Cal State University’s first tuition hike in more than half-decade will remain part of the 23-campus system’s final budget.
The CSU’s budget, and other topics including status updates on the university system’s effort to accelerate graduation rates and student drinking habits and drug usage, are scheduled to be up for discussion when the CSU Board of Trustees members gather Tuesday in Long Beach.
BUDGET BREAKDOWN
The tuition increase — $270 a year for resident undergraduates — first received trustees’ approval in March in the face of strident protest from aggrieved students.
Although university leaders held out some hope of rescinding that decision in case the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown appropriated sufficient funding to negate any need to raise additional funds from students’ tuition payments, that didn’t happen by the time Brown signed a $125 billion budget for the new fiscal year in late June.
The budget numbers the trustees will consider:
• The CSU is scheduled to receive some $3.4 billion from state government for the current fiscal year, according to a staff report. That number includes more than $177 million in new perennial dollars and $20 million worth of one-time appropriations.
• The tuition increase is expected to generate about $119 million in new dollars. CSU administrators plan to spend the money on its effort to increase graduation rates and financial aid.
• CSU leaders plan to spend nearly $88 million this year on their bid to increase graduation rates. Another major expense is more than $141 million allocated for salary increases.
• With new tuition rates in effect, the full tuition rate for a resident undergraduate is $5,742. Individual CSU campuses charge additional mandatory fees.
GRAD RATES
Also during Tuesday’s meeting, CSU executive vice chancellor Loren Blanchard is scheduled to brief trustees on the status of the system’s graduation initiative.
CSU leaders want to ensure 40 percent of freshman can earn their degree within four years by 2025. Only 19 percent of freshman students who entered the CSU in 2011 obtained diplomas within a four-year span.
DRINKING, DRUG SURVEY
Blanchard is also scheduled to share findings from a recent survey assessing alcohol use across the entire CSU system.
Nearly 24,000 CSU students’ responded to the survey in spring 2016 (or spring 2015, in the case of Cal State Monterey Bay). Survey results showed nearly one quarter of CSU students had not tried alcohol prior to taking the survey, whereas 56 percent of students had had a drink some time in the 30 days before providing their answers.
By comparison, National College Health Assessment Survey results from fall 2015 showed 60 percent of U.S. collegians had used alcohol within a 30-day period.
Additional survey results showed 43 percent of male CSU students and 31 percent of female students admitted to binge drinking, compared with 67 percent and 55 percent of male and female students counted in the national survey.
About 17 percent of students said they used marijuana within 30 days of taking the survey, which is more than the 15 percent of national students who acknowledged cannabis use.
