As previously reported, CSU trustees recently approved a 12% tuition hike in order to close the budget gap created by $650 million in state funding cuts. Unsurprisingly, the backlash against that increase has been fast and furious.
The increase is predicted to generate $150 million for the CSU system. Other plans to close the budget gap include reducing enrollment, which will reduce campus budgets by a combined $281 million, as well as cutbacks and an additional 10% tuition hike approved in November.
Such an increase burdens students with a tuition that’s 23.2% more than it was last year, or twice as much as in 2007, as the Chron reports.
In a move that shocked many, CSU actually sent out a news release announcing the increase hours before the actual vote took place. The increase was framed as “inevitable” and for the good of the students, yet many point out that the CSU Board of Trustees continue to bump up salaries of their own, including paying SDSU’s newest president about $100,000 more than his predecessor. SDSU President Elliot Hirshman stands to make $400,000, as recently approved by trustees.
This struck a dissonant chord with several state officials — as CBS5 reports, Senator Ted Lieu, State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, and Governor Jerry Brown strongly opposed the raises officials are getting.
In a letter Lieu sent to the board, he said that the decision “shows that they care more right now about lavish salaries than they do about students or faculty.” Lieu is proposing a salary cap on CSU administrative salaries.
Says State Treasurer Bill Lockyer on the subject of ever-rising CSU salaries, “It’s puzzling, particularly when there are tuition increases and other cuts and layoffs.”
CSU isn’t the only college system set to up fees – as ABC7 reports, the UC Board of Regents are expected to vote on tuition hikes today.
The latest tuition increase proposal would cause tuition to rise by $1,000 for UC students. Tuition and fees stand to be $13,000 for undergraduate students entering the UC system this year.
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