Going to school, doing homework, taking care of her 2-year-old son and worrying about rent is stressful enough for public relations senior Erika Sandoval.
To top it all, she just found out that she might have to pay even more for her education, starting this fall.
California State University's governing board approved a 10 percent student fee increase during a May 14 vote in Long Beach. It is the sixth fee increase in seven years.
Undergraduates can expect to pay $276 more in student fees next school year, which increases the average CSU student fee to $3,797 for one academic year, said public affairs communications specialist for the CSU Office of the Chancellor Teresa Ruiz. Graduate students will pay a total of $342 in additional fees, which raises their annual average to $4,505 for campus fees at CSU schools.
Vice President of External Affairs Daniel Osztreicher said that for every dollar that the state of California puts into the CSU system, this investment produces a $4.41 economic output on that dollar.
"With a return like that, why would they not want to invest in us?" Osztreicher said. "The new student fee increase is only going to make it harder for students to go to school."
Approximately 143,475 students in the lower income bracket will receive financial aid to offset the fee increase, which means that they may not be impacted by the change in tuition, Ruiz said.
Sandoval said that because her internship does not pay her very much, she does receive financial aid, but she isn't sure if she will qualify as one of the students who will receive the offset of fees.
"I don't know; I'll probably end up on welfare before I can graduate," Sandoval said.
"About 75 percent of all financially needy students will receive the fee offset," Ruiz said. One-third of the revenue from the fee increase, which is about $36 million, will cover the increase for those students receiving the highest level of financial aid.
"This increase is a direct result of our budget being cut," Ruiz said in an e-mail to The Daily Aztec.
During an interview with Chancellor Charles B. Reed conducted by the CSU system on April 8, Reed addressed the impact of the state budget crisis and the fact that the CSU system faces a $386 million budget loss.
Reed said that effective March 1, CSUs will be turning away more than 10,000 incoming students.
"We can't take more students than we can serve because it's not just offering classes and sections; you have to provide student services, you have to provide counseling, you have to provide access to these students to the library and to the laboratories and things like that," Reed said. "So it's important to take care of the students that you have."
Despite the new student fee increase, the CSU system will still face about a $300 million budget cut, Reed said. Another effect of these budget cuts is that fewer sections may be offered, which may force students to take a longer time to graduate. Sandoval said her graduation time has already been delayed because of the lack of classes available. She said that although she is making financial sacrifices right now, she feels confident that her education will be beneficial in the long run.
"I know that if I finish my degree, I will get a higher paying job and have a better future for me and my son," Sandoval said. The CSU Board of Trustees approved the increase in annual student fees in a 15-3 vote in order to absorb the state budget cuts.
"The state of California is not doing its part to support higher education," Reed said during the April 8 interview conducted by CSU.
Despite the increase, CSU fees remain among the lowest in the country.
Be the first to comment on this article!