STORY BY HAL SAGA, CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
PHOTO COURTESY OF LONG BEACH POST
The California State University Board of Trustees approved a 6% annual tuition increase on Sept. 13 much to the dismay of students across the 23 campuses who already struggle to pay for school.
The decision was approved 15-5 despite the CSU Board of Trustees’ research concerning the difficulties students face when paying tuition. According to the Los Angeles Times, the vote is said to “help bridge a $1.5-billion budget gap” that prevented wage increases for employees among other internal issues, raising a projected amount of $840 million over the course of five years.
The 15 CSU Board of Trustees who voted to approve the proposal were Diego Arambula, Raji Kaur Brar, Jack B. Blarke, Douglas Faigin, Jean Picker Firstenberg, Wenda Fong, Mark Ghilarducci, Lillian Kimbell, Jolene Koester, Julia Lopez, Jack McGrory, Anna Ortiz-Morfit, Yammilette Rodriguez, Christopher Steinhausser, Jose Antonio Vargas, and Darlene Yee-Melichar.
Although CSU officials alleged they plan to cover 60% of financial aid for their 460,000 students enrolled, the tuition will increase by $342 per full-time undergraduate student. In the 2023-2024 school year, the average tuition was estimated to be $5,742; the tuition for the 2024-2025 semesters will rise up to $6,084, with the five-year amount in 2028-2029 finalized at $7,682.
The tuition increase creates obstacles for incoming and current students who decided on a CSU for its initial affordable pricings. Students at schools nearby Cypress College, such as CSU Long Beach and CSU Fullerton are currently protesting and speaking out against their respective administrators for the decision.
“I feel like it’s really greedy of high authority to raise the prices for us,” first-year CSULB student Kameryn Mitchell said to CBS Los Angeles.
