The California State University system voted yesterday to raise tuition 6% annually , a decision that seemed destined when its leaders revealed in May that Cal State brings in far less revenue than it needs to educate its nearly half a million students.
The system鈥檚 board of trustees voted 15 to 5 to approve the hikes, choosing financial stability over the collective outcry of students and the faculty union that denounced the move.
The Cal State 鈥渋s a dream engine鈥� but approving tuition hikes is a 鈥渘ightmare scenario,鈥� said Cal State trustee Jose Antonio Vargas, who ultimately voted for the increases.
The first increase will kick in for all tuition-paying students next fall. For in-state undergraduates, , rising to $6,084 per year. After five years, annual undergraduate tuition will be than it was in the 2023-24 school year.
Currently, tuition and campus fees at 鈥� and below the national average of .
Cal State is in a race to increase its graduation rates 鈥� especially among Black, Latino and Native American students 鈥� to make good on a promise that all major ethnic groups . That means more faculty, classes, tutors, mental health professionals and other academic expenses. Other expenses include to adopt changes to how the system tracks and resolves sexual discrimination cases after a series of to top officials resigning. published in July faulted Cal State鈥檚 handling of sexual misconduct violations. Also looming over the system is the risk of strikes as workers seek raises Cal State says it cannot afford.
Cal State expects to in the first year of the tuition jump. Core to the plan is that one-third of those revenues will support student financial aid.
Around 60% of Cal State undergrads don鈥檛 pay any tuition because they receive enough state and system financial aid. An additional 18% of students pay partial tuition. Cal State senior staff . Meanwhile, a new state grant is sending .
Those details were scant consolation to the students raging against the increases during yesterday鈥檚 meeting of the Cal State board of trustees. Across roughly 2.5 hours of designated time for public comments, an hour longer than trustees planned, students inveighed against the trustees for proposing the tuition hikes and reprimanded the trustees for slouching and looking at their phones during the students鈥� remarks. Some decried what they called the inherent racism of raising revenue through tuition hikes at a system that A few admonished Cal State for not explaining how the hikes will affect students who pay full tuition. Others bitterly observed that the incoming system chancellor鈥檚 compensation .
鈥淪tudents are supposed to be offered affordable higher education but instead we are slowly being stripped away of our education because the CSU fails to see us as students but instead sees us as their salary increases,鈥� said Cassandra Garcia, the student body president at Sonoma State.
鈥淵ou watch your students sleep in cars from the comfort of your gated communities,鈥� another student from Cal State Dominguez Hills said.
鈥淲e are working numerous jobs just to be able to attend and you want to raise tuition,鈥� said Courtland Briggs, a student from Cal State Channel Islands. 鈥淚t鈥檚 pathetic. Y鈥檃ll are pathetic.鈥�
Shortly after the public comment session Tuesday, Interim Chancellor Jolene Koester tried to quell the nerves of trustees. 鈥淚 know you are uncomfortable and I appreciate your discomfort,鈥� she said. But Koester reiterated her comments in July that it鈥檚 never a good time to raise tuition and expecting students to ever support hikes is 鈥渇antasy.鈥�
Among the trustees opposing the hikes were two prominent California lawmakers and likely gubernatorial hopefuls who sit on the board of trustees: Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, , and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, who鈥檚 been 鈥溾�� jumping into the race.
Kounalakis said the trustees 鈥渉eaded into an action that you do not fully understand the consequences of,鈥� she said today before the vote. Even if 60% of undergraduates don鈥檛 pay tuition, 184,000 students do. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 see how we can do this without knowing what a $2,000 a year increase is going to mean for our students. We know anecdotally that a lot of students are going to drop out.鈥� She wanted to postpone the vote until trustees learned more 鈥� and let the incoming chancellor make the final call.
Trustee Lillian Kimbell pushed back, saying while she doesn鈥檛 know how the hike will affect the students paying tuition, she knows 鈥�100%鈥� of students will experience a worse academic experience without the added revenue.
Twelve of the 20 trustees also shot down an effort by a student member, Diana Aguilar-Cruz, to limit the tuition hikes to four years rather than five. Doing this would have cost the system $126 million in lost revenue, said Koester. Still, the board is empowered to shorten the length of the hikes in the future.
Tuition hikes were on the table since May, when a task force concluded that Cal State needs at least to afford student services and bolster its academic offerings.
鈥淭his is a lot like climate change,鈥� said Julia Lopez, a CSU trustee and co-chairperson of the working group, at the May trustees meeting. 鈥淚f we don鈥檛 heed the warning signs right now, we鈥檙e going to find ourselves in a world of hurt down the line. So that鈥檚 what we鈥檙e trying to do, to get ahead of that.
Daniel Fanous, a third-year business major at CSU Bakersfield, pays full tuition, so the hike will affect him. Fanous said he covers the costs by working a full-time job seven days a week, and with support from his parents.
鈥淚 think that, over time, if they keep increasing it, a lot of people are going to see value elsewhere in life than just getting an education formally,鈥� Fanous said.
Kathryn Flores, a third-year liberal studies major also at CSU Bakersfield, pays for her tuition both out-of-pocket and with student loans.
鈥淚 feel scared about it because I pay for my own college tuition,鈥� she said. 鈥淢y parents don鈥檛 pay for it.鈥�
鈥淚f we don鈥檛 heed the warning signs right now, we鈥檙e going to find ourselves in a world of hurt down the line. So that鈥檚 what we鈥檙e trying to do, to get ahead of that.鈥�JULIA LOPEZ, CSU TRUSTEE AND CO-CHAIRPERSON OF THE WORKING GROUP
The tuition hikes were formally proposed in July and were met with instant opposition from the system鈥檚 faculty union, the California Faculty Association, which represents about half of Cal State鈥檚 roughly 60,000 workers, as well as a student group affiliated with the union.
