SAN FRANCISCO —Faced with record high enrollment and the need to hire faculty, the University of California and California State University systems are considering raising tuition for the first time in six years.
The proposed annual hikes – $270 at the 23 Cal State schools and $280 at UC’s nine undergraduate campuses — are being discussed this week by the governing boards of both systems at separate meetings on budget plans.
Leaders of both institutions say they need more funding to maintain the quality of the nation’s largest public university system.
Rates have remained frozen despite declining state support, officials said. The current in-state undergraduate tuition at Cal State schools is $5,400 a year and $12,300 a year at UCs.
About two dozen students protested Tuesday outside the CSU Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach.
They placed fake tombstones on the lawn outside the meeting, wore zombie face paint and held signs saying, “We are the Walking Debt” to symbolize the “dying CSU system” that used to be free and fully state-funded, said Courtney Yamagiwa, a member of activist group Students for Quality Education.
Yamagiwa, a senior at California State University, Long Beach, urged the board to push for more state funding.
