Nearly 100 students from different California State Universities gathered on the Capitol’s west steps May 9 chanting a very clear message: “Do not raise our tuition fees.”

With voice breaking, Sac State psychology junior Valencia Henley told press gathered that she studies at the Hornet Bookstore because she doesn’t have enough money to buy textbook, even though she currently hold two jobs.

“Every semester, I’m at risk of being kicked out of the University not because of my grades but, because I can’t afford it,” Henley said.

Alongside representatives from the California Faculty Association, Henley and other student representatives presented Lt. Governor John Garamendi – an ex-officio member of the California State University Board of Trustees – with 7,000 of letters from students throughout the CSU system, asking the board to renege on the 10 percent tuition hike approved earlier this year.

“It has become absolutely clear that the more you raise fees, the more you’ll find less and less people can go to school,” said Garamendi, an ex officio trustee for CSU said. “It makes no sense to go to the people that can least afford it.”

In addition to presenting Garamendi with the stacks of letters, the students also planned to enter the capital and deliver copies to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Assemblymember Fabian Nunez and Senator Pro Temp Don Perata. On May 16, several students spoke before the board and protested the fee hikes.

Earlier this month, the CSU Board of Trustees voted to increase tuition fees by 10 percent and adopted a plan for their continual increase until 2011.

Cal Poly Pomona sociology senior Rocio Navarro, who said she has held two to three jobs at a time to finance her education, attributes nearly annual fee hikes for the six years it’s taken her to finish her studies.

“I think fee hikes are one of the main reasons why many people don’t graduate,” Navarro said. “And that’s a sad considering (the CSU system) was founded on the idea of a free tuition.”

Though she calls herself fortunate for being “one of few students” who doesn’t struggle financially, Sacramento State ethnic studies junior Lizbet Morales sees it firsthand through her friends.

“I see how my friends have to struggle working so many jobs and not able to afford lunch,” Morales said.

According to the California Faculty Association, student fees have risen 10 percent every year over the last decade, a trend that has dismayed several CFA members.

“I, like so many of my colleagues, came to CSU so many years ago is to teach in a system that is interested in educating the middle class,” CFA President John Travis said.

Travis said CSU has increased student fees by a total of 96 percent over the past five years.

“CFA has always (opposed) increases (in tuition fees) because it restricts access to education,” he said. “It’s time to take the tax off the students.”

Former CFA President Susan Meisenhelder believes that faculty and students are often being pegged against each other since the new faculty contract’s salary increase was announced around the same time the fee hike was voted on.

“I think the Chancellor has a bad habit of trying to drive a wedge between people. Fees have been going up 10 percent every year for a while. We just now got our raises,” Meisenhelder said. “We believe CSU has the money for our raises.”

Meisenhelder also believe that CSU has the money to operate without increasing student fees but just doesn’t want to. Meisenhelder said that while $6 million would be needed avert an increase in student fees, $600 million allocated for a new computer system for the CSUs.

“They have the money but they would rather spend it on other things,” she said.

The CSU Board could not be reached for comment.