After hours-long public comment and discussion about raising tuition across the California State University system resulted in a 15-5 vote in favor of increasing costs, Sacramento State students can expect to see their tuition rise over the next five years.
The first tuition increase goes into effect in fall 2024, at which point tuition will go up $342 to $6,084. By the end of the 2028-29 school year — when CSU trustees must vote on any future price increases — tuition will be $7,682.
While the increases are an effort by the state university system to close its $1.5 billion budget deficit, they were met with opposition by students, faculty and departments across Sacramento State. An open letter organized by campus groups chronicles a wide range of groups against the increase, from student government to a number of campus departments and even the Sacramento State Squirrels Instagram account.
Michael Lee-Chang, a second-year at Sacramento State, is part of the university’s Students for Quality Education chapter and was among those who circulated and shared the letter. It was announced a few weeks before the Sept. 13 vote, in part to get university president J. Luke Wood to speak out against the increase.
“Even if he doesn't have an official vote on the board of trustees, his voice has a lot of weight,” Lee-Chang. “He unfortunately did not say that, or at least say directly that he's against that — he simply said he's focused on what is within his control.”
With under a year left before the increases take place, for Wood, that control looks like a 10-point plan he announced in conjunction with several campus student leaders on Sept. 14.
The plan — meant to “address many of the barriers that students currently face, as well as those that we anticipate” — includes the following, according to a press release from Wood:
- Launching an awareness campaign focused on tuition increases and financial aid resources.
- Establishing a team to look at reducing barriers in financial aid and scholarships.
- Streamlining and simplifying scholarship processes.
- Increasing staff in the financial aid office and providing more support for student staff.
- Implementing a Sacramento State-led lobbying campaign at the state Capitol.
- Increasing access to information on scholarships.
- Establishing a Basic Needs Center on campus.
- Resuming the removing administrative barriers working group.
- Increasing opportunities for student employment.
- Increasing fundraising for scholarships for students most impacted by tuition increase.
So far, Wood is the only CSU president to proactively respond to the tuition vote with next steps. However, other CSU university presidents have commented on the decision, like Chico State president Steve Perez — who in a statement said the increase is “not something the Board would have done unless members truly felt they had to.”
Sacramento State student body president Nataly Andrade-Dominguez also worked to set up three forums — one Zoom, two in-person — for students to share concerns directly with Wood as part of the new Sacramento State president’s “100 Days of Listening.”
“The bottom line thing that should be happening [is] that we should be communicating with each other — it shouldn't be the university leadership saying, ‘Okay, we're doing this,’ and then students are told after they already made that decision,” she said. “It should be a collective choice that we're doing together, and students should be at the table of the decision-making process.”
How are students feeling and who will be impacted?
Transparency is a big part of what students would like to see as they redirect efforts after a vote Andrade-Dominguez likened to a “sneak attack.”
She and Lee-Chang, who worked together to inform students about the potential of a tuition increase before the vote and created informational videos about rising tuition, estimated that nine out of 10 students they talked to didn’t know about how their college costs could change.
“This is a common theme that we've been seeing, that no students know,” she said in an interview before the tuition increase proposal was passed. “We've posted a few videos online, and all the comments are like, ‘Oh, my God, I didn't know this was coming.’ Like, ‘What? I'm glad I graduated.’ Comments of shock.”
The university meets, on average, 55% of financial aid requests from students. But the rising costs will affect students whose tuition isn’t fully covered by financial aid through grants, scholarships or waivers.
Lee-Chang said the trustees’ decision is “painful and deeply emotional,” and regardless of the amount by which tuition increases, it’s going to have a “deep impact on students.”
“Most of the CSU are working-class, lower income students, students of color, transfer students, immigrant students, or first-gen students,” he said. “They're already struggling, even with financial aid, to get by each day … Students are taking up loans, they're having to work like 30, 40 hour weeks just to get by. And [for] the students who do get covered by financial aid, students use those financial aid refunds for other things.”
Margarita Berta-Ávila, a professor of education at the university, recalled undergraduate and graduate students who worked two to three jobs to sustain themselves and help support their families.
“I remember, just a couple years ago, having a student who had to work during the midnight shift and so would come to class, absolutely exhausted, right, in order to be able to attend,” she said. “There was no option of not having to work.”
Maxwell Zarzuela, a sixth-year studying sociology, also helped get the word out about a potential tuition increase before the vote — he’s the president of campus group Samahang Pilipino.
“It's really sad,” he said of the trustees’ decision. “I'm about to graduate, so I won't be affected by the tuition raise, but I will be in solidarity with all my classmates, all my [fellow Samahang Pilipino] members.”
Still, he said Wood’s 10-point plan sounds “promising.”
What are students looking to next?
For Andrade-Dominguez, her efforts are turned toward financial aid, basic needs and increasing accessibility to material support in preparation of the rising costs.
Another point on the 10-point plan includes establishing a permanent Basic Needs Center on campus — a 2018 systemwide basic needs survey found 47% of Sacramento State students experienced food insecurity, while 12% of students have experienced homelessness at least once during their time in university.
“We need to … establish a basic need center, to reevaluate our emergency grants, to ensure that students are getting the care and the basic needs that they need at Sac State in order to succeed financially, to succeed academically and to graduate in the time that they need to,” she said.
There are big financial aid changes happening across the CSU system next year — the FAFSA will have a third of its current number of questions and uses a new formula to calculate the amount of student aid, the Pell Grant formula is changing to increase eligibility and the state university system has committed to building a larger financial aid pool with a third of the revenue it earns through raising tuition costs.
“Another big aspect of this tuition increase is to work with our financial aid office … to ensure that we are having workshops, that we’re letting students know how to apply to this new financial aid system … and what are the changes that were made,” Andrade-Dominguez said.
According to data from the President’s office, only 60% of Sacramento State scholarships are utilized, she added.
“I want to do an assessment of that: Why aren't students applying, what do students need? And then, how do we get to hit the 100% mark for all of our scholarships to be utilized?”
Lee-Chang said Students for Quality Education — at least the Sacramento State chapter — is looking to work on a state lobbying campaign, something that’s also part of Wood’s 10-point plan.
“It’s always worth trying, because you never know how much the state’s going to have and where the state’s going to pull money from to give to higher education,” he said. “Especially being in Sacramento, the state capital, I’m hoping to take a greater lead on lobbying for more state funding.”
The biggest sources of funding for the CSU are tuition revenues, which make up 40% of profit, and state funding. Last year, California Governor Gavin Newsom began his follow-through on a commitment to raising state support for the state university system by 5% annually for the next five years — but despite that commitment, the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office predicts the CSU’s costs will exceed its revenues by $100 million next budget year.
Still, Lee-Chang said, “a public university should not be run like a business.” He pointed to the trustees’ decision to approve an almost $1 million salary package for the new CSU chancellor.
“They’re not an executive, they are a public officer of a public institution who is now making more than the President of the United States and Governor of California combined,” he said.
His hope is that SQE and other student groups can “keep students engaged, and not just jaded and exhausted.”
“I think that’s sort of what the CSU wants — they can do whatever they want without much student opposition,” he said.
For those interested in attending the student forums and sharing feedback, information is below:
- Session 1: Sept. 20, 6:00-7:15 p.m., Zoom (RSVP)
- Session 2: Oct. 2, 12:00-1:15 p.m., in-person at the University Union Ballroom (RSVP)
- Session 3: Oct. 30, 4:00-5:15 p.m., in-person at the University Union Ballroom (RSVP)
Editor's note: Sacramento State is an underwriter for CapRadio.
