Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger received rousing applause during his State of the State address on Tuesday when he called for a 10 percent cap on tuition increases at public colleges.

The reaction was more measured Wednesday from higher education officials and students, who say they want to see more details on such a plan.

"I think it's definitely a very good thing," said Peter Tadao Gee, a third-year student at University of California, Berkeley. "But there's a difference between good speaking points and theory, and also being able to put it into practice."

The idea of a cap could be intriguing to families and students who have seen tuition climb 40 percent in the last two years at California State University and University of California campuses. University officials said the increases -- the first in eight years -- were forced by deep state cuts to university budgets.

Fees at community colleges -- which are set by the state Legislature -- jumped 64 percent, from $11 per unit to $18. Most classes are three or four units.

"We must end the boom-and-bust cycle of widely fluctuating fees with a predictable, capped fee policy for college students and their parents," Schwarzenegger said. "And we must limit fee increases to no more than 10 percent a year."

College officials said it's hard to read too much into two sentences in a political speech, and they await more details on the governor's specific proposal when he releases his draft budget on Friday.

The governor's proposal will likely call for another fee increase at the state's public colleges, a state budget official said Wednesday, and officials -- and students -- are anxiously awaiting details on how much the hike will be.

Community college officials are more wary than most, pointing to a Monday article in The Los Angeles Times indicating the governor's budget proposal will include an additional hike that would take fees to $26 per unit -- a 44 percent increase, far beyond the 10 percent cap Schwarzenegger talked about Tuesday.

Colleges and policy experts have long called for a statewide policy that would set guidelines for moderate and predictable fee increases.

Steve Boilard, director of the higher education section of the state Legislative Analyst Office, said Schwarzenegger's talk of a cap is progress toward that goal, but not necessarily the entire answer.

"Any effort to dampen those wild fluctuations in fees would be a good thing because it leads to more predictability so people can plan," he said. "But the second question is what should be the basis for the current fees? ... Just to basically use the current fee level as your base and restrict changes from that point doesn't address the issue of what is an appropriate level for fees."

Even with the recent increases, tuition at California's public colleges remains among the cheapest in the nation. The state subsidizes most of the cost of educating California's public college students.

Still, such news is small comfort to families struggling with the increases. CSU's annual base tuition is $2,409, up from $1,572 two years ago, and UC fees are $4,984 annually, up from $3,429 two years ago.

CSU generally supports the idea of a cap, said system spokeswoman Clara Potes-Fellow.

"We don't know if 10 percent would be the exact amount, and we would like to have some flexibility in the amount, but the concept of a more predictable fee is something we welcome and something we've been advocating for several years," Potes-Fellow said.

Brad Hayward, UC's spokesman on budget issues, said the system's governing Board of Regents has also been pushing for a fee policy, but officials are waiting for more details from Schwarzenegger to determine what a cap would mean, especially in light of other budget cuts UC expects to receive from the state.

"It's very important that any policy like that explicitly take into account the overall amount of funding the state is providing to higher education," Hayward said. "If you have a policy in which fee increases are set by some formula or constrained by some limit, and at the same time the state hypothetically is disinvesting in higher education in a big way, that could be a big problem for the university's ability to continue admitting students and providing them with a quality education."

Students, too, have some reservations about a cap.

"Honestly, what's going to stop them from taking (increases) to 10 percent every year?" said UC Davis student Elizabeth Burrell, a board member of the UC Student Association. "It seems to me it's like a railroad that's not going to stop until the public universities are (as expensive as) the private universities."

"It's good, but there are a lot of red flags to it," agreed Jose Solache, chairman of the California State Student Association, which represents CSU students. "Does it give them the leeway to do that every year and where are they going to stop?"

Officials also need more details to know how a cap would be implemented. CSU and UC governing boards set their own fee policy, although community college fees are set by the Legislature.

Joni Finney, executive director of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education in San Jose, said details of the plan would likely be worked out during budget negotiations.

"The way I think this would work is he would say to them, if you raise your fees more than 10 percent, I'm going to cut your budget," Finney said.

"People are beginning to take notice that this is really beginning to hurt students and families," Finney said. "I think we're going to see more and more policy leadership on keeping tuition down, and that won't happen absent political leadership."