CSU’s Upcoming Tuition Increases Spark Controversy
April 18, 2024
Students and faculty gathered for a protest against the tuition increase in Long Beach, CA. Photo courtesy of CalMatters.
As the cost of higher education continues to climb, California State University students face new tuition increases starting in the 2024-25 academic year, raising concerns over accessibility and affordability.
The CSU Board of Trustees approved the systemwide multi-year tuition increase on Sept. 13, 2023, at its meeting in Long Beach. The CSU tuition proposal outlined that annual tuition for undergraduates will increase by 6% each year for the next five academic years.
In the upcoming 2024-25 academic year, full-time undergraduate students’ tuition will cost $6,084, a $342 increase from the previous year. By the 2028-29 academic year, when the tuition increase period is outlined to end, tuition will cost $7,682. This is a 34% compounded increase amounting to a total of $1,940.
The CSU system is currently facing a $1.5 billion gap in funding according to CSU’s financial report released last May. The system is only receiving enough funding to cover 86% of its overall operating cost of $8.1 billion, and this gap does not include the additional $5.8 billion deferred construction and maintenance backlog. The report predicts that this gap in funding will continue to increase if no action is taken.
“We have the fiduciary responsibility to save this institution,” said Jean Picker Firstenberg, a CSU trustee, during the September board of trustees meeting. “We cannot survive unless we take action. No one wants to do this, but it is our responsibility.”
The vote of 15-5 to approve the tuition increase resulted after hours of debate from CSU students, trustees and university officials from all over California. While some members of the board emphasized the need to narrow the $1.5 billion gap in funding, numerous students and faculty members strongly opposed the increase, arguing that it goes against the best interest of the students.
The designated time for public comments during the plenary meeting was extended to more than two hours to give students a chance to voice their opinions on the tuition increase. Student representatives from nearly every CSU campus attended the meeting, many of whom expressed their frustration and disappointment with the proposal and the actions of the board.
“It's crystal clear that you have absolutely no regard for the struggles we face and the sacrifices we make to pursue an education in this system. Your actions reek of privilege and indifference,” said Cole Mitchell, a San Jose State University student, during the meeting.
Student speakers at the meeting emphasized the salaries of administrators, stating their concerns over how the CSU handles its budget. Dr. Mildred García, the newly appointed chancellor, is set to receive an annual salary of $795,000 with an additional annual housing allowance of $96,000, a monthly allowance of $1,000 and an annual deferred compensation of $80,000.
“Your misallocation of funds should not have to break the backs of hardworking students, staff and faculty,” said Lisa Ortega, a student and member of Students for Quality Education at CSU Dominguez Hills. “If you can pay Mildred García a $900,000 salary without increasing tuition, then you can fund our campuses too. Stop the tuition hikes.”
Julia Lopez, a CSU trustee and co-chair of the financial sustainability work group, said that increasing tuition is a difficult but vital decision, and promised that the increase would also come with a “robust, meaningful financial aid program” to mitigate the financial impact on students.
The tuition proposal states that the increase will not impact the 60% of students who receive full coverage for their tuition in the form of financial aid. The State University Grant program that helps to cover tuition costs for low-income students will expand in accordance with the tuition increase. Other forms of financial aid that come from state funding, such as the Cal Grant, may or may not increase, the proposal stated.
Students and board members alike raised concerns about the potential negative impact on the 40% of students who do not have their tuition covered by financial aid.
“We are talking about 184,000 students who are going to have a $2,000 a year increase by the time this is implemented in five years, and we have done no work, no studying, no data collection of what that increase is going to mean to our student body,” said Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, another CSU trustee. “We know anecdotally that a lot of students are going to drop out.”
Luke Rossi, a first-generation and low-income student at San Diego State University, is in that 40% of students. He said that he fears that he will have to drop out as a result of the increase because he won’t be able to afford it.
“I’m barely making enough money to support myself and pay my tuition as is, and that’s with working two jobs and with my student loans,” said Rossi.
The California Faculty Association also spoke out in opposition to the tuition increase. Although part of the profit from the increase is set to be invested into faculty and staff through raising salaries and improving benefits–something that the CFA has been asking for–the CFA released a statement saying that CSU management was misusing funds.
The statement said that the CSU’s budget mismanagement was the root of the issue and that the tuition increase would only make the CSU less diverse and lead to decreased graduation rates.
“This misguided and ill-informed idea will price out current and potential students – especially those who identify as Black, brown, immigrant, low-income, and/or first-generation college students,” the report states. “Public higher education shouldn’t be a debt sentence.”
Rizzhel Javier, a lecturer at SDSU, said she doubted the tuition increase would actually benefit students or faculty. She explained that when she was a student at SDSU 13 years ago, her needs as a student weren’t being met. Based on the feedback she receives from her students now, the needs of the students still aren’t being met, even with tuition at a much higher price than it was when she was a student.
“There's just too big of a separation between the people who make all the decisions and the students and staff that those decisions impact,” said Javier. “They can’t claim that this increase won’t hurt the students if they don’t really know what’s going on at the bottom of their system.”
Despite being met with pushback from students and faculty, the CSU Board of Trustees ultimately passed the tuition increase proposal. Members of the board sympathized with students but argued that there wasn’t another viable solution to the funding issue at hand.
Trustee Jack McGrory said that without the tuition increase, CSU would be forced to dip into the reserves by about $500 million, around two-thirds of the sum. This leaves the reserves at an amount that equals a ten day operating reserve. CSU’s own policy outlines that the reserves should have at least a three month operating reserve on hand at all times in case of economic uncertainty.
“If we don’t do this, we’ll go through the reserves, and then we’ll start cutting jobs, and faculty, and staff, and cutting courses and diminishing the opportunity that we’ve created for the youth of California to get a quality education,” said McGrory during the September board of trustees meeting.
The tuition increase proposal outlined that the profit from the increase would go towards graduation initiatives, workforce investments, infrastructure needs, operational costs, investment in high-demand instruction in STEM fields, resident enrollment growth and expanding financial aid opportunities.
The proposal also stated that although 42% of CSU students graduate with debt, the average amount of debt that they shoulder is lower than both the state and national average, and will continue to be lower, even with the tuition increase.
Additionally, the increased CSU tuition price of $7,682 is still less expensive than the national average tuition price of $9,349 for in-state students.
CSU officials said that while raising the tuition is not an easy decision, nor will it completely solve the funding gap issues, it is a vital first step toward financial sustainability.
The baseline operating budget of the CSU is $8.1 billion, with $5 billion in state general fund and $3.1 billion in revenue from tuition and fees. The 2024-25 operating budget plan will increase this budget by $557 million.
The tuition increase amounts to $148 million of that budget increase, which is about 1.8% of the CSU’s operating fund. The other forms of revenue increasing the budget are a state general fund increase of $240 million and an additional request of $145 million from the state operating fund.
“A multi-year tuition proposal and the governor’s multi-year compact funding commitment would provide the greatest level of revenue sustainability and predictability in the university’s history,” the tuition proposal stated.