Faculty Assn. called the fee increase “wrong . . . especially when no work has been done to learn the impact of these fee increases on our students and our state.”

Fees have more than doubled since 2002, well beyond the rate of inflation, the statement said.

“It is irresponsible for California’s leaders to argue that other states have high fees, so ours can be increased,” the statement said.

In their comments, the faculty group and Reed did agree on one thing: California’s economy will be short 1 million workers with bachelor’s degrees by 2025 if the state does not improve its college graduation rates.

On Thursday, the University of California’s Board of Regents is expected to approve a 9.3% fee increase for undergraduates, and possibly higher for graduate and professional school students.

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gale.holland@latimes.com