RESOLVED: The sole purpose for which student fees of any kind are
warranted is to provide students with access to a high quality university
education; fees that are destructive of this end by restricting access are
antithetical to the mission of the CSU; fees that are carefully constructed and
implemented may sometimes be necessary in order to protect access and quality. Student access should be understood to
include both access to admission to the CSU as well as access to a the
necessary range and quality of courses and services that will provide for
timely progress to a degree; and be it further
RESOLVED: The
Academic Senate of the California State University reluctantly supports the
decision of the CSU Board of Trustees to implement mid-year student fee
increases as one means of protecting the existing range and quality of the
curriculum offered to our students; and be it further
RESOLVED: The Academic Senate CSU recognizes that additional student fee
increases may be imposed as a result of the current massive state budget
deficit. Current and anticipated fee
increases in the CSU should be implemented in a way that do the least harm
possible to student access to higher education.
Fee increases should:
·
Provide
for sufficient financial aid to cover the additional need created by the
fee. This should include expansion of
financial aid programs to cover new recipients as well as increases in the
amount of financial aid for existing recipients. We recommend that financial aid greater than
the traditional 1/3 proportion be set aside to cover these needs.
·
Provide
for maintenance and expansion of programs designed to educate current and potential
students about the availability of financial aid and the procedures for
obtaining it. Such programs should be
exempted from cuts and treated as a necessary expense associated with the
increased fees.
RESOLVED: Revenues raised by additional student fees
should remain within the system to support instructional program on the
campuses.
RATIONALE: The CSU has recently raised student
fees by 15% for graduate students and 10% for undergraduates, and the
Governor’s budget proposes an additional fee increase for AY 2003-04 of 25% for
undergraduates and 20% for graduates.
The CSU is experiencing a budget shortfall so severe that, whatever the
fee increases, severe cuts are expected.
Those cuts should not fall upon those specific programs and services that
can help students cope with the fee increases, or else student access to higher
education will be even more seriously imperiled.
SECOND READING – March
6-7, 2003