UC and CSU systems are raising fees to compensate for the budget cuts to education with a 15 percent fee hike for the California State University system and an 8 percent fee increase for the University of California system. Fees for undergraduates in the UC system now top $10,000 annually and CSU’s are $4,200

The CSU Board of Trustees voted on implementing a fee hike for the California State University system on Nov. 10. According to the San Diego State University paper, The Daily Aztec, students will see these increases in 2011. Winter and spring term fees will increase 5 percent and 10 percent in the fall. 

A University of California Board of Regents committee voted on Nov. 18 to implement a fee hike of eight percent to UC undergraduate student fees in the fall 2011 semester. According to the SF Appeal, a San Fracisco based online newspaper, in the article “UC Board Of Regents Approves eight percent Tuition Hike,” the UC system is currently suffering from a $1 billion budget deficit. 

De Anza College communications major Christine Jehng said, “it’s amazing how much UCs and CSUs can get away with. They don’t take into consideration that a lot of people are struggling enough as it is.” 

The need to increase UC and CSU tuition comes from deep cuts in the state’s education. This is the fifth time the CSU system has raised student fees in three years and fees are up 32 percent this year.

Transfer Center administrative assistant Dina Crumpton believes the fee increase is “ridiculous. It is difficult enough for students to pay tuition currently. They have become so dependent on financial aid and are so in debt it has become difficult for them to go to those schools.”

According to the UCLA newspaper, the Daily Bruin, UC and CSU boards are also considering raising the percentage of out-of-state and international student enrollment to compensate for the budget deficit. These students pay at least three times more than in-state students to attend. 

“I know a lot of students who come to De Anza who were admitted to a UC or CSU, but because they could not afford the high tuition costs, they ended up here,” vice chair of the De Anza Associated Student Body Senate’s Finance committee Victoria Nguyen said. “By raising fees, the UCs and CSUs are making it hard on families … forcing them to take out loans.”