Officials in the California State University confirmed in a live webcast on Friday that students in the CSU won’t face tuition increases in the future, something many students may agree is a good thing in the world of California higher education.

The webcast offered insight into the future of the CSUs, allowing listeners to learn about the university system’s budget, labor relations and academics.

Hosted by the CSU Office of the Chancellor, the call featured input from Assistant Vice Chancellor for Budget Ryan Storm, Public Affairs Director Toni Molle and Chief of Staff for Academic and Student Affairs Nathan Evans, all of whom emphasized a strong future for the CSU.

Each of the three speakers had their own sections where they talked about for a couple of minutes with accompanying powerpoint slides. Storm discussed the CSU Task Force, which is the sustainable financial model for the California State Universities. Molle talked about the current situation involving the California Faculty Association strike and Evans then went on to talk about academic and student affairs.

Storm emphasized theTask Force Sustainable Financial model handles the costs that go into maintaining the finances of all of the California State University campuses.  

The model looks over four areas, according to Storm, including administrative effectiveness, resource allocation, managing costs and revenue.

This model also has key recommendations and those are to review structure and cost of health benefit and pension programs to ensure long-term viability, revise discretionary parameters for the State University Grant tuition discount program, and lastly, to pursue funding to replace tuition discounts with direct grants to students.

The California State University has proposed a 2 percent salary increase while the California Faculty Association has asked for a 5 percent increase, something to which Molle said neither parties have reached an agreement and both sides remain “indiscernible.”
Later in the webcast, Evans went on to discuss the Chancellor’s Office goals for the CSU they want to accomplish by 2025.

According to Evans, those goals are to improve four year graduation rates for first-time, full-time freshmen, graduation rates for transfer students, and to close achievement gaps.

The Chancellor’s Office said they will be more aggressive in the targets but also work very closely with CSU campuses to talk about the strategy they will undertake to address these targets as we move forward, said Evans.

The Chancellor’s Office says it wants to create positive change for the California State University, though it might take a while and a lot of frustration from both students and teachers.