Sacramento State proposes mandatory fee increase for students amid state budget cuts
Sacramento State students are concerned about a potential mandatory fee increase. These fees, if approved, will cost students more than $2,700 a year, according to Students for Quality Education at Sacramento State, a campus activist group.
If approved, mandatory fees would increase by the fall 2025 semester.
Sacramento State students pay around $1,900 in annual mandatory fees. These fees, which are on top of tuition, range from $1,700 to $3,000 for undergraduate students.
Student fees fund campus organizations like the university’s student government and other entities, like some athletics and health facilities. The fees — with the largest proposed increases are for instructional activity fees which support education programs — may add an additional $8 to $310 to a student’s tuition bill, according to SQE.
Under an Instagram post by SQE, President Luke Wood said he “stands by the proposals to give students a choice.” The comment, now deleted, said these fees are proposed and the university is seeking feedback from students. A university spokesperson said Wood’s comment was “accidentally deleted.”
“Campuses in CSU are laying off lecturers, closing down academic programs, merging colleges, reducing student workers, etc. because the state budget reductions,” Wood wrote. “This isn’t a greedy administration looking for more, this is giving students a choice on what they want their future to be. The state had no resources and had to cut us.”
In an interview with The Sacramento Bee, Wood said these proposed increases are not only in response to state cuts, but to student requests for more counseling and advising support. Wood said they’re trying to be affordable, not cheap.
“Being cheap means that we have for example, a cultural center with only one person working in it, with a very small budget, who’s supposed to make magic happen for the campus,” Wood said. “That’s cheap, that’s not affordable.”
Sacramento State stated they are taking an “alternative consultation process” to get student feedback, according to a Frequently Asked Questions page on the university’s website.
The university’s Student Fee Advisory Committee will hold information forums this week and a town hall Thursday to “gather feedback.” This committee will “review the response” and “deliberate the proposed fees” and make a recommendation to Wood.
‘It feels incredibly dishonest’
Students like Michael Lee-Chang, a rising junior, have criticized the university’s approach to the fee increase. The times of these forums and town hall, Lee-Chang said, are inaccessible for students since they’re on summer break.
“It feels incredibly dishonest and disingenuous of what they’re trying to do,” Lee-Chang said. “They’re saying they want to hear our voice, yet they’re making it very difficult to be able to do that.”
Wood said the forums need to have at least 300 students to be considered a “legitimate alternative consultation.” Conversations will extend until that feedback is delivered. He promised that this increase will be the only fee increase process for the next three years.
“We made a commitment that we are not only going to move forward with this process, but we’re only going to do this once,” Wood said.
Lee-Chang urged Sacramento State to issue a referendum that would let students vote on the fee increase during the consultation process. Currently, students can only voice concerns to their university’s appointed fee advisory committee.
“We’re struggling to get by, and the CSU keeps facing declining enrollment and serious financial mismanagement,” Lee-Chang said. “This will only cause Sac State to lose more students.”
Across the California State campuses, enrollment has declined by 6.5% from fall 2020 to fall 2023. The California State University system is also facing a $1.5 billion budget gap.
This isn’t the first monetary increase for students at Sacramento State. In April, students protested the 34% tuition increase set to affect every California State University campus. Wood said that according to the university’s “sensitivity analysis,” which calculated affordability for students, the fee increase should not have a financial burden. He said financial aid could also cover the cost of fees.
But students say otherwise. Alongside the tuition increase, the rise in fees creates another financial barrier for students, Lee-Chang said.
“The point was made very clear with the tuition increase, students don’t have that money,” Lee-Chang said.
This story was originally published August 12, 2024 at 3:53 PM.
