Opinions

Our View: Students need to know if fees will be approved

This is the second time the Cal State University system’s Board of Trustees postponed a discussion on the three new proposed student fees for next semester – and it is making us students sweat.

The proposed fees include a graduation incentive fee, which would require seniors with more than 150 units to pay more for each unit they take thereafter. The second is the course repeat fee, which would charge students $100 for each unit they retake. The last fee is the third-tier fee, which would charge students for taking more than 16 units a semester.

After being promised by Gov. Jerry Brown that our cost of education would remain the same or go down with the passage of Proposition 30, it is disheartening to know that more fees are already on the table. It has been barely a week since the election.
Even though the new fees were proposed to take place regardless of Prop. 30’s passage, making students sit and wait to see if they will be enacted is frustrating.

Most of us have either registered or are about to register for next semester’s classes. We need to know if our next semester schedules will be affected by the new fees so we can plan accordingly.
Supposedly, the reason for the delay is because more research needs to be conducted on the necessity of the fees after Prop. 30’s passage.

There was probably doubt when the fees were created that Prop. 30 would pass. We certainly thought it was a long shot. So, there was never really a thought that these fees would not be approved.

However, California has spoken, and it wants to help its students. So it is time for the Board to act accordingly with this signal of support.

Here is the deal. A main reason why the CSU wants to add these fees is because they want to push students to graduate quicker so the system can get more students in.

However, they are going about it the wrong way by proposing to poke us in the back and charge us extra money. Instead, the CSU should offer students rewards or incentives to graduate on time.

Paying for some of our books, reducing our student loans or even offering to front the bill for our cap and gown if we get out in four years may be a better approach. They should not threaten us with fees. That is our beer money, after all.

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