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Students, faculty protest potential CSU tuition hikes, which heads to full board in fall

July 12, 2023

Hundreds of California State University students, faculty, and staff gathered at the system’s Long Beach headquarters on Tuesday, July 11, to oppose proposed 6% annual tuition increases over the next five years — which CSU officials say is necessary to help offset a $1.5 billion funding gap.

The CSU Board of Trustees’ Committee on Finance weighed the proposal on Tuesday, and ultimately decided to send it to the full board for final approval. The board will likely hear the item in September, though the date won’t be confirmed until the agenda for that month’s meeting released.

A CSU workgroup first identified the massive funding gap in a nearly 70-page report released in May. It found that the system only has enough money to pay for about 85% of the actual costs of education, institutional and academic support and student services at all of its campuses.

Hundreds of California State University students, faculty, and staff rallied against the CSU Board of Trustees’ five-year proposal to increase tuition by 6% annually on Tuesday, July 11, 2023. (Courtesy of Michael Lee-Chang).

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That’s largely because the CSU’s two primary revenue sources — funding from California’s budget and tuition — haven’t kept up with the ever-increasing costs of operating the nation’s largest state university system, the report said. About 60% of the CSU’s operating budget is funded by the state; the remaining 40% comes from tuition revenue.

State funding, officials said Tuesday, is volatile and highly dependent on external factors that impact economic stability throughout the state. And though California Gov. Gavin Newsom has agreed to a funding compact with the CSU that will provide a 5% annual boost to its annual budget — amounting to a $227.3 million increase for this fiscal year — officials say it isn’t nearly enough to bridge the funding gap.

“Over the past two decades, state tax revenues that support public higher education institutions have significantly fluctuated,” said Ryan Storm, the CSU’s Assistant Vice Chancellor for Budget, on Tuesday, “with a trend toward a decrease in real dollars across the country and within California.”

The state’s share of funding for the CSU total operating budget, Storm said, has declined from about 90% in the 1980s to 60% currently.

The CSU secondary source of funding, tuition revenues, has been stagnant for nearly a decade. The last tuition hike — which was 5%, or $270 a semester — came during the 2011-12 academic year.

Several Finance Committee members on Tuesday said tuition hikes aren’t ideal — but felt obligated to support the proposal because of the CSU’s current financial situation.

“We’re so proud of the fact we have such an affordable system with great access and great affordability,” Trustee Jack McGrory said, “but it’s absolutely fiscally irresponsible to take 40% of your general fund budget and freeze it for 11 years — what’s going to happen is, we will (have) cuts across the board and then all hell will break loose.”

Students and faculty, meanwhile, said they oppose the proposed tuition hikes — arguing that the Board’s proposal is unfair to students.

“The thing that we emphasize it really it shouldn’t be up to the students to essentially pay for their (mismanagement),” said Michael Lee-Chang, a Sac State freshman and member of advocacy group Students for a Quality Education, on Tuesday. “This really isn’t a fight with current students. If anything, it’s probably a greater fight for future students — the later you attend the more you end up paying.”

Student Trustee Diana Aguilar-Cruz, during the Tuesday meeting, also argued that the student groups weren’t given enough time to give their full input on the matter. The Cal State Student Association, for example, doesn’t meet during the summer and have been in the process of onboarding a new set of leaders for the next academic year since May — when the CSU began its discussion about the proposed tuition increase.

“I do believe that our timing should be punched that at least we come back to vote on this in November so that we can give enough time to the students that we serve, so that they can have that conversation,” Aguilar-Cruz said. “Students have fought the same fight countless times and we’ve lost each time — it almost feels that our voices have been ignored throughout the years.”

The CSSA also issued a statement in opposition to the proposal on Tuesday.

The CSU, though, argues that the tuition increases are necessary not only to provide students with the level of education and academic support they’ve repeatedly asked the system to provide, but to comply with several unfunded mandates it will eventually have to pay for in order to maintain compliance with federal and state educational regulations.

Those include up to $18.7 million to institute Title IX regulations, and another $5.8 billion to upgrade decades-old campus facilities that have fallen into despair because of deferred maintenance, according to a staff report for the Tuesday meeting, and another up to $1 billion for employee raises.

