California universities consider adopting the T-word: tuition - Larry Gordon, LA Times

For 50 years, they've avoided it. But California's public universities are now inching closer to using the word they've long viewed as taboo: tuition.Unlike schools in every other state, California's public campuses in effect have banned official use of the word and what it means — that students pay at least a hefty share, if not most, of their education costs.The state's renowned master plan for higher education, which in 1960 established separate roles for the University of California, California State University and the community colleges, also declared that the public institutions "shall be tuition free to all residents." Since then, even as the amount students pay for their education has soared, campuses here have stubbornly insisted on using the word "fees" for the instructional charges that other states call tuition.