Two student associations lauded Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to rescind a scheduled fee increase for the CSU and UC systems in a teleconference Tuesday.

Before the governor’s state of the state address, delivered last Thursday, fees for undergraduate students were slated to jump by 8 percent and graduate students were facing a 10 percent hike.

During the teleconference, Anu Joshi, president of the University of California Student Association, said that she was “ecstatic” that Gov. Schwarzenegger no longer supports the fee increase.

Jennifer Reimer, chair of the California State Student Association, thanked the governor for buying out the increase with money generated by an unexpected increase in state revenue.

“Needless to say, I’m thrilled,” Reimer said, “College is a dream for many low and middle income families and this will help them reach their goals.”

However, Joshi and Reimer cautioned that the proposed budget is only round one in the battle to make higher education affordable.

Reiner, who attends Fresno State, noted that the fee-freeze still needs approval from the state legislature, which she expects to occur.

“Since the freeze already is in the proposed budget, it should be easy to keep it in the final budget,” she said.

Joshi, a graduate student at UC Berkeley, agrees and added that Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez has already voiced his support for Gov. Schwarzenegger’s new fee proposal.

She said that increasing financial aid and permanently freezing fees would be rounds two and three of the affordability struggle.

According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, undergraduate tuition across the CSU system will likely remain $3,164, a savings of $204 per student. Graduate students stand to save $312 if tuition stays at $3,746 ?” the savings actually are not 10 and 8 percent because some campus fees are not included. Students in the UC system will keep $492 and $690 for undergraduate and graduate students respectively.

Sac State student Curtis Grima, an ASI member, thinks that the plan is great but that the increase should not have happened in the first place.

“My parents pay my tuition and they said it’s gone up about 30 percent in the three years I’ve been here, which is too much,” he said.

Ryan Mckillop, a junior majoring in history, is less concerned. “I don’t think the fees are too high ?” I always manage to make ends meet anyway,” he said.

Mckillop added that he wouldn’t mind paying the extra money because, compared to college expenses on the east coast, higher education in California is a bargain.

Norm Erickson can be reached at [email protected]