CSU-Monterey Bay's mission to educate low-income students will become harder next year now that the California State University system has raised its fees 30 percent.

Trustees of CSU, the nation's largest public university system with 23 campuses and more than 400,000 students, raised the fees at a meeting Wednesday in Long Beach. The vote was final.

The same day, University of California regents, meeting in San Francisco, recommended raising UC fees by 25 percent, giving the system president the option to go 5 percent higher if needed. At UC, the vote came in committee and was expected to be approved by the full board today.

The increases, meant to compensate for expected deep cuts in state funding, came over the strong objection of some board members and students.

''This is not fair,'' said Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, a UC regent. ''In tough economic times, college should be more affordable, not less.''

The increase means full-time CSUMB undergraduates will pay $2,470 in tuition and fees this coming school year, up from $1,925 last year.

Those CSUMB costs are a little below the new CSU system average of $2,500 for undergraduates. They do not include room and board.

Graduate students will pay $2,681 a year, up from $2,141 last year.

The CSU increase, passed on an 11-2 vote by the Board of Trustees, was the second this year following a January hike of 10 percent for undergraduates and 15 percent for graduate students.

Melvin De Castro, a 21-year-old senior at CSUMB, said the increase "hits my family hard, because all three kids are in college. It's a couple hundred dollars that we don't have."

De Castro is working full time at CSUMB this summer as a technical support person. He'll continue to work in the fall, when he'll take a full load of classes. He said he's putting his earnings toward tuition but still expects to owe more than $7,000 in student loans by the time he graduates next year.

"It's really tough," he said, "My parents told me to bulk up and do what I can to help the family. Each night I come home at 9 p.m. I don't have a social life anymore."

Close to 70 percent of CSUMB students are on some form of financial aid, including grants, scholarships, work study and loans. Around 10 percent of students work on campus.

CSU undergraduate fees have nearly doubled since about 1990, but during the economic boom of the mid- and late 1990s they remained stable or fell.

Leaders of both the CSU and UC systems said the fees were unavoidable because of sharp cuts in state funding brought on by California's $38 billion deficit.

CSU is anticipating more than $300 million in cutbacks to its $2.6 billion budget in the current year, and CSUMB expects its share to be at least $5.3 million.

One CSU plan would eliminate 2,300 jobs that had been frozen or left vacant, mostly administrative positions. CSUMB has 22 positions that are frozen or vacant, officials there said.

CSU may have to curb the growth of its campuses next spring -- an unfortunate first for a system that has tried to make education accessible to all state students who qualify, regardless of income.

That's especially tough for CSUMB, which has made that mission its focus. Public information officer Holly White said the university next spring might have to turn away 35 to 40 students it would normally accept. CSUMB normally admits 1,200 new students a year.

Those figures could look worse if the state budget outlook darkens.

The UC system is in similar straits. Its committee vote recommended raising in-state student fees to about $4,794 a year, with an additional 5 percent possible. The committee also approved raising fees 25 percent for graduate students at a number of professional schools, again authorizing an extra 5 percent if necessary, and also increased fees and tuition for out-of-state students.

It expects cuts of at least $380 million to its state-funded budget of about $3 billion, and some proposals in the Legislature would cut up to $400 million more.

It's considering borrowing $50 million, and could curb enrollment growth in fall 2004.

''I think we are facing a crisis,'' said UC Regent Sherry Lansing. ''I don't know of any alternative... except to support this fee reluctantly.''

''We share your frustration,'' CSU trustee William Hauck told his audience.

Officials at UC, which has nine campuses and about 200,000 students, say financial aid will cover the increases for poor students and note that even with the increase, UC fees are still more than $1,200 below the average charged at comparable universities.

Bustamante took issue with that, saying UC is not a bargain compared to other schools, when room and board costs are taken into account. He pointed out that UC also raised fees in the spring.

UC has not raised fees for several years under an agreement where the Legislature provides extra money to absorb rising costs. That money was not available this year, leading to the sudden hikes. Several regents said they would prefer a different system, in which fee increases are made gradually, rather than going up sharply at a time when students and their parents can least afford it.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.