On November 16, 2023, California State University, East Bay held an event “Donuts With the President” which was put together by the Association Students, Inc. 

This event was an opportunity for students to enjoy indulging in pastries as well as ask questions or concerns for CSUEB President Cathy Sandeen to address. 

“I believe that today is an important day for specifically this event, just because we have both of our Presidents out here. We have our ASI President as well as our campus President. Said Teresa Perez a 4th year Kinesiology major and Senator of Ceas. 

“I think this event we’re holding is very important for the students, so we create a relationship between students and the President, and they feel comfortable talking to them about their issues”.  Guadalupe Felix a 2nd year student and Director of Legislative Affairs for the ASI said about this event. 

Teresa Perez added “Today is just the day for our students to come out and voice their concerns and worries. With the tuition increase as well as upcoming cuts for the Spring Semester” 

For this event, students did voice their questions and concerns but the two most frequent subjects that were asked were the topics of tuition increases and cuts for the upcoming Spring semester. 

For those who are still unaware of the situation back in early October, the CSU Board of Trustees voted to increase tuition across all 23 campuses by over 30 percent over the next five years starting in the Fall of 2024.

With the increase in tuition some students were concerned about how financial aid would work, and President Sandeen was glad to address that. 

“For students who are receiving financial aid, those will continue to be covered, even as it goes up. Financial aid will increase” she added “Because of the tuition dollars coming in 30 percent of those dollars are going into financial aid” 

President Sandeen also mentioned that current students as well as incoming students should receive an email during the Spring semester that will detail more information about the tuition increase as well as the financial aid increase. 

Another concern was the the cuts being made for the Spring 2024 semester and President Sandeen quickly addressed it and said calling it cuts would not be the right term. “You know to call it cut is kind of a misnomer.” President Sandeed added “What we did was adjust our schedule for the number of students who are here. So in fact our enrollment is good for Spring meaning that the students are finding the classes they need. So we are gonna continue to optimize our schedule so that we are giving the students exactly what they need when they need it”

Sandeen later added to this topic, “We know that from data, we know how many students still working on their general education, how many students need a math class, we know how many Biology students need this class or that class so we can schedule more them more intentionally to meet the needs of students”. 

Students who could not think of anything that was not in concern of tuition increase, financial aid, or cuts for Spring, also could spin the wheel and it would land on a suggestion for a question to ask our School president. Some examples were he plans for Fall Break or her advice toward students attending CSUEB, 

Overall this event had a good turnout and President Sandeen was glad to answer any question that came her way.