UC, CSUs increase tuition, fees as they scramble for funding

   When Kiana Nguyen learned about the tuition increase at California State University Fullerton, she didn’t know what to think. “Wow! I can’t believe I have to pay that much,” Nguyen said.

   Nguyen, a Santa Ana College alumna, may scrap plans to buy a used car and use the money for classes at CSUF.

   Students now attending or who are planning on attending a California State University or University of California campus will see tuition increases because of California budget cuts to the education system.

   California State University is raising tuition by 10 percent for the third consecutive year.  The University of California is raising rates by 9.3 percent, more than doubling costs for a UC education this decade.

   “This tuition increase is really yet another tax on students that discourages qualified, hard working high school graduates from entering the CSU system,” Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi said.

   Cal State undergraduates will now pay about $306 more, raising overall rates to $4,155 per year.

   Tuition for the University of California will cost about $8,720.

   Brittnie Avery, history major and senior at Cal State Fullerton, said she has no choice but to take fewer classes and that might prolong her graduation. 

   “I don’t know how this will affect me. It’s hasn’t hit me yet. I’ll have to wait until fall,” Avery said.

   A majority of students are already struggling to pay for books, room and board, and transportation among other expenses.

   “It’s ridiculous because when I first started going to Riverside in 2004, I had to pay $5,000 and now it is going to be about $10,000,” SAC student Chloe Thomas said. “I was thinking of possibly transferring to CSUF and looking for scholarships.”

   Scholarships and financial aid services are expected to get more competitive because students need them to pay for their education.

   Financial aid, scholarships or grants will help about 80 percent of undergraduates afford the tuition increase.

   “We have worked hard in the past to protect access and affordability for students, and we will continue to do so going forward.   

   But we fear these proposed cuts will leach into the core of our primary mission to maintain the academic excellence and learning environment that have made California and the UC world leaders in higher education,” University of California President Mark Yudof said.

  High school seniors will also feel the effects of cutbacks; CSUs will cut freshman enrollment by 2,300 students.

   SAC ethnic studies professor Hong Herrera Thomas is currently a graduate student at University of California Riverside, and can sympathize with her students’ struggles to pay for college.

   “This is going to hurt the population that is trying to get an education, the working class, “Herrera Thomas said.

   “Community colleges don’t get the funding the big universities get, and they will get hit harder.”