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May 14, 2008 10:27 am US/Pacific
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Higher CSU Fees Approved For Fall
LONG BEACH (AP) ―
The cost of attending a California State University is going up again in the fall following a decision by the 23-campus system's governing board Wednesday to authorize a 10-percent student fee hike.
Cal State's Board of Trustees voted 15-3 to raise yearly undergraduate tuition by $276. The increase means that undergraduates will pay an average of $3,797 next year -- twice as much as what a CSU school cost in the fall of 2000.
The 23-campus system is under orders from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to reduce campus spending to help make up a multibillion dollar state budget deficit. Several trustees said that with the system facing a $312 million shortfall, they had to ask students and their families to shoulder some of the burden.
"We are doing everything we can to persuade the governor and the Legislature that additional funding for the CSU ought to be viewed as an investment, not an expense," said Trustee William Hauck. "We are going to continue to fight that fight, but as of today, we are left with not much in the way of alternatives."
CSU administrators said that up to one-third of the $110 million the higher fees bring in would go toward boosting financial aid to offset the potential impact on low-income students.
Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, who unsuccessfully urged fellow trustees to keep fees at their current levels next year and tying future fee hikes to the rate of inflation, said the financial aid set-aside only concealed the growing "privatization" of the state's public universities.
"What we are doing here is substituting a general tax on the population of California for a tax on students," said Garamendi, speaking at the trustees meeting in Long Beach. "Relying on student taxes puts us on the wrong path, and it is a slippery slope we have been sliding on for 20 years."
With 450,000 students, CSU is the nation's largest four-year college system. In anticipation of state budget cuts, it for the first time cut off freshmen applications, which resulted in about 10,000 students not being admitted, according to Chancellor Charles Reed.
University of California leaders also were scheduled to consider raising student fees on Wednesday.
UC administrators are recommending a 6.6 percent increase that would bring the average annual cost for undergraduates to $8,007 for the 2008-09 academic year, $496 more than this year and more than double what they would have paid at the start of the decade.
If approved by the Board of Regents, it would be the sixth fee hike imposed on UC students in the last seven years.
Also Wednesday, a regents' committee gave preliminary approval to the system's newest campus in Merced to explore establishing a medical school to train doctors to work in the underserved San Joaquin Valley.
UC Merced hopes to come back with a complete management and curriculum plan by the end of 2009 and have the school enrolling its first class in the fall of 2013.
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)