Cal State Raises Fees

KCBS Radio, 3/14/07

Students of the California State University system will pay ten percent more in fees starting this fall.

Meeting in Long Beach, the university trustees voted today to increase undergraduate fees by $252 and graduate fees by $312 per semester. The fee hike includes a provision setting aside $38 million financial aid.

KCBS’ George Harris reports students at the Cal State East Bay campus did not take the news well, many noting how precarious their finances already were.

More than 400,000 students are enrolled in the CSU system, the country’s largest four-year university system.

State Senator Ellen Corbett joined the students in protesting the fees. “I will be one of the loud voices fighting to see whether we can turn that decision around and do what we can to help these students.”

Regents of the University of California system are also considering a seven percent fee increase today that would add $435 onto the bills for students in all undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs.

Both fee increases are part of a long-term budget pact the two systems struck earlier with Governor Schwarzenegger. Fees did not go up last year, thanks largely to a state budget surplus.