The Cal State University Board of Trustees postponed discussion on three proposed student fees, which would charge students for taking additional units, repeating courses and delaying graduation, for the second meeting in a row.
The Board was expected to vote on the fees Tuesday but said that further research needs to be done in order to investigate the necessity of the fees after Proposition 30’s passage.
The CSU Committee on Finance suggested passing all three fees regardless of Prop. 30’s outcome, according to the committee’s online report.
The fees include the graduation incentive fee, the course repeat fee and the third-tier tuition fee.
The graduation incentive fee would require seniors with 150 units or more to pay an additional fee per unit. The third-tier fee would charge students extra for taking more than 16 units in a semester. The course repeat fee would require students retaking a course to pay $100 per semester unit.
There is no set date for when the Board will discuss the fees again.
According to Board documents, the fees would aim to change student behavior, resulting in more open seats for incoming freshman and transfer students.
Gov. Jerry Brown, who attended Tuesday’s meeting, said he made a request to have the fees tabled on the belief that other methods of influencing student behavior might be successfully employed.
“This is a market mechanism to encourage certain kinds of behavior, and there may well be better ways to achieve that,” he said.
Brown also said that fee implementations were a last resort for the CSU, and that students already struggling to pay tuition should not be in a position where new costs loom around the corner.
“I went around the state saying no tuition increases if we pass Prop. 30,” he said. “I certainly sent a message that we want to hold down costs for students. I sure don’t want to start [new fees] two weeks after the election.”
The main concern about the fees stems from the fact that most students usually do not have high incomes, according to Brown.
“If you have a lot of money, the fees are meaningless,” he said. “If you have a more modest income, obviously they have more weight.”
California State Student Association President David Allison said he thought tabling of the three fees was a good start and that other means of changing student behavior were feasible.
“We feel that there is a better way to go about changing behavior, which is what the fees are all about,” he said.
CSU Spokesman Erik Fallis said the 23-campus system would continue to find ways to increase accessibility for students and influence student behavior, but in the mean time, students should focus on the money they will save next semester.
“Most students would have never paid these fees,” he said. “For most students, they’re going to be affected by the tuition rollback.”
Brown said that to ensure the CSU’s success, everyone will have to pitch in.
“As we move forward, everybody’s going to have to do more than they probably want to,” he said. “Students are going to have to work a little and pass the test the first time; other people may get less than they thought they were going to get, and the tax payers have now put out their share.”
