BY AMY SALISBURY
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Last Wednesday, Nov. 10, the California State University Board of Trustees approved a two-step tuition increase for the Cal State system. According to a press release by csu.edu, the increase will sustain enrollment, classes, and services for current students.
The first tuition increase will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2011 as a five percent addition of $105. A 10 percent increase, $444, will become effective for fall 2011, according to the CSU.
The addition to already inflated tuition and student fees have many students wondering where their money goes. “I’d want to see more improvements made to campus,” said Rachel Hernandez, a senior majoring in Kinesiology. “It’s rough for students paying out of their own pockets, but as tuition increases, financial aid increases, too.”
Students who have been in the CSU system for several years, like Monica Rodriguez, a M.A. student in Literature and Writing, who also received her B.A. from CSUSM, have experienced the brunt of many fee increases in the last few years. “I feel angry considering the CSU system started out free, and its purpose was to bring higher education to people who couldn’t afford college,” Rodriguez said.
Dr. Don Barrett, associate professor of Sociology, is the president of the CSUSM chapter of the California Faculty Association. The Pride approached him for a comment regarding the CSU fee increases, and he prepared a statement on behalf of the CFA.
“In general, CFA has opposed the fee increases for many of the same reasons that various student groups oppose the fee increases.  We are concerned about the increased debt faced by many students for attending college, the very high likelihood that higher fees will discourage some students from getting the education that would benefit them, and that fee increases will further reduce access to education for students from social groups that have historically been under-represented in education.  While the CSU system has been very good at reserving a portion of the fee increases to address exactly these sorts of concerns, the fee increases do become a hard fact of life for a large portion of students.  Given the current state of the economy, this is not a good time to be saddling students with significantly higher educational debt.
“On a broader level, we are concerned that the fee increases reflect the state legislature’s continued inability to find a way to adequately support higher education.  It is this broader concern that motivates much of CFA’s legislative actions, including our efforts to encourage students to contact their legislatures about education costs. A related question that comes up with such fee increases is whether the CSU administration might, itself, find other means to save money (e.g., reducing administrative costs) that would reduce the size of the increases needed. Along these same lines, CFA has regularly supported a bill to increase transparency in accounting for the funding of university auxiliaries, but the governor has now twice vetoed that bill.
“Whether the fee increases are going to come down to the individual campuses and result in an increased number of [class] sections is something that the administration will decide.  Logically, however, it is important to note that the fee increases do not necessarily mean an increase in overall budget for the CSU. Though the legislature, this year, returned some of CSU’s budget to levels that were higher than last year, the state has a new budget crisis as of [last] week.  If this new crisis results in less money from the state for the CSU than was promised, then the fee increase is going to have to make up for some of that deficit. Clearly, the answer to keep us from having additional needs for fee increases in the future is political pressure on the legislature.”