An advisory panel has recently suggested a plan to the California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees that endorses steadily increasing tuition rates annually at CSU schools.
The plan is currently still being drafted into a report and is expected to be finalized and released in full to the CSU Board in November and reviewed in January. If the plan is initiated it will put an end to the currently static tuition rates. The panel believes that its passage would help harbor financial stability and accommodate the increasing number of students being enrolled each year.
“The report is designed to initiate a dialogue about the CSU’s future and how we can continue to serve students with limited resources,” Toni Molle, a spokeswoman for Cal State and former UCR Chancellor Timothy White, asserted to Press Enterprise. Molle said that the report outlines a number of possible actions that the CSU system can take, which do not include plans for increases from 2015-2017.
As one of the largest public education systems in the United States, the CSU system currently consists of 23 campuses that collectively enrolls 460,000 students and employs 47,000 faculty and staff.
The 2010-11 academic school year for CSUs charged tuition rates of $4,440, while the following year experienced more than a $1,000 increase to total $5,472 for 2011-12. Since then, CSU tuition rates remained unchanged for the following four academic years. The report indicates that rather than enacting large tuition increases over a number of years, this plan will install a model that increases rates each year in accordance with inflation.
With a mission to address the current state of education in California the advisory panel that has suggested this plan, The Task Force for a Sustainable Financial Model, was appointed by White and consists of university, faculty and student leaders from different CSU campuses.
Other ways of balancing the CSU system finances have also been suggested in the report. One suggestion recommended increasing the $55 application fee, which has remained constant since 1989, by $15. This would be able to raise an estimated $30 million for the system as a whole. Other methods of raising funds that have been recommended include offering year-round programs, investing in low-risk securities and more openly encouraging alumni donations.
In order for the CSU system to continue providing a broad, affordable and quality public education, the report urges that other resources be utilized.
