California State Universities Tuition Overview

The financial structure of the California State University System seems devastated. Every year the students wait anxiously like spectators returning to a magician’s show, for the miraculous trick and they are certainly surprised by the continuous tuition increase by the CSU board of trustees.

  The challenging economic conditions and the recurring tuition increase continue to influence students' college experiences. The proportion of students using loans to help pay for college remains high, at 53.1 percent, according to the 2010 Cooperative Institutional research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey, UCLA's annual survey of the nation's entering students at four-year colleges and universities.

This article gives an overview about the tuition fee hikes from the academic years 2010-2012, and the implications of this on students. The budget cuts in the CSU system has resulted in shutting of several classes in these three years, which has made it even more challenging for the students to get admissions and even if they do, getting the desired classes is another issue.

Despite the severe trimming in the recent budget cuts and alternative revenues, the California State University trustees approved a nine percent tuition increase for the Fall session of 2011. By voting 9 to 6 the CSU board of trustees had raised tuition by about $500 for Fall 2011, bringing the annual fees to about $7,017, according to Los Angeles Times.

The increasing cost of higher education not just poses a significant barrier to college access but also causes a lot of pressure and stress, for students today. Students and families work very hard in being resourceful and strategic to pay the college tuition and when a parent collects money for his child’s education they stick with a budget in mind.Education should be viewed as a privilege and not as a burden. Unfortunately affording education is more of a burden than anything else.

In November 2010, the CSU system approved a $105 fee increase for students in the spring and a total of $444 for the next year, equaling $222 per semester, reports Daily Sundial. Students were alerted of the fee increases through notices on their portal and were asked to pay the amount within a month.

Rajat Kumar, a computer science major, an international undergraduate student at CSU, Northridge said, “I almost had a nervous breakdown because I could not think of a way to pay the amount of tuition increase within a month.”

Rajat added, “when I joined this university in Spring 2009, I paid $6,707 for 13 units and now in spring 2012, I paid $7,484 for 13 units.” Sharing his struggle Rajat says, “just like any other international student I came to US aspiring to gain the best education, but with the consistent increase in tuition I don’t think I can afford education here anymore.”

“We owned a small scale business in India, but I lost my education sponseror, my father last year. As he was the only earning man in my family my mother now has to work in a boutique to support me here. Being an international student I cannot work off campus and jobs on campus want to employee work study students. Losing my father, increasing tuition and maintaining a good academic performance is too much of stress for me to handle and this has affected my health as well. Last semester as a result to increased stress I developed a skin abnormality called scalp psoriasis. I have been taking help from the counseling services on campus to help me be mentally and emotionally stable,” said Mr. Kumar.

            “Stress is a major concern when students have to keep up good academic standing and have to work hard to collect enough funds to keep up with the increasing tuition. If students are arriving in college already overwhelmed and with lower reserves of emotional health, faculty, deans and administrators should expect to see more consequences of stress, such as higher levels of poor judgment around time management, alcohol consumption and academic motivation,” says John H. Pryor, director of Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) in the 2012 Cooperative Institutional research Program Freshman Survey, UCLA's annual survey of the nation's entering students at four-year colleges and universities.

First-year college students' displayed the lowest self-ratings of their emotional health in 2012. “It also mentions that only 51.9 percent of students reported that their emotional health was in the ‘highest 10 percent’ or ‘above average,’ a drop of 3.4 percentage points from 2009 and a significant decline from the 63.6 percent who placed themselves in those categories when self-ratings of emotional health were first measured in 1985,” according to the 2010 CIRP survey.

The 2011-12 Freshman Norms report is based on the responses of 2,01,818 first-time, full-time students at 279 of the nation's baccalaureate colleges and universities. The data have been statistically adjusted to reflect the responses of the 1.5 million first-time, full-time students entering four-year colleges and universities as first-year students onwards 2010.

Karen Green a business major at CSUN says “I work two jobs and I’m also a full time student, yet I struggle every semester to pay my tuition.” I don’t know what more could I do, I barely have time for myself and somehow this pressure has taken away the fun to studying said Karen.

“I’m just a junior but I’m already ready for graduation, I don’t want to study anymore. I started at CSUN in Fall 2008 and since then I haven’t been able to enroll in for more than 12 units. The reason for that is, sometimes either the classes are full by the time my registration dates comes or I don’t have enough money to enroll in for more than 12 units, Karen adds.”

With the failure of the government to support the CSU systems by not proving enough funds, looks like the students still believe in the quality and college experience with CSU.  So how is CSUN managing to control the expenses and costs on campus?

To begin with, to control the race of registering for the classes required and provide equal opportunity for  all students to get the desired units; CSUN has rationalized the registration by limiting enrollment to 13 credits in first rounds of registration.

According to a 2011-2012 report by CSUN entitled ‘A look back A look Ahead’, “Estimating technology savings is hard because the system does not code expenditures helpfully. Still we estimate that we can save several million dollars over two to three years by replacing individual printers with a few networked ones, converting open labs either to thin clients or wireless/plug-in bring-your-own, and moving to virtual labs, where feasible, to save on breakage and space itself. We also are centralizing servers in IT to leverage security, facilitate shared hardware, and scale service. We are working with IT on vision to clarify priorities.”

Hence the question stands, will this reoccurring CSU tuition increase continue or will there be a cap on the tuition hikes?

 "The Proposition 30 ballot initiative was approved by voters in the November 6, 2012 election. As a result, the California State University will implement the tuition fee contingency plan as previously approved by the Board of Trustees. The California State University will roll back tuition fees to 2011-12 fee levels, retroactive to the fall 2012 term," according to the CSU budget central.

But it's not the end of the story, this momentary cap on tuition is for a reason, "facing a nearly $16 billion deficit, the legislature and the governor have adopted a state budget that keeps the CSU’s budget essentially flat for this year, with one important caveat: If the governor’s tax measure on the November ballot fails, the CSU will face an additional $250 million mid-year “trigger” cut. This means the CSU will have lost almost $1.2 billion or 39 percent of its state support since 2007-08," according to the CSU budget central.

For the academic year 2012-13 "the CSU has been meeting and holding consultative discussions with its stakeholders to gather input and feedback on budget options. If the CSU does face the $250 million “trigger” cut, we will have to look at a range of options including administrative efficiencies, student tuition fee increases, changes in health care benefits cost-sharing (subject to negotiation with employee bargaining units) and campus-specific strategies," said Chancellor Charles B. Reed, according to the CSU budget central.

Yes, the whole CSU education systems feels as if it is a board game and the students are subject to dice who are rolled and exposed to budget cuts, tuition increase and of course stress. The unfortunate part of this game is that there is no winner.

###