CSUN TAKING BUDGET CUTS, FEE HIKES IN STRIDE.

Byline: Lisa M. Sodders Staff Writer

NORTHRIDGE - Despite a 10 percent hike in student fees, Cal State Northridge President Jolene Koester said Tuesday the campus still faced huge financial hurdles but that classrooms wouldn't be affected.

On Monday, the University of California and the California State University systems approved mid-year fee increases in reaction to Gov. Gray Davis' proposed $10.2 billion cuts in state spending during the next 18 months.

Starting this spring, CSUN undergraduates who are California residents will pay an additional $72 a semester, for a total of $1,572 a year, while graduate students will pay $114 more a semester, for a total of $1,734 a year.

Fees will rise 11 percent for UC students, with undergraduates paying $135 more per quarter and graduate students paying between $150 to $400 more a quarter.

California's community colleges have not raised their $11 per unit fee but may raise it by $1 following the governor's January budget proposal, said Patrick McCallum, a legislative advocate for several community college districts including the Los Angeles Community College District.

While the increased student fees won't cover a projected loss of $2.4 million in state funding for CSUN, the cutbacks won't affect classrooms because of cost savings elsewhere on campus, Koester said.

``We have been very prudent in managing our expenditure plan for this year, and we will take these deductions without directly affecting the class schedule for this spring,'' she said.

The university has been able to save money by not buying instructional equipment and library materials and not hiring administrative staff. But Koester worries the university may not be able to spare classrooms from the brunt of the state's fiscal crisis next year.

CSUN is already stretched thin, with a record enrollment of nearly 32,600 students, of whom 1,200-1,400 are not funded by the state, Koester said.

``I don't think students will see any difference here this spring, but the open question is what will happen in 2003-04 with what are now being talked about as additional, pretty substantial cuts to the CSU budget.''

As news of the fee increases spread across CSUN, students responded in a variety of ways.

Some said the increases wouldn't affect them: Their parents pay for tuition, or they have student loans. But other students, on much tighter budgets, said they would definitely feel the increase.

Ezra Schroeder, 23, a CSUN math major, said the fee increase would eat up the $80 usually left over from the $988 in tuition assistance he receives from the Army National Guard each semester.

``Every cent I have goes to school,'' the Palmdale man said. ``That $80 extra, that's going to go (toward the fee increase), so now I have to come up with books and transportation out of my own pocket. It definitely doesn't make it any easier.''

DaVon Henson, 25, a CSUN music major, said the fee increase puts an extra burden on him, too. In recent months, campus parking fees have risen to $126 a semester, and student body fees have jumped by $4 to $64 for the spring semester.

``We are being nickle-and-dimed,'' said Henson, of Palmdale. ``What else do they want from us?''