It likely won’t come to a shock to most CSU students, but they will be seeing higher bills next semester.  Not only did Chancellor Charles reed ask the trustees for a 20% fee increase, but he also indicated that he would be looking for ways to save money throughout the system. That means furloughs, more classes taught by less expensive “lecturers,” and fewer office hours.

Of course, if you were cynical, you could point out that fee increases seemingly always happen in the summer, when must students are away from their campus.  So, it is harder for students to organize.  However, that doesn’t mean that students will simply lie down. Steve Dixon, president of the California State Student Association plans on making sure the Chancellor and the Legislators hear from students.  

“We’re very upset,” Dixon said. “Every time Sacramento can’t balance the books, we students end up bearing the financial responsibility. But we’re not getting an increase in quality. We’ll see increased class sizes, fewer courses and fewer teachers of Ph.D. quality. Worse, we’ll also see tens of thousands of students denied access.” (SF Chronicle 7/17/09)

Both state university systems have been making huge cutbacks, and this will hit employees extremely hard. It is unfortunate that despite the fact that Californians want to ensure that we have quality higher education, Far-Right Legislators use the system to once again block wise fiscal and education policay.

The SF Chronicle has a good list of some of the impacts of the budget crisis upon the systems.