Cal State Trustees Increase Fees 40%

The California State University Board of Trustees voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to raise student fees next year by 40%, a $372 hike that will bring the basic annual education cost in the 20-campus system to $1,308, not including books, parking or living expenses.

By a 15-2 vote, the trustees took full advantage of Gov. Pete Wilson’s recessionary budget proposal that Cal State fees rise “up to 40%.” Advocates argued that the steep increase--the highest dollar-amount rise in fees in Cal State history--is preferable to another round of course cuts and faculty layoffs, like those that hit the campuses hard this year, trustees reasoned.

“I would not tolerate the cutting of quality of this institution,” said J. Gary Shansby, the Cal State trustees’ vice chairman. “I think it’s time for us to realize we have to take these fees up.”

Student leaders were angered not only by the size of the fee increase but also by the board’s refusal to postpone action for a month to allow for further talks with state legislators. The Legislature will have to approve the raise, which comes on top of a 20% hike ordered for the current year.

“Forty percent is ridiculous,” said Kim Williams, chairwoman of the California State Student Assn., which represents the system’s 362,000 full- and part-time students. Under the trustees’ plan, part-timers would also see a 40% fee increase, to $756, for six or fewer credits.

Williams, a Cal State Los Angeles senior and student body president, predicted that some students will be forced to drop out of school because of the higher expenses. She said she did not believe trustees’ assurances that the fee increase would fund enough additional financial aid for needy students.

“They are locking the door,” Williams said.

Students will lobby the Legislature for a lower increase, but Williams declined to specify what amount her organization will support.

Total enrollment at Cal State this fall was down by about 7,000 from fall 1990. That drop was attributed mainly to the cuts in classes and the 20% fee increase that went into effect in September.

Not including the 40% fee increase, the governor’s proposed budget would give the Cal State system $1.66 billion for the 1992-93 school year. Cal State officials contend that that is about $137.9 million less than needed to operate at even this year’s reduced level of classes and services.

In a significant change, the governor has proposed allowing the university to raise fees without being forced to accept an equal reduction in state support, as was done in the past. After distributing extra financial aid, the 40% fee hike would net the university about $93.6 million. Cal State system Chancellor Barry Munitz said that would be spent “to strengthen life for students and not make it worse for them.”

However, even with the additional fees, the Cal State budget would show a $44.3-million budget shortfall that would require still undetermined spending cuts, Munitz said. He said he was pleased that the governor proposed that enrollment grow by the equivalent of 2,600 full-time students, instead of the Draconian cuts some officials feared were imminent.

At their meeting in Long Beach, the trustees studied figures that showed that Cal State fees approved for next year would remain well below the average of fees charged this year by it and 16 other comparable public universities around the nation. That average fee is $2,137, compared to $1,452 for Cal State; the Cal State figure includes the basic $1,308 in fees as well as $144 that Cal State students pay on average for such items as health services and student activities.

But student leaders stressed that such comparisons are misleading because the cost of living and transportation is higher in California.

Munitz asked trustees to delay final action on fees for a month to allow for more consultation with students, faculty and legislators. “I just don’t want to close the door shut firm today,” Munitz explained.

But Shansby and others said to delay would accomplish little. As a compromise, trustees authorized their own finance committee to review the matter again next month and alert the full board if the 40% raise looks like a mistake. A reversal or big change, nearly everyone involved agrees, is not likely.