Cal Poly President Warren Baker agreed to postpone his decision whether to raise College Based Fees (CBFs) after a request from California Education Chancellor Charles B. Reed following questions surrounding the CSU system budget.
The quarterly fee increase, originally proposed by several Cal Poly deans, was overwhelmingly passed by students last quarter and would increase CBFs to $362 a quarter next year and up to $562 a quarter by 2011. Forty eight percent of students voted and of those, 78 percent voted to increase fees.
“In light of the uncertain economic environment, the chancellor of the CSU system has asked the CSU campuses to defer any decisions on implementation of campus-based academic fees until there is more clarity on the state budget and its impact on the CSU,” Baker said in a press release sent Wednesday.
In an e-mail sent to students Wednesday, Baker thanked them for voting and restated the chancellor’s wishes that the CSU system wait to increase student fees until the state budget system clears up.
Numerous forums were held in departments, colleges and campus-wide to debate the increase during the weeks before the March 10-11 vote. Proponents of the increase argued that the increase is necessary to uphold Cal Poly’s quality of education while critics say it is unfair to increase students’ financial burdens.