FY 2024-25
Revenue
Not published
Expenses
Not published
Reserve
$8,364,353
A proposal for the University-Student Union
Keep the U Open
The University-Student Union runs on a student fee that has not changed since 2007. On the current budget its reserve is gone by FY 2030-31. The proposal is $90 more per semester, $5.63 a week, for the building you already paid to put up.
$137.25
Per semester today
+$90.00
Proposed increase
$227.25
Per semester after
Why it matters
You already paid for this building. Here's what you own.
Most Cal State LA students commute. The U-SU is the part of campus that is useful whether or not you have class in the next hour and it's already included in what you pay.
01
The four hours between your classes
A commuter's day has holes in it. This is where you sit them out: lounges, study rooms, nap pods, microwaves, outlets, and a chair that isn't the front seat of your car.
02
The things you'd otherwise pay for
The fitness center, the food pantry and everyday essentials are covered by the fee you already pay. No membership, no per-visit charge, no sign-up.
03
Nearly 100 student jobs
Between 90 and 100 students work here4 alongside 29 full-time staff — the largest student employer on campus, with schedules built around class times.
And if you're one of the students who never comes in, someone you know does. The pantry, the quiet floor and the cultural graduations are load-bearing for people who don't advertise that they need them.
What's inside the building
Events & Activities
Programming run by students, for students — from noon concerts to the five cultural graduation ceremonies.
Study & Rest Spaces
Quiet floors, group rooms, nap pods and somewhere to be between a 10 AM and a 2 PM class.
Play & Recreation
The fitness center, the Game Room and the GENE program — included, no membership.
Cross Cultural Centers
APISRC, CLSRC, GSRC and PASRC — staffed centers, open doors, and the Cultural Grads ceremonies.
Jobs & Leadership
U-Krew employment, the Board of Directors, and paid roles that fit around a class schedule.
Everyday Essentials
Food pantry, microwaves, lockers and the small things that make a long commuter day workable.
[PLACEHOLDER PHOTOGRAPHY — real U-SU event photography required before launch]
The numbers
What it costs, where it goes, what the budget says.
What this costs you
The $5.63 is per week across a 16-week semester. The fee was last set in 20072 and hasn't moved ever since. The proposed contract language also includes an annual inflation adjustment capped at 3%.2
Cal State LA has the lowest student center fee of any CSU campus: $275 a year, unchanged since 2007.1
Revenue and expenses, if nothing changes
U-SU Fiscal Committee, “DO NOTHING” projection, April 10 20262
- Expenses
- Revenue
- Reserve
- Reserve reaches $0
Plotted points are published figures. Revenue and expenses are published for FY 2025-26 and FY 2030-31 only, and the reserve for FY 2024-25, FY 2029-30 and FY 2030-31. The lines between them are trajectories, not year-by-year data.
Fiscal year | Revenue | Expenses | Reserve |
|---|---|---|---|
FY 2024-25 | Not published | Not published | $8,364,353 |
FY 2025-26 | $4,876,638 | $5,760,109 | Not published |
FY 2029-30 | Not published | Not published | $274,702 |
FY 2030-31 | $4,337,325 | $6,677,545 | −$2,065,518 |
FY 2025-26
Revenue
$4,876,638
Expenses
$5,760,109
Reserve
Not published
FY 2029-30
Revenue
Not published
Expenses
Not published
Reserve
$274,702
FY 2030-31
Revenue
$4,337,325
Expenses
$6,677,545
Reserve
−$2,065,518
Reserve, FY 2024-25
$8,364,353
Reserve, FY 2029-30
$274,702
Reserve, FY 2030-31
−$2,065,518
Figures are from the Fiscal Committee's April 10 2026 “DO NOTHING” projection: the model in which the fee stays at $137.25. $2,000,000 was cut across FY 2024-25 and FY 2025-26, 25% of the operating budget. An annual bond payment of about $1,920,000, roughly a third of the operating budget, runs through 2038.
