Students walk across Cal State Long Beach.
Student workers across the 23-campus California State University system have submitted an official petition to form a union.

The increase in tuition is mainly attributed to the ever-increasing demand of bachelor’s degrees since the 1980’s. As the demand for higher education increases, the need for other resources such as faculty, staff, and campus expansions increases.

Since 1985, tuition has increased by a staggering 500 percent and because of this increase students are the ones paying for it. For example, student debt has now reached $1.31 trillion in the U.S. The problem is the CSU system is so underfunded that the tuition increases are coming out of the student’s pockets.

 

There needs to be a new approach to this deficit. As graduate students in the CSU system, we have been personally affected by this deficit which has perpetuated a norm to work multiple jobs and rely on loans. Ironically, the need for innovative approaches might just rely on our future generations of students.

By: Aliza Gonzalez, Irma Hernandez, Ary Nassiri, Mercedes Costello, and Nancy Aleman
Masters of Social Work candidates from California State University, Long Beach.