Tuition hikes at 23 public California colleges make students question: ‘Is it even worth it?’

College goers criticize California State University's announcement of increased tuition after a decade of stable costs

When trustees at California State University (Cal State or CSU), one of the nation's largest public university systems, decided to raise tuition, Crystal Chavira-Ordunez worried not only about their future but also their siblings' future.

Chavira-Ordunez, a first-generation Mexican American, will be the first in their family to graduate from Cal State East Bay after transferring from a community college in the fall of 2022. To make life more manageable, they worked three jobs and took out loans to afford their housing in one of the most expensive areas in the country.