Cal State trustees approve 20% fee hike

As several hundred students shouted “Vote no!” outside the chamber door, California State University trustees Tuesday approved a student fee hike of 20% and agreed to furlough most faculty and staff, including college presidents, for two days each month.

The fee increase, a response to what board Chairman Jeffrey Bleich described as a fiscal “tsunami” powered by the state’s dire budget cuts, will bring average annual statewide charges for Cal State undergraduates to $4,026 a year, not including room, board, books and separate fees charged by each campus.

Chancellor Charles Reed warned of mass layoffs if Cal State faculty members, who are voting on the furlough plan, refuse to go along. Spokeswoman Claudia Keith also said that if the proposal was rejected, thousands of part-time instructors would be let go, and 22,000 courses, or 15%, could be canceled.

Cal State also plans to cut its 450,000 enrollment by 40,000 students over the next two years, and $183 million more in budget cuts will be borne by individual campuses.

The 23-campus university system, the nation’s largest, has almost tripled its basic fees over the last eight years, approving increases in every year but one. But Tuesday’s was by far the steepest, and followed a 10% hike approved just in May.

Read full story at Los Angeles Times.