Tuition rose 171%. Faculty raises added 52%.

The steepest climb came during the Great Recession. From 2006–07 to 2011–12, tuition rose 117% as the state cut CSU funding. Faculty received 6.9% over those same five years, and nothing at all for three of them.

Tuition then held at $5,472 for six years and at $5,742 for seven more. In September 2023, trustees adopted a plan raising tuition 6% a year from 2024–25 through 2028–29. Since 2023–24, tuition is up 19.1%. Faculty base pay is up 5.0%, from a single raise in July 2024.

Faculty have had no general salary increase since then. The CSU offered a one-time 3% payment for 2025–26 and a 3% raise for 2026–27 that would not be retroactive. The faculty union declared impasse in July 2026. Factfinding is scheduled for the first half of November, and members are voting on strike authorization through November 19.

An $85,000 salary indexed to CSU tuition would be about $230,600 today, roughly $101,100 more than the negotiated-raise path. This is a benchmark, not a claim about what faculty should earn. Tuition and salaries are set by different processes, and purchasing power is better measured against inflation, which we cover on a separate page.

The comparison still shows where the cost burden moved. In 2006–07, a year of tuition equaled 3.0% of the modeled professor’s salary. In 2026–27 it equals 5.3%.

Tuition has an escalator. Faculty pay does not. The trustees’ 2023 plan raises tuition 6% every fiscal year through 2028–29, reaching $7,682. That is 33.8% above 2023–24 and 204.8% above 2006–07. Over the same 2023–24 to 2026–27 window, faculty have received one general raise, 5% in July 2024, and none since.

The new revenue is comparable to the ask. The CSU estimated that tuition and fee revenue would grow by $188 million in 2025–26. The CSU’s own estimate puts the cost of a 1% faculty raise, including retirement and Social Security, at about $29.0 million. One year of tuition growth therefore equals the cost of roughly a 6.5% faculty raise. That revenue also pays for enrollment growth and other costs, so this is a sense of scale, not an accounting claim. For context, faculty salaries were $2.16 billion in the CSU’s 2025–26 estimated budget, about 24% of its $9.1 billion in core funding, or 31% with retirement and Social Security.

Other employees have been offered more. In October 2026, the CSU reached tentative agreements with three other unions that include 8% over two years. Its offer to faculty remains 3% for 2026–27, not retroactive. If adopted, the modeled professor would reach $133,430, a 57.0% gain over 20 fiscal years against tuition’s 171.3%. The faculty union is proposing an annual cost-of-living adjustment plus 2% and a full-time minimum of $79,500, which is 10% of the chancellor’s base salary and 20.3% above today’s Lecturer A minimum of $66,084.

Still to add: faculty salaries as a share of the CSU budget over 20 years, which would show whether the gap reflects shrinking resources or shifting priorities. Only the 2025–26 share is sourced here.

Published tuition is not the net price. When trustees raised tuition in 2017, the CSU reported that more than 60% of undergraduates had tuition fully covered by grants or waivers. Campus fees come on top of tuition. At CSU Dominguez Hills they were $1,369.46 for a full-time undergraduate in 2024–25.

Beginning in fall 2026, CSUDH’s Toro Tuition Pledge covers tuition and mandatory fees for new California undergraduates who qualify for Pell grants or have an equivalent Student Aid Index, with enrollment and academic-progress requirements. It does not cover housing, books, parking, or other costs.

Rising tuition matters most to students just above aid thresholds and to the state budget, since Cal Grants and CSU aid absorb much of the increase. A fuller student-cost page would add campus fees and housing over time.

Tuition. The systemwide State University Fee, later renamed tuition, for a full-time California resident undergraduate, as reported for each fiscal year (July 1 to June 30); the academic year falls entirely within it. 2009–10 and 2011–12 included increases adopted after the year began; the figures shown are full-year totals as reported. 2024–25 through 2026–27 come from the CSU’s adopted multiyear tuition schedule.

Faculty and chancellor. Same series and method as Chancellor pay vs. faculty raises. The faculty path compounds only general salary increases from the CSUN salary history, so it excludes service steps, promotions, and one-time payments.

Correction to an earlier draft: a widely shared estimate put 20-year faculty raises at about 59%. That figure double-counted increases in 2006–07 and 2007–08 and overstated 2017–18. The verified compounded figure is 52.4%.