Tuition hike, budget gaps top agenda as Cal State trustees discuss priorities for 2017

On January 30, 2017, the Los Angeles Times published an article, “Tuition hike, budget gaps top agenda as Cal State trustees discuss priorities for 2017”. Here’s an excerpt:

California State University’s trustees on Tuesday will debate raising tuition after a six-year freeze — a controversial idea that has grown more inevitable after the governor’s recent budget proposal.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget allocated less than half the additional state funding university officials said was necessary to preserve the quality of the nation’s largest public university system. …

State funding covers about half of Cal State’s operating costs, compared with 80% in the 1990s, administrators said. The system relies on its 470,000 students’ tuition and fees to cover the rest.

The state slashed nearly one-third of its support to Cal State during the recession but has steadily restored funding in the last six years. Over that time, Brown pledged annual increases in exchange for a tuition freeze.

At the November trustees meeting, White said that raising tuition was something “none of us want to do,” and that the top priority is to lobby state lawmakers to make it unnecessary by fully funding Cal State’s budget request.

Read the complete article on the LA Times website.