The California Faculty Association, a labor union representing about 60,000 employees throughout the CSU, are currently in negotiations for a new employment contract. That group is advocating for 12% wage increases across the board, citing inflation, high costs of living in California, and the CSU’s chronic struggle to hire and retain quality faculty.

Gregory Christopher Brown, an associate professor of criminal justice at CSU Fullerton and the CFA Chapter President at that university, said in a Tuesday interview that the union is in complete opposition to the tuition hikes — arguing that the CSU should find the money to give employees raises elsewhere.

“They’re pricing people out — (tuition) increases have a negative impact on people’s ability to attend the CSU, and this is supposed to be people’s university,” Brown said.

Brown, who is also on the CFA’s bargaining committee, said the union had its first bargaining session with the CSU a few weeks ago, with the next one planned for Thursday, July 20 — though the university system has yet to bring a wage proposal to the table.

“We have a lot of hard working folks out there who are overworked and underpaid and it’s time for the university to step up and give us our rights, respect, and justice, because it means everything to us,” Brown said. “We will fight for it and (we will) strike if we have to.”

Several students and faculty members — along with members of the Finance Committee — also raised concerns about the language in the five-year proposal, arguing that it didn’t outline a firm end-date to the tuition increases.

The Finance Committee, in response, asked staff to amend the proposal to ensure the Board will be required to review and re-authorize additional tuition hikes at the close of the first five years, if approved in the fall, to ensure they won’t continue in perpetuity.

But aside from that change, the Finance Committee moved the proposal on to the full Board without any other amendments. Without the additional revenue from the tuition proposal — which is expected to generate $860 million over those five years — the CSU would have to redirect funding to where it’s most needed.

That could result result in fewer course selections, less student services and a limited capacity for the system to invest in updated learning environments or give pay raises to its employees, officials said.

“We’re doing this for the students — we’re we’re handicapped because we can’t give you what you need because we don’t have the resources to do it,” Trustee Jean Picker Firstenberg said Tuesday. “And yes, it’s on your back — but I tell you, it’s really a modest request and I think it’s done in the most compassionate way possible.”

As it stands, undergraduate tuition — not including other costly fees, such as housing, food and academic supplies — is around $5,742 per year. The tuition rate increase, if approved in the fall, would add an additional $342 to undergrad tuition starting in the fall 2024 semester bringing the total to $6,084.

From there, tuition would go up another 6% annually for the next five years. By the spring 2029 semester, full-time undergrads would be required to pay $7,682 for the academic year, while higher-level programs, such as a doctorate in public health would total about $25,000 per year.

The CSU, in its report, said that the proposed tuition increases wouldn’t change it status as among the most affordable higher education systems in the country. It also added that about 60% of its student population would be unaffected by the change because of grants or fee waivers.

“In addition, many of these same students receive Federal Pell Grants, which helps cover the cost of attendance like books, campus base fees and living expenses,” Storm said. “Annually, CSU students collectively receive $1 billion in Pell grant funds.”

But the students groups took issue with that — arguing that the remaining 40% of the student population who don’t qualify for large financial aid awards would be unduly impacted by the changes.

“Who is in this 40%? Undocumented students and graduate students — both groups do not receive financial aid,” Aguilar-Cruz said. “Imagine being an undocumented student who can’t receive any type of compensation and having a dream of attending school but not being able to accomplish that because because non-resident tuition is double.”

About $280 million of the $860 million the tuition increases are expected to generate over the first five years would fund financial aid for students with the most need, the CSU report said.

The remainder of the funds would be used to expand the work of the CSU’s Graduation Initiative 2025 — which aims to increase graduation rates for first-time and transfer students — alongside pay raises for the CSU workforce, academic facility and infrastructure upgrades, plans to boost enrollment, and other operational costs.

The CSU Board of Trustees is expected to vote on the proposal in September. More information about the potential tuition is available online at calstate.edu/attend/paying-for-college/tuition-increase.

Orange County Register

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Students, faculty protest potential CSU tuition hikes, which heads to full board in fall

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