California State University's governing board says it will vote in March whether to raise tuition for the first time in six years at its 23 campuses.
CSU's Executive Vice Chancellor Steve Relyea told the Board of Trustees Tuesday that the nation's largest public university system needs to hire more faculty and create more classes to accommodate record high enrollment.
Relyea said that insufficient state funding could leave no option but raising tuition, which he called a last resort.
The proposed annual hike would increase the current undergraduate tuition by $270 for the 2017-18 school year. Current tuition is $5,472.
He said about 60 percent of California State University students, or about 225,000 undergraduates, have their tuition fully covered by financial aid and would not be affected by an increase.