Where your $227.25 goes
Share of the U-SU operating budget, applied to the proposed semester fee
Bond payment on the building
33% · $75.00 of your fee
About $1,920,000 a year, through 2038. The 2007 vote built the building and this is what paying for it costs.2
Everything else
67% · $152.25 of your fee
Operations, staffing, programs and maintenance.
[NEEDS FIGURE — category split of the remaining 67%]
Even after this passes, Cal State LA is still the second most affordable university in the CSU.
Total campus mandatory fees per year, 2025-26, across the CSU's 22 campuses1
CSU median $1,946
Cal State LA
today $1,084proposed $1,264
$1,084
Channel Islands
lowest after the increase
$1,146
Northridge
$1,400
Dominguez Hills
$1,408
Fullerton
$1,514
East Bay
$1,539
Monterey Bay
$1,695
Pomona
$1,697
Fresno
$1,774
San Francisco
$1,874
Long Beach
$1,888
San Marcos
$2,004
Bakersfield
$2,046
San Bernardino
$2,117
Stanislaus
$2,240
Humboldt
$2,374
San Jose
$2,396
Chico
$2,446
Sacramento
$2,564
Sonoma
$2,612
San Diego
$2,730
San Luis Obispo
off scale ›
$7,000
$0$1,000$2,000$3,000
Value axis is capped at $3,000. San Luis Obispo's true figure is $7,000 and its bar is drawn at the cap.
CSU median $1,946; mean $2,161. The median is used here because the mean is pulled up by a single outlier.1
22 campuses. The 2025-26 table lists 23; Maritime merged administratively with Cal Poly on July 1 2025 and moves to Cal Poly's fee structure in fall 2026.6
The part that doesn't add up on its own
If the 2007 fee had only kept pace with inflation, it would be $215.30 a semester today.5 The proposal is $227.25; $11.95 more than inflation alone would explain. That difference is real, and it's there because catching up on inflation does not close a shortfall that's also driven by enrollment decline.3 Student fees currently cover 67% of what the U-SU costs to run; the sustainable range is 80–85%.2
If it doesn't pass
What changes if this doesn't pass
Today, funded by the current fee
Fitness center access
Included with enrollment. No membership charge, no per-visit fee.
Signature events
Programmed and paid for out of the operating budget. [NEEDS FIGURE — events per year]
Cultural graduation ceremonies
Five a year, free to graduates and families, about 800 students.
Room reservations for student orgs
Meeting and event space in a 93,000 sq ft building, reservable by registered student organizations. [NEEDS FIGURE — weekly club meetings]
Student employment
90–100 student positions, the largest student employer on campus.
Building hours
Mon–Thu 7 AM to 10 PM · Fri 7 AM to 8 PM · Sat 7 AM to 3 PM.
After FY 2030-31, on the current fee
In the DO NOTHING projection, FY 2030-31 expenses of $6,677,545 run $2,340,220 past revenue — 35% of that year's spending — and the reserve closes the year at −$2,065,518. The bond payment of about $1,920,000 continues through 2038 and cannot be reduced.
Everything in the column beside this one is paid for out of the same budget. The U-SU has not decided or published which of them it would reduce, and this page will not guess.
[NEEDS COPY — service-level impact statement, U-SU Fiscal Committee]
Does financial aid cover the increase?
[NEEDS COPY — Financial Aid]
This answer has to come from Cal State LA Financial Aid, in their words, and it will be published here before anything else on this page is finalized. Until then: Cal State LA Financial Aid.
In students' own words
[AWAITING REAL QUOTES — 4 needed, with written consent]
The TestimonialCard grid renders from an empty array. The four quotes in v1 were invented and have been removed. Nothing ships here without a named student and a signed release.
Before you weigh in
Read the budget yourself
The April 10 2026 Fiscal Committee presentation is the source for every budget figure on this page.
