CSUMB students react to tuition hike

Annual tuition is going up for California State University students, and the news is not a welcome change for everyone.

The decision, announced by trustees this week, means college will cost more next school year.

“When you’re taking out loans entirely in your name, a couple hundred dollars doesn’t seem like a lot at first just because it’s a couple paychecks, but you know over time it really adds up for you,” said Lillian Hawkins, a CSU Monterey Bay sophomore. “It’s actually really frustrating. I’ve seen the tuition go up… er like just housing in general go up for over like the last couple years. And I’m paying for school by myself.”

“Some of my friends are protesting down in the LA area where they feel like there shouldn’t be an increase in the tuition,” said Julissa Galicia, a junior. “There’s others that do agree because they understand why they want to increase it.”

Tuition will go up by $270 beginning this fall, making the yearly rate around $5,700. It is the first tuition increase in six years.

CSU trustees say the increase is expected to generate nearly $80 million. The money is needed to pay for more faculty and courses.

CSUMB has other concerns too.

“Our enrollment has exceeded the level of funded enrollment by the system, so that’s another reason that we’re in tight shape,” said Eduardo M. Ochoa, the CSUMB president.

Ochoa told us that the state has slowly been decreasing the amount of money given to the CSU system. It used to be that 80 percent of the campus operating costs were covered by state subsidies. Now it is down to 50 percent.

While Ochoa attributes this decrease to California’s structural deficit, one student says he is open to the tuition hike.

“It’s kind of necessary for the growth of the school, which it’s going to either get paid for by additional school funding from taxpayers or by the people going to the school,” said John Ernst, a sophomore. “I think it’s just better for the people actually attending the classes to be paying for what they’re getting instead of everyone else paying for it.”

CSU’s financial aid program covers the full tuition cost for over 60 percent of all undergraduates in the state.