White also stressed availability of financial aid for low-income students

When Timothy P. White, chancellor of the California State University (CSU) system, received an invitation from Long Beach Branch NAACP President Naomi Rainey-Pierson to speak at one of its meetings, little did he know he would encounter a live protest during his presentation.
White was called to deliver an update on Sunday, Feb. 11 at Ernest McBride Park California Recreation Center on the status of the CSU system.
“I just recently gave the State of the CSU speech, and it went 35 minutes. So, here we go,” White said. “I can see your eyes rolling and see you looking back to that door.”
However, as soon as he began, a banner was held by few audience members to capture White’s attention. The banner read: Stop the tuition increase.
Soon, according to the meeting’s agenda, the public would have the chance to voice any concerns— such as the ones of the protesters— through an anonymous question-and-answer session.
As for his planned 35 minutes, White touched upon the retention and graduation rates of students of color who attend any of the 23 total California State Universities.
“Now, for African-American students, in particular, the first-year retention rates over the last decade have increased just about 10 percentage points— meaning we have improved the number of students who show up the first year and then come back the second year,” he said. “That’s what we mean by retention.”
The number of African-American students graduating in four years or less has gone up four percentage points, according to White, after comparing the students who began in the fall of 2007 and graduated by 2011 to those students who began in the fall of 2013 and plan on graduating this year.
Regarding the four-year graduation rates of the whole student body dispersed throughout the 23 universities, White stated that there has been a 25-percent improvement over the last five years.
“First thing to draw from what I just said,” White explained. “Let the numbers go out of your head and just know that we are getting better.”
Aside from the statistics, White highlighted the success of financial aid provided for students who meet the requirements.
“So, I just want you to know that, while cost is always an issue and living in California is darn expensive, living in Long Beach is expensive, that there is a very robust financial aid for those who come from the lowest part of the economic spectrum,” White said. “We never want money to get in the way of a student having an opportunity to get into an university.”

Students eligible for financial aid— those in a family making less than $70,000 a year— have three options.
“The federal level is called the Pell Grant, and that’s based on a student’s income. […] Those that come from low income can get somewhere close to $5,800 or so cash per year while they go to school,” White said. “California has a Cal Grant, and also based on income levels, provides awards to students, and we have what’s called a State University Grant where we turn our tuition revenues that we do collect. We basically turn a third of that back to make it available, and it affects students who come from low income.”
White added that students utilizing the Pell Grant not only receive money during the school year, but in the summertime as well.
However, there are students who do not meet the financial-aid requirements White discussed.
“Now, if somebody is coming from a family of $110,000 or $120,000 and has a couple of kids in college and a couple kids in high school and one income at home, they are not going to get help by that kind of financial aid as much as those who come from a lower income,” he said. “That’s why we have worked very hard to keep our cost down.”
In addition, White has advocated for students’ basic needs, which include obtaining food and a place to live.
“How can you sit there and study calculus if you’re worried about whose couch you are going to sleep on tonight and whether it is safe or not, or whether or not you are going to have any money left for food,” he said. “You can’t study and focus on the curriculum when you have those thoughts as a young man or young woman today, so we are working hard on this whole issue of food and housing security.”
According to the Cal State University website, White announced in 2016 his intention to “better understand and address the housing and food-security needs of college students across the 23-campus system.”
During the question-and-answer session, a few anonymous attendees voiced concerns over paying tuition “as a minority, first-generation student with immigrant families, a student with a disability [or] a part-time student who has to help out at home.”
In response, White acknowledged those struggling to pay for their education.
“I recall where I came from, and I recall those feelings dramatically when I was a kid in Fresno State [University],” he said delivering his answer in response to the written question. “I lived in county-assisted housing, and I had food stamps. Those days, I kind of hit my head when I went to the store, because I was embarrassed I had food stamps. So, it is very personal to me. That’s one of the reasons why we did the study on the cost of how many students can’t get food and how many students have trouble living somewhere.”
White then turned to the audience and announced that he has donated $250,000 of his salary toward the cause.
However, he also described a possible mistaken belief about the actual tuition cost.
“When people say the cost of education has gone up, I’ll say, ‘Actually, it has gone down, but who is paying for it has actually changed dramatically.'” White said. “As a parent or as a student, you are paying more, because the folks in California are paying less. That’s why I go to Sacramento, to point out the fallacy of these ways, and that is what I do.”
Another anonymous question revolved around the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and what the CSU system is doing to combat President Donald Trump’s undoing of the executive order established under former President Barack Obama. DACA was designed to protect and help children brought to the United States illegally and to provide them the same opportunities for earning an education.
White said a little over 8,000 students in the CSU system are DACA students.
“So, this impasse we’re at at the federal level with these DACA students and the politics around it you read about everyday has the potential of altering the lives of these 8,300 students,” White said. “On top of that, we have about 500 employees across the system who are DACA. […] So, we are on the cusp, if there isn’t a solution, and we’ve been out there in Washington D.C. and in California with a whole bunch of voices to try and get the folks who can make the change, make the change back in Washington D.C.”
As a final thought, Dr. Lance Robert, mentoring chairman for the 100 Black Men of Long Beach, asked White how he lobbies for students when he travels to Sacramento for a sense of reassurance.
“For example, on Monday, I will be sitting down with six or seven senators and their staff, and we will be talking about stories about our students,” White said. “[…] You know, the thing that struck me when we came here is— and I am not being disrespectful of the past— but there was a tendency to complain about what we did not have and to poke people in the eye, because we did not have it. I said to myself, ‘My God, we got three-and-a-half million living alumni. One in 10 people who work in California come out of this amazing system.’ Let’s just stop and think about that.”