While Chancellor Reed, Chair Herb Carter and other CSU Trustees demonstrated little remorse for hiking student fees and decreasing access to the CSU, newspapers across the state slammed the decision in editorials.

The editors of the Los Angeles Times wrote that these persistent fee hikes threaten California’s economy. 

“Cal State's fee — sorry, tuition — increases warrant special concern. Cal State is the workhorse of the two systems, created to supply the vast majority of bachelor's degrees for the state at a cost that almost any student could afford. Yet it's where the increases have been steepest.”

The Sacramento Bee editorial board wrote that California’s leaders “Must restore stability to student fees.”

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat suggested the system trim administrative expenses before hiking fees. 

“…(T)he university has been considerably less aggressive about other cost-cutting suggestions, including trimming the number of administrators and ending the practice of providing housing for high-level (and well-paid) officials.”

Elsewhere, numerous other publications reacted to the Trustees’ near-sighted decision:

• Visalia Time: State higher education loses its way 
• Sacramento Faculty member Mike Fitzgerald opined that “Raising fees on CSU students should be trustees' last option” 
• Merced Sun-Star: Why we need a new vision for higher ed‎ 
• Golden Gate Express: Shady tuition tactics 

CFA weighed in on the planned change from “fees” to “tuition” with an opinion article penned by President Lillian Taiz and published in an online blog, the California Progress Report.