The California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees approved an undergraduate tuition increase for the entire CSU system for the 2017-18 school year during their meeting March 22. Annual tuition for resident undergraduates in the CSU system will increase $270 per student, generating approximately $77.5 million in revenue, according to a CSU Board of Trustees press release.
This is the first tuition increase in the CSU system since 2011, according to the press release. This money will go toward the CSU’s Graduation Initiative 2025.
According to the initiative’s website, this program will work to double four-year graduation rates and eliminate equity gaps between students by working more closely with the universities’ K-12 community to prepare students for college, work to better prepare transfer students and hire more tenure-track faculty and more support and counseling staff.
The main reason for the tuition hike is because Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2017 state budget provided limited funding to state universities, CSU spokesperson Elizabeth Chapin said in a previous interview with Mustang News. The CSU system now has to make up the gap.
Cal Poly spokesperson Matt Lazier declined to comment because this is a CSU-level decision.
Environmental management and protection senior Mallory Patino said the cost of living in San Luis Obispo is a lot higher than other CSUs.
“I think that if money is a concern for a student that definitely could deter them from wanting to go forth with their acceptance at that school, but I also don’t know how many other [colleges’ cost of living] are cheaper so I don’t know what kind of decision they would make,” Patino said.