The Cal State University Board of Trustees made a procedural move Tuesday that will set the table for a vote on two separate tuition increases when the board reconvenes today.
In two 6-1 decisions, the board’s committee on finance approved a motion to raise tuition 5 percent or $105 for the 2011 spring semester and 10 percent or $444 for the 2011-12 academic year.
Nicole Anderson, a student trustee, was the only present member to vote against the motion.
Anderson attacked the fee increases throughout the meeting, saying they amounted to a “free pass” for Sacramento.
“This may seem like a small increase … but over time, it’s really adding up,” she said, referring to the CSU’s multiple fee increases. “The Legislature is the root cause for the lack of funding.”
Protests against the increases transferred from the streets to the podium in this month’s trustees meeting as 13 CSU students — seven from Cal State Fullerton, three from San Diego State University and one from Cal State Dominguez Hills — voiced their concern in front of the board.
“Will this be your legacy?” asked Pricilla Martinez, a CSU Dominguez Hills student. “The dismantling of our [state’s] Master Plan,” referring to the Donahoe Higher Education Act of 1960.
The volume of student speakers forced trustees’ chair Herbert Carter to limit each student to three minutes at the guest podium.
Some called the board “irresponsible,” others “really cheesy,” but the overwhelming message from the speakers was “do not balance the budget on the backs of students.”
CSU Fullerton’s Bryan Norton, a philosophy major, may have offered the best words, but at first created confusion among the board.
In a bit of satire, Norton declared he was at the meeting in order to defend the tuition increases. The philosophy major alluded to CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed throughout his charade.
“We tried to pull a Stephen Colbert,” said Chirag Bhakta, a CSU Fullerton history major who gave a fiery speech before Norton.
“We know people on this board support for-profit education,” he screamed. Bhakta believed the board was “joyfully unwilling” to consider options outside the tuition increase.
The most vocal critics of the increases, however, were California Assembly Speaker John Perez and Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado.
Perez repeatedly attacked the board’s economic claims.
“The numbers are not as dire as that representation,” Perez said, referring to a chart presented by the trustee’s committee on finance.
The board was, nevertheless, adamant in its defense of the increases throughout the meeting.
“The money doesn’t grow on trees,” said William Hauck, president of the board’s committee on finance. “We are doing the best we could possibly do. We would be happy if we could reduce fees, but that’s not possible.”
The board will meet today at 8 a.m., when it is expected to approve the two separate tuition increases.
CSU tuition has steadily increased by 280 percent over the last 10 years. Students paid $1,428 in 1999, but tuition is now $4,026 and expected to increase.
The CSU has seen a sharp drop amounting to $520 million in general fund allocation from 2008-09 to the 2009-10 academic years.
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