Students attending California State Universities will be paying even more money per semester after the CSU Board of Trustees, on Wednesday, approved an 8 percent fee increase for undergraduate students and a ten percent fee increase for graduate students for the 2006-07 academic school year.

Faculty and students of the 23 CSU campuses, as well as members of the California Faculty Association, attended the meeting held at the Chancellor’s Office in Long Beach, Ca. Before the voting began, the board gave students and faculty members an opportunity to express their opinions on the matter.

“I argued that the fee increases are unnecessary and unfair,” said John Travis, president of the CFA. “The CSU system is set up for students that come from middle or working class families. If the fees keep going up, a lot of these students will not be able to afford to go to state universities.”

The reactions of students around campus reflected Travis’ opinion.

“It almost seems like they are trying to keep students out of CSU’s,” said 22-year-old psychology major Chris Gavidia. “State universities are supposed to provide affordable education for students and by raising fees they are doing the exact opposite.”

Junior business major Heidi Hapin said that the fee increases will only make it harder for her to pay her student loans, which are already piling up.
“I don’t know where I am going to get the money to pay for all these fee increases,” she said. “I’m a single mom, trying to afford rent and now knowing that I’m going to pay more for school is discouraging.”

The CSU website states that even though fees are going up, “the CSU system is still the least costly university among its comparable institutions.” One SF State student agreed with the argument.

“I have no choice but to pay the extra money,” explained political science major Mike Hroshau. “To tell you the truth, I can’t say that I mind. Nowhere else in the U.S will I be able to get this kind of education for the price I’m paying.”

The fee increases stem from a compact made three years ago by the governor and the CSU. The Compact cut $240 million from the CSU budget. In exchange for the cuts the governor promised to gradually inject more revenue into the CSU each year. This past July, the CSU general fund increased by $134 million dollars. A lot of the money was used to meet the new freshmen enrollment target as well as raising faculty salaries.

According to an agenda posted by the committee of finance at the Chancellor’s Office, the Compact also proposed the fee increases in order to generate $79.5 million and in turn increase the CSU budget support by $235.5 million.

Despite this additional revenue, Travis said that students could expect to keep paying more money in years to come.

“Under the Compact, fees at CSU’s will most likely increase for the next three to five years,” Travis said. “And that’s really too bad for the students.”

One other thing that Travis said he is upset by is that the presidents of the different CSU campuses and employees at the Chancellor’s office are set to get salary raises.

“While students are having to pay higher fees, the administration are getting raises,” Travis related. “I don’t understand how they can do that.”

Something that students could consider to be a brighter note is that some of the money that will be generated by the fee increase is planned to be set aside for financial aid. Students also dodged another potential bullet at Wednesday’s meeting where there was talk about raising fees by 10 percent each year for the next five years.

The proposition was declined—at least for now.