SDSU hikes tuition 10 percent

Imperial Valley Press 3/16/07

By Jonathan Dale

CALEXICO — Celia Sanchez and Stephani Perez could only shake their heads as they were told of the new tuition increase set to hit the San Diego State University-Imperial Valley campus students this fall.

“That sucks,” Sanchez said. “We’re full-time students and we don’t have the time to work” to pay for school.

The two 18-year-old Brawley Union High graduates — who are in their freshman year studying criminal justice at SDSU-IV — agree that because of their full load of classes, it will be hard for them to handle the extra $250 they will be paying each year to attend the school.

“I don’t like it,” Perez said. “We already have a lot of assignments and tests and research papers, so there’s no time to work.”

California State University officials made the announcement Wednesday that tuition across its 23 CSU campuses would be raised by 10 percent beginning with the fall term. University of California schools will see a 7 percent fee hike.

Rather than pay $1,327 a semester to attend SDSU-IV, college students will have to fork over nearly $3,000 per year to continue their studies in Calexico and Brawley.

“We certainly don’t want students’ costs to go up,” said SDSU-IV Dean Stephen Roeder. “But whenever the cost of everything else goes up — the cost of gasoline, the cost of power — somehow the university system has to pay for it.

“It’s still remarkably low here,” Roeder said. “I think we’re a really high-quality education for a low price.”

Still, nothing short of financial aid will be able to alleviate the new price increase of tuition at SDSU-IV, which means students will have to be more frugal than ever with their money.

“Some students that have their own place have bills to pay,” Sanchez said. “A lot of us just don’t have the time to work.”