CSU Trigger Cut Options: Reduce Enrollment or Increase Tuition

Reduced enrollment or a mid-year tuition increase. That’s the choice the California State University could face if voters reject Governor Jerry Brown’s November tax measure.

You’ve heard of trigger cuts. Now, there’s a "trigger on a trigger" – a $150 per semester tuition increase to meet a potential 250 million dollar cut. That’s one proposal CSU Trustees are looking at. The other would reduce enrollment by three percent, or about 6-thousand students. Robert Turnage is with the CSU Chancellor’s office:

"We have reached a point where it’s nothing but difficult tradeoffs involved in having to confront this very real possibility of the trigger cut."

On the other hand, Turnage says this year’s tuition increase could be reversed if the tax measure passes. That would make the C-S-U eligible for some extra money under the newly-approved state budget. Trustees likely won’t take any action until they meet again in September.