The CSU requests $16.8 million to increase State University
Grant (SUG) program expenditures related to the
aforementioned strategic resident enrollment growth of 2.5
percent.
In the final days of the first year of the 2021-22 two-year
legislative session, the state’s Middle Class Scholarship
(MCS) program was substantively changed in state law
that significantly altered the requirements for the CSU to
participate in the program. The law requires the CSU to
ensure that the amount of institutional aid provided each
academic year be adjusted annually to account for increases
in systemwide undergraduate enrollment, such that the
proportion of SUG, relative to undergraduate enrollment,
is maintained at levels equal to those during the 2021-22
academic year. In other words, when CSU enrollment grows,
SUG program expenditures are now required to grow as well.
Practically, this means that for every three new students
above current levels, one of the new students will cost the
CSU an additional $4,825 (the mean SUG award) because state
law now requires the CSU to increase SUG expenditures with
enrollment growth.