鈥淐FA opposes student tuition increases,鈥� said Charles Toombs, the union鈥檚 president, at the July trustees meeting. He called on the system to prioritize the state support it already receives and advocate for more state funding. He also reiterated that Cal State should spend more of its money on student instruction and advancement.
The union reiterated its opposition to the hikes this week ahead of the trustees meeting with an email blast that said its members 鈥漸nequivocally oppose the .鈥�
The system鈥檚 academic senate, which represents professors on academic matters, asking the Cal State trustees to delay its tuition-hike vote 鈥渦ntil the impact of such a tuition increase on enrollments and diversity has been analyzed and reported upon.鈥�
The resolution also criticized the trustees for formally discussing the tuition hike for the first time in July, when most students and professors aren鈥檛 in class.
It鈥檚 a point underscored by Dominic Quan Treseler, president of the systemwide Cal State Student Association. 鈥淵ou cannot tell me we wouldn鈥檛 have had twice as many protesters outside of those doors If this was not presented three weeks after school started,鈥� he said during remarks to the board Tuesday.
While about 42% of undergraduates borrow to attend Cal State, a new report co-sponsored by the student association finds that almost two-thirds of those students come from families that earn less than $54,000.
Given those figures, Treseler said, the tuition hikes 鈥渨ill continuously suffocate and impede the success of our students and the system.鈥� And because two-thirds of Black students borrow, he added, a tuition increase 鈥渨ill decimate the Black student population across our system.鈥�
He noted that many students who want to avoid borrowing must work more than 20 hours a week to afford college expenses beyond tuition, such as housing, food and transportation. This tuition increase, he said, would require another three to four hours of work per week.
鈥淚 feel scared about it because I pay for my own college tuition. My parents don鈥檛 pay for it.鈥�KATHRYN FLORES, THIRD-YEAR LIBERAL STUDIES MAJOR AT CSU BAKERSFIELD
Treseler also expressed exasperation that student government advocates spent weeks persuading the trustees to change the tuition hike so that it鈥檚 not indefinite 鈥� as originally proposed in July 鈥� to one across five years. And while he has sympathy for the Cal State leaders鈥� obligations to respond to salary demands from its workers, he said the system鈥檚 top consideration should be 鈥渢o offer an accessible and affordable road to success for every Californian.鈥�
But it鈥檚 salaries that are the main expense for the system. is spent on salary and benefits.
The faculty union is in with Cal State over raises to lessen the sting inflation has had on workers鈥� purchasing power. The union wants 12% raises this year. Cal State said it can do that .
Other unions also want raises, but Cal State says it needs to . Money for those salary demands and the student services Cal State says it needs to have more students graduate are in direct competition this academic year, the system wrote. Teamsters Local 2010, a union that represents skilled workers such as electricians and plumbers, plans to ask its members to approve a strike in the coming weeks, its principal leader, Jason Roboniwitz, told CalMatters.
鈥淎nd if they don鈥檛 start getting fair with us, the new chancellor could start her first month on the job with a 60,000-person strike, the biggest labor dispute in CSU history,鈥� he said.
Outside the trustee meeting space yesterday, unionized workers chanted for better wages, at times with a full drum kit. But the system insists its budgets are already strained by its wage-increase promises.
鈥淭he CSU鈥檚 commitment to fair and competitive employee compensation requires budgetary tradeoffs, which could result in nearly all other operating budget priorities receiving only some or none of the new funding in 2023-24,鈥� .
That sentiment was echoed by Interim Chancellor Koester during an , in which she said current new salary commitments for staff and faculty were greater than the $227 million in new money Cal State got from the state budget this year.
鈥淗er fearmongering threats are not only disrespectful towards the faculty and staff who serve the students in the CSU, but it is also disingenuous to claim that the CSU does not have the budget to properly compensate workers,鈥� a September faculty union press release said.
But even with tuition increases that鈥檒l kick in next year, Cal State鈥檚 revenues won鈥檛 be enough to handle all its future costs, system leaders argue. Cal State鈥檚 proposed budget for 2024-25 . About a quarter comes from new tuition hikes and $240 million from additional state funding Gov. Gavin Newsom promised the system as part of a five-year compact. But Cal State wants $145 million on top of that.
All that translates to just $220.7 million to fund 2024-25 compensation increases for all employees, Cal State says. That鈥檚 enough for 4% across-the-board raises for all staff, it says.
Pushed to increase raises beyond what it鈥檚 been offering, Cal State 鈥渨ill have fewer employees and we will have fewer seats for students in our classes,鈥� Koester said Tuesday.
In one scenario, if Cal State agrees to 15% raises over three years, and the tuition hike didn鈥檛 happen, the system would have a half-billion-dollar budget hole. The new tuition revenue would still mean a deficit of $322 million, said Ryan Storm, a senior budget staffer for the system, today. Again, layoffs would be likely, he added.
The faculty union also points to the system鈥檚 reserves as another source of money. Is there money in the piggy bank? Cal State says no. The system reports having $2.5 billion overall in reserves and short-term investments and just 鈥� money it squirrels away by spending less than it collects from tuition and state revenue. But system policy requires Cal State to maintain reserves equal to at least three months of its operating budget. The reserves it has now equals just .
鈥淲e haven鈥檛 solved the problem鈥� of insufficient revenue with the tuition increases, said Steve Relyea, chief financial officer for Cal State, at a press event last week. 鈥淲hat we鈥檝e done is narrowed the problem.鈥�
Haydee Barahona, a fellow with the CalMatters College Journalism Network, contributed reporting for this story.
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