CSU's 10% fee increase is approved
Press-Telegram 3/15/07
All but one of the trustees present at the meeting supported raising fees for undergraduate students by $252 per year and for graduate students by $312 per year.
After the increase, the basic university fee for undergraduates will be $2,772 per year. Graduate students will pay $3,414.
In addition to the basic university fee, students pay campus-based fees, averaging $679.
About $38 million in fee revenue will be set aside for financial aid to the neediest students. About 115,000 out of the 417,000 CSU students will receive financial aid to cover their fees and will not pay the fee increase, officials said.
The fee increase is necessary to "sustain an outstanding university system," said Board of Trustees chair Roberta Achtenberg.
"We need those resources, unfortunately," she said. "I don't disagree that the state should be providing a greater level of funding, but currently they are not."
Achtenberg said the fee increase is needed in part to pay for the costs of an ongoing effort to raise employee salaries to market rates in order to remain competitive.
The CSU system and the California Faculty Association - the faculty union - are in a bargaining stalemate for a new contract, with salary issues being a major point of contention.
The labor dispute resulted this month in CFA members' participation in the union's first strike authorization vote.
CFA president John Travis disputed the idea that a fee increase was needed to provide an adequate faculty salary increase, saying that the university could find the resources elsewhere.
"We don't think (the fee increase) is necessary," said Travis, a professor at Humboldt State University. "We've been commenting a lot over the past several months about the ability of the CSU and the individual campuses to find resources when they want to."
Both sides are awaiting the release of a final version of an independent fact-finder's report this week, after which the parties will have 10 days to come to an agreement.
If after 10 days the two parties have not reached a contract agreement or mutually decided to continue talks, the union could begin job actions.
If the state provides additional general fund revenue to the CSU beyond that laid out in the governor's proposed budget unveiled in January, the Board of Trustees would reduce or eliminate the fee hike, depending on the amount of new money received.
An additional $65.2 million of state general fund revenue would be required to eliminate the fee increase.
Students at the meeting told trustees that the fee increase would be unfair and burdensome.
Alma Carlson, a senior at Cal State Long Beach, told trustees that she has seen class sizes increase at the campus, harming her education and straining professors.
"Basically, it is completely unfair and dishonorable to increase our tuition but provide low-quality education at the same time," said Carlson, a music and communications major.
Carlson, who plans to move on to graduate school in communications, said she receives financial aid but not enough to cover the full cost of her education.
She said she works as a studio musician, tutor and private music instructor to support her schooling, and she may have to add another job to help pay for the fee increase approved Wednesday.
In certain cases, class sizes have increased at CSULB this year because the university enrolled 700 more full-time-equivalent students than the university was funded for, said David Dowell, CSULB vice provost.
In addition to the basic university fee increases, CSU students have had to contend with the rising cost-of-living and higher textbook prices, registration fees and parking fees, said Payam Shahfari, a student at Cal State Fullerton.
"These costs have caused the loss of students who come from working-class families who can't afford the fee increases," he said.
The trustees on Wednesday also approved plans for a new dining facility at Cal State Long Beach. The $5-million project entails demolishing the existing CSULB Outpost food services building and replacing it with a larger facility.
And the trustees approved the compensation package for interim Cal State Dominguez Hills president Boice Bowman, who will be paid an annual salary of $200,000 and a $5,000 monthly housing allowance.