Cal State fee hikes flawed, unfair to students

California is in a huge financial crisis and students are the ones who pay the price.

The California State University Board of Trustees is proposing a policy to raise fees for CSU students despite the recent fee increase implemented for the fall 2004 semester. This will be the fourth fee increase that has been passed in the last four years. Although the Board of Trustees has made a few modifications to their policy, another fee increase is more than most students can afford.

Luckily, the board has postponed its decision until the meeting on Oct. 28, so it's possible the policy may not be passed. The decision has been postponed in order to allow board members to be able to address questions before they vote.

Previous fee increases were met with anger and protest because the decisions were made without any prior notice given to students and faculty. By leaving those students out of the loop, it causes them to feel their voices are not being heard. In response, the Board of Trustees modified the proposed policy to state that students will be notified of any increases at least 10 months in advance, which will allow any CSU campus to plan its course offerings accordingly.

According to the CSU Web site, the proposed policy calls for annual adjustments of resident undergraduates and post-baccalaureate fees until they reach 33 percent the cost of their education. Annual increases in undergraduate and post-baccalaureate fees would be no larger than 10 percent and resident graduate fees would gradually be raised to a level equal to 150 percent of the undergraduate fee.

The policy builds upon a 1993 fee policy that provided a two-thirds/one-third split in the cost of education, with the state providing two-thirds of the cost.

Such an increase will further burden students trying to graduate. The Board of Trustees said they have no other areas in which to cut back; however, they aren't taking into consideration that many students won't be able to afford the rising costs causing enrollment to drop once again.

This will defeat the purpose of the $40.3 million that was restored to the CSU system from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in order to increase student enrollment. The restored funding is allowing 7,500 additional students to enroll for the spring 2005 term who may have to pay the fee increase as soon as they register.

The flaw in the plan is that it is largely dependent on whether or not the state will maintain its commitment to provide adequate funding to the CSU system. If the state fails to do so, then the board will increase fees higher than the parameters of the policy in order to meet their financial needs.

With the instability of the state budget, it is likely there will be unpredictable changes that will affect student fees and students will end up getting stuck with the bill.

Kara Ogushi is a fourth year print journalism major at CSULB.