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CSU Long Beach sociology student Jennifer Chavez, left, hugs CSU Channel Islands business student Angelmarie Taylor after the California State University Board of Trustees passed a motion to raise tuition for the CSU system’s 23 campuses, including Sacramento State.
AP
Despite scathing verbal jabs and impassioned pleas from students, trustees of the California State University system voted 15-5 Wednesday to raise it 6% annually over a five-year period beginning in the 2024-25 academic year .
Sacramento State student Michael Lee-Chang joined dozens of CSU students who made the trek to Long Beach yesterday to comment at the trustees meeting. Lee-Chang said he was angry about the decision.
“It was mentally draining to watch the Board of Trustees meet and hear each trustee talk about their own difficult upbringing and how moved they were by the public comments from students, but still vote yes for a tuition increase that’ t could block who knows how many students from the nation’s most affordable and diverse public university system,” he said. “They refused to postpone the vote to properly investigate the adverse effects of the tuition increase and refused to reduce the duration of the tuition increase to three or four years.
“It is careless and disgusting; it doesn’t feel like they care about students.”
With a looming structural deficit of $1.5 billion, many trustees said they should focus on long-term financial stability. Tuition and allocations from the state’s general fund are CSU’s main sources of revenue.
Student Trustee Jonathan Molina Mancio, a graduate of California State University, Dominguez Hills, voted against the tuition increase, but he said trustees were between a rock and a hard place on this vote. If they fell forward, he said, they would stab themselves, and if they fell backward, they would hit rocks.
California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond also oppose the tuition increase. Kounalakis urged her fellow trustees to take more time to consider the difficulties of raising tuition, and Thurmond supported an amendment proposed by Student Trustee Diana Aguilar-Cruz to cap the increases at four years.
The CSU Chancellor’s Office said that, if the increase in tuition was approved, they are committed to inviting student representatives to participate in an assessment of the effects of the hikes in 2027. academic year, said CSU leaders.
The trustees said their plans include financial aid funds that would be targeted to ensure no student would have to leave school because of the hike. The decision will affect students across the system’s 23 campuses.
In the current 2023-24 academic year, CSU tuition is $5,742. It will be $6,084 in 2024-25, $6,450 in 2025-26, $6,840 in 2026-27, $7,248 in 2027-28 and $7,682 in 2028-29.
Tuition would total $34,304 over five years, up about 20% from the total students would pay if tuition remained the same as the current school year.
Cathie Anderson covers health care for The Bee. Growing up, her blue-collar parents paid out of pocket for care. She joined The Bee in 2002, with roles including business columnist and features editor. She previously worked at newspapers including the Dallas Morning News, Detroit News and Austin American-Statesman.
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