California State Universities and University of California schools approved tuition increases in January for the 2017-2018 school year.
This hike is the first increase in six years; California Governor Jerry Brown specified in his 2011 budget plan that there would be no tuition hikes, but in his most recent plan, he puts no restrictions on tuition.
The CSU Office of the Chancellor released the tuition proposal, stating that there would be a $270 increase in tuition from $5,472 per student to $5,742. This proposal argues that an increase is necessary because “State investment in support of the CSU has moved from approximately 80 percent in the mid-1990s to closer to 50 percent by 2016-17, with the remaining revenue provided by tuition and fees.” The UC proposal states that there will be a total increase of $336, bringing the total tuition cost to $12,360, not including housing, books, or campus fees.
UC President Janet Napolitano says that the increase should not have a large effect on students; Mother of two, Olga Ortega, disagrees. Her eldest son is entering his sophomore year in college and is paying for tuition through a full-time job. Ortega says her son is “very stressed” and any increase, no matter the size, would greatly affect his daily life.
Chancellor Timothy P. White claims that this increase will bring $77.5 million in revenue and most students with scholarships and financial aid would not be affected.
Elliot Chang, a student receiving financial aid at UC Irvine, said that even though he would be paying more, he would not be greatly affected. “I see all the new facilities,” Chang said in an interview with The Orange County Register, “I really appreciate the effort they’re putting into it.”
Many students, however, have protested and opposed the hike, arguing that they are often left out of decisions that will affect them the most.“If a perfect job were done listening to students’ concerns, we would not need to protest so often, complain so much” said Ralph Washington Jr., UC student representative, in an EdSource interview.
Washington is the sole representative of 252,000 students at all ten UC campuses. He and David Lopez, CSU student representative, had protested the hike before its approval, arguing that the seemingly small increase could “pay someone’s food for a month, or half month’s rent depending on what city you are living in, or it could be all your books for a quarter or your flight home for the holidays.”
State officials hope that the hikes will ultimately express to Governor Brown that small tuition increases help long-term financial sustainability for UCs and CSUs.