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Trisha Anas

A student holds up a sign during a rally outside of the CSU Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach, Calif., on Sept. 12, 2023.

The California State Board of Trustees on Wednesday approved a 6% tuition increase for the next five years, which will apply across all 23 campuses.

In the last 12 years, tuition has only increased once by 5%.

CSU Assistant Vice Chancellor Ryan Storm stated that the multi-year tuition proposal, which was announced earlier this year, would schedule tuition rate increases for five years, beginning during the fall 2024 semester.

The CSU tuition for undergraduates, which stands at $5,742, will now cost $6,084 for the 2024-25 school year. At the end of the five-year-proposal, tuition will be $7,682.

CSU Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer Steve Relyea said that the proposal would ensure the university model would be more sustainable and predictable for prospective students, as costs have been fluctuating.

Relyea and Storm also said that in addition to the tuition hike, financial aid will increase by $58 million for the 24-25 school year, as will funding for student basic needs programs.

About 60% of undergraduate students, Relyea and Storm stated, have their tuition fully covered by non-loan aid.

Students and faculty members at the protests during the CSU Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach said that they were angered by the decision to increase tuition.

Robert Hogg, a Union of Academic Workers at the CSU trustee and CSUN graduate student, said that student workers were only offered a one-time 4% pay increase.

Hogg, who works as both a teacher’s assistant and a graduate assistant, said that it felt like the CSU was prioritizing pay for CSU presidents and other higher ups in the administration over student needs. Last year, the CSU Board of Trustees voted to increase executive pay by 7%, the lowest executive salary being around $314,900.

“We all know what the focus should be, and it should be delivering a good education to as many people as possible,” Hogg said. “Increasing tuition rates is not the way to do that. Paying people poor wages isn’t the way to do that either.”

But during the Board meeting, trustees said that raising the tuition was necessary for the survival of the CSU.

Trustee Darlene Yee-Melichar said that state tax revenues that support public higher education have been decreasing across the country.

“At the last board meeting, we heard from Trustee [Julia] Lopez who reported for the Sustainable Financial Model committee that the CSU will have a 1.5 billion dollar shortfall,” Melichar said. “And although EVC Relyea and AVC Storm’s report was comprehensive and informative, it’s sobering news.”

Melichar also said she was concerned that, because of growing costs, the next generation of students would not be able to have access to the same educational opportunities their parents and grandparents had.

Melichar said that she believes the multi-year tuition proposal would reduce the growing deficit in the CSU budget.

More updates to come.