Come to an info session
Open sessions in the U-SU where you can ask staff and board members directly.
Ask the board
The U-SU Board of Directors is chaired by an elected student and its meetings are open.
Questions
$90 more per semester. Your U-SU fee goes from $137.25 to $227.25 a semester: $454.50 a year instead of $274.50. Across a 16-week semester that is $5.63 a week. The effective term has not been set. [NEEDS FIGURE — effective term]
That answer belongs to Cal State LA Financial Aid, not to the U-SU, and we are not going to approximate it. [NEEDS COPY — Financial Aid]
No. The proposed contract language allows the fee to rise by up to 3% a year for inflation. It is a ceiling, not a target, and it sits below the historical average rate of inflation, which is exactly why this page exists: the fee was set in 2007 and has not moved in nineteen years. The adjustment is there so that the U-SU never has to come back and ask for another $90 at once.
The U-SU is a separate 501(c)(3) nonprofit governed by a board chaired by an elected student. It is not part of the university's operating budget and tuition does not fund it. Student fees cover 67% of what it costs to run today; the sustainable range is 80–85%.
$2,000,000 has already been cut across FY 2024-25 and FY 2025-26 — 25% of the operating budget. On the current fee, the reserve falls from $8,364,353 in FY 2024-25 to $274,702 in FY 2029-30 and to −$2,065,518 in FY 2030-31. What gets reduced after that has not been decided. See the full section →
The U-SU Board of Directors, chaired by an elected student, working from the Fiscal Committee's April 10 2026 budget projection. [NEEDS COPY — board resolution and vote record]
Fair question, and the honest answer has two halves. The first: most of what is in here costs money everywhere else — a gym, a pantry, a microwave, a quiet room, a place to park yourself between classes — and here it is already paid for. The second: the building went up in 2009 on a bond that runs through 2038, about a third of the operating budget every year. That payment does not stop if attendance drops. It is worth getting something back for it.
Every figure on this page is numbered and traced to its document. Sources →
For faculty & staff
The largest student employer on campus
90–100 student positions and 29 full-time staff. Many of your students are paid by this building.
Space your department can reserve
93,000 sq ft, opened in 2009: meeting rooms, event space and the ballroom, bookable through U-SU Operations.
What to tell students who ask
$137.25 a semester today, $227.25 proposed, last set in 2007. Every figure here is documented. Sources →
Sources
Every number and where it came from
The superscript markers throughout this page link here. If a figure on this page is not traceable to one of these documents, it is marked as missing rather than estimated.
- 1
CSU campus mandatory fees table, 2025-26
Fee comparison, median and mean, campus rankings, and the student center fee figures. calstate.edu [NEEDS LINK — direct table URL]
- 2
U-SU Fiscal Committee budget presentation, April 10 2026
All budget, reserve, bond, fee-coverage and “DO NOTHING” projection figures, and the 2007 approval date. [NEEDS LINK — public posting of the deck]
- 3
Cal State LA institutional Fact Book
Enrollment trend and student demographics. See Cal State LA Fact Book
- 4
U-SU operating budget / annual report
Staffing, student employment, building size, services and the cultural graduation ceremonies. [NEEDS LINK]
- 5
BLS CPI inflation calculator
The $215.30 CPI-adjusted equivalent of the 2007 fee. data.bls.gov
- 6
CSU Chancellor's Office, Cal Poly–Maritime integration
Administrative merger effective July 1 2025, academic integration in fall 2026 — the basis for comparing 22 campuses rather than 23. See Cal Poly-Maritime Integration
The math, in one place.
Every figure on this page is traced to the April 10 2026 Fiscal Committee presentation or the CSU’s published fee tables. Both are listed in Sources.
Prototype for review — not a published U-SU communication. This page describes a proposal that has not been finalized. Items marked [NEEDS FIGURE], [NEEDS COPY] or [NEEDS LINK] are unresolved and must be confirmed before launch; photography is placeholder.