CAL POLY - Cal Poly undergraduate students will pay $158 more in quarterly tuition starting this fall, yielding to their third fee hike in the past 15 months.

California State University trustees approved 30 percent fee hikes for Cal Poly and the system's 22 other campuses Wednesday to help offset cuts proposed by the governor and state Legislature for 2003-04. The tuition increase is the largest, based on dollar amount, in the CSU's four decades of existence.

"The funding of higher education in California is a partnership between students and the state," said Larry Kelley, Poly's vice president of administration and finance. "The state is not able to hold up its share at the moment. ... To ensure classes can be offered and services be offered, revenues are needed."

Nearly all full-time undergraduate students at Cal Poly will pay $1,171 per quarter -- an increase of $450 from what they paid during the 2001-02 school year. That's an increase of more than 60 percent.

No extra services will be added with the new fee hike -- it will simply replace some of the $261 million that the governor has proposed to cut out of the CSU's $2.6 billion general fund budget. The cuts come as the state faces a $38 billion budget shortfall.

One-third of the new fee revenue will go toward financial aid programs.

Graduate fees will also jump by 30 percent, or $174 per quarter.

At the trustees' meeting in Long Beach on Wednesday, Sonoma State President Ruben Armiñana said the increase amounted to just about $1.30 a day.

"It's the cost of a Coke or Pepsi or cup of coffee a day," he said.

"Consider the value of a college degree, and it's about $1 million over a career."

Dozens of students and CSU employees told trustees that they shouldn't increase fees just because of the administration's poor management of funds.

Adam Mednick was one of at least six Cal Poly students who attended the meeting and spoke out against the hike. Mednick, a physics and electrical engineering senior, later addressed the board and responded to Armiñana's comment.

"I don't know about you, but I need that cup of coffee in the morning," Mednick said. "... Please protect the current quality of education."

After trustees approved the fee hike in an 11-2 vote, almost 50 audience members stormed out of the meeting, chanting "Layoffs, fees, we've got to fight back."

CSU administrators argued that their university system -- the nation's largest with more than 400,000 students -- has some of the lowest fees in the United States.

According to a College Board analysis, average 2002-03 tuition and fees at public universities was $4,081. Cal Poly students last school year paid just less than $3,000. But critics say this data does not reflect California's high cost-of-living when compared to other states.

Comparison data was not available for 2003-04 tuition.

Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante said in a statement that increasing tuition will make the state's universities less affordable and accessible.

The increases "will result in thousands of students leaving school at a time when the job market cannot absorb their numbers," Bustamante said.

To cope with the budget cuts, the CSU has eliminated or frozen 2,300 of its 45,000 jobs in the past 14 months and expects further reductions this school year. It will also cut enrollment growth by 2 percent.

CSU trustees approved a $48-per-quarter increase in December to help soften a $60 million mid-year budget shortfall.

In spring 2002, before the state budget crisis hit full bore, Cal Poly administrators proposed a $125 to $200 campus fee hike to upgrade equipment, hire more teachers and improve classrooms.

A majority of students agreed with the plan and voted to start paying the new fees in fall 2002. Students in the College of Liberal Arts agreed to pay $125 a quarter, while the other five undergraduate colleges decided on $200.

A University of California committee on Wednesday also voted in favor of raising fees 25 percent and giving the system's president the option to go 5 percent higher if needed. The 25 percent increase, which is expected to be approved by the full board today, would bring tuition to about $4,794 per year at the nine campuses.