The Trustees heard an informational announcement at their meeting today that Chancellor Charles Reed plans to break from the strategic vision outlined in California’s Master Plan for Higher Education and install “tuition” at the CSU for the first time.

To read the agenda item at the Cal State U Trustees meeting this week, go to http://www.calstate.edu/bot/agendas/ and click on "Committee on Finance."

CFA leaders strongly oppose the proposal because the words indicate a change in vision for the CSU.

“We know that words matter,” said CFA Associate Vice President Andy Merrifield, a professor of Political Science at Sonoma State. “Therefore we must assume that replacing the words ‘student fees’ with the word ‘tuition’ demonstrates that the CSU's top executives have decided explicitly to alter their view of how the CSU should be funded and of the role of students in paying for public higher education.

"How ironic that our state university executives would close the book on the Master Plan just when the state elected Jerry Brown, whose father’s greatest legacy is his vision for public higher education," he added.

See the CFA statement on this issue.
http://www.calfac.org/news-release/cfa-statement-fees-vs-tuition

Trustee Melinda Guzman said she opposes changing this "very important word" because she believes it "significantly alters the legislature's intent" in creating the university and that "we should not alter the intent of this organization."

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez, the first Speaker to attend a Trustees meeting in years, said he would not be where he is today if not for the state university education he got in California, and that he believes the word change has "implications for the fundamental mission of the institution for the future."

Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado and Trustee Roberta Achtenberg said they also oppose the change. Trustee Chair Herb Carter ended the discussion saying it is an informational item only and he is sure Chancellor Reed will take these views under advisement.