(U-WIRE) LONG BEACH, Calif. – Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante attended the Cal State University Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday, as an ex-officio trustee member.

Following the meeting, Bustamante spoke about other matters concerning the California State University system.

Bustamante discussed how rising tuition affects middle-income students.

If you’re a low-income student, you get a certain amount of grant and financial aid that assists you … and if you’re wealthy it doesn’t make a huge difference on the financial side, Bustamante said.

But for the middle-income, working-class students … there are huge financial problems.

He conceded that low-income students do not have it easy by any stretch, but also middle-income students face a growing trend of trading class time for work simply to afford a higher education.

They’re increasing tuition when they should be trying to figure out how to make tuition and [the student] experience here more affordable, Bustamante said. But the financial realities that the focus is on right now is that they need to increase it and I think it’s the wrong direction.

He said he and possibly one other trustee are opposed to student fee increases, and the majority of the board favors raising student fees because of prior arrangements with the state.

Additionally, Bustamante said he doesn’t favor the continual rise of CSU executive salaries to attract the best administrators, while student tuition also continues to rise.

Though we seem to be working on one part of the equation, I don’t think we’re working hard enough on the other part. And I think the student is again being left out of the equation, he said.Copyright ©2006 Daily Forty-Niner via CSTV U-Wire