The system's board of trustees is set to vote next Wednesday on whether to allocate additional funds for its 23 campuses in its upcoming budget.
If the funds are not set apart, students would pay a yearly tuition of $5,970. That's a 9 percent increase for the next academic year and would be the sixth consecutive year tuition goes up.
The university says it will ask the state in January to allot an extra $138 million to prevent a tuition increase.
Tuition was upped by 23 percent this year after CSU's funding was slashed by $650 million. Enrollment was also slashed by 10,000.
If state revenue falls short of projections, another $100 million could be cut next month, university spokesman Mike Uhlenkamp said.
The proposed tuition hike comes as faculty picketed numerous campuses this week as a prelude to a Nov. 17 strike. They will protest the university's withholding of pay raises for more than 23,000 faculty members as per their contract.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
