Cal State trustees to consider multiyear 6% tuition increase

Students, faculty and staff protest a potential tuition increase across the California State University system.

Credit: Michael Lee-Chang / Students for Quality Education

California State University students could see tuition increases of 6% each year if the board of trustees approves the new plan in September. 

In May, the nation’s largest public university system received a financial report that it would need to increase tuition if it wanted a more sustainable system. The confluence of higher wage demands, delayed building repairs and growing expenses has put significant financial pressure on the 23-campus system. 

Under the tuition proposal, undergraduate and graduate students would see annual rate increases starting in the fall of 2024. The first increase would be $342 for full-time undergraduate students. Trustees on Tuesday were given a breakdown of proposed tuition over the next five years. A full vote is expected in September although students have already begun protests against the increases.

In proposing the tuition increases, interim Chancellor Jolene Koester said in her 40 years of working with the CSU, “there has never been a time when we looked at a tuition increase and we have not heard, ‘This is not the time. This is a bad time.’” 

But raising tuition right now is a necessity, she said. “So the time is now.” 

The proposal is expected to generate $840 million within the first five years, of which $280 million would go to CSU’s State University Grant program for financial aid to support low-income students. The board would review the tuition rate schedule every five years, under the proposal. The system is currently facing a $1.5 billion funding gap. 

Students, faculty and staff said during Tuesday’s meeting that they were against the tuition increase and urged Cal State to reallocate its existing funds or use its reserves to increase compensation for employees and balance the system’s budget. 

“Proposing a 6% increase in our view is staggering, disproportionate and will burden students, many of whom are still grappling with the aftermath of the pandemic and the rising cost of living,” Dominic Treseler, president of the Cal State Student Association, told the trustees. “Students should not bear the inequitable burden of addressing revenue shortfalls for the system, especially when the proposal does not clearly articulate how the system will work to generate other revenue sources.” 

Officials told the trustees that the tuition increase would not affect 60% of undergraduate students because their tuition is covered by grants, scholarships and waivers. Eighty-one percent of undergraduate students receive some form of financial aid.

Koester said that although she is pleased that the Legislature and the governor’s office agreed to uphold a multiyear funding compact made with the CSU that will give the system a 5% general fund increase, as well as additional funding to student basic needs and mental health support, the money is not enough. 

“This budget helps,” Koester said, of the state funding. “But this system of higher education and its 23 universities continues to face significant fiscal challenges that are unsustainable in the long run.” 

Koester said CSU does not have a sufficient amount of money to fairly compensate its faculty and staff, provide safe and modern facilities, strengthen its culture of care and compliance and provide quality education. The system, which is short $1.5 billion in covering all programs, has already asked the campus presidents to make cuts on their campuses so they can meet current obligations such as salaries, she said. 

“This budget simply does not come close to bridging, to closing, to eliminating, to reducing the gap that exists between our revenues and our expenditures,” she said. “Any conversation about tuition is fraught.”

Since 2011, tuition at CSU has only increased once, by 5% in 2017 to $5,742. 

Faculty and staff groups also opposed the tuition increase, even as they continue to fight for increased compensation and have threatened to strike. A faculty salary study released in May showed systemwide dissatisfaction with CSU pay. A staff salary study released last year showed CSU underpays its nonfaculty employees. Multiple unions representing CSU employees have threatened to strike if compensation demands aren’t met, including student workers and teaching assistants.

“Today the majority of CSU students are Black, brown, other students of color, marginalized and underrepresented. This is not the time for these students to carry the financial burden of the CSU,” California Faculty Association President Charles Toombs said. “The CSU should use its budget, the budget it receives from the state for direct student instruction and student advancement, not for pet projects and not for continued expansion of administrative bloat and endless administrative positions at the chancellor’s office.” 

Toombs is referring in part to the board’s decision last year to give at least 7% salary increases to the system’s presidents.