The fees on top of tuition have tripled at CSUDH

Systemwide tuition is set by the Board of Trustees. Campus mandatory fees are set campus by campus, and presidents can raise existing fees without the chancellor’s approval. At CSUDH they have grown much faster than tuition.

Even after California inflation, campus fees are up 89%. The 2010–11 amount equals about $988 in today’s dollars.

Three steps drove the increase. First, CSUDH added a Student Success Fee, which was $175 a year in 2015–16 and $560 by 2018–19. It brought in about $7.75 million in 2024–25. Second, smaller fees for health services, student activities, and the student center rose steadily. Third, for 2026–27, CSUDH added a Health, Wellness and Recreation Fee of $215 a semester and raised the Instructionally Related Activities Fee from $25 to $35 a semester. Together these pushed campus fees up about $460 in one year, or 33%, against a 6% tuition increase.

From 2009–10 to 2019–20, while systemwide tuition rose only once, CSUDH campus fees nearly doubled, from $619 to $1,204. The State Auditor found the same pattern systemwide, with average campus fees up 56% from 2011–12 to 2019–20.

The on-campus food and housing budget grew 31.9% in five years, well ahead of inflation. Had it only tracked California prices, it would be about $17,900 today rather than $19,949. The off-campus budget grew more slowly than prices.

For 2026–27, a double room in the residence halls costs $11,220 for the academic year and a quad $9,662, both up 3% from 2025–26. CSUDH now offers 238 spaces at reduced affordable-housing rates, $6,798 for a triple and $7,218 for a double, in its new residence hall.

Over the same five years, the modeled assistant professor’s salary rose 13.6%. The cost of a year at CSUDH living on campus rose more than twice as fast.

Most CSUDH students receive aid. In 2023–24, 93% of full-time first-year students received grants or scholarships averaging $13,951, and 80% received Pell grants. Beginning in fall 2026, the Toro Tuition Pledge covers tuition and mandatory campus fees for new Pell-eligible California undergraduates.

That aid is aimed at tuition and fees. Housing, food, books, transportation, and personal costs are not covered by the pledge, and together they are now about three-quarters of the on-campus budget. The average net price for first-year students rose from $4,438 in 2022–23 to $9,175 in 2023–24.

Gaps: CSU fee schedules for CSUDH before 2009–10 and for 2011–12 to 2014–15, 2016–17 to 2017–18, and 2021–22 to 2023–24 were not retrieved for this version. Federal data on housing costs before 2021–22 can be pulled from the IPEDS Data Center to extend the housing series.

Campus fees are Category II mandatory fees for a full-time undergraduate, from the CSU’s published campus fee tables (2009–10 through 2025–26) and CSUDH’s 2026–27 fee schedule. The 2026–27 figure includes the optional $2-per-semester student representation fee for comparability with CSU’s tables; without it the total is $1,863.72, the figure CSUDH publishes. Tuition for 2010–11 is the full-year rate of $4,335 after the spring 2011 increase.

Housing uses the food and housing line in the nine-month student budget, which CSUDH sets for financial aid. It is an estimate of typical costs, not what any one student pays. Room rates come from CSUDH Housing rate